How Entomologists Use Insects to Solve Crimes
Released on 10/21/2022
[suspenseful music]
[Instructor] [camera clicking] See this fly?
It's a floored fly, also known as a coffin fly.
Flies like these provide crucial evidence
in solving mysterious death.
Insects never lie.
Insects are tiny witnesses.
With my job as forensic entomologists
I use these tiny witnesses to give justice to victims.
[Instructor] Wired spoke with Dr Paola Magni
to understand how insects can be used
to help solve suspicious deaths.
[upbeat music]
The forensic entomologists is one of the many experts
that work at the crime scene in order to provide
more information to the course of an investigation.
The postmortem interval or PMI is considered
the time since death.
It is pretty much the time between the moment of death
to the identification of a dead body.
They can provide an alibi to somebody
or destroy an alibi for somebody else.
Turn Italy, case one.
The victim was a female that was found
wrapped in a blanket and covered by a carpet.
The pathologist could not estimate at time since death,
the body was highly decomposed.
Typically, the pathologist work within the 72 hours
after death.
After this time, nature takes over
and the typical signs of that, the rigor mortis,
algol mortis, liver mortis cannot be used anymore.
But this is exactly the perfect time for the insects
to colonize the body and start what we call
the biological clock.
That is what forensic entomologists use
to investigate and estimate the time since death.
[Instructor] Estimating the PMI in this case
relied on analyzing the life cycle of flies
through development from egg to adult can be predicted
based on environmental conditions.
Insects grow faster or slower
based on the environmental temperature
and there were maggot masses active on the body.
So if outside there were 25 degrees inside
of the maggot mass nearly 28 degrees.
My job in that case was to collect the maggots,
considering the species and temperature
to backtrack the time since death.
That case was very complex.
There was already somebody suspected of this murder
but the insects were giving different information,
giving an alibi to this suspect.
The time since that was around the same time
of a long exchange of messages and phones call
with a certain person helped the investigators
investigate specifically on someone else
asked the right questions and close the case.
Turn Italy, case two.
Some insects are interested in the fresh decomposition,
some highly decay, and some when body is just bones.
Based on the kind of insect I can find,
I can can understand from how long the body's there.
So my job was to participate into the investigation
if this person was dead since the last time
he was seen alive or if there was something going on.
The body was nearly mummified by the bugs
and specifically one type of that are called
the larder beetles created a very strange structure.
They were looking like threats on the body.
When the body is mummified or when I find just bones
on a very old body, I use another technique
that is called a successional waves methodology.
[Instructor] Successional waves refers
to the different types of insects that are found
at different stages of decomposition.
Using this method allows forensic entomologists
to estimate PMI for older cases.
The case of the forgotten man was pretty complex
because there was an association
of different type of insects.
We had to identify which insects were belonging to the body,
and which one to the house.
All of these insects were giving us information
about how many successional waves had passed by
to estimate the time since death.
We realized that the body was laying
in the place where we found it for at least
a year and a half.
[Instructor] Western Australia, case three.
When we watched CSI or similar TV programs,
most of the time investigators found
the presence of a body on the ground.
Reality is that the majority of the cases,
bodies are found contained in something.
We consider that as limited access environment.
Insects have a physical impediment to reach the body,
but they don't give up.
Insects really try their best to reach the body
because the body means food, and the body means
place for the offsprings to grow and survive.
Blow flies will lay eggs on the zip
and the female of coffin flies can pass through the zip
and reach the body.
So there is this consuming food chain
that happened inside of a suitcase that is very interesting
because what we find inside is whatever happened before.
So we can find different successions,
and we can work on that to identify from how long
the body is inside of a suitcase.
Despite these cases happen all around the world
and pretty often, the research is really scanned
because it's very difficult to perform such a huge research.
My group of research is developing this to find out
how insects can interact with a body during
the winter period in suitcases compared to trash can.
These research will allow us to give more information
to investigators if cases like this happen
in Western Australia.
Forensic entomology is really holistic
from the point of view as a discipline
because you consider insects, also had to consider
the investigative process, and has to combine
the information from the insects with the information
about the environment, the methodology
and at the specific crime scene.
