- Title: New fluorescent nano-material lights up old fingerprints in CSI breakthrough
- Date: 16th September 2024
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) ROBERT HILLMAN, PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY, SAYING: “You'll all be familiar if your IT system is working poorly, when you have an online call, the image, the face will become very pixelated. You will see a small number of pixels, so you can't pick out the detail. And in this sense, you can think of the pixels as being like the powder size. With a nanopart
- Embargoed: 30th September 2024 09:58
- Keywords: CSI Crime Scene Investigators Crime Scene Investigtaion Glow in the dark fingerprints Nick Ross Professor Rob Hillman University of Leicester dusting for fingerprints finger marks flourescent
- Location: LEICESTER & DIDCOT, ENGLAND, UK / SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS / MEXICO CITY & CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO
- City: LEICESTER & DIDCOT, ENGLAND, UK / SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS / MEXICO CITY & CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO
- Country: UK
- Topics: Europe,Science
- Reuters ID: LVA003322611092024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A new fluorescent nanomaterial that could help forensic scientists reveal previously unseen fingerprints, including those from cold cases, is undergoing evaluation in the UK.
Researchers at the University of Leicester say dusting for fingerprints using nanoparticles, rather than the traditional larger powders, means more detail can be captured and less of the residue from the fingerprint donor is needed for the particles to stick to, potentially revealing the fingerprint maker's identity possibly even years later.
“What we're hoping is that we'll be able to get fingerprints that current powders can't get," Nick Ross, a PhD chemistry student who is comparing the new material's performance against UK forensic science standards on a variety of surfaces, told Reuters.
The new material, catchily called MCM-41@Ch@DnsGly, consists of a silica nanoparticle, a fluorescent dye and chitosan, which can obtained from powdered shrimp, crab or lobster shells.
It is the result of a collaboration between the Federal University of Alagoas and the Federal Police in Brazil, the UK’s national synchrotron, Diamond Light Source, and the University of Leicester's School of Chemistry.
“There is, of course, the interesting question of how ancient, if you like, evidence we could examine this way. So could we go back and visit cold cases? I would be reasonably optimistic about this," Robert Hillman, Professor of Physical Chemistry, told Reuters.
Criminals will often wipe away visible fingerprints, so this new hybrid powder aims to visualise any latent fingermarks left behind at a crime scene, which are invisible to the naked eye.
"If your IT system is working poorly, when you have an online call, the image, the face will become very pixelated. You will see a small number of pixels, so you can't pick out the detail," Professor Hillman said.
"Think of the pixels as being like the powder size. With a nanoparticle we have very small particles, very small pixels, so you can get very fine detail, a very high fidelity image.”
Fingerprints are made of mostly water, in the form of sweat and natural oils and can evaporate in certain conditions, leaving little evidence behind.
Tests on this new material have found it sticks to residues on a range of different surfaces including metal, plastic, glass, and more complex objects like polymer banknotes. Adding in the fluorescence further increases visual contrast between any fingerprint and the surface it is found on and allows evidence to be collected faster, at the crime scene, rather than later in a laboratory.
Now, more than a century after the widespread acceptance of fingerprints in courts around the world, this research, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, could be about to shed some light on crucial evidence that has until now remained invisible.
(Production: Stuart McDill) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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