Sniffing out the Truth with Forensic Odorology

KYTOS Biology

How keen is your sense of smell? Well, according to new research published in Frontiers in Psychology, people who witnessed a crime are able to identify criminals by their smell. Police line-ups normally rely on sight, but nose-witnesses can be just as reliable as eye-witnesses. It's not quite time to replace the sniffer dogs, however; the 2010 America Vs Wade case highlights the significance of human scent evidence from canine trails and its importance to forensic investigations. In fact, understanding the pattern of change of the chemicals that make up the scent during the process of decomposition could be of huge benefit to forensic science. Not only could it help determining the time of death of a victim, it could also lead to more scientifically rigorous training of cadaver dogs. All of these ideas are explored further in this fascinating podcast about Forensic Odorology and the Science of smells.