Science TBC

Forensic science or forensics applies to the broad spectrum of science, to answer questions of interest to a legal system. This may be in relation to a crime or a civil action. The word forensic comes from the Latin adjective forensis, meaning “of or before the forum”. Forensic science goes back a long way in history, in Roman times a criminal charge meant presenting the case before a group of public individuals in the forum. Both the person accused of the crime and the accuser would give speeches based on their side of the story. The individual with the best argument and delivery would determine the outcome of the case. This origin is the source of the two modern usages of the word forensic – as a form of legal evidence and as a category of public presentation. In simple words, one can say the application of science to the law is known as forensic science.

Who are forensic scientists?

A forensic scientist is a person who examines physical evidence and then testifies the results in court. Today’s forensic scientists have the help of Hi-Fi technology to help them solve cases easily. Their job mostly involves searching and examining physical traces, that may be useful for determining whether a person has some kind of association to the committed crime or not. These traces often include hair, saliva, blood, and may also be other evidence such as glass, clothing, footwear etc. Forensic scientists also need to analyze drugs, poisonous and toxic substances. Others specialize in explosives, firearms, or documents whose authenticity is challenged. They basically need to present their findings or opinions in a written format, as a formal state of evidence. On some rare cases they are required to attend the court personally for questioning.

Forensic science of today covers some very important topics such as;

1.Modern computer/clay facial reconstructing
2.DNA fingerprinting
3.Autopsy related techniques
4.Forensic anthropology
5.Pathology techniques
6.Firearms and ammunition techniques, etc.

Criminalistics:
The terms criminalistics and forensic science are often used interchangeably. It is defined as that profession and scientific discipline directed to the recognition, identification, individualization, and evaluation of physical evidence by application of the physical and natural sciences to law-science matters. Criminalistics is the application of various sciences to answer questions relating to examination and comparison of biological evidence, trace evidence, impression evidence (such as fingerprints, shoeprints, and tire tracks), controlled substances, firearms, and other evidence involved in criminal investigations.

Types of Forensic Science
There are almost 14 subdivisions in forensic science, some are listed below

Toxicology

It is basically the study of harmful effects of chemicals and drugs in a living organism. It is studying in detail about the symptoms, mechanism, detection, and treatment. It deals in specific with poisoning of people.

Forensic Accounting

These accountants use their skills to investigate issues related to bankruptcy, embezzlement, money laundering etc. Some may specialize in insurance claims, fraud, construction, etc.

Wildlife Forensics

This is relatively new in the field of criminal investigation. Here scientific procedures are used to investigate, examine and compare the crime scene; the victim usually being an animal. Other crimes against wildlife include buying and selling of protected animals and products made from them, poaching, etc also come under wildlife forensics .

Forensic Art

It is an art used for identification and conviction of wanted persons. They are also made use of to find missing people, by making facial reconstruction and identifying the person dead or alive.

Forensic Engineering

This is the investigation of products, materials, etc that have caused damage, they aid in finding out a criminal intent. Forensic engineers deal with issues such as explosions, cause of a fire, how accidents have occurred, etc.

Forensic Pathology

It is a branch of pathology that determines the cause of death by examining a corpse. Usually an autopsy is performed on request to know what has exactly caused the death. Forensic pathologists are often asked to identify a corpse.

Optical illusions are a byproduct of the human mind trying to make sense out of complex patterns. The brain uses what it knows about the world in order to interpret images and patterns. In doing this it sometimes adds to or deletes elements from the actual image to make it make more sense. In this science fair project students will be exploring how age impacts a persons ability to see an optical illusion.

Hypothesis

The hypothesis for this science fair project is that the older you are the more likely you are to see an optical illusion. The dependent variable in this hypothesis is the ability to see an optical illusion and the independent variable is the age of the test subject.

Supplies You Will Need

To complete this science fair project students will need a variety of printed optical illusions that range from simple to complex. They will also need three to four test subjects per age group. Finally the students will need a data tracking form.

