Name_________________________________________________ Period_______________
Ms. Sameroff
DO NOW
OBJECTIVE:
VOCABULARY
ACTIVITY #1
ACTIVITY #2
Date_______________
EXIT
SWBAT explain how to use DNA fingerprinting to identify DNA from a parent, child, or relative of another person.
SWBAT explain how DNA evidence is compared for matching by analyzing DNA fingerprints.
DO NOW
1. Are fingerprints class or individual evidence. Explain your answer.
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2. Brainstorm words you associate with DNA?
VOCABULARY
WORD
DEFINTION
DNA
fingerprinting
DNA
Fragments
NOTES
DNA FINGERPRINTING
Biological Material Used for DNA fingerprinting
1.________________________________
2. _______________________________
3. _______________________________
DNA fingerprinting: Applications
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ACTIVITY #1
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ACTIVITY #2
WHICH MAN IS THE FATHER?
Directions: Complete the steps for the activity listed in your textbook. Record your results in the tables and answer the
questions below.
Questions:
1. Can either man be excluded as the father? Explain.
2. Which man may be the father of the child? Explain.
3. How many radioactive probes were used in this activity?
4. Is this DNA profile sufficient to establish paternity? Why or why not?
WRITING ACTIVITY
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EXIT TICKET
Describe today’s lesson in 3-5 sentences.
Use the Venn diagram below to compare spores and pollens
ACTIVITY #2
EXIT TICKET
Describe today’s lesson in 3-5 sentences.
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Pollen helps war crime forensics
By Peter Wood
At the BA Science Festival
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Researchers have revealed how a
team of forensic experts used pollen
to help them to convict Bosnian war
criminals.
Professor Tony Brown of the University of
Exeter used the method to link mass
graves in Bosnia, which supported the
case for genocide by the prosecution.
Pollen provided a vital clue linking burial sites
He says pollen and unchanging soil characteristics can "provide strong
circumstantial evidence placing a vehicle or person at a crime scene".
The research was presented at the BA's annual Festival of Science in
Exeter.
"Forensic pollen analysis has made a significant contribution to the
investigation of war crimes in Bosnia," Professor Brown explained.
Bosnian war criminals tried disguising their acts of genocide by
exhuming mass graves and reburying bodies in smaller graves, claiming
they were the result of minor battles.
Laborious search
The prosecution at the UN war crimes tribunal needed to show that the
many "secondary" burial sites could be linked to a few "primary" ones,
to prove that mass graves had initially existed.
Professor Brown was part of the North East Bosnian Mortuary Team
which conducted forensic examinations of mass graves. The team,
which worked under constant UN guard, examined 20 sites over a fouryear period from 1997.
Soil samples were taken from skeletal cavities, inside the graves, and
from around the suspected primary and secondary burial sites.
Pollen from the soil samples was cleaned with powerful chemicals before
being analysed, and the mineralogy of the soil itself was examined.
Telltale clue
Once complete, matches could be made between different samples ultimately leading to links between primary and secondary burial sites.
Professor Brown said: "For example, one primary execution and burial
site was in a field of wheat. When bodies were found in secondary burial
sites they were linked to the primary location through the presence of
distinctive wheat pollen in soil recovered from the victims."
Independent ballistics work was in 100% agreement with the
conclusions of the pollen and soil analysis, he added.
Overall, the work formed a significant component of the generic body of
evidence used against those involved in the Srebrenica atrocities.
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Professor Brown said a case in point was the conviction of Radislav
Krstic, commander of a military unit which participated in the massacres
in and around Srebrenica in the summer of 1995.
After reading the news article, please answer the following questions:
1. What is this article about?
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2. Summarize the article in 3-4 sentences.
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3. What was the conclusion of the researchers?
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4. What evidences were used to come to this conclusion?
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5. As the result of this scientific findings (conclusion), ________________________ was convicted of participation in the
massacred in and around Srebrenica in the summer of 1995.
EXIT TICKET
Describe today’s lesson in 3-5 sentences.
1. Forensic Geology- based on the case study completed in class and the 3 readings below: UNDERLINE the types of
materials that would be examined by a forensic geologist AND circle where they would find these materials in a
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crime situation (ex. Tires, pant cuffs, pictures). You should be able to determine the overall significance of the
materials or in other words why these pieces of evidence are crucial in solving the crime.
Reading #1: The first real use of forensic geology to solve a crime does not appear to have occurred until 1904, when a
German chemist named Georg Popp used geologic evidence to help identify a murder suspect from a handkerchief
containing traces of snuff, coal dust, and the mineral hornblende. The prime suspect used snuff, and divided his labors
between a coal gasification plant and a quarry in which the rocks were rich in the hornblende. (Coal gasification was then a
common process in which coal was transformed into natural gas.) Soil in the suspect's pant cuffs also was matched to soil at
the crime scene and outside of the victim's home. Taken together, the evidence convinced the suspect to confess. Four
years later, Popp was able to show that one layer of soil on the shoes of a murder suspect matched the soil and distinctly
green goose droppings around the suspect's home. A second layer contained red sandstone fragments identical to those in
the soil where the body was found. The third, and outermost, layer contained coal, brick, and cement dust identical to that
found at the location where the murder weapon was found. The suspect claimed that he was walking in the fields near his
home and therefore could not have committed the murder. Popp was able to show that, in addition to all of the geologic
evidence that was preserved on the shoes, there was no sign of the distinctive milky white quartz particles that were
characteristic of soil from those fields.
