The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series… Taken from The Great Courses’ Trails of Evidence – How Forensic Science Works lecture series (Lecture 23 – Forensic Anthropology) Most people believe that a woman’s pelvic girdle widens at sexual maturity to cope with childbirth but this is, apparently, an untruth. Or at least a partial […]
Sex vs. Gender (and why it matters to science types)
The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series… Taken from The Great Courses’ Trails of Evidence – How Forensic Science Works lecture series (Lecture 23 – Forensic Anthropology) Ever wondered about the official difference between the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’? According to science SEX is biological and is determined by chromosomes. GENDER is sociological and defines […]
It’s all over at Thirty
The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series which I started doing about eighteen months ago when I started boring even myself at dinner parties… Taken from The Great Courses’ Trails of Evidence – How Forensic Science Works lecture series (Lecture 23 – Forensic Anthropology) Age assessments conducted on the skeletons of young […]
The Body Farm
The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series… Taken from The Great Courses’ Trails of Evidence – How Forensic Science Works lecture series (Lecture 22 – Decomposition – Bugs) There’s a research facility at the University of Tennessee started in late 80s by a famous forensic pathologist by the name of Bass. It […]
What Writers Get Wrong – mounded graves
The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series… Taken from The Great Courses’ Trails of Evidence – How Forensic Science Works lecture series (Lecture 22 – Decomposition – Bugs) TV and fiction often portray discovered bush graves as mounded and loosely weathered. The truth (apparently) is that most criminals try to level off their bush […]
Flies on a Corpse are all Female
The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series… Taken from The Great Courses’ Trails of Evidence – How Forensic Science Works lecture series (Lecture 22 – Decomposition – Bugs) Most people imagine that the flies that swarm to a dead body are there to feed on the body. Not so, apparently. Their primary […]
As if Bodybags Weren’t Unsettling Enough
The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series… Taken from The Great Courses’ Trails of Evidence – How Forensic Science Works lecture series (Lecture 21 Autopsy) It is standard following autopsy for all the removed and examined organs to be bundled into a plastic bag and re-placed in the chest cavity before the body […]
Joe Bloggs: Everyman and Nobody
The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ blog series which I started doing when I began to even bore myself at dinner parties… Taken from The Great Courses’ Trails of Evidence – How Forensic Science Works lecture series (Lecture 21 Autopsy) Today I discovered where the phrase ‘Joe Bloggs’ comes from (as […]
Decomposition in a nutshell (and why a dead body is really still alive)
Learn Something New Every Day – Lecture 20 – Death Investigators Decomposition happens when the absence of metabolism in the dead body causes cells to start dying and then they domino to cause the collapse of organs and body systems. But if not for bacteria in our bodies, decomp would take much longer. Essentially, on […]
Oxygen deprived blood is not blue – it’s rich red
Learn Something New Every Day – Lecture 20 – Death Investigators Oxygen deprived blood is a dark red colour. When it’s well oxygenated it is a brighter/vibrant red. Veinous blood may look blue because of light diffusion through skin and livor mortis (lividity) makes the pooling of blood in a dead body look purple/blue for […]