UK Judges Receive Primers on Forensic Science

Scientists in the U.K., in collaboration with members of the judiciary, have launched the first in a series of explanatory documents designed to help integrate science into the courtroom.

Written byCatherine Offord

| 5 min read

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An expert in forensic chemistry, Niamh Nic Daéid is accustomed to presenting evidence in court—often for hours on end. “The longest time I’ve spent in the witness box is about seven hours,” says Nic Daéid, director of research at the University of Dundee’s Center for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID) in Scotland. Nevertheless, she says, “the thing that is most important is being able to clearly and accurately explain the meaning of the results of whatever tests have been done.”

Those results, which can pertain to evidence ranging from the fingerprints at a crime scene to the pattern of burn marks created by an explosive, can help push a trial verdict one way or the other. But ensuring that they are communicated properly can present ...

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Meet the Author

Catherine Offord
After undergraduate research with spiders at the University of Oxford and graduate research with ants at Princeton University, Catherine left arthropods and academia to become a science journalist. She has worked in various guises at The Scientist since 2016. As Senior Editor, she wrote articles for the online and print publications, and edited the magazine’s Notebook, Careers, and Bio Business sections. She reports on subjects ranging from cellular and molecular biology to research misconduct and science policy. Find more of her work at her website.
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