CROOKS beware, a scraping of mud on your shoe could link you to a footprint at the scene of a crime, thanks to a technique that uniquely identifies different soils within a small area by their organic material.
Soil is a tried-and-tested source of forensic information. To determine where it came from, investigators usually try to identify the inorganic components, such as the minerals, or the size, shape and colour of grains. That’s fine as long as you’re comparing samples over a wide geographical area. But what if you are trying to catch a thief who has been operating in…
