In 1572, as a Student at the University of Copenhagen, Brahe observed a very bright star. He proved that it was a Supernova located outside our solar system. Brahe's later observations of the orbits of Cassiopeia and of a comet made clear that those objects, too, were located more distantly than our moon. All this meant that - contrary to what many people believed - the heavens were changeable, not immutable Šs Aristotle had long ago postulated. Still, Brahe avoided painting a heliocentric view of the universe; he described the earth, rather than the sun, as being at the center of all things heavenly.
Read More2003 AIR: Hitler´s Skull & Teeth
I am a true nerd I guess: Spectacles, checkered pattern shirt, no radio, no TV — a forensic entomologist by profession. So when National Geographic Channel called and asked the allegedly "most famous forensic biologist on earth" (my editorial house's claim, definitely not mine) to join into an investigation on the remains of Adolf Hitler, I nerdily thought it just a theoretical enterprise, and said yes. As with many people born in Germany long after World War II, I, to a large extent, regarded Hitler as a very bad, extremely cruel joke against mankind. I had never quite thought of Hitler as a real, physically present person. I have no fascination of any sort with the guy. Just look at him (see Figure 1) — he was a jerk amongst jerks.
Read More2001-09/10 AIR: Happyface Spiders
I am a forensic entomologist. Every forensic scientist's basic mantra is: Everything is possible. My professional experience leads me to believe that there is one place on earth where more than just everything is possible -- that place is Hawai'i. On this remote part of the U.S. lives a bug that directly contradicts all assumptions modern people might hold concerning eight-legged critters: that spiders are hairy, ugly and frightening. This kind of spider is anything but.
Read More2001-07/08 AIR: Scientific Dining
Mostly Special Agents, and Special Agents-To-Be are served a choice of meals that some good restaurants would dream of. However, the basic impression of all people that were approached by the author, was that "the food here was better in earlier times", that the meals were "well, so-and-so", or that the food was "jeeeez, yucky". Being asked what had been better at earlier times, the Famous Steak And Wine Evening was mentioned by older agents. Noone could recall, however, in which year exactly those evenings stopped, or on which day of the week the event had taken place. (Further investigation with veteran eaters narrowed it down to Wednesday or Thursday). Another disturbing comment of an eating agent was: "It's good that I was single when I first came to the Academy. If not, I would have driven home every night just for dinner."
Read More2000-05 AiR: Bomby The Bombardier Beetle Review
As a person unvoluntarily dealing with the borders of human behavior, I am used to all sorts of statements that seem to be weird in the beginning only to become resonable after digesting them further. I got to know, and to understand people of every possible color of skin, sexual preference, mother tongue, people who mutilate themselves for the purpose of self-expression, serial killers, cops, drug users, not to mention computer nerds (like my brother), and oddballish scientists (like myself).
Read MoreFingerprints of fingerless organisms
Quelle: Annals of Improbable Research 1(5): 26-27 (1995)
by Mark Benecke
Zoologisches Institut der Universitaet, Koeln, Germany
We developed a method to obtain fingerprint patterns of microscopic animals which have neither arms nor fingers. Two species are discussed here.
The Usefulness of Fingerprinting
Fingerless organisms can be as deadly as any human criminal. When loosed upona law-abiding public, they have been known to cause malaria and other tropical diseases. Criminologists have good reason to identify and catch the individual organisms responsible for such crimes. We often hear and read about criminal cases being solved by fingerprints. Nowadays, so-called "genetic fingerprints" are also used, especially in forensic medicine. The classical and the genetic fingerprinting methods are both powerful but limited. !t is hard to carry out the classical fingerprint technique in organisms without fingers, and the genetic method is quite expensive. Our method is cheap and simple.
How we do it
We apply a short treatment of silver nitrate and other standard photographic chemicals. This causes the fingerprint to appear.
Examples
Figures la and 2a show the "slipper animaI" (Paramecium caudatum), which is very common in fresh water. Elevations and grooves are clearly visible (Figure 2a) and allow us to make individual identifications. Other organisms, e.g. the "trumpet animaI" (Stentor polymorphus) (Figure Ib), show fundamentally different fingerprint patterns which often are much more beautiful and at the same time highly informative. Note that in Stentor, not only grooves are visible, but also winding lines and nice-looking dots (Figure 2b).
