Now before you run off to buy one of these kits to gather forensic information, you are going to need to know where you can buy them. Well, you are not going to be able to buy this kind of stuff at any store (unless you have a forensic lab right down the street, and even then I do not think they would sell you stuff). So to get the kits you are going to have to look online. Now the good things is that these kits are not to hard to find. Also, they come with all the information you need to start finding forensic information right away. The bad news is they do cost a lot (I know that is something we already went over, but it is a big fact). Also, I have to say when you are finding out forensic information you are going to be dealing with a lot of different chemicals and things like that. So what this means is that a forensic kit (unless it states otherwise on the kit) should not be used by a child. These are things that you have to handle with care, and finding forensic information is not a job for kids.

Some members of the University faculty object strongly to Meldrum’s walks in the woods. They know why he wanders in the woods. They know that he is looking for evidence that an ape-man inhabits the forests in Washington and Idaho. Many at the University remain skeptical of the science behind his relentless search for samples that can be used in a forensic test.

Dr. Meldrum does have some support. Dr. Kijinski, the Dean of Arts and Sciences at ISU, has said, “I think [Meldrum] helps this University. He provides a forum of open discussion and dissenting viewpoints that may not be popular with the scientific community, but that’s what academics all about.” Dr. Kijinski obviously sees some merit in the collecting of samples for forensic tests.

Dr. Meldrum is fortunate enough to live close to the habitat of the creature on which he wants to uncover evidence. Isaac Espinoza was not so lucky. In 2005 he spent at least $6 million while taking a journey to South America. At least some of that money went toward the purchase of the needed materials for chupacabra forensic tests.

Espinoza was after evidence to support the existence of yet another creature. Unlike the ape-man, that seems content to wander in the woods, the chupacabra is supposed to pose a threat to livestock. Many farmers have claimed that this mystical creature drinks the blood of livestock.

In fact, chupacabra means “goat sucker.” Yet proof that there is a creature such as the chupacabra remain elusive. The search for such proof led Espinoza to go to South America. The search for such proof awaits the results of further forensic tests.
And even as the scientific community struggles to deal with the reports of an ape-man and a “goat-sucker,” it must prepare to look into yet another claim. Some residents of China have talked about seeing a dragon-like creature, much like the dragon in the typical Chinese legend. No doubt their claims will soon lead to the collection of more samples, and the need to carry out further forensic tests.

It will be interesting to see which, if any, of those seemingly unearthly creatures leaves evidence that can be used to conduct a convincing forensic test.  It will be interesting to see which creature thus provides researchers with scientific proof of its existence.

The forensic tests used at the trial of O.J. Simpson did not include all of the tests that would later become a part of a few of TV’s nighttime shows. The tests at the O.J. Simpson trial did not include any forensic serology semen tests. Had such tests been part of that trial, it might have received an even larger viewing audience. After all, everybody likes to view something related to sex

Script writers watching that trial must have wondered how they could add drama to a fairly dry subject. After all, few members of the public really cared about the molecular biology tests used in the analysis of forensic tests.   The public watched the presentations about the DNA evidence in order to assess the degree to which either side was winning the court battle. Yet script writers could not recreate the great drama of the O.J. Simpson trial during every TV episode. So script writers knew that an episode that included mention of forensic tests would be difficult to write.

Now, more than 11 years later, many TV viewers tune-in to programs such as “CSI” and “Cold Case,” programs that almost always include some type of forensic testing. Those viewers might get a glimpse of someone in a lab placing a sample in a tiny centrifuge tube, the sort of tube that is used for a DNA analysis. Yet those programs always have other plot lines that add to the story’s suspense.

Such a story might include an allusion to Nazi death camps. Such a story might include a romance between one of the investigators and one of the people who has requested an investigation. Such a story might include images of spirits, spirits that try to depict a moment from the past. All of those elements could surround a story that focused on some thin lines on a piece of paper, a DNA analysis.

Those stories seldom show the drama that might develop in the courtroom upon presentation of the DNA evidence. Those stories do not depict the effort that the jury members might need to exert in order to understand the nature of that evidence. Moreover, no dramatization has ever shown the intensity of the research efforts that led to the development of the forensic tests. No doubt some TV viewers think that the first forensic tests were done during the O.J. Simpson trial.

The basic methodology used in forensic tests came out of experiments conducted by Walter Gilbert and Fred Sanger. Acting independently in 1975, the two researchers developed two different techniques. Both techniques could be used to achieve DNA sequencing. Reports about both techniques ushered in the era of new forensic tests, tests that sought to identity a murderer by looking at the DNA from objects at a crime scene.

Yet the DNA sequencing methods introduced by Gilbert and Sanger would not have been possible without the findings of Warner Arber, Hamilton Smith and Daniel Nathans. They discovered restriction enzymes. Restriction enzymes are an important part of forensic tests, because those enzymes can cut DNA into small pieces with known ends. Because those pieces have known ends, they also have a known size. Sanger and Gilbert used available knowledge about the size of those pieces in designing their DNA sequencing techniques.

The knowledge available to Sanger and Gilbert told them that each of the different DNA pieces had a different weight. They used that knowledge to sort the pieces by their weight. That sorting took place in an electric field. The pieces traveled through the field much like a balloon floating in the atmosphere. For example, if such a balloon is heavier than the atmospheric air, then the balloon sinks; if the balloon is lighter than the atmospheric air, then the balloon rises.

Every person will produce a unique set of DNA fragments when their DNA becomes exposed to restriction enzymes. The exploitation of that fact forms the basis of forensic tests. Those tests look at the pattern of the DNA pieces in the electric field. Such forensic tests became the focus of much media attention in the mid- 1990’s.

At that time Los Angeles County was the scene of the closely-watched O.J. Simpson trial. During that trial, the jury heard a great deal about evidence obtained from forensic tests. The prosecution tried to use the information from the tests to convince the jury that Simpson’s DNA had been found at the scene of the crime. The trial did not reveal any problems with the forensic tests, but it did show the need for care when collecting the samples to use in such tests.

The conclusion of that trail did not bring an end to mention of forensic tests on TV. In fact, such tests are now mentioned almost weekly in some TV programs. Programs such as “Cold Case” and “CSI” have characters that rely on forensic tests to help with the solving of a crime. The tests reveal the DNA of the murderer or other criminal. In those fictionalized stories, unlike the true story of the O.J. Simpson trial, the gathering of the evidence seems to present no problems.