What I'm trying to do with my work
is to use this little piece of nature
to give justice to the victim.
[camera clicking]
How the Disco Clam Uses Light to Fight Super-Strong Predators
Architect Explains How Homes Could be 3D Printed on Mars and Earth
Scientist Explains How Rare Genetics Allow Some to Sleep Only 4 Hours a Night
Scientist Explains Unsinkable Metal That Could Prevent Disasters at Sea
Is Invisibility Possible? An Inventor and a Physicist Explain
Scientist Explains Why Her Lab Taught Rats to Drive Tiny Cars
Mycologist Explains How a Slime Mold Can Solve Mazes
How the Two-Hour Marathon Limit Was Broken
Research Suggests Cats Like Their Owners as Much as Dogs
Researcher Explains Deepfake Videos
Scientist Explains How to Study the Metabolism of Ultra High Flying Geese
Hurricane Hunter Explains How They Track and Predict Hurricanes
Scientist Explains Viral Fish Cannon Video
A Biohacker Explains Why He Turned His Leg Into a Hotspot
Scientist Explains What Water Pooling in Kilauea's Volcanic Crater Means
Bill Nye Explains the bet365体育赛事 Behind Solar Sailing
Vision Scientist Explains Why These Praying Mantises Are Wearing 3D Glasses
Why Some Cities Are Banning Facial Recognition Technology
Scientist's Map Explains Climate Change
Scientist Explains How Moon Mining Would Work
Scientist Explains How She Captured Rare Footage of a Giant Squid
Doctor Explains How Sunscreen Affects Your Body
Stranger Things is Getting a New Mall! But Today Malls Are Dying. What Happened?
The Limits of Human Endurance Might Be Our Guts
Meet the First College Students to Launch a Rocket Into Space
Scientist Explains Why Dogs Can Smell Better Than Robots
A Harvard Professor Explains What the Avengers Can Teach Us About Philosophy
NASA Twin Study: How Space Changes Our Bodies
What the Black Hole Picture Means for Researchers
Scientist Explains How to Levitate Objects With Sound
Why Scientists and Artists Want The Blackest Substances on Earth
Biologist Explains How Drones Catching Whale "Snot" Helps Research
Researcher Explains Why Humans Can't Spot Real-Life Deepfake Masks
Doctor Explains What You Need to Know About The Coronavirus
VFX Artist Breaks Down This Year's Best Visual Effects Nominees
How Doctors on Earth Treated a Blood Clot in Space
Scientist Explains Why Some Cats Eat Human Corpses
Voting Expert Explains How Voting Technology Will Impact the 2020 Election
Doctor Explains What You Need to Know About Pandemics
ER Doctor Explains How They're Handling Covid-19
Why This Taste Map Is Wrong
Q&A: What's Next for the Coronavirus Pandemic?
Why Captive Tigers Can’t Be Reintroduced to the Wild
How Covid-19 Immunity Compares to Other Diseases
5 Mistakes to Avoid as We Try to Stop Covid-19
How This Emergency Ventilator Could Keep Covid-19 Patients Alive
Why NASA Made a Helicopter for Mars
Theoretical Physicist Breaks Down the Marvel Multiverse
Former NASA Astronaut Explains Jeff Bezos's Space Flight
Physics Student Breaks Down Gymnastics Physics
What Do Cities Look Like Under a Microscope?
Inside the Largest Bitcoin Mine in The U.S.
How Caffeine Has Fueled History
How Mushroom Time-Lapses Are Filmed
Why You’ll Fail the Milk Crate Challenge
Why Vegan Cheese Doesn't Melt
How 250 Cameras Filmed Neill Blomkamp's Demonic
How Meme Detectives Stop NFT Fraud
How Disney Designed a Robotic Spider-Man
How Online Conspiracy Groups Compare to Cults
Dune Costume Designers Break Down Dune’s Stillsuits
Korean Phrases You Missed in 'Squid Game'
Why Scientists Are Stress Testing Tardigrades
Every Prototype that Led to a Realistic Prosthetic Arm
Why the Toilet Needs an Upgrade
How Animals Are Evolving Because of Climate Change
How Stop-Motion Movies Are Animated at Aardman
Astronomer Explains How NASA Detects Asteroids
Are We Living In A Simulation?
