Anna Sandiford • Jul 10, 2012 •
The Outdoor Body Recovery Course was fun. It’s a difficult thing to say to people because how can it be fun collecting samples from unfortunate individuals who have died and whose remains are found outdoors? It’s one of those uncomfortable definitions of ‘fun’ that would probably be more appropriately labelled ‘rewarding’ or ‘fulfilling’. However, on (read more) … Read More
Anna Sandiford • Jul 03, 2012 •
Well, maybe, anyway. I spent a couple of days last week in a field in Oxfordshire, England, training specialist police officers/crime scene examiners how to collect samples for soil and pollen analysis from outdoor body locations as part of criminal investigations. My ‘crime scene’ was under a tree and involved the use of a mannequin (read more) … Read More
Anna Sandiford • Feb 17, 2011 •
I’m watching Bones. It’s a new series (in New Zealand anyway) and it’s the episode where they use pollen vacuumed out of the nasal cavitiy of a decomposed corpse to determine the exact date of death. Can I just say that, as a forensic pollen expert, it’s utter nonsense. The concept is sound – it’s [...] … Read More
Anna Sandiford • Jun 11, 2010 •
A big hand to TechNZ because their funding allowed Auckland-based Dr Anna Sandiford of Forensic Science & Research Ltd and Dr Mark Horrocks of Microfossil Research Ltd to work on a joint research project with some world-class forensic scientists and pathologists at Manlove Forensics in the UK. The project was to develop a new method [...] … Read More