THE world’s first database of quartz grains from soil will soon be available to help police in England solve difficult crimes.
Peter Bull and Ruth Morgan at the University of Oxford examined more than 40,000 quartz grains from 1000 locations in England under an electron microscope and found about 40 types of grain. If the same combination of types is found in two samples, it’s very likely that they come from the same place, they reasoned.
Bull used the database to help police investigate the deaths of two schoolgirls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in 2002.…
