2024-03-27
28 分钟Dr Sheila Willis is a forensic scientist who was Director General of Forensic Science Ireland for many years. She has spent her life using science to help solve cases, working on crime scenes and then analysing material in the lab, and presenting scientific evidence in court. It’s a complicated business. Forensic science relies on powerful technology, such as DNA analysis, but it cannot be that alone - it’s also about human judgement, logical reasoning and asking the right questions. It is these fundamentals of forensic science that Sheila has fought for through her long career and what she fears may be becoming lost from the field now. We find out what happens when the two very different worlds of science and the law clash in the courtroom. How to walk the line of presenting scientific evidence where there is pressure to be definitive where often science cannot be - and what this part of the job has in common with food packaging. And what makes a good forensic scientist? We’ll turn the studio at London’s Broadcasting House into a live crime scene to see if host Professor Jim Al-Khalili would be any good as a forensic investigator… Produced by Gerry Holt
Hello and welcome to the podcast edition of the Life Scientific.
I'm Jamal Khalili and this is the show where I get to talk with some of the world's leading scientists and you get to find out what drives them.
So sit back, get comfortable and enjoy the episode.
Picture the scene.
Plain clothes police swarm over a blood spattered alleyway sealed off with striped tape.
Next, the action moves to a pristine white walled laboratory filled with white coated technicians.
Then it's onto a wood paneled courtroom with the eyes of a jury fixed on a smart, dressed scientific expert.
Of course, this is how we often see the process of forensic science imagined in books and on tv.
It's also depicted as black and white, as right versus wrong, guilty or not guilty.
But as we know, science is more often about shades of grey.
It's about uncertainty and the things we don't know rather than what we do.
So what happens when these two very different worlds collide?
The world of science and the law?
As my guest today will testify, the reality can be difficult and often fraught.
And in some thankfully rare cases, there can be grave mistakes.
Dr.
Sheila Willis is a forensic scientist who was Director General of Forensic Science Ireland for many years.
The advancements in technology she's seen during her career have been astounding.
But, says Dr.
Willis, at the very heart of forensics is fundamental science, clarity of mind and the ability to ask the right questions.