Forensic Scientists: America's New Pop Culture

Cast of 'CSI - Miami'

MALE: 'You have any ID, Alex?

FEMALE: No, not yet. We do know he died with an empty stomach, full bladder, strong smell of alcohol.

MALE: Respiratory failure?

FEMALE: Wouldn't be the first teenager to drink himself to death.'

Between weekly episodes of 'CSI,' fans of the genre can also watch shows like 'Forensic Files' 'The New Detectives,' and 'Cold Case Files,' or read novels by best selling authors like Patricia Cornwell.

Patricia Cornwell

'When you look at a body or you look at a piece of clothing left behind, we've always asked the same questions. What does this mean? Why is there this tear? What is this stain? But what is different now is that we have objective tools that can interpret some of these hieroglyphics and begin to unlock the secrets of what went on.'

Writers like Patricia Cornwell offer readers a chance to learn details of those advances while they're being entertained. Her latest crime thriller, called 'Trace,' involves the use of trace, or microscopic, evidence to solve the mysterious death of a 14 year-old girl:

'Swabs of the girl's tongue reveal fibers and even what turns out to be human bone dust. I actually sent two trace evidence examiners to Paris to go through the catacombs and collect soil samples to study human bone dust. I do a lot of research to see what something would look like, and then figure out what would the person think if they found something like this, and where did it come from.'

A growing number of American young people now dream of following in the footsteps of fictitious forensic scientists. Universities across the United States are establishing new courses and programs in the field, while existing programs are experiencing a dramatic rise in applications. Max Houck  is director of the Forensic Science Initiative at West Virginia University:

'We started in 1997 with four graduates. This past year, out of probably about 4500 freshmen, over 500 listed their major as forensic science.'

But Mister Houck says there's also a high drop-out rate:

'Studens watch 'CSI' or whatever T-V show you want to point out, and they have an impression of what actually happens in the work. Most of them don't realize how much science there is in the field, and so they come up hard and fast against their first year of biology and chemistry, and they come to the realization that it's not wearing cool sunglasses, driving a Hummer (an expensive sport-utility vehicle), and running around with a badge and a gun.'

Reporter: 'Are you a fan of the novels and of shows like 'CSI?''

Houck: 'I'm a fan of some of the novels. I'm not a big fan of the show, although some of the writers call me and ask me technical questions, and I'm glad to help them. But ignoring the fact that the show is 43 minutes or whatever and everything gets solved in that time period, minus the commercials, rarely if ever do you have one person do everything from the crime scene to the analysis to the arrest to the interviewthe whole thing.'

Best-selling novelist Kathy Reichs

'There are cases that are more mundane than others where you find old bones in the woods, and they turn out to have been dragged from a cemetery by dogs or something. And there are moments of tedium. I've done exhumations where I had to spend two weeks just teasing pieces of leatherized flesh off the bones before I could even look at them.'

And Kathy Reichs says that in reality, cases don't always get resolved as neatly as they do in books or on television:

'I have a warehouse at my lab, and it's full of boxes, each with a number and each of those is a case that hasn't been solved. I've actually had cases brought to me by coroners because the family could not accept the initial finding that it was undetermined. The families feel in many cases, because of watching these shows, that everything can be answered. And that's just not true.'

 But Kathy Reichs says she's delighted by the constant inquiries she gets from young people interested in becoming forensic scientists. Max Houck of West Virginia University agrees that the best selling novels and hit T-V shows have been good for his profession, and for science education in general:

'All kinds of science programs, especially at the high school level, have seen a huge upswing in interest, and I think that's largely because they do make it look cool. There is some science involved, and they do try to base it on cases or papers that have come out in the academic literature. So the students see that, and that's part of what gets them hooked.'

Max Houck compares the trend to the fascination with the space race starting in the late 1950s. Earlier generations watched rockets go up and dreamed of being astronauts. Today they watch crimes being solved and want to be forensic scientists. And while only a few will succeed, many more will learn just how interesting science can be.

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1. What does 'CSI' stand for? Camera Search InvestigationComputer Science InquiriesCrime Scene InvestigationI don't know

2. Who is Patricia Cornwell? A comedianA politicianA writerI don't know

3. What is happening in some major universities? More and more people want to attend forensic science coursesMore and more students are killed in the universitiesFewer and fewer students watch televisionI don't know

4. What does Mr Houck think of these TV series? He hates them.He doesn't like them a lot.He loves them.I don't know

5. What does Kathy Reichs think of these TV series? They're not true-to-life: her job isn't always that excitingThey are true-to-life: they show what she does everydayShe can't stand them.I don't know