{"id":145606,"date":"2023-10-23T10:06:25","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T14:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/?p=145606"},"modified":"2023-10-24T11:08:46","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T15:08:46","slug":"improving-the-science-behind-bloodstain-pattern-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/2023\/10\/23\/improving-the-science-behind-bloodstain-pattern-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving the Science Behind Bloodstain Pattern Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

How BU engineers are changing the way evidence is interpreted at crime scenes<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By Devin Hahn<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

As fans of all good cop shows know, blood evidence can help detectives crack even the toughest of cases. The century-old science of bloodstain pattern analysis\u2014using the configuration of blood left at a crime scene to reconstruct details of the incident\u2014is as critical to crime scene investigation as fingerprinting or DNA analysis. But it\u2019s having to update its playbook to keep up with the technology of our everyday lives and the modern materials found at crime scenes. A century ago, blood evidence might have been found on plain wooden floors, simple textiles, or carpets; it still is today, but it\u2019s also found on scratch-resistant cell phone screens, anti-glare windshields, and hydrophobic surfaces specifically engineered to repel fluids.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs with any science, it\u2019s constantly evolving,\u201d says Kenneth Martin, a retired 33-year veteran of the Massachusetts State Police and a clinical instructor in Boston University\u2019s Biomedical Forensic Sciences program<\/a>. Martin often testifies as an expert witness in court cases that depend on blood evidence, and he is increasingly seeing crime scenes where blood has come into contact with different hydrophobic surfaces. \u201cThat has been an area where I\u2019ve thought that we could use a lot more research,\u201d says Martin.<\/p>\n

Over at Boston University\u2019s Fluid Lab<\/a>, James Bird has made a career out of studying the interaction between fluids and their surroundings\u2014and his latest research could help give forensic scientists like Martin new tools for analyzing bloodstains. Bird, a BU College of Engineering associate professor of mechanical engineering<\/a>, became interested in interpreting blood evidence after attending Martin\u2019s course. With support from a National Institute of Justice grant, his lab is doing a range of experiments designed to simulate the kinds of blood evidence found at crime scenes: everything from the complex scatter patterns associated with stab wounds to the dynamics of a single drop of human blood falling onto a surface. \u201cA lot of the experiments people have done looking at bloodstains have been on clean surfaces,\u201d says Bird. \u201cWell, most surfaces aren\u2019t clean.\u201d<\/p>\n

In our deep dive video, we take a seat alongside Bird and his colleagues as they study the complex interactions of human blood on different surfaces\u2014and see how their work could shape future crime scene investigations.<\/p>\n

Watch the video at Boston University’s <\/strong><\/em>The Brink.<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo by Cydney Scott<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At BU’s Fluid Lab, James Bird’s latest research could help give forensic scientists new tools for analyzing bloodstains at crime scenes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2662,"featured_media":145608,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[236,257,1088,908],"tags":[973,395],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145606"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145606"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145615,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145606\/revisions\/145615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}