What We Did
We learned about forensic sciences by looking at a crime scene's various suspects and seeing Which person actually committed the murder. To do this we used DNA fingerprinting, fingerprinting, pedigrees, karyotypes, and blood typing. After gathering all the evidence and analyzing it, our group concluded with that Nancy Normal killed Carelton Comet.
Evidence for Why Nancy killed Carelton
What We Learned
Fingerprinting
There are three different types of fingerprints, they are: loop, whorl, and arch. The whorl is dominate, the arch is recessive, and the loop is an incomplete dominance which means that it looks like a combination between the whorl and arch. To find out which finger print belonged to who we dusted pink powder over the print and brushed the powder off. we were then left with the fingerprint of who touched the knife and we matched that with Nancy's fingerprint. We also learned that your fingerprint is different on each hand and each finger. DNA Fingerprinting
We used this to tell who's DNA belonged to the one at the crime scene. To do this we ran a gel with all the suspects DNA and the crime scene DNA to see which ones matched. All the DNA spread out because of the electricity flowing through the DNA. Using that we were able to see that Nancy Normal's DNA matched the sample. |
Karyotype
A karyotype is a way you can look at your sequence of chromosomes to see if there is a mistake in it which could cause different diseases. Again this was used for to see who had what disease and if that disease could have motivated the person to kill Carelton. Pedigrees
Pedigrees are a way to look a ones biological family history to see what traits get passed down and who has a child with who. We used this to figure out the relations Carelton Comet had with everyone else to see what the motive could have been. We also used it to see what diseases they could have had, which could cause mental instability, creating a motive to kill Carelton. Epigenetics
This is when environmental factors like behaviors and diets effect your genes by turning off and on certain markers in your DNA. An example of this can be seen in identical twins, because they are different in some ways. |
Blood Typing
There are four types of blood with positives and negatives of each. They are: O, A, B, and AB. O is a universal donor because it is compatible with any type of blood and AB can receive any type of blood because of the marker it has; O has none, AB has both, A has a, and B has b. We tested this by seeing what marker did not curdle when the fake blood of each person was added. Which ever one did not curdle, that was their blood type. In the end we knew who the possible suspects were based on the blood type.
There are four types of blood with positives and negatives of each. They are: O, A, B, and AB. O is a universal donor because it is compatible with any type of blood and AB can receive any type of blood because of the marker it has; O has none, AB has both, A has a, and B has b. We tested this by seeing what marker did not curdle when the fake blood of each person was added. Which ever one did not curdle, that was their blood type. In the end we knew who the possible suspects were based on the blood type.
Reflection
I learned a lot through this project. I thought it was very cool how we could take a bunch of information and analyze it to come to a conclusion. This also showed me different careers that would use these skills. On concept that I learned in this project was the karyotypes. I never knew you could make a representation of all your chromosomes and by looking at it, can tell what genetic diseases/ abnormalities you have.
One thing I did not understand fully at first was the DNA fingerprinting. Next time if I have a question I should ask it at the beginning so I won't be as confused. Also in this project I tended to talk to the other people at my group. This wasn't always the smartest decision because sometimes I did not catch the directions. Next project I should try to limit my conversations to the break times and after class.
One thing I did not understand fully at first was the DNA fingerprinting. Next time if I have a question I should ask it at the beginning so I won't be as confused. Also in this project I tended to talk to the other people at my group. This wasn't always the smartest decision because sometimes I did not catch the directions. Next project I should try to limit my conversations to the break times and after class.