The Experiment

The control experiment for this science fair project will test a person who is about 30 to 40 years of age. This is the median age for the test group. They will each be exposed to an optical illusion card and asked what they see. The cards will begin with simple optical illusions and progress to more complex optical illusions.

The test experiment will actually consist of three separate test groups. Test Group 1 will be made up of elementary aged students between the ages of 8 and 10, Test Group 2 will be made up of young adults between 17 and 22, and Test Group 3 will be made up of older adults between the ages of 45 and 55. Each test group will be given the optical illusion test given in the control experiment.

Data Collection

The collection of data will be very simple. All the students will need to do is to write down the responses to the cards. They will then need to indicate if the correctly identified the optical illusion or if they failed to identify the optical illusion.

Data Analysis

The analysis of the data in this experiment is going to take some time. This is because there is going to be a lot of data to organize and evaluate. To start with each test group will be evaluated individually. The student will want to find the average rate of correctness in the optical illusion identification test. They will also want to find the average rate of correctness for each optical illusion card.

Students can then determine if the age group had difficulties with any particular card and they can give the group an optical illusion complexity rating of one to five, with one being that they cannot identify any optical illusions and five being that they can identify all levels of optical illusions. These results can then be compared across the age spectrum.

Drawing Conclusions

The conclusions that are drawn will be based on the results of each test group. Students will want to determine if aging positively impacts a persons ability to identify, or see an optical illusion. If this trend is identified then the hypothesis is correct, if it is not present then the hypothesis is considered null and void.

Although nobody will expect entries for 8th grade science projects to be outstandingly proficient and altogether scientific, there are a number of ways in which you can make a good balanced project that will stand out and that will amaze the people who will see it. The main concern will be the validity of the information provided and the reliability of the sources used.

In many ways a project will have to tackle a subject that is either imposed by the teacher, or some topic that will be investigated by the student himself. In the latter case the student ought to pursue a certain subject that he feels drawn towards, something that he is interested in and also something that will be challenging. Many 8th grade science projects will be judged on the originality of their content, or rather, on the originality of the method in which they are presented.

Getting to know the subject at hand as well as possible is also very interesting and challenging. The teachers may be interested in finding how well prepared the student has actually been, and he may ask questions regarding the subject that were not included in the project itself. That’s why a little history and a little bit of focus on the entire area of the subject will be very important from the student. There’s no better way to impress a teacher than to know the information presented without hesitation.

Another aspect that needs to be prepared carefully will be a practical application or a specific set of visuals to go along with the project. If there is a possibility to include a video or a slide show, there will be further praise for the student. Also, a video may be just as good, and given the ease with which a laptop computer can be integrated, a multimedia display may prove very important as well.

Another way to make your project stand out is to think of it as a tale, as a story. There is tension and plot and suspense that can be used in your presentation. Start out by making an almost unbelievable statement that will arouse the attention of the crowd and then slowly bring out the facts. Keep your information clean and well presented, make pauses, and allow for the audience to focus and to think.

The best results are those that require the extra bit of attention and a bit more work. In the field of education there will be different levels of preparedness and the 8th grade science projects will be judged according to the standards of the age group, but still they should be well done and a good learning experience.

If you sit and analyze the working of nature and people around you, you will notice that everything starting from your breathing to your mobile phone is a product of science. While the field of biology covers all the living organisms on earth, physics, mathematics and chemistry take care of the rest. When it comes to technology especially, it is physics and mathematics working wonders and making their play, while chemistry provides them with a platform in the form of chemicals, minerals and elements. Technology is the modern derivative of science. Science was in turn derived from a Latin word ‘scientia’.

