The semester is nearing the mid-term break and students have been very busy both inside and outside of the classroom. The students enrolled in Medicolegal Investigation of Death have been examining topics such as the determination of the time since death - based upon postmortem lividity, livor mortis, and algor mortis, to name a few. They have discovered all of the intricacies associated with decomposition, studied deaths due to natural causes and they have just completed their examination of blunt trauma injuries. The semester promises many other fascinating topics that the students will cover while working toward their certificate in forensic investigation.
The students are also busy outside of class working on their research projects. This year’s submissions to the Undergraduate Research Symposium include an interesting examination of violent assaults in Pennsylvania. Another group of students is looking at the ammunition and handguns fired by law enforcement to determine whether the fragmentation, expansion and weight retention of the bullets is in accordance with what the manufacturers of these products advertise. Additionally, a project is underway in which the student is utilizing a body tissue substitute (raw meat) to analyze the time it takes the Blowfly to discover the tissue and lay the eggs that eventually become our friend, the maggot. This is very useful to forensic entomologists who utilize the life-stages of the Blowfly to determine the expired individual’s time since death. With so much to anticipate, this semester promises to become ever more interesting after the return from a refreshing mid-term break.