New Forensic Laser Technique for Hair Analysis
New forensic laser technique for hair analysis
Using a new laser technique, Jim Moran and his colleagues at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, have devised a method of separating out the parts of hair samples that can reveal details about the recent history of the person to whom it belongs.
In their paper, published in Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, they describe a process they’ve devised whereby hair samples are pulled apart, rather than burned as a whole before being measured by a mass spectrometer. Such a process could be used to reveal personal details about someone, such as what they eaten recently; clues that might provide forensic scientists insight into the behavior of victims of foul play for example, or reveal information as the whereabouts of the accused during the time frame surrounding a crime.
Because traditional laser analysis techniques tended to obliterate entire samples as they burned all of its parts together as a whole (leaving their gases to be released and measured in a spectrometer) Moran and his team chose to use a less destructive type of laser that uses only ultraviolet light (similar to the kind used for LASIK eye corrective surgery). They discovered that by doing so they could essentially break apart the individual pieces and parts of the hair as a hole was bored, which could then be burned separately and tested with the spectrometer; sort of like burning the filings left over when drilling into a piece of wood with an iron bit. Because hair grows slowly over time, it creates a timeline of sorts, with different stages representing differing days, weeks or even months The new technique allows for dozens of such holes up to be burned up and down the length of a single strand of hair, retrieving different samples that represent different points in time. Then, by studying the different stages of that timeline, analysts are able to piece together a historical picture of what someone has been eating during different
Using a new laser technique, Jim Moran and his colleagues at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, have devised a method of separating out the parts of hair samples that can reveal details about the recent history of the person to whom it belongs.
In their paper, published in Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, they describe a process they’ve devised whereby hair samples are pulled apart, rather than burned as a whole before being measured by a mass spectrometer. Such a process could be used to reveal personal details about someone, such as what they eaten recently; clues that might provide forensic scientists insight into the behavior of victims of foul play for example, or reveal information as the whereabouts of the accused during the time frame surrounding a crime.
Because traditional laser analysis techniques tended to obliterate entire samples as they burned all of its parts together as a whole (leaving their gases to be released and measured in a spectrometer) Moran and his team chose to use a less destructive type of laser that uses only ultraviolet light (similar to the kind used for LASIK eye corrective surgery). They discovered that by doing so they could essentially break apart the individual pieces and parts of the hair as a hole was bored, which could then be burned separately and tested with the spectrometer; sort of like burning the filings left over when drilling into a piece of wood with an iron bit. Because hair grows slowly over time, it creates a timeline of sorts, with different stages representing differing days, weeks or even months The new technique allows for dozens of such holes up to be burned up and down the length of a single strand of hair, retrieving different samples that represent different points in time. Then, by studying the different stages of that timeline, analysts are able to piece together a historical picture of what someone has been eating during different