Fingerprints from a crime scene are useless if the perpetrator's prints are not on file. But new forensic techniques now mean they can be used to determine whether a person is a smoker, uses drugs, and even which aftershave they wear - information that could help narrow down suspects.
Fingerprints contain a mixture of skin cells, sweat secretions and substances picked up from elsewhere. Careful analysis can show whether a person may have handled drugs or explosives, but the new tools make it possible to determine a person's habits from the secretions in their prints as well.
"We have found you can detect cotinine, made when someone metabolises nicotine, in fingerprints," says Sue Jickells, an analytical chemist at Kings College London, UK. "This tells you if that person is a smoker, and this kind of additional information could be useful if you don't have a suspect."
Full Article by Tom Simonite
# posted by madthumbs @ 7:12 AM
