Question: Do you think to be a forensic scientist you should have a good understanding of the environment too?

Craig McKenzie answered on 16 Jun 2011:

Hi Janieolver,

that is a good question and the answer I guess is no – it is just that I started working as a scientist studying the environment – and there are many similar skills. Forensic science is just the use of any science in connection with the law. So if someone was being taken to court because they spilled chemicals into the river which killed lots of fish, then an environmental scientist might be called into court to give evidence. Some people call this environmental forensics but I dont really like that.

We all use what we call the scientific method. That is we come up with an idea (a hypothesis), then we think of an experiments or a set of experiments that we could use to see if our hypothesis (idea) is correct or not. We watch the experiments (observe) and record what we see in our notebooks and on our computers. We then sit down and figure out (interpret) these results. This is the same for all sciences.

When i studied the environmet i studied how chemicals that pollute the environment behave inside and outside of animals including humans. I might ask questions like – is the sewage entering the river changing the sex of the fish in the river or are the chemicals in the animal or human causing them harm.

I had to come up with ways of taking samples, extracting or recovering the chemicals from the samples and then ways of working out what type and how much of the chemicals were there. I would then sit down and interpret the results of my tests

This is the same as what I do now as a forensic scientist. The questions are different but the way of approaching the problem is the same. Did this person drink alcohol or take drugs before the accident, was there any petrol at the scene of the fire and was it used to deliberatly start the fire? Did the person who died commit suicide or did they take some drugs and die by accident? These are the types of questions I might be asked to look at as a forensic scientist.

I hope that helps!