Course: The Science Behind Forensic Science

The role of the expert witness An expert witness may be anyone who holds specialist knowledge or experience in a field or discipline considered to be beyond the ken of …

Meet Dr Ann Priston who will give you a tour of a crown court and teach you more about court procedure.

After completing this module you should now have an idea of some of the key concepts which underpin forensic chemistry. However it is important to remember that this is just …

Present the results from the chemistry lab to Gihan and find out about the next steps.

Meet Dr Andrew Chan who explains how FTIR analysis can identify drugs.

Mass spectrometry (MS) is an instrumental technique that is used to determine the mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) of an ion. The measurement of the m/z can provide structural information about a …

Separation of complex mixtures (known as chromatography) is an essential tool in forensic science. It is routinely used to identify and compare samples of drugs, explosives, inks and biological samples …

The tablet found at the crime scene will be prepared for further analysis. An initial identification of the tablet will also be carried out by a technique called thin layer …

The analytical approach in forensic chemical analysis of an unknown substance is to narrow down the possibilities until a drug is identified. After visual examination, presumptive or screening tests are …

A fingerprint is the impression left from the friction ridges on the tip of a finger beginning at week 10 of the gestation period in the human foetal development. During …

Chain of Custody (CoC) The CoC is designed to prove sample integrity by chronologically documenting custody from seizure/collection through to control, storage, transfer, analysis and destruction, to standards that can …

Forensic chemistry usually relates to the identification (and sometimes quantification) of unknown substances linked to crime, and must be performed to a legally defensible standard. To achieve this, a wide …