At The Cutting Edge Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jan Evangelista Purkynje

Purkynje realised that the papillary ridges on fingers are unique and divided them into nine types, these being arch, tented arch, ulna loop, radial loop, peacock's eye/compound, spiral whorl, elliptical whorl, circular whorl and double loop/composite. His work was largely ignored at the time, partly due to him writing in Latin and partly due to him not promoting his work as he believed that "science is not about names but discoveries".

Purkynje is also remembered for the discovery of Purkynje cells, found in the cerebellum, and Purkinje fibres in the heart. Purkynje also experimented with the effects on the human body of substances such as opium, belladonna, turpentine and nutmeg.

Answer: Toxicology

Orfila was well versed in asphyxiation, the decomposition of bodies, and exhumation but it was in the field of toxicology that he really made his mark. The poison of choice during Orfila's lifetime was arsenic and there were no reliable tests to determine the presence of the poison in the human body, until he created new procedures, as outlined in his work, "Traité des poisons" (Treatise on Poisons) published in 1814.

Orfila is also credited with being one of the first people to use a microscope to assess blood and semen stains.

Answer: Sherlock Holmes

Bell was known for his acute observations of people, quickly being able to recognise things such as a distinctive gait, for example that of a sailor, tattoo work done abroad and any hint of a regional accent. Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes novels, was clerk to Bell when he was employed at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, meaning that, in theory at least, Conan Doyle played the part of Watson to the real Sherlock Holmes.

Answer: Colin Pitchfork

Pitchfork was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of two girls in 1983 and 1986. He was also sentenced to 10 years for their rapes. During the investigation into the crimes, a 17 year old with learning difficulties, Richard Buckland, admitted to the second rape and murder, but Jeffreys proved through DNA fingerprinting that Buckland was not responsible for the rape.

A further six month investigation of 5,500 local men by Leicestershire police found no matches and the case was at a dead end until a man was overheard in a pub saying he had provided blood and saliva samples for Pitchfork as he was unable to do so.

Pitchfork was arrested and pleaded guilty to the rapes and murders, becoming the first person to be convicted of murder based on DNA fingerprinting evidence, while Jeffreys has said he had "no doubt whatsoever that Buckland would have been found guilty had it not been for DNA evidence."

Answer: Dentistry

Simpson worked on some high profile cases including investigating the deaths of King Ananda of Siam in 1948, James Hanratty, (the "A6 murderer") in 1961, Mama Cass in 1974 and Roberto Calvi (God's Banker) in 1982. He is widely remembered for two cases though, these being the 1965 conviction of Laurence Dean, who became the first person to be convicted for Shaken Baby Syndrome following the death of his son Michael and the Gorringe case.

Robert Gorringe murdered his wife Phyllis, and Simpson was able to use the bite marks on her breasts to secure a conviction against him. Simpson's work in forensic dentistry for this case paved the way for others and the science was famously used in the trial of American serial killer Ted Bundy in 1979.

Answer: Clea Koff

Full respect to Koff for doing a job I could never come close to carrying out. She began her career as a member of the international forensics team in Rwanda in 1996, exhuming bodies to find evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity, before going on to work as Deputy Chief Anthropologist of the UN International Criminal Tribunal Morgue. In this role, she worked in in Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, and Kosovo unearthing and identifying remains from some of the worst crimes against humanity of the late 20th century.

Her first book was a non fiction memoir, "Bone Woman" (2005) and it is a harrowing yet compelling read about her work with mass graves and how the experiences affected her. Koff's first foray into fiction was "Freezing" (2011) which attracted much praise on its publication, particularly for the author's ability to pass on her obvious knowledge in layman's terms without detracting from the story.

Answer: Edmond Locard

Locard's principle states that the perpetrator of a crime will bring something into a crime scene and leave with something from it, and that both can be used as forensic evidence.

In 1910, Locard, who earned the nickname the "Sherlock Holmes of France", began using an attic in Lyon to found what would become the first police laboratory, and he continued his work into forensic science right up until his death in 1966.

Answer: Herculaneum

Bisel worked as an archaeologist at sites in Greece, Turkey, Israel, and Italy, but it is for her ground breaking work at Herculaneum that she is remembered. She used chemical probes to examine the chemical make-up of ancient skeletons, which led to the development of analysis on skeletons in forensic investigations and her techniques are still used to perform chemical analysis on skeletal remains.

Although Bisel was looking for evidence regarding ancient health and nutrition, her work determined that many of the residents of Herculaneum were suffering from lead poisoning, a fact that was unknown until that point.

Answer: Hawley Crippen

Hawley Crippen was an American homeopath, often referred to as Dr Crippen, who moved to UK in 1897 along with his wife Cora. In 1910, Cora disappeared, with Crippen claiming she had returned to USA, where she had died and been cremated.

Suspicion mounted however and Scotland Yard searched his house, but found nothing, although the search was enough for Crippen to panic and flee to Belgium with his lover, Ethel "Le Neve" Neave.

His fleeing created more suspicion and Scotland Yard conducted more searches of his house, finding the hidden corpse of Cora on their fourth search.
Crippen was arrested as he tried to enter Canada, which was then still a dominion within the British Empire and was returned to UK where he stood trial. During the trial Spilsbury testified that although it had initially been impossible to determine whether the corpse had been male or female, he had discovered a section of skin featuring an abdominal scar that was consistent with Cora's medical history.

Answer: The Body Farm

The Body Farm is a 2.5 acre (10,000 square metre) wooded plot in which bodies are placed in a variety of settings to study decomposition. There are around 40 bodies here at any one time and they allow students to study digestive enzymes, bacteria, and insects, all of which contribute to the decomposition process of a human body.

Bass has also worked on several high profile cases, notably the 2007 exhumation and autopsy of the Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson Jr) who died in a plane crash in 1957 alongside Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens.
Bass has also co-written several works of fiction with journalist Jon Jefferson, under the pseudonym Jefferson Bass.