USC chemists create camera that spots invisible blood stains (AUDIO)

Two chemistry professors at the University of South Carolina have invented a camera that they hope will improve crime scene investigations. Michael Myrick and Stephen Morgan led teams that created a new type of infrared camera that can find blood stains at crime scenes, even if someone has attempted to wash away the evidence.

Morgan said the new forensic infrared imaging could eventually help investigators find crucial evidence that’s invisible to the eye.

Finding blood at crime scenes is sort of a “Holy Grail” for forensics because blood at crime scenes can lead to… information on the nature of the crime, and of course blood can provide DNA analysis.

Currently, most forensics teams use a chemical known as luminol to find blood stains. Luninol glows in the dark when it reacts with proteins in the blood. While effective, it does not always find stains that have been mixed with other fluids. Morgan says the camera has the potential to go past luminol’s limits. The research showed that the camera could still detect stains that had been washed with bleach 100 times.

(AUDIO: Morgan explains how imaging camera works)

Morgan says the camera has other advantages in that it works in the light and does not require touching anything at a crime scene – unlike luminol, which has to be swabbed over the area.

Right now, the camera could not be used by police because it’s too big for anything outside a lab. Morgan said now that the teams have created the technology, the next step is to make it practical in the field. He says he hopes to make the technology smaller and easier for investigators to carry around.

The research was done through a grant from the National Institute of Justice, itself a division of the US Justice Department. A team of four graduate students worked on the two teams. Morgan’s analytical chemistry expertise was combined with Myrick’s physical chemical skills.

Morgan and Myrick’s findings were published in the journal Analytical Chemistry, a publication of the American Chemical Society.

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