Future Hopes for Criminologists
In the future, using improved techniques, we should be able to ob ta in fingerprints not only of fingerless organisms but also of bodiless, supernatural beings such as zombies, ghouls and speeters which, in many countries, are of great interest to criminal investigators.
Preface: Fetish & Gothic Obsession
Nur wenige Fotografen des randständig Schönen haben einen Stil, der einem sowohl plakativ um die Ohren fl iegt als auch anderen als Anregung und Maßstab dient. Martin Black hat. Oft sind seine KollegInnen, die das Dunkle ausloten, vor allem düster. Das ist für Anfänger. Andere verspritzen Blut und Tränen, sind romantisch und mögen Feen oder lassen einfach den Hintergrund weg, um ihre Subjekte umso mehr ins Hirn der Betrachter zu beamen. Das ist schon deutlich cooler.
Read MoreClandestine Necrophilia Probably Legal Still A Problem
Depending on local laws, necrophilia, on one hand might be a “disturbance of a grave”, yet the corpse does not have to be taken out of a grave to perform sexual acts on it. Also, since a human corpse is neither a person (not alive) nor a thing (former human beings in their entity are culturally not considered to be things), many societies have either a blind eye on necrophilia or explicitly prohibit it. The new argument is now that from an ethical standpoint, necrophilia cannot be wrong because it does not do harm to anybody, as long as the relatives of the former person (and of the necrophiliac) or the public will not know about it. What we therefore speak about here is “clandestine necrophilia”.
After talking to German philosophers, I now understand the naturalistic argument and acknowledge that that from a fresh ethical standpoint -- not from the standpoint of current moral or religious values that are merely traditional --, clandestine necrophilia might be, to put it in an as fresh term -- “okayish”.
Forensische Nutzbarkeit und Populationsdaten der beiden short tandem repeat-Systeme D8S306 und PKLR
Examining the properties of the two short tandem repeat (STR) loci PKLR and D8S306 for forensic applications we found both suitable for identification purposes and paternity cases. Due to its high sensitivity (lower detection limit) of down to 30 pg, D8S306 should be useful in stain analysis. The lower detection limit for PKLR is250 pg. For both systems, population data of inhabitants of the Rhine area in and around Köln (in the western part of Germany) show minor differences to the data given in the original papers; allele distributions shows Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium as confirmed by the Exact Test. Discriminating power for any person (stain analysis) is 0.96 for D8S301 and 0.94 for PKLR; exclusion chance in paternity cases is 0.68 for D8S306 and 0.54 for PKLR. Combining DNA amplification in a Perkin Elmer 2400 PCR machine with the Pharmacia A.L.F. Sequencer allowed DNA typing in one day.
Read MoreBody Modification, Autophagy
As part of her current lifestyle, a 28 year old Caucasian woman routinely injures and allows subsequent healing of her skin and other tissues. Her body modifications include a “split tongue” (a tongue split to the base), which does not interfere with speaking and eating. Other modifications include large scarification patterns produced by branding and cutting. This woman has been known to eat parts of her skin, which were previously cut out of her body. She also performs “needle play” by allowing medical syringe needles to be lodged temporarily under her skin. The patient had a normal childhood, is currently employed full-time as an office manager, and is psychologically stable. Although one other case of self-induced penoscrotal hypospadias is known, this is the only report of extensive, non-psychotic, and autodestructive behavior. However, this may not be the case in the future as an increasing number of young individuals have become interested in body modifications.
Read More"I don't know" can be the best answer
Interview with Lee Goff
Read MoreEntomology and the Law: Flies as Forensic Indicators
Der Entomologe Bernard Greenberg hat zum Abschluss seines Berufs-Lebens zusammen mit Rechtskundler Kunich eine ungewöhnliche -- allerdings ungewöhnlich gute -- Mischung aus wissenschaftlicher Zoologie und damit zusammenhängenden juristischen Betrachtungen erstellt. Das ist sehr nützlich, weil so der moderne Weg der Forensischen Entomologie aufgezeigt wird: angewandt, überprüfbar, gerichtlich verwertbar.
Read MoreBenecke Forensic Medicine and Toxicology Clandestine Necrophilia Probably Legal Still A Problem
By a giddy twist of fate, and as a co-editor of this journal, the author was asked to comment on a paper that deals with the fact that necrophilia can indeed hardly be element of an offense. The current paper is essentially a commentary on previous paper by Sara McKearn, but it also attempts to give some new insights into this moral, ethical and legal question.
