4 ms·

This was only established 4 years ago. It's not a big deal.

• wfo 10y ago
  Yes, established recently to deal with an enormous crisis of failures in forensic science that were putting innocent people in jail in huge numbers across the country. The FBI crime lab was essentially doing junk science and sending expert technicians to testify and say "The astrological sign of the defendant that I've described in technical scientific terms you don't understand tells us he was at the crime scene with 99.99% accuracy, trust me, I'm a senior scientist at the FBI crime lab." It's a huge deal if you're accused of a crime or if you care about innocent people going free.
  • DanBC 10y ago
    and it's wider than criminal justice, some of these tests are used in family cases too. Here's a blog post from England about hair strand analysis for substance misuse: http://www.pinktape.co.uk/cases/hair-strand-testing-some-interesting-information/ http://www.pinktape.co.uk/cases/hair-strand-testing-some-int...
• hackuser 10y ago
  I don't think its lifespan indicates its importance. Without it, it seems possible or even very likely that more innocent people will be have their reputations ruined and be imprisoned, with all the follow on effects on their families and communities. Also, as an unavoidable result, the perpetrators of those crimes will go free. How is that not important?