Row of test tubes
Timewatching
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In attempting to sort out the good stories from the bad, it is not always obvious which evidence to believe. Different types of evidence can appear to contradict each other; Otzi’s arrows are claimed as evidence that he spent his time hunting at high altitude whereas the geological isotopic evidence suggests otherwise. There is no magic formula for working all of this out. The best that the scientists can do is give possible stories and some estimate of how confident they are in those stories. There is one exception; exclusion. If, for example, your DNA or fingerprint does not match the DNA of the perpetrator found at the crime scene then we are sure that you are not amongst the suspects.
Otzi died a long time ago – around 3,000BC. Forensic science has made contributions to more recent cases of some historical interest. Some have claimed scientific support for a new theory of who killed Rasputin. Apparently, from photographs of the wounds and ‘new forensic techniques’, it is thought that he was killed by three different guns. Like so many crime investigations, this one is compromised by the lack of clear documentation and recovery of evidence at the time. The recovery of the bullets, and possibly gunshot residue, would have provided an unequivocal answer to the question of the number of firearms. The ‘evidence’ has generated heated, if not informed, debate.
Science has helped, and continues to help, the historian. Assisting in answering questions about who, what, how, when, and where, perhaps leaving to the historian the vexed question of why? Geology, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, and the rest, combine to provide a powerful arsenal of today’s expertise to provide answers to our past.
For the future, there is much that remains to be discovered, not only in the development of new techniques in the physical and biological analysis of old material, but in the seemingly unending lists of new finds of tombs, artefacts, and samples created by history and now, hopefully, understood because of our scientific curiosity today. Forensic or not, it is fascinating science that takes us to different times and places.
Otzi died a long time ago – around 3,000BC. Forensic science has made contributions to more recent cases of some historical interest. Some have claimed scientific support for a new theory of who killed Rasputin. Apparently, from photographs of the wounds and ‘new forensic techniques’, it is thought that he was killed by three different guns. Like so many crime investigations, this one is compromised by the lack of clear documentation and recovery of evidence at the time. The recovery of the bullets, and possibly gunshot residue, would have provided an unequivocal answer to the question of the number of firearms. The ‘evidence’ has generated heated, if not informed, debate.
Science has helped, and continues to help, the historian. Assisting in answering questions about who, what, how, when, and where, perhaps leaving to the historian the vexed question of why? Geology, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, and the rest, combine to provide a powerful arsenal of today’s expertise to provide answers to our past.
For the future, there is much that remains to be discovered, not only in the development of new techniques in the physical and biological analysis of old material, but in the seemingly unending lists of new finds of tombs, artefacts, and samples created by history and now, hopefully, understood because of our scientific curiosity today. Forensic or not, it is fascinating science that takes us to different times and places.
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