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My Trip to the Albany State Crime Lab
Sasha Soon
On Wednesday, February 9th, 2000 my class and I visited the Albany Crime Lab.
When we arrived, it was nothing like I had ever seen with a lot of trees with a lot of open land. When we entered the building everything was very secured, and not to mention very organized.
The first person we met was Professor Buckley; he spoke to us about Forensic Art. He showed us the way he was able to reconstruct faces from skulls, make sketches of possible criminals and ultimately determine who the perpetrator of a crime was. It was all fascinating and new to me. He described forensic anthropology to us and it's uses in the world. Forensic anthropology is the study of human bones to help solve crime. With all kinds of slides Professor Buckley showed us what he really did and how forensic anthropology helped his job. I felt that this was something that I would like to do, but since I'm not the artistic type it wouldn't really be for me.
Next we met Doctor Michael Baden, one of the top Forensic Pathologists in the United States. He was funny and told us many stories about his job and said that as long as we set our minds to do something and really worked hard at it we would be able to accomplish anything. Dr. Baden hospitable and friendly and was also willing to help any of us and answer any questions we had.
After lunch we went on a tour of the crime lab and everything that we thought we had left in class came back to haunt us. Here I was standing in the lobby of the place where all evidence comes and it was remarkable! We saw the fingerprinting lab, the toxicology lab, the drug analysis lab and many other sections of the crime lab that were necessary to help solve crimes.
Along with actually seeing these labs we learned a lot about what was going on in them. We learned that we are able to find DNA in hair. In the shaft of the hair there is mitochondrial DNA and in the roots there is nuclear DNA. The scientists at the lab were working hard on hopefully finding a way to put this information to work. They want to help investigators link a perpetrator to a crime scene.
The most interesting part of the trip was the discussion of the PCR testing. PCR testing is the replication of DNA by adding primers to it using unpaired bases and carbon. With the use of PCR testing investigators are able to individualize suspects and solve cases.
The trip was very informative and something I will never forget. I am looking forward to learning more about what the field has to offer.
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