• Question: do you have any previous science discoveries?

    Asked by jamesk to Jamie, Jodie, Kat, Mark, Niamh on 14 Mar 2011 in Categories: . This question was also asked by emilyh.
    • Photo: Jamie Pringle

      Jamie Pringle answered on 12 Mar 2011:

      Hello James,
      Before I got into forensics, I did more ground investigation jobs, looking for mineshafts or cleared building foundations, normally for site developers or business bods. One exciting one I had was that I discovered the ‘Dick’ tunnel, one of the three WW2 Prisoners-of-War escape tunnels at Stalag Luft III (‘Tom’, ‘Dick’ and ‘Harry’) – which was the basis for the 1963 film ‘The Great Escape’ starring Steve McQueen? It was pretty exciting and the filmed investigation was shown as a documentary on Channel 4 a few years ago.

    • Photo: Katherine Davies

      Katherine Davies answered on 12 Mar 2011:

      Hi

      Technically no, I have not discovered any new animals or anything like that, but I do know people who have. I have devised some new methods for age estimation of insects, which may not seem exciting at first, but eventually these may be used world wide and could potentially help in a court case, possibly to convict a dangerous person, or clear an innocent one! So I’m happy!

      Kat

    • Photo: Mark Hill

      Mark Hill answered on 13 Mar 2011:

      Hello James,

      Yes. One big discovery and one very small one.

      The big one! When I was at school I discovered that science can be and is (mostly) fun. That was my biggest discovery and helped me with my ‘A’ levels and in my current work. It is really important to enjoy a subject. It does help to make it easier to understand.

      The (very) little one! The only other ‘discovery’ that I can draw a link to was in my Masters thesis. I looked at safety features in vehicles to see if there was a link in the way that people drive them, because of those safety features. For example, do they drive more closely to other vehicles because they have anti-lock brakes (ABS), thinking that they can stop more quickly (which generally they can’t).

      The short answer is ‘yes’, people do drive differently. The reason is because of ‘risk homeostasis’, which is not difficult to understand, but would take a lot of space here to explain it. I am sure that your science teacher can explain it. If you wish, ask another question about it and I will answer it for you.

      I hope that you also make the same discovery as my first one. Good luck.

      Mark.

    • Photo: Jodie Dunnett

      Jodie Dunnett answered on 14 Mar 2011:

      No, unfortunately not but hopefully the completion of my PhD will not be the end of my research so watch this space 🙂

    • Photo: Niamh Nic Daeid

      Niamh Nic Daeid answered on 14 Mar 2011:

      We’ve made some advances in illegal drug detection that we have juts published in a scientific journal which is our most recent break through. We’ve also done a lot of work around making footwear marks and fingerprints visible of different surfaces like fabrics and burnt surfaces.

      N

Comments