Kelly Elkins along with her research team at Metropolitan State College of Denver are looking into forensic mycology as a means to adding evidence to or solving a crime. Forensic mycology is using fungi as means to help solve crimes.
She references to how entomology is commonly used in determining time of death, possible cause of death, whether the body has been moved, and possible links to suspects in criminal cases. This is possible because predictable growth patterns of insects have already been studied, or still currently are, which helps in crime scene investigation.
Her proposal is that maybe growth patterns of fungi after death can be established in a predictable manner to help with crime scene analysis, similar to entomology. She bases this off the fact that fungi present in or on a dead body is not the same fungi that is present in living tissue. She also explains that the role fungi plays in a decomposing body has not been studied.
This study seems like it could have many positive outcomes. If given the opportunity, would you take part in this research?
Crime-Solving Clues Can Be Found in Fungi
I'm glad someone is studying this!!! We have noticed fungal growth several times in our research, so it is interesting to see how this could be useful. We proposed that the growth we have seen is possibly the result of our removing natural flora, giving the fungi the opportunity to "take over", but we have seen the growth in places other than our sample sites as well.
ReplyDeleteThat's so cool! I like that this study kind of coincides with what is going on here at Sam!
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