Science Thursday

A Texas city looks to an independent crime lab as a solution, federal audits uncover concerns at a Connecticut lab and UK scientists develop a new technique to capture explosives evidence from fingerprints. Here’s a roundup of this week’s forensics news:

As more and more crime lab services become outsourced, Houston City Council members

discuss their support for an independent regional lab

.

 

Two federal audits of a Connecticut forensic lab

have raised questions

about supervision, evidence control and DNA testing procedures.

Debbie Smith, the co-founder of Hope Exists After Rape Trauma,

presented an award to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences

for leading the country in using DNA to solve rape cases.

Scientists at Sheffield Hallam University’s Biomedical Research Centre

developed an imaging technology

to detect the presence of substances, including drugs or explosives, from fingerprints. The research also resulted in the creation of a special powder used to process fingerprints from glass, wood, metal and leather surfaces.  The powder dissolves into crystals that can be used for imaging when sprayed with a solvent.