(Press-News.org) The key player in a movement challenging improper use of DNA testing and other elements of forensic science is the topic of a compelling cover story in this week's edition of Chemical & Engineering News. The story in the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society (ACS) — the world's largest scientific society — features the Innocence Project, which, in the last two decades, has helped free nearly 300 wrongfully convicted prisoners.
C&EN Senior Editor Carmen Drahl uses a symposium on the Innocence Project held at ACS' Fall National Meeting & Exposition to discuss the accomplishments, challenges and rifts within modern forensic science. The article explains that two members of O.J. Simpson's defense team founded the Innocence Project in 1992. Since then, the project has helped exonerate almost 300 innocent people. Innocence Project research concludes that improper use of forensics plays a role in 45 percent of wrongful convictions, second only to eyewitness misidentification as the most important factor in those miscarriages of justice.
Poor understanding of forensic science and a lack of vetting of common forensic techniques are a large part of the problem, Drahl reports. Even DNA testing, whose accuracy has been scrutinized and affirmed by scientific studies, has become problematic as improved sensitivity makes issues of cross-contamination more prominent. A sidebar describes how scientists are attempting to improve traditional forensic disciplines, including bite mapping and gunfire-remnant identification, through new quantitative approaches.
###To view a press conference on the Innocence Project symposium, click here.
The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 164,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.
Forensic science on trial
2012-09-12
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
An advance toward a flu-fighting nasal spray
2012-09-12
In an advance toward development of a nasal spray that protects against infection with influenza and spread of the disease, scientists are reporting identification of a substance that activates the first-line defense system against infection inside the nose. They describe effects of a synthetic form of a natural substance found in bacterial cell walls in ACS' journal Molecular Pharmaceutics.
David C. Jackson and colleagues explain that the body's so-called innate immune system forms a first-line defense system against respiratory diseases like influenza A — which causes ...
Record 4.02 billion prescriptions in United States in 2011
2012-09-12
People in the United States took more prescription drugs than ever last year, with the number of prescriptions increasing from 3.99 billion (with a cost of $308.6 billion) in 2010 to 4.02 billion (with a cost of $319.9 billion) in 2011. Those numbers and others appear in an annual profile of top prescription medicines published in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience.
Journal Editor-in-Chief Craig W. Lindsley analyzed data on 2011 drugs with a focus on medications for central nervous system (CNS) disorders. So-called antipsychotic medicines — including those used to ...
New analysis of drinking water-related gastrointestinal illness
2012-09-12
The distribution system piping in U.S. public water systems that rely on non-disinfected well water or "ground water" may be a largely unrecognized cause of up to 1.1 million annual cases of acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI), involving nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, scientists are reporting. Their study in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology concludes that such illnesses may become more of a problem as much of the nation's drinking water supply system continues to age and deteriorate.
Frank J. Loge, Mark A. Borchardt and colleagues explain that more than ...
Russia fails to grasp democratic ideals
2012-09-12
EAST LANSING, Mich. — The brutally repressive Soviet Union Vladimir Shlapentokh left behind 33 years ago may have opened its borders to the world, but today's Russia has become wracked with greed, corruption and mass emigration that threaten the nation's future.
So argues Shlapentokh, a Michigan State University sociologist, in the academic journal Communist and Post-Communist Studies.
"As Russia's plight shows, the assumption that openness and liberalization automatically promote democracy and guarantee it will function turned out to be wrong," Shlapentokh said. "It ...
Himalayan glaciers retreating at accelerated rate in some regions but not others
2012-09-12
WASHINGTON -- Glaciers in the eastern and central regions of the Himalayas appear to be retreating at accelerating rates, similar to those in other areas of the world, while glaciers in the western Himalayas are more stable and could be growing, says a new report from the National Research Council.
The report examines how changes to glaciers in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region, which covers eight countries across Asia, could affect the area's river systems, water supplies, and the South Asian population. The mountains in the region form the headwaters of several major ...
Math anxiety causes trouble for students as early as first grade
2012-09-12
Many high-achieving students experience math anxiety at a young age — a problem that can follow them throughout their lives, new research at the University of Chicago shows.
In a study of first- and second-graders, Sian Beilock, professor in psychology, found that students report worry and fear about doing math as early as first grade. Most surprisingly math anxiety harmed the highest-achieving students, who typically have the most working memory, Beilock and her colleagues found.
"You can think of working memory as a kind of 'mental scratchpad' that allows us to 'work' ...
Stress hormones: Good or bad for posttraumatic stress disorder risk?
2012-09-12
Philadelphia, PA, September 12, 2012 – Glucocorticoids, a group of hormones that includes cortisol, are considered stress hormones because their levels increase following stress. When their relationship to stress was first identified, it was shown that the release of cortisol prepared the body to cope with the physical demands of stress. Subsequently, high levels of cortisol were linked to depression and other stress-related disorders, giving rise to the hypothesis that high levels of cortisol on a long-term basis may impair the psychological capacity to cope with stress. ...
New model could help fill data gap in predicting historical air pollution exposure
2012-09-12
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS. – In a study that analyzed relationships between air quality and unemployment levels, a Tufts University researcher has developed a new statistical model that retrospectively estimates air pollution exposure for previous time periods where such information is not available.
Mary Davis, an associate professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences, analyzed traffic-related air pollution levels and unemployment rates in four separate regions of California for which extensive air monitoring ...
Amazing diversity documented in national park
2012-09-12
JEJU, REPUBLIC OF KOREA (September 12, 2012) – A remote park in northwest Bolivia may be the most biologically diverse place on earth, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which helped put together a comprehensive list of species found there. The announcement was released at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, an international gathering of conservationists meeting through Sept. 13 in Jeju, South Korea.
The list, published in a compendium by the Bolivian Park Service (SERNAP) and funded by WCS, shows that Madidi National Park contains 11 percent of ...
Popular pain-relieving medicines linked to hearing loss in women
2012-09-12
BOSTON, MA—Headache? Back pain? At the first sign of pain, you might reach for a pain-relieving medicine to sooth your bodily woes.
Analgesics are the most frequently used medications in the United States and are commonly used to treat a variety of medical conditions.
But although popping a pill may make the pain go away, it may do some damage to your ears.
According to a study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), women who took ibuprofen or acetaminophen two or more days per week had an increased risk of hearing loss. The more often a woman took ...