• Question: what do you do if you are a forsenic scientist.

    Asked by to Rowena on 19 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Rowena Fletcher-Wood

      Rowena Fletcher-Wood answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      A forensic scientist does all kinds of analysis to identify materials. They may do DNA testing, or using techniques like the kind I work on, x-ray, infra-red, ultraviolet probing to find out what elements things are made of and help trace their history. This is chemical detective work. There is also some simpler stuff like making plaster casts of footprints to match to shoes. It is often used by the police labs to complement field work and find out what happened at a crime scene – you can see examples of it in TV shows like CSI.

      Forensic pathology is the branch of forensic science that works with dead bodies and investigates how people died. This is important if there has been a mysterious death or an inquest is called for because a person was killed.

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