When a murder takes place, it is sometimes difficult to pinpoint the time and place of death. Many times, the body is decomposed and maggots have invaded it. This is where the forensic entomologist comes in. The maggots are the larvae of the blowfly, which particularly favours rotting corpses as an ideal place to lay its eggs.
By looking at the stages of the larvae’s life cycle in the body, the forensic entomologist can estimate the time of death! Neil Haskell, the USA’s leading forensic entomologist, is co-writing the first book on the subject. Recently, he enclosed 17 dead pigs in plastic bags to help him solve a murder. He wanted to find out in what order flies usually lay their eggs in bagged corpses!
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This job I no fun and games. At the Beijing Olympics and at every Olympics since testing for performance-enhancing drugs began, dozens of officers at special control stations watch while the world’s top athletes urinate into a cup – more than 4000 times over the 21 days of competition. Watch, because urine samples can easily be doctored.
Many times, athletes may cheat even this strict monitoring because the drugs they are using are unknown to the officials doing the checking. Team doctors and coaches the world over are constantly on the lookout for new drugs which can escape the strictest test, so it is tough for the anti-doping agencies to keep up with them.
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