Reading #2: During the second half of World War II, the Japanese military developed a plan to attack the United States with
unmanned balloons carrying explosive and incendiary bombs. Using meteorological observations and calculations, they
were able to design balloons that could be launched from Japanese beaches and carried by the jet stream to the western
United States. The balloons were designed to be self-regulating, releasing sandbags in order to gain elevation during cold
nights and releasing hydrogen to loose elevation during warm days. It is believed that 9000 balloons were launched, of
which an estimated 1000 reached North America. Two balloons drifted as far east as Michigan. Although they ignited a few
small fires and killed only six people (five children and a minister's wife who came across an unexploded bomb while on a
fishing trip in Oregon), their origin was of concern. It was not known whether the balloons were being launched from
Japanese submarines, by shore parties that had landed on American beaches, from German prisoner of war camps, or from
the internment camps to which many Japanese-American citizens had been forcibly relocated. Geologists in the military
geology unit of the U.S. Geological Survey were asked to determine the launching point of the balloons from the
provenance of sand that had been used for ballast and which had been recovered from many balloon crash sites. Because
sand has a low economic value and is expensive to transport, it was likely that the source of the sand was at or near the
launching areas. The geologists first eliminated North American sources for the sand, which contained an unusual
combination of minerals, fossil and recent diatoms (single celled algae that secrete siliceous cell walls), foraminifera (single
celled organisms with calcareous shells), mollusk shell fragments, and no coral. The absence of coral was important because
coral grows only in warm water, meaning that the sand most likely came from a northern area. By comparing the sand to
geologic maps and reports that had been published before the war, one as early as 1889, the geologists suggested two
possible launching sites along the northern coast of Japan. In reality, balloons were being launched from three sites. One of
them was a site identified by the geologists and the other two, separated by approximately 15 km, were close to the second
site identified by the geologists.
Reading #3: Geologic interpretation of photographs and videotapes can also shed light on the location in which a
photograph or a recording was made. A notable example of this kind of forensic geology occurred shortly after the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
American geologists who had worked in Afghanistan were able to identify rocks in the background of a videotaped message
from the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, and therefore the region of the country in which the message was taped. The
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use of geologic knowledge to infer location was widely publicized, however, and subsequent messages were recorded
against a cloth background in order to prevent the location of the taping from being discerned.
A. What are physical characteristics of soil? Chemical characteristics?
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B. What will forensic geologists look for to individualize a soil sample? List 3 things.
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CASE STUDY 2: Madrid Bombings
On 11 March 2004 a series of bombs devastated Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people and wounding 2050. The bombings
were widely assumed to be inspired by Al Qaeda but there appears to have been the involvement of several disparate
groups and individuals. The trial of 28 accused ran from February to July 2007. A t the end of October 2007, the
Audiencia Nacional de España delivered its verdicts. Of the 28 defendants in the trial, 21 were found guilty on a range of
charges from forgery to murder.
In the early stages of the investigation a blue plastic bag containin g detonators was found near the scene of the
bombings at a railway station. A print was taken from the bag and the FBI in the USA was sent a digital copy of the print.
An American lawyer Brandon Mayfield, who had converted to Islam, was identified by the F BI as a match to the
fingerprint. Mayfield was never charged with a crime but was arrested by the US authorities as a material witness with
possible information about the Madrid bombing.
Court records reveal the process that led to Mayfield's arrest in May 2004 and his two-week detention in the Multnomah
County Jail in Oregon, USA. According to the record, Mayfield's prints were among the best 15 matches found by the FBI
fingerprint computer, which holds the prints of some 45 million persons. Those matche s were then compared by FBI
examiners to the digital image of the partial print sent by the Spanish authorities, who finding 15 matching characteristics
concluded that the print was 'a 100 per cent identification' with Mayfield (Figure 3).
Even as the FBI homed in on Mayfield, Spanish authorities were disputing the FBI's fingerprint analysis on the Madrid
bag and the identification was not accepted in Spain. An independent fingerprint expert brought in by the FBI appeared,
according to the court records, to confirm the FBI's attribution of the print to Mayfield. But Mayfield's lawyer said the
expert's report had cautions that were not included in the FBI's affidavit (a sworn statement of evidence or fact that can
be used in court without the author necessarily being present).
Although not included in the FBI's affidavit the expert's report included concerns that the quality of the print copy that wa s
received from Spain was poor and that the image possibly included an overlay of another print. The expert said that it
was important to see the original image to make a definitive identification.
It was soon recognized that an error had been made and Mayfield was released. The US attorney said the error was
regrettable but that as soon as the misidentification came to light, federal authorities 'moved immediately' to have
Mayfield released. The US Inspector General's Office (an office within the Department of Justice that can investigate
waste, fraud and abuse within the US justice system) released a 273-page report in 2006 on the Mayfield affair. The
report acknowledges that there was an 'unusual similarity' between the fingerprints, confusing three FBI examiners and a
court-appointed expert. But the report also concluded that FBI examiners failed to adhere t o the bureau's own rules for
identifying latent fingerprints and that the FBI's 'overconfidence' in its own skills prevented it from taking the Spanish
police seriously.
known print from Mayfield
known print from prime suspect
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Case Study 2 Questions
1. From the Madrid Bombings, Case Study 2,
what is the pattern of Mayfield’s print?
______________ What is the pattern of
prime suspect’s print? ________________
2. How are both prints similar?
3. On the pictures above find, circle and
label with type of minutiae 4 similarities
between Mayfield’s and the Prime
Suspects Prints
4. How are they different?
5. Summarize what happened to Mayfield.
6. How does this case change your views on
fingerprinting?
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