Forensic Science Project
Introduction
My group and I are doing this project to further understand the science behind crime scenes and solving some things that are unknown. This project included solving many things which ended up being evidence to help figure out who killed Carelton Comet. We tested evidence from crime scene in which Carelton Comet was murdered and we have the suspects analyzed to see who matched for each test. We collected and analyzed data to help prove who killed Carelton Comet which helps in better understanding Forensic Science in case we decide to pursuit a career similar. We did a slideshow to present and organize our data. There’s a small video of the intro of what happens the place and time of Carelton Comet’s murder in which the presentation follows afterwards with evidence to help our case to say who killed Carelton Comet.
Genetic Vocabulary
-Gene: Traits passed down
-Alelle: Variation of a gene
-Chromosome: All genetic information stored in a safe way
-Phenotype: how traits are expressed
-Genotype: Genetic makeup/ alleles
-Central Dogma: Transfer from DNA to protein (Protein Synthesis= DNA to RNA to Protein)
-Homozygous: Same alelles (AA, aa) (Genotype same)
-Heterozygous: different alelles (Aa) (genotype different)
-Dominant: Trait will always be expressed if present
-Recessive: Trait needs to be homozygous to be expressed
-Codominant: One trait is not dominant over the other so phenotype is both (Ex. AB blood type)
-Incomplete Dominant: When neither is dominant so phenotype is a mixture of both (Ex. Pink flowers)
-Inheritance: Traits that are passed down from parents to offspring
-Variation: Differences within the same trait
-Haploid: A cell that has one set of genetic material
-Diploid: A cell that has 2 sets of the same genetic material
-Punnett Square: Diagram showing possible offspring genetic genotype and phenotype
-Solvent: Able to dissolve other substances
-Solute: A component in solution
-Mobile phase: A liquid or gas
-Stationary phase: A solid or a liquid on a solid
-Solvent front: Wet moving edge of solvent that progresses along surface where separation of mixture occurs
-Polarity: molecule or electrical having an electrical dipole moment caused by seperation of electric charge with a negatively charged end and a positively charged end
-Solubility: ability for solute to dissolve in solvent
Concepts
-DNA Structure: The structure of DNA is in the shape of a double helix. It’s backbone is made of sugar (deoxyribose) and phosphate. DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA is made of nucleic acids with phosphate bonds. The nucleotides in DNA are adenine, thymine, guanine, cytosine. Nucleotide pairing for DNA is adenine to thymine, guanine pairs with cytosine, and vice versa. The DNA has codes for specific traits.
-DNA Replication: DNA replication starts off with an enzyme named helicase splitting the DNA strand in half. The DNA is semi preserved since it saves half of the original strand until a certain point where that original DNA strand can’t keep replicating or if not more errors might occur and same applies for cells so that certain half strand will stop replicating as well as that cell will die off while others still continue the process and don’t die off until ready. There are two types of strands, leading and lagging. Leading strand reads from 5 to 3 while lagging strand reads from 3 to 5. The DNA polymerase finds it easier to read the strands from 5 to 3. So for the leading strand it has a primer to start the DNA polymerase off which then it connects the nucleotides to its matching bases. In the end, DNA would be replicated and two strands that are the same would be produced by this because when DNA strand split in half the process is to create the other half which will be as how it was before split so when the half of the halves are created then it would make two new whole DNA strands that were replicated and the same. It reads a codon being 3 at a time. The ligase later comes to connect the strand together. For the lagging strand it is different. The lagging strand is replicated in fragments and the primer has to help out a lot more to get the DNA polymerase to be able to complete that which it does in the end of everything plays out its part correctly then the ligase connects that as well. So when both are done, the DNA would be replicated and there would be two with the same genetic information.
-DNA mutations: There are many mutations of DNA. They may either be by cause of an error in when DNA is copied or because of environmental factors. One being sickle cell anemia, and there are more. DNA mutations can vary whether a nucleotide or nucleotides were misplaced, deleted, shifted, an extra one or two inserted and more which leads to different traits and sometimes could be bad. Depending on those, it effects people either good or bad. Depends on the effects of it.
-Pedigrees: Family trees of people used to track down a diseases to see how common it is and if a person they are checking might be affected. It checks who died, possible carriers, partners, childrens, diseases inherited, etc. Which helps detectives with back stories and possible motives of people in a crime. It’s also used to see who died as well.
-Karyotypes: It’s an organized profile of chromosomes in which rest pairs arranged in number by 1 through 22 largest to smallest and two chromosomes specify sex (XX, XY). With a dna sample, it helps finding chromosomes in DNA which then is arranged in order and helps to identify possible criminal that committed crime by seeing if they have a chromosomal disease and seeing which person matches the one with the crime scene.
