Science Olympiad Crime Busters Notes
3 Fingerprints: whorl, loop, arch-plain arch + tented arch
Tented Arch-tent (no delta)
Plain Arch-comes from both sides, forms hills (no delta)
Whorl looks like target in center (2 deltas)
Loop-looks like a river flowing into a lake (1 delta)
Chromatography:
Need:Filter Paper, Water Glass/Dish, material being tested (pen, marker, etc.)
[Link] separate dots of the material on the filter paper.
[Link] dip in water until material is separated.
[Link] for evidence.
Hair Analysis:
Need:Microscope, slides, hair, water
1. Round hair tends to be straighter than oblong hair
2. Flat hair tends to be kinky
3. must also be able to tell the difference between animal fur and human hair
4. Cat hair is usually finer than human hair or dog hair
5. Dog hair can be of two different kinds. The outer coat is generally very coarse
and often straight, the undercoat is often fine and can be very curly.
6. In human hair, the color of the hair can make a difference too. Generally
speaking, dark hair is thicker than blond hair and red hair is the finest
7. The more pigment, the darker the hair. Some hair is white. It generally has
bubbles in the inner layer.
8. be looking at the basic shape, curliness, and size of the hair if it is from a human
Liquid Analysis:
1. Measure pH
[Link] odor
[Link] color/transparency/consistency
[Link] reaction with Iodine
(Blood: pH=about 7, observation=wet-red dry-brown)
Metal Analysis:
1. Observe the metal, write down your observations
2. Observe what happens to the metal when a magnet is brought near it. If the material
is affected by a magnet, you do not need to do any further tests on it. It is iron!
3. Observe what happens when you put a drop of HCl on it. Does it start to fizz right
away, or is it a delayed reaction? Here is a chart similar to what you will fill out. Do Your
observations match the chart.
Fiber:
● Three main groups, animal, vegetable, and man-made.
● Animal= silk and wool
● Vegetable=cotton and linen
● Man-made= nylon, dacron, polyester, orlon, acetate, acrylic, etc.
● One way of identifying fibers is to look at them with a magnifying glass or a
microscope.
● the smoother the fibers, the more likely they are to be man made
● natural sources such as animal or vegetable fibers are shorter fibers that are
twisted together in some fashion. This often has the loose ends sticking out that
look like fuzz.
● Another way of identifying fibers is using a burn test; hold the fiber just above the
flame from something like a match;It is important not to let the flame touch the
fiber itself
● The man-made fibers will decompose and melt much quicker than either the
animal or vegetable fibers.
● Yet another way of separating the animal fibers from the vegetable or man-made
fibers is to put the fibers in regular household bleach.
● The animal fibers will dissolve, but the man-made and vegetable fibers will
remain untouched.
Tracks:
● It is estimated that a motor vehicle is involved in 75% of the major crimes
committed today.
● Unlike fingerprints, regular photographs do not photocopy as well as photos that
are first put on the computer.
● To properly light a bike track to obtain a good picture for use in comparisons, the
light should be aimed at one extreme end of the track almost parallel to the track.
The camera should be at right angels to the track.
(How to take picture of the tracks)
Individual Solid Non-Metal:
● Powder or crystal form
● We are going to look at 13 different solid nonmetal substances.
● We need to know how the materials look, smell, their pH when mixed with water
and if/how they dissolve or react with water, acid and iodine.
● The first thing you need to observe is whether the solid is a powder, crystal, or
granule. This will be done by looking at the substance with a magnifying glass.
● using a wooden splint to take small amounts of the substances and putting in the
wells of a "spot plate"
● test them for how they react with water, acid, iodine, etc
● But of course you will not want to add more than one reagent to the solid at a
time. Therefore you will need to keep cleaning the spot plate between each set of
trials.
Soil:
(Under a microscope)
DNA:
● The DNA is what makes up genes, which are in the nucleus of all cells.
● What scientists have discovered is that DNA is actually made up of two ribbons
of material. The outside of the ribbon has the molecules that hold the whole
ribbon together
● The molecules that stick out are called bases. These go together in pairs and
are therefore usually referred to as base pairs. In point of fact there are only 4 of
these bases
● They are usually named for the first letter of the chemical name of the molecule.
Therefore we have A, T, C, & G. Now A can only hook to T and C can only hook
to G. These are called base pairs.
● Base pairs- one half of the pair on each ribbon
● When the two ribbons are together, the base pairs match up & link
● For humans the number of gene pairs is 23. In other words there are 46 genes in
each human cell nucleus. It is believed that it takes a sequence of 3 base pairs to
code for a single atom in protein molecule.
● Therefore it requires 2 times the number of atoms in a protein to code for that
protein molecule to be made.
● First the cells in the tissues are broken up so that the DNA can be extracted.
Then the DNA is mixed with an enzyme that will recognize one particular base
pair sequence and break the gene every time it finds that particular base pair
sequence
