We began the course by building off the pathological
processes we learned in the previous trimester and get a general overview of
the post mortem changes that take place, e.g. rigor mortis, changes in body
temperature and color, skin slippage and marbling, other characteristic
physical and chemical changes etc. And also got the chance to exercise our deductive reasoning skills, Law and Order style, running through a couple of different scenarios and debating what the manner of death is, for instance, of someone who dies while playing Russian roulette. Accident? Suicide? Switching gears from a biological and clinical background to a legal one was not only thought provoking, but dare I say, even fun?
Much to my surprise, a particularly interesting section for
me was the forensic entomology workshop.
Frankly, and maybe, I’m the only one on this island of thought, but I
never really found the world of insects especially exciting. Maybe it’s due to my instinctual first hand
response to search and destroy most critters that cross my path, but with that
being said, it was really interesting to learn about the essential role insects play
in body decomposition and how the stage
at which the collected specimen is found in can help provide vital information such as relative time
frame of death. Furthermore getting a
hands on look at some common, and not so common, species of
flies, maggots, and beetles, and inspecting their anatomy macroscopically and microscopically was especially cool and and identifying their structures gave me a better understanding of their role in crime scene investigation.
I'm looking forward to the next set of classes and writing about some of the hands on activities and learning more of the social science perspective of forensics. I'll keep you posted.
See you in 2013!
I'm looking forward to the next set of classes and writing about some of the hands on activities and learning more of the social science perspective of forensics. I'll keep you posted.
See you in 2013!
