DNA and the Smell of Death

To explore the cutting edge of forensic science, we look at two famous court cases -- the Amanda Knox and Casey Anthony murder trials.

In these cases, emerging DNA evidence and the smell of death (yes, really) pushed the boundaries of what was technologically possible. But how reliable are they? To find out, we go to a body farm and talk to Assoc. Prof. Joan Bytheway, Asst. Prof. Sheree Hughes-Stamm, Matt Young, Dr. Arpad Vass, and Asst. Prof. Donovan Haines.

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Credits
This episode has been produced by Shruti Ravindran, Diane Wu,and Heather Rogers. Our senior producer is Kaitlyn Sawrey.Edited by Annie-Rose Strasser and Caitlin Kenney. Fact checking by Michelle Harris. Thanks to Joseph Lavelle Wilson, Will Doolan and Beth McMullen.Sound design and music production by Matthew Boll, mixed by Martin Peralta and Matthew Boll Music written by Bobby Lord.

Selected References
2009 National Academy of Sciences and 2016 President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology reports on forensic science.
How DNA is transferred in trace evidence. Report on error rates in DNA forensic analysis.
Study that showed dogs could pick up the smell of a corpse 667 days later.
Call to arms on improving forensic science: editorial.
Scent of death - Belgian paper that found three out of four of Dr Arpad Vass' “human specific markers” in other animals.

There are a lot of fads, blogs and strong opinions, but then there’s SCIENCE. Science Vs is the show from Gimlet Media that finds out what’s fact, what’s not, and what’s somewhere in between. We do the hard work of sifting through all the science so you don't have to. This season we tackle alcohol, fasting diets, DNA tests, race and the fertility cliff.