-Chromosomal Disorders (diseases): A chromosomal disease can be Triple X Syndrome, Down Syndrome, XYY Syndrome, XXY Syndrome, and so on. It is basically where an extra chromosome is added or an extra sex chromosome is added and such. It’s a mutation that affects the person either characteristic wise, personality, or other ways. This can help with figuring out a suspect through karyotypes, and also try to figure out possible mental thinking of a persons’ actions.
-Ink Chromatography: Is a method that is able to separate dyes from inks or other materials from a liquid. It works by having a strationary and mobile phase, as well as a solvent to be able to distinguish materials in the liquid. It can show different materials, as an example it can show the color dyes in pen. That can be used to solve who wrote something by seeing which pen was used and who it belonged to help gather evidence on who the criminal might be.
-Fingerprinting: Genetic fingerprinting is what it’s also known as. It’s analysis of DNA from samples of body tissues or fluids, especially when conducted to find individuals (looking at and comparing DNA). It’s a chemical test that shows genetic makeup of a person or other living things. Shows different individual traits and matches unknown traits. It can be used to help figure out and identify a criminal using crime scene samples.
We used all these methods to help with our situation and come up with who might have killed Carelton Comet. Using these we managed to collect evidence against the person guilty of murdering Carelton Comet. Our presentation/ project is below where we laid out our case.
The video below is the beginning part of the presentation slideshow below it
My group and I are doing this project to further understand the science behind crime scenes and solving some things that are unknown. This project included solving many things which ended up being evidence to help figure out who killed Carelton Comet. We tested evidence from crime scene in which Carelton Comet was murdered and we have the suspects analyzed to see who matched for each test. We collected and analyzed data to help prove who killed Carelton Comet which helps in better understanding Forensic Science in case we decide to pursuit a career similar. We did a slideshow to present and organize our data. There’s a small video of the intro of what happens the place and time of Carelton Comet’s murder in which the presentation follows afterwards with evidence to help our case to say who killed Carelton Comet.
Genetic Vocabulary
-Gene: Traits passed down
-Alelle: Variation of a gene
-Chromosome: All genetic information stored in a safe way
-Phenotype: how traits are expressed
-Genotype: Genetic makeup/ alleles
-Central Dogma: Transfer from DNA to protein (Protein Synthesis= DNA to RNA to Protein)
-Homozygous: Same alelles (AA, aa) (Genotype same)
-Heterozygous: different alelles (Aa) (genotype different)
-Dominant: Trait will always be expressed if present
-Recessive: Trait needs to be homozygous to be expressed
-Codominant: One trait is not dominant over the other so phenotype is both (Ex. AB blood type)
-Incomplete Dominant: When neither is dominant so phenotype is a mixture of both (Ex. Pink flowers)
-Inheritance: Traits that are passed down from parents to offspring
-Variation: Differences within the same trait
-Haploid: A cell that has one set of genetic material
-Diploid: A cell that has 2 sets of the same genetic material
-Punnett Square: Diagram showing possible offspring genetic genotype and phenotype
-Solvent: Able to dissolve other substances
-Solute: A component in solution
-Mobile phase: A liquid or gas
-Stationary phase: A solid or a liquid on a solid
-Solvent front: Wet moving edge of solvent that progresses along surface where separation of mixture occurs
-Polarity: molecule or electrical having an electrical dipole moment caused by seperation of electric charge with a negatively charged end and a positively charged end
-Solubility: ability for solute to dissolve in solvent
Concepts
-DNA Structure: The structure of DNA is in the shape of a double helix. It’s backbone is made of sugar (deoxyribose) and phosphate. DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA is made of nucleic acids with phosphate bonds. The nucleotides in DNA are adenine, thymine, guanine, cytosine. Nucleotide pairing for DNA is adenine to thymine, guanine pairs with cytosine, and vice versa. The DNA has codes for specific traits.
-DNA Replication: DNA replication starts off with an enzyme named helicase splitting the DNA strand in half. The DNA is semi preserved since it saves half of the original strand until a certain point where that original DNA strand can’t keep replicating or if not more errors might occur and same applies for cells so that certain half strand will stop replicating as well as that cell will die off while others still continue the process and don’t die off until ready. There are two types of strands, leading and lagging. Leading strand reads from 5 to 3 while lagging strand reads from 3 to 5. The DNA polymerase finds it easier to read the strands from 5 to 3. So for the leading strand it has a primer to start the DNA polymerase off which then it connects the nucleotides to its matching bases. In the end, DNA would be replicated and two strands that are the same would be produced by this because when DNA strand split in half the process is to create the other half which will be as how it was before split so when the half of the halves are created then it would make two new whole DNA strands that were replicated and the same. It reads a codon being 3 at a time. The ligase later comes to connect the strand together. For the lagging strand it is different. The lagging strand is replicated in fragments and the primer has to help out a lot more to get the DNA polymerase to be able to complete that which it does in the end of everything plays out its part correctly then the ligase connects that as well. So when both are done, the DNA would be replicated and there would be two with the same genetic information.
