Word: teche
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...example, one of the jobs criminal investigators routinely perform is testing for gunpowder on suspects' hands. In the past, this was a surprisingly low-tech chore, involving melting a glob of paraffin in a pot and painting it onto the fingers and hands. The wax was then peeled off and treated with chemicals that react to gunpowder traces. If the chemicals turned up positive, you had your shooter--unless, of course, the chemicals were reacting with urine, bleach or fertilizer, which had a nasty habit of yielding identical results...
...labs compete for funds from the same pot of money out of which beat cops are paid, there's no room for such luxuries. Even gadgets like the mass spectrometers get snazzed up for TV, with flashing lights and screen images that simply don't exist. "We like high-tech gadgetry," says Crossing Jordan's Kring. "And there are a lot of gadgets that spin, light up and make funny noises." That doesn't always go down well with real scientists. "I don't think you'll find too many criminalists who watch these shows," says criminalist Lynne Herold...
...second. Fischer reports that when he is interviewing job applicants for the L.A. sheriff's lab, one question he asks is what they would do if they came upon a murder victim clutching a plastic bag containing a blue powder. Typically, the applicants tick off the string of high-tech tests they would conduct on the substance. What they never ask is where the body was found. "If it was in a Laundromat, he probably had detergent in the bag," says Fischer...
Need cheering up? Here's a good news story. The world's fifth largest country--with a history of military rule and endemic corruption--holds a free and fair presidential election. All voters, even in remote villages, cast their ballots on high-tech electronic machines of a kind that make the conduct of elections in, say, Florida, look shamefully outmoded. The candidate who wins the most support in the first round of voting has made his name criticizing the nation's power elite. But the results are accepted by all, and the country begins a three-week campaign before...
...high-tech gadgets and tests won't matter a bit if evidence isn't meticulously gathered at the scene of a crime. It's the little things that count-a stray hair, a piece of lint, a smudge of mud. This trail of tiny crumbs could ultimately lead straight to the killer...