Resources

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a federal agency tasked with protecting human health and the environment. To accomplish that mission, it performs a variety of functions, one of which is the enforcement of environmental regulations and the investigation of potential violations. The cases that EPA investigates can have wide-reaching effects: they’ve helped enforce standards around clean air, clean water, and the ways hazardous chemicals are handled.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is far more than the sum of its parts. A domestic law enforcement agency with over 5,000 employees, it has a long history of forensic excellence. ATF’s first laboratory traces back to 1886 when two scientists convened in the attic of a US Treasury building. Today, the main hub of ATF’s forensic work occurs at the National Laboratory Center in Beltsville, Maryland, including the Fire Research Laboratory, National Firearms Examiner Academy, and one of ATF’s two forensic science laboratories.

We used to know them by heart – Columbine, Parkland, Sandy Hook, Pulse Nightclub, Paradise, Las Vegas – it’s a sign of the pervasiveness of mass shootings in America that one can no longer easily list the tragedies left streaked across the national psyche. The memories of people and places have been increasingly replaced with the data of numbers and percentages.

The advent of DNA evidence in the late 1980s heralded a new era for overturning wrongful convictions. At the same time, it began to reveal just how widespread wrongful conviction has been in America. The National Registry of Exonerations (NRE) has recorded over 3,175 overturned wrongful convictions since 1989, and over 27,200 years of freedom have been lost for those who served sentences for crimes they did not commit. Those are only the cases of which we know.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is the primary law enforcement agency for the United States Navy and Marine Corps. Comprising approximately 2,000 individuals, of whom more than 1,000 serve as Special Agents, NCIS operates in approximately 191 locations spread across more than 41 countries.

Blockchain forensics is the art and science of tracking complex blockchain transactions, particularly those involving cryptocurrency. This area isn’t as niche as it used to be: over $20 billion was estimated to be laundered through the blockchain in 2022, a 68 percent increase over the year prior. Everyone with a smartphone now has access to the blockchain and the ability to send funds to anyone anywhere in the world.

Studies have found that the quality of forensic evidence is more likely to be misjudged when the subject of a criminal investigation is a person of color. This can lead to unfair convictions due to incorrect assessments. It is essential to address this problem and devise strategies to ensure that all accused individuals receive fair trials and access to reliable forensic evidence regardless of race or ethnicity.

Proteomics is a rapidly growing field of science that offers exciting possibilities for understanding and managing disease. By studying the structure and function of proteins and their abundance and interactions in different types of cells, scientists can better understand how diseases develop.