Inside the Journey of a Shipping Container (And Why the Supply Chain Is So Backed Up)
The bet365体育赛事 of Slow Aging
How Nose Swabs Detect New Covid-19 Strains
Samsung S22 Ultra Explained in 3 Minutes
The bet365体育赛事 Behind Elon Musk’s Neuralink Brain Chip
Every Prototype to Make a Humanoid Robot
Chemist Breaks Down How At-Home Covid Tests Work
A Timeline of Russian Cyberattacks on Ukraine
VFX Artist Breaks Down Oscar-Nominated CGI
Why Smartphones Night Photos Are So Good Now
We Invented the Perfect WIRED Autocomplete Glue
How Everything Everywhere All at Once's Visual Effects Were Made
How Dogs Coevolved with Humans
How an Architect Redesigns NYC Streets
Viking Expert Breaks Down The Northman Weapons
J. Kenji López-Alt Breaks Down the bet365体育赛事 of Stir-Fry
How A.I. Is Changing Hollywood
How Trash Goes From Garbage Cans to Landfills
Veterinarian Explains How to Prevent Pet Separation Anxiety
The bet365体育赛事 Behind Genetically Modified Mosquitoes
How Scientists & Filmmakers Brought Prehistoric Planet's Dinosaurs to Life
All the Ways Google Gets Street View Images
How Public Cameras Recognize and Track You
How the Nuro Robotic Delivery Car Was Built
Biologist Explains the Unexpected Origins of Feathers in Fashion
Surgeons Break Down Separating Conjoined Twins
Former Air Force Pilot Breaks Down UFO Footage
Bug Expert Explains Why Cicadas Are So Loud
The Best of CES 2021
Health Expert Explains What You Need to Know About Quarantines
Scientist Explains How People Might Hibernate Like Bears
Could a Chernobyl Level Nuclear Disaster Happen in the US?
Neuroscientist Explains ASMR's Effects on the Brain & The Body
Why Top Scientists Are Pretending an Asteroid is Headed for Earth
Epidemiologist Answers Common Monkeypox Questions
Bill Nye Breaks Down Webb Telescope Space Images
How This Humanoid Robot Diver Was Designed
Every Trick a Pro GeoGuessr Player Uses to Win
How NASA Biologists Plan to Grow Plants on the Moon
How FIFA Graphics & Gameplay Are Evolving (1993 - 2023)
How a Vet Performs Dangerous Surgeries on Wild Animals
This Heart is Not Human
How Entomologists Use Insects to Solve Crimes
Former NASA Astronaut Breaks Down a Rocket Launch
Chess Pro Explains How to Spot Cheaters
Why Billionaires Are Actually Ruining the Economy
How to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions for More Than a Week
The Biology Behind The Last of Us
English Teacher Grades Homework By ChatGPT
All the Ways a Cold Plunge Affects the Body
Spy Historian Debunks Chinese Spy Balloon Theories
A.I. Tries 20 Jobs | WIRED
Mathematician Breaks Down the Best Ways to Win the Lottery
Why Music Festivals Sound Better Than Ever
Pro Interpreters vs. AI Challenge: Who Translates Faster and Better?
Why The Average Human Couldn't Drive An F1 Car
Atomic Expert Explains "Oppenheimer" Bomb Scenes
Every 'Useless' Body Part Explained From Head to Toe
How Pilots and Scientists Are Thinking About the Future of Air Travel
How To Max Out At Every Fantasy Football Position (Ft. Matthew Berry)
All The Ways Mt. Everest Can Kill You
How Fat Bears Bulk Up To Hibernate (And Why We Love To See It)
Why Vintage Tech Is So Valuable To Collectors
8 Photos That Tell The History of Humans In Space
How Every Organ in Your Body Ages From Head to Toe
Why AI Chess Bots Are Virtually Unbeatable (ft. GothamChess)
How Mind-Controlled Bionic Arms Fuse To The Body
Historian Breaks Down Napoleon's Battle Tactics