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A new forensic method measures the decay of proteins rather than core body temperature to determine the time of death:
Forensic researchers have developed a new method for establishing an exact time of death after as long as 10 days. Their somewhat macabre study in dead pigs measured the breakdown of muscle proteins over time. It is a significant step forward from the current method of measuring core body temperature; this only works up to 36 hours after death. The breakthrough was announced at the Society for Experimental Biology's annual conference in Prague.
Dr Peter Steinbacher, the lead researcher on the study, told BBC News that there was "a huge lack of reliable methods" to calculate the time of death "after the moment when the body has cooled down to environmental temperatures". "Depending on the temperature, this takes normally about 1-2 days," said Dr Steinbacher, from the University of Salzburg in Austria.
The team studied the muscle proteins of pigs, because of their close similarity to human muscles. The protein building blocks of our muscles are very large, tangled molecules that, after death, begin to break down into smaller pieces. "This happens for some of the proteins in a very specific time frame," Dr Steinbacher explained. "Even the breakdown products are present for a specific time. "So if you know which of these products are present in a sample then you know when the individual died."
The team has also analysed more than 60 human tissue samples from the forensic department of the same university. And their preliminary findings showed similar clockwork-like changes. "We now need more samples to find out whether gender, body mass index, temperature, humidity, etc play a role in the time-course of muscle break down," said Dr Steinbacher. He and his colleagues hope that within three years, this technique could help in the gathering of vital forensic evidence.
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Funny) by ikanreed on Thursday July 02 2015, @06:34PM
Stupid scientists, as if it wasn't already hard enough being a serial killer. I hate it when big science keeps stepping on the little guy, who's just trying to make a living, and also a human skin teepee.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 02 2015, @10:03PM
> make a living
Or a killing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 02 2015, @06:44PM
Damn it, Jim! I'm a doctor, not a forensic pathologist.
(Score: 1) by sparky on Thursday July 02 2015, @08:22PM
Hmm...The title claims "Forensic test pins down 'time of death'" but the article itself makes it clear that the methods are far from proven. Also, I was hoping to read where they define the precise moment of death:
Signs of death [wikipedia.org]
Their research sounds a lot like they are trying to pin down the start of Decomposition. Maybe this ballpark is improvement enough, but most would estimate time of death long before this stage.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 02 2015, @09:15PM
I'm not sure how this isn't clear from even the summary, but they are USING the appearances of different protein decompositions, well after death, IN ORDER to estimate how much earlier the person died. Until now, liver temperature was used to estimate how much earlier the person died, because the liver cools down after death at a well-understood rate (based on the environment that the body experienced after death), but that window was limited to between death and when the body reached equilibrium temperature with its environment which might only be 36 hours after death.
Now, they can examine a body up to 10 days after death in order to estimate how much earlier death occurred, and even after the body has reached equilibrium temperature.
Neither technique is used to pin down the exact second that death occurred, but rather, upon finding a body, to determine whether the person died 12 hours, 2 days or 8 days ago.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 03 2015, @12:24AM
It does not need to be so accurate that existential debate enters the conversation. 'About 202 hours ago, or April 10 at 10:30 pm." spoken by an expert is good enough along with other evidence to send a person away for murder.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Type44Q on Thursday July 02 2015, @09:40PM
The important question is:
When can people use this in the supermarket's meat department?? ;)
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday July 02 2015, @11:39PM
I think we just found ourselves a way to check for meat quality. Guess those meat cheaters will get a hard time..