Future of Forensics
1686
Marcello Malpighi observed the different types and characteristics of fingerprints. However, he didn't conclude fingerprints could provide a person's identity. (Source: Forensic Science Timeline)
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1806
Valentin Ross established a technique for detecting arsenic found in a victim's stomach. (Source: Forensic Science)
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1813
Mathieu Orfila discovered modern toxicology and made important contributions for blood testing in a crime scene and used micrscopy to observe blood and semen stains. (Source: Forensic Science Timeline)
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1836
James Marsh introduced toxicology to court by developing a Marsh test to detect arsenic. (Source: Forensic Science Timeline)
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1856
William Herschel used thumbprints instead of signatures on documents so illiterate people can identify the person. (Source: Forensic Science Timeline)
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1863
Schönbein realized hemoglobin can oxidize hydrogen peroxide, causing it to foam; this was the first blood test. (Source: Forensic Science Timeline)
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1868
Before the DNA double helix was even known, the nucleic acid part of DNA and RNA was discovered by a Swiss physician, Friedrich Miescher. (Source: The Discovery of the Molecular Structure of DNA - The Double Helix)
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1869
Friedrich Miescher was the first person to isolate DNA from studying the nuclei of leukocytes. (Source: Friedrich Miescher - Discoverer of DNA)
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1901
Karl Landsteiner found the human ABO blood grouping and adapted them for bloodstains. (Source: Forensic Science)
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1905
Fingerprints were first used to solve a case. Ever since, fingerprints began occurring as court evidence. (Source: Fingerprint Evidence is Used to Solve a British Murder Case)
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Late 1940s
Scientists proposed DNA was the building block of genetics and discovered the varying amounts of the four nitrogenous bases; adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine. (Source: The Discovery of the Molecular Structure of DNA - The Double Helix)
1953
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Watson and Crick used sticks and balls to experiment with their ideas of the structure of DNA while the other part of their group, Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins, used X-ray diffraction. With extended observation, the double helix structure was finally theorized by the quadruple. (Source: The Discovery of the Molecular Structure of DNA - The Double Helix)
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1984
1969
Gall and Pardue developed a method for in situ hydridization for the nuclei and chromosomes, which allowed the a portion of DNA or RNA to locate a gene within the chromosomes. (Source: Localization of tRNA Genes in the Salivary Chromosomes of Drosophila by RNA: DNA Hybridization)
Alec Jeffreys discovered DNA fingerprinting and solved two rape and murder cases. In 1983, a fifteen-year-old girl was raped and murdered; later in 1986, another fifteen-year-old girl was raped and murdered similarly. Jeffreys compared the semen sample to the suspect's blood sample; it did not match, but he proved the same man was responsible for both cases. He took blood types from the entire town and with protracted analysis, found the criminal. (Source: The Discovery of DNA Fingerprinting)
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1985
Polymerase chain reaction (abbreviated as PCR) was developed by Kary Mullis and allowed innumerable other scientists to use this technique to copy fragments of DNA samples. His invention on this helpful tool led to the improvement of genetic diagnosis. (Source: The History of PCR)
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