Read MoreThe Open Forensic Science Journal: Detection of Semen (Human and Boar) and Saliva on Fabrics by a Very High Powered UV-/VIS-Light Source
A possible method to detect body fluids in forensic cases of sexual assault or abuse is by using forensic light sources, which emit certain wavelengths and excite body fluids to fluoresce.
Read MoreInternational Society for Forensic Genetics Benecke Discrimination of monocygotic twins and clones on the DNA level
ng methods (RFLP, STR, RAPD; e.g. [3]) do not allow discrimination of monocygotic twins. To overcome this restriction, we suggest the use of variable DNA sequences of bone-marrow derived memory B lymphocytes that are likely to be different even in monocygotic twins. Since memory B cells are transported in the blood stream, they can be found in blood stains on crime scenes and checked for a match to the cells of a living pair of twins. The size of the antibody repertoire has been estimated to comprise theoretically up to 1010 specificities [2].
Read MoreGenetic Fingerprints Benecke Coding or non-coding DNA typing
Having solved the last technical hurdles to extract DNA information from virtually any biological material, forensic biologists now have to ponder the ethical and social questions of using information from exonic DNA
Read MoreThe Genetic Imaginary: DNA in the Canadian Criminal Justice System by Neil Gerlach
The book by sociologist Neil Gerlach starts with a theoretical outline about possible fears of society about developments and results of biotechnologies, e.g. transgenic animals, genetically engineered food, possible demands for a right to normalcy ("new eugenics"), patenting genes, and "charismatic science." The next section deals with the "culture of the trace" and DNA fingerprinting in terms of criminal applications and the impact on judicial proceedings. This is put into the context of an apparently widespread and, in the eyes of the author, unrealistic fear of crime in Canada. It is argued that the use of DNA in legal contexts may lead to a "surveillance society."
Read MoreEntomologie heute: What is the Edge of a Forest
Aufgrund des Fundes einer erwachsenen, toten Pilzmücke mit dunklen Flügeln (Bradysia sp., Sciaridae), die normalerweise an Waldrändern vorkommt, auf einer Leiche am Rand eines Waldes im Westen Deutschlands wurden wir während der Gerichtsverhandlung von der Verteidigung und von der Staatsanwaltschaft gefragt, was als „Waldrand“ angesehen wird. Über zwei Ferkelleichen haben wir versucht, Parameter für eine solche Definition zu erarbeiten. Der offensichtlichste Unterschied zwischen dem Inneren des Waldes und dem Waldrand lag in der Außentemperatur sowie in der Innentemperatur der verwesenden Ferkel, die im Schwein an der Waldgrenze höher war. Insgesamt wurden 957 Fliegen aus 56 verschiedenen Arten und zwölf Familien (Anthomyiidae, Calliphoridae, Drosophilidae, Dryomyzidae, Fanniidae, Heleomyzidae, Lauxaniidae, Muscidae, Piophilidae, Phoridae, Sepsidae, Sphaeroceridae) nachgewiesen.
Read MoreForensic Entomology Benecke The Next Step
Since the Second World War only a handful of scientists and crime scene experts have pioneered a way forward for forensic entomology. All of them had the tough job of convincing local authorities, and other scientists, of the benefits of using arthropods in criminal investigations. Judges, in numerous countries, finally decided that forensic entomology was suitable for use in cases ranging from tricky high profile murders to wildlife violations [1-10].
Read MoreGoff Benecke A Fly for the Prosecution
The more pressure is put on scientists to publish in scientific journals, or else to perish, the less likely it gets that an excellent popular science book like A Fly for the Prosecution is written. Being one of the old masters of forensic entomology -- that is, the science of determining post mortem intervals, and many other issues related to mostly violent death --, Lee Goff leads us through his exciting and at the same time entertaining world that strongly depends on silent crime scene assistants: maggots, adult flies and beetles, and once in a while a grasshopper, too. Many of these animals are attracted to decomposing body tissue. Their growth rate, and their succession are predictable, and can therfore be used to estimate the time when they started to feed on a corpse, or the time they got attracted to the body for other reasons like predating maggots, or building breeding chambers.
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