Week 3A - 6 Ötzi Case; Summary

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Del curso dictado por Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Introduction to Forensic Science

361 calificaciones

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Introduction to Forensic Science

361 calificaciones

We have all seen forensic scientists in TV shows, but how do they really work? What is the science behind their work? The course aims to explain the scientific principles and techniques behind the work of forensic scientists and will be illustrated with numerous case studies from Singapore and around the world. Some questions which we will attempt to address include: How did forensics come about? What is the role of forensics in police work? Can these methods be used in non-criminal areas? Blood. What is it? How can traces of blood be found and used in evidence? Is DNA chemistry really so powerful? What happens (biologically and chemically) if someone tries to poison me? What happens if I try to poison myself? How can we tell how long someone has been dead? What if they have been dead for a really long time? Can a little piece of a carpet fluff, or a single hair, convict someone? Was Emperor Napoleon murdered by the perfidious British, or killed by his wallpaper? *For Nanyang Technological University (NTU) students, please be noted that this course will no longer be eligible for credit transfer.

De la lección

Time of Death; Blood

Week 3A - 1 Recent Deaths10:39

Week 3A - 2 Decomposing Bodies I (Putrefaction)6:13

Week 3A - 3 Decomposing Bodies II (Forensic Entomology)11:50

Week 3A - 4 Analysis of Skeletal Remains I8:29

Week 3A - 5 Analysis of Skeletal Remains II11:37

Week 3A - 6 Ötzi Case; Summary3:36

Week 3B - 1 Blood13:02

Week 3B - 2 Tests for Blood6:54

Week 3B - 3 Precipitin Technology3:53

Week 3B - 4 Blood Spatter Analysis8:17

Week 3B - 5 Lord Lucan Case; Summary7:04

Conoce a los instructores

Roderick Bates
Associate Professor
Division of Chemistry & Biological Chemistry | School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences

[MUSIC]

Well, let's end this lecture

by looking at the oldest body in the world, and this is Otzi, who

was found in the ice, high up in the Alps.

And he was found high up in the mountains by a pair of hikers.

And what had happened was that the warmer climate had caused a lot of snow and ice to melt,

and his body had become partially exposed.

Well, when he was seen by these two hikers,

they of course assumed he was a recent accident victim

and they called the local authorities, and then of

course, it was realized he wasn't a recent accident victim.

He had actually been out there in the ice

for many, many years,

and it turns out that he had died up there in the mountains 5000 years ago.

His body had been covered in snow, encased in

the ice, and had been preserved for 5000 years.

And many of his possessions such as the axe

he had with him, his clothes, were also preserved.

We don't know why he was up in the

mountains, we do know that he was injured; there's an

arrowhead buried in one of his shoulders. But we also

know that he found a rather curious place to die.

When these two hikers were hiking in the

mountains, they thought they were inside Austrian territory,

so when the body was found, it was taken to Innsbruck in Austria for further studies.

It's only later that someone realized that he had actually crossed by a few metres

into what is now Italian territory to die,

so the Austrians had to hand him over to the Italians,

and now he's in a museum of his own in Bolzano, Italy.

So, Otzi is believed to be the oldest body in

the world, preserved by the ice and snow of the Alps.

Well, in this lecture we have looked at many different techniques that can be

used to determine time of death, depending on how long the victim has been dead.

We looked at Rigor Mortis, Algor Mortis, and Livor Mortis,

which lasts for a day or so or two days.

We've taken a look at some of the circumstantial

evidence that can be used and will be increasingly used.

For bodies that have been dead a bit longer, we can look

at the state of putrefaction, we can do some entomology with the maggots.

And then getting into more historical archaeological territory,

we have FUN analysis, we have bone fluorescence,

we have carbon-14 dating.

But all the same, whichever technique we use

to determine time of death, we have to understand

that it can be effected by external environmental factors,

so all of these estimates are subject to errors

of one magnitude or another.

[BLANK_AUDIO]

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