The History of science can be dated back to as far as the B.C or Before Christ period, where there existed great philosophers like Aristotle, Theophrastus and others. The major part of the ancient science period consisted of many personalities from Greece. It was considered to be the temple of knowledge. This trend slowly started subsiding and the concept of science started spreading. Many countries like India also had its fair share of philosophers and scientific inventions through the form of Aryabhatta and others. But, this was not advocated widely as the means of communication between the countries were not established.

The real scientific revolution took place only after the sixteenth century. Most of the modern day scientific theories were formed during this time. Be it theory of relativity by Albert Einstein, law of gravity by Sir Isaac Newton, Theory of evolution by Charles Darwin or the invention of electric bulb by Thomas Alva Edison – every one thing of this happened during the sixteenth century. These theories were what paved way for the modern day scientists. Without forefathers like these, modern day science would have taken several more years to have been as developed as found today.

Einstein is considered one of the greatest scientists of all time and he was the man of the 20th century with the publications of several of his papers on the theory of relativity, wave-particle duality and several other physics breakthroughs which were accepted only a little later because of the apprehensions of all the scientists of that time to digest several new concepts. Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

One of the greatest ever scientific discoveries which form the basis of the world we live in today came from the man called Thomas Alva Edison. It was the invention of the Electric Bulb. Edison worked hard on this invention that, he tried hundreds and hundreds of filaments before he came up with the tungsten filament. This bulb is still in use today even after more than hundreds of years in its original form without much change. As the filament has to be stable even under constant temperature of the Celsius of thousands of degrees, the problem of finding the right filament was a particularly tedious job. Science still continues to be the most fascinating field of mankind and keeps opening doors for the human civilization to grow and prosper. After all, the thirst to know is what separates us from other animals!

Many varieties of gender prediction tests have used throughout history in an attempt to determine the which sex a baby will be when it is born. The lion’s share of these tests have no scientific basis and can be categorized as mythical, other tests are based on science and involve modern medical techniques to predict the gender of an unborn baby.

A medical test called amniocentesis is the most reliable of all gender prediction tests, but since it is an invasive test it is rarely used to solely determine the sex of a baby. During this test a small amount of amniotic fluid is withdrawn from the uterus by a long thin needle inserted through the woman’s abdomen under ultrasound guidance. An amniocentesis is primarily used to detect certain birth defects for women in high-risk categories. Determining the gender of a baby with this test is extremely accurate.

The most widely used medical test used to help discover a baby’s gender is the ultrasound which uses sound waves to produce a black and white image of the fetus. For gender prediction, the ultrasound can be used between 18 and 20 weeks, however, it is not 100 percent accurate because results depend on the position of the fetus and the quality of the image.

Other baby gender prediction tests have been developed to use at home that are based on a chemical reaction of the pregnant’s woman’s first urine of the day and can be performed as early as 10 weeks into the pregnancy with an accuracy rate between 80 and 90 percent. Other home test are blood-based and are not as accurate, and many of these blood tests have been found to have no scientic basis.

Old wive’s tales of gender prediction may have some anecdotal success, but are more approriate for baby showers than actually basing the color of a baby’s room. Here are a few:

If the hair on the woman’s legs grows faster during pregnancy, it’s a boy.
Girls are carried high, and boys are carried low.
Colder feet during pregnancy indicates a male child.
Refusing to eat the heel of a loaf of bread means you are having a girl.
If the father-to-be gains weight along with the mother, she will have a boy.
If the maternal grandmother has gray hair, the baby will be male..
Morning sickness early in pregnancy indicates a girl.
If the sum of the mother’s age at conception and the number of the month of conception is an odd number, the baby will be a girl.
If there is a craving for sweets the baby’s gender will be female.

Then there is the centuries-old Chinese Baby Gender Chart that uses mother’s Chinese age at conception along with the Chinese lunar month of conception to predict the gender of the baby. The claims of the accuracy of this range from 50 percent to 99 percent, but few actual studies have been completed.

It seems that to get the most reliable prediction of a baby’s gender is to wait until the he or she comes out of the birth canal. Only then can you fully separate the science from the myth.