Word: tracee
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...shooter--or shooters--taunted investigators by picking off more victims last week, authorities unleashed an unprecedented arsenal of tools to crack the case: geographic-profiling computers to try to pinpoint the killer's home, ballistics databases intended to link his unique bullet markings to other crimes and trace-substance technology to lift whatever clues (fingerprints, DNA) might adhere to a shell casing or a tarot card...
...that have a nucleus, which rules out cells in fingernails, teeth and the shafts of hair. What those cells do have, however, is something called mitochondrial DNA, a more primitive form of genetic coding inherited from the mother only. A mitochondrial-DNA sequencing technique developed by anthropologists to help trace human ancestors has been adopted by pioneering crime fighters. Nobody pretends that the new technology is anywhere near as precise as traditional DNA profiling. Nonetheless, later this month an Iowa man, Stephan Zanter, 46, may come to trial for a murder committed in 1989, thanks to mitochondrial testing...
...first time, or the perp might walk. A new laser ablation spectrometer under development could solve that problem by etching off only a tiny slice of a sample with a needlelike light beam and cooking it in a plasma furnace equipped with a mass spectrometer especially sensitive to trace elements. Similarly, researchers at California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have shown that a synchrotron radiation device can bounce a beam of infrared energy off a piece of evidence and analyze the spectrum of its reflection without damaging the sample. Researchers are also trying to use infrared hardware to analyze...
Which clues are real? It's not enough to "bag and tag" everything at a crime scene. The trick is to figure out what's important. If, for example, a wife is suspected of killing her husband in their bedroom, virtually all trace evidence in the room-fibers, hairs, fingerprints-could be useless. Proving that the wife was in her own room probably won't help the case...
...separating the KMT from its holdings will be a difficult job for the Chen-led government. Some assets that may have been acquired through shady deals have since been sold, the profits reinvested in enterprises the government can't claim. "It's a money trail that's impossible to trace without the KMT showing investigators the way," says financial writer Vicky Tien, an expert in the party's dealings. "And it's extremely unlikely the KMT will offer their assistance...