Distillates - March 2012

By Chemistry World, Laura Howes, Helen Potter, Carl Saxton and Phillip Broadwith2012-03-01T00:00:00

Blood samples after 1 day, 3 days, 8 days and 15 days

Source: Chem. Eur. J.

A look at recent chemical science research from Chemistry World

Amino acid residues give away bloodstain's age

Chemists in the US have developed a quick and simple way to find out how old bloodstains are using natural fluorescence measurements. Knowing when blood has been spilled can help forensic scientists pinpoint when a crime took place, but current techniques - such as optical measurements of haemoglobin degradation - can be unreliable.

Now, Mikhail Berezin and colleagues at Washington University in St Louis, US, have developed a technique that relies on the fluorescence lifetime of the tryptophan in blood proteins.

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