-DNA mutations: There are many mutations of DNA. They may either be by cause of an error in when DNA is copied or because of environmental factors. One being sickle cell anemia, and there are more. DNA mutations can vary whether a nucleotide or nucleotides were misplaced, deleted, shifted, an extra one or two inserted and more which leads to different traits and sometimes could be bad. Depending on those, it effects people either good or bad. Depends on the effects of it.
-Pedigrees: Family trees of people used to track down a diseases to see how common it is and if a person they are checking might be affected. It checks who died, possible carriers, partners, childrens, diseases inherited, etc. Which helps detectives with back stories and possible motives of people in a crime. It’s also used to see who died as well.
-Karyotypes: It’s an organized profile of chromosomes in which rest pairs arranged in number by 1 through 22 largest to smallest and two chromosomes specify sex (XX, XY). With a dna sample, it helps finding chromosomes in DNA which then is arranged in order and helps to identify possible criminal that committed crime by seeing if they have a chromosomal disease and seeing which person matches the one with the crime scene.
-Chromosomal Disorders (diseases): A chromosomal disease can be Triple X Syndrome, Down Syndrome, XYY Syndrome, XXY Syndrome, and so on. It is basically where an extra chromosome is added or an extra sex chromosome is added and such. It’s a mutation that affects the person either characteristic wise, personality, or other ways. This can help with figuring out a suspect through karyotypes, and also try to figure out possible mental thinking of a persons’ actions.
-Ink Chromatography: Is a method that is able to separate dyes from inks or other materials from a liquid. It works by having a strationary and mobile phase, as well as a solvent to be able to distinguish materials in the liquid. It can show different materials, as an example it can show the color dyes in pen. That can be used to solve who wrote something by seeing which pen was used and who it belonged to help gather evidence on who the criminal might be.
-Fingerprinting: Genetic fingerprinting is what it’s also known as. It’s analysis of DNA from samples of body tissues or fluids, especially when conducted to find individuals (looking at and comparing DNA). It’s a chemical test that shows genetic makeup of a person or other living things. Shows different individual traits and matches unknown traits. It can be used to help figure out and identify a criminal using crime scene samples.
We used all these methods to help with our situation and come up with who might have killed Carelton Comet. Using these we managed to collect evidence against the person guilty of murdering Carelton Comet. Our presentation/ project is below where we laid out our case.
The video below is the beginning part of the presentation slideshow below it
Reflection
My group and I learned a lot through this project, going over some procedures in labs that are done for Forensic Science. This project went rather well, and each person participated and had almost something to do each day. The presentation in my opinion also went well. We all collaborated and in the end the results were pleasing. We then presented after gathering all the evidence. The organization and procedures were done overall good. We messed up on the DNA Fingerprinting Analysis and did not put enough of Glen Glee's DNA, but luckily two already matched the two crime scene samples which meant Glen Glee was not the killer. That was a mistake which was lucky in a way since two people already matched with the crime scene sample. Another thing that did not go well was that we could have added more information on Sam Sophomore and more such as how he was engaged to a girl killed in by Thomas Sandstone who is Carelton Comet. In a way we should have added how further evidence is needed on Sam Sophomore, and we do not know if in the end our presentation got the warrant or not and if our presentation was good but in my opinion I think it went good and that we got the warrant.
My group and I learned a lot through this project, going over some procedures in labs that are done for Forensic Science. This project went rather well, and each person participated and had almost something to do each day. The presentation in my opinion also went well. We all collaborated and in the end the results were pleasing. We then presented after gathering all the evidence. The organization and procedures were done overall good. We messed up on the DNA Fingerprinting Analysis and did not put enough of Glen Glee's DNA, but luckily two already matched the two crime scene samples which meant Glen Glee was not the killer. That was a mistake which was lucky in a way since two people already matched with the crime scene sample. Another thing that did not go well was that we could have added more information on Sam Sophomore and more such as how he was engaged to a girl killed in by Thomas Sandstone who is Carelton Comet. In a way we should have added how further evidence is needed on Sam Sophomore, and we do not know if in the end our presentation got the warrant or not and if our presentation was good but in my opinion I think it went good and that we got the warrant.