Forensics has always been a media favorite. I seldom missed an episode of the old TV series Quincy, starring Jack Klugman as a troublesome medical examiner who always solved the crime. Years later, novelist Patricia Cornwell lionized another ME, Kay Scarpetta, who gets into even more hot water than Quincy. In Ellis Peter's 20-volume Brother Cadfael series, a 12th-century monk and herbalist uses his knowledge of plants to reveal where and when a crime victim died.
There's more to forensics than hair, blood-stained gloves, and dead bodies, though. Take the tragic crash of TWA flight 800, which mysteriously plunged into the ocean not long after taking off from New York's JFK airport in 1996. Press reports following the crash pointed to several possible causes—scientists call them hypotheses. By painstakingly examining evidence, including the reconstructed plane, specialists concluded that an exploding fuel tank shattered the aircraft. Like other scientists, they couched ...
