New Fingerprint Technique Could Reveal Diet, Sex, Race???

[nctindle]

I read this article on LiveScience just a bit ago and I have to tell you, it was very interesting. What are your thoughts?
http://www.livescience.com/technology/0 ... nting.html

[mdavis]

Not very practical, I think. This involves the same issue with inadvertant contamination that DNA deals with, except that with DNA, you will get obviously multiple results. With surfaces on which latent prints have been deposited, a defense attorney would argue that anyone could have touched the surface and that any results would be the accumulated deposits of many subjects unless you could show that the surface was clean and only the suspect print was analyzed. How many people left residue on that doorknob or that piece of paper?

[Thomas Taylor]

But just think what Sherlock Holmes could have done with this!

[wparry]

...magazine's website. I am looking for experts who could comment on the significance of this research and how practically applicable it might be.

You can reach me at 212-624-4818 or intern1@discovermagazine.com.

Thanks,
Wynne Parry

[Bill Schade]

Well, as a very practical "old dog", I remember that mobile/wireless fingerprint identification seemed "far fetched" not that long ago.(80's) The promise of NCIC 200 seemed to be a scientists dream with no chance I would ever see it in my lifetime. And now it's here and it works.

Alot of the other things we are doing today were probably a wild idea when first proposed so I've learned to keep an open mind.

An amazing world we live in.

[sharon cook]

But how would you FIND the latent prints to put the gel tape on if you don't process them? Do you just go around the whole crime scene slapping tape down willy-nilly? Won't that destroy most of the latent prints? Maybe I don't understand this article.

[Peter Griffin]

I recently read an old JFS article similar to this by Asano et al regarding the Chemical Composition of Fingerprints for Gender Determination, which found no significant difference between genders for any of the component ratios.
I would also agree with mdavis on this as to it not being a very practical approach.
PG
Here is the abstract and paper ID: JFS2001356_474

Abstract
This work investigates the chemical nature of fingerprints to ascertain whether differences in chemical composition or the existence of chemical markers can be used to determine personal traits, such as age, gender, and personal habits. This type of information could be useful for reducing the pool of potential suspects in criminal investigations when latent fingerprints are unsuitable for comparison by traditional methods. Fingertip residue that has been deposited onto a bead was extracted with a solvent such as chloroform. Samples were analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The chemical components identified include fatty acids, long chain fatty acid esters, cholesterol and squalene. The area ratios of ten selected components relative to squalene were calculated for a small preliminary experiment that showed a slight gender difference for three of these components. However, when the experiment was repeated with a larger, statistically designed experiment no significant differences between genders were detected for any of the component ratios. The multivariate Hotelling's T2 test that tested all ten-component ratios simultaneously also showed no gender differences at the 5% significance level.

[A Todd]

I agree w\ Sharon. How do you find the prints to apply the tape to. I guess I dont understand the article either.