LIsa Black
Cape Coral, FL
Female, 49
I spent the five happiest years of my life in a morgue. As a forensic scientist in the Cleveland coroner’s office I analyzed gunshot residue on hands and clothing, hairs, fibers, paint, glass, DNA, blood and many other forms of trace evidence, as well as crime scenes. Now I'm a certified latent print examiner and CSI for a police department in Florida. I also write a series of forensic suspense novels, turning the day job into fiction. My books have been translated into six languages.
I'm not a DNA expert, but I know that half the 23 chromosomes in a person''s nuclear DNA come from one parent and half from the other parent, so part of the father's DNA would have to be present in the child.
Mitochondrial DNA (which is a different substance entirely, a circular structure present in the cell's mitochondria, whereas nuclear DNA is a double helix present in the cell nucleus) is passed from mother to child without recombining, so only the mother's mitochondrial DNA is present in the child. We test for mitochondrial DNA when nuclear DNA isn't available, like when we only have cut hair or fingernails or old bone to work with.
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I'm afraid I don't know enough about how 3-D printing works to be able to answer. I can guess that it might be handy for reconstructing items such as shoeprints and tire tracks from photos or scans. Other than that I don't see where making a copy of something would necessarily affect a crime. And as far as I know they haven't reached the point of replicating on a cellular level such as DNA.
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Sure, I'll email you. You might also want to look over earlier questions on this site.
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It's concerning because juries expect more than is reasonable. Not every case is going to have DNA evidence and you don't always find fingerprints on a surface and eyewitness testimony sounds convincing but can be very unreliable. However an expert can hopefully explain all these issues to make the limitations clear, provided the jury listens.
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Chef
Is it true that the "specials" are usually the stuff that's been sitting around awhile?
Casting Director
Are the melt-down auditions on American Idol staged?
Obstetrician Gynecologist
Has being an OBGYN affected your own beliefs about when "life" begins?
I'm sure document examiners could do this fairly easily but I don't know exactly how. I would guess that alternative light source (like infrared or ultraviolet spectrums) could show that there is no difference between the signature and the rest of the document. Or I believe thin-layer chromatography could show that the chemical makeup is the same. A Questioned Document Examiner could tell you much more.
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No. Depending on where you work and what you do, your employer might want you to be 'certified' in one area or the other.
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I checked city and county websites for job postings.
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