24 January 2020
Dating fingerprints
- US experts found that chemicals in fingerprint oils degrade in a predictable way
- So-called unsaturated triacylglycerols react with ozone in the air as time passes
- In theory, this information could be used to determine when a print was left
- The approach would work on prints that have been dusted with forensic powder
- However, it is first complicated by how people's prints degrade at different rates
