“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes”, a famous quote from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes series; the series that inspired hundreds and thousands of curious readers to make the fictional concept of solving a crime using powerful substances into a real and tangible science that can be applied in real life. This elaborate discipline is called forensic science, and has become a large part of law enforcement and due process of criminal investigations. While many are skeptical of the true effectiveness on the relatively new science, one can see from the multiple studies and observations of experienced scientists and crime fighters that forensic science is a reliable and effective resource in
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While it was practiced in ancient Rome for some time, where the victim and the suspect would tell their story and debate until an overseer determined who the true victim in the case was, the idea of forensics didn’t become popular until the Middle Ages. It was during this time period that many people were being poisoned with doctors having no way of being able to treat them. According to the Forensic Science Laboratory, “the first steps were made to demonstrate the use of poison by analyzing the corpse for toxic substances” at the beginning of the nineteenth century (para.3). As time went on, the forensic field expanded and new discoveries were made. Soon, the scientific discoveries were being made left and right! For example, it was realized that everyone had a unique fingerprint- discovered by Henry Galton- and that there were up to four blood groups that could help link an individual to a crime- discovered by Dr. Karl Landsteiner (Forensic Science: An Introduction, p. 10-13). Likewise, the publication of the series Sherlock Holmes greatly popularized the field and inspired many young scientists to enter the field. Even in the modern era television shows and movies glamorize (and somewhat inaccurately describe) the job expectations and requirements of many forensic scientists (para
While it was practiced in ancient Rome for some time, where the victim and the suspect would tell their story and debate until an overseer determined who the true victim in the case was, the idea of forensics didn’t become popular until the Middle Ages. It was during this time period that many people were being poisoned with doctors having no way of being able to treat them. According to the Forensic Science Laboratory, “the first steps were made to demonstrate the use of poison by analyzing the corpse for toxic substances” at the beginning of the nineteenth century (para.3). As time went on, the forensic field expanded and new discoveries were made. Soon, the scientific discoveries were being made left and right! For example, it was realized that everyone had a unique fingerprint- discovered by Henry Galton- and that there were up to four blood groups that could help link an individual to a crime- discovered by Dr. Karl Landsteiner (Forensic Science: An Introduction, p. 10-13). Likewise, the publication of the series Sherlock Holmes greatly popularized the field and inspired many young scientists to enter the field. Even in the modern era television shows and movies glamorize (and somewhat inaccurately describe) the job expectations and requirements of many forensic scientists (para