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Textbooks from Global South (India)

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University of Kent IdP - Stale Request

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IN-CJ Newsdesk 2024 – Women in Forensic Science – IN-CJ

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IN-CJ Newsdesk 2024 – Women in Forensic Science – IN-CJ

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IN-CJ Newsdesk 2024 – Women in Forensic Science – IN-CJ

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This discussion examines the role of women in forensic science. Featuring Dr Emma Johnston and Leisa Nichols-Drew , both senior lecturers at De Montfort Univers

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Murder Is Her Hobby: Frances Glessner Lee and The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death | Smithsonian American Art Museum

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Murder Is Her Hobby: Frances Glessner Lee and The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death | Smithsonian American Art Museum

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Lee, the first female police captain in the U.S., is considered the "mother of forensic science" and helped to found the first-of-its kind Department of Legal Medicine at Harvard University when the field of forensics was in its infancy. At the time, there was very little training for investigators, meaning that they often overlooked or mishandled key evidence, or irrevocably tampered with crime scenes. Few had any medical training that would allow them to determine cause of death. As Lee and her colleagues at Harvard worked to change this, tools were needed to help trainees scientifically approach their search for truth. Lee was a talented artist as well as criminologist, and used the craft of miniature-making that she had learned as a young girl to solve this problem. She constructed the Nutshells beginning in the 1940s to teach investigators to properly canvass a crime scene to effectively uncover and understand evidence. The equivalent to "virtual reality" in their time, her masterfully crafted dioramas feature handmade objects to render scenes with exacting accuracy and meticulous detail.

Every element of the dioramas-from the angle of miniscule bullet holes, the placement of latches on widows, the patterns of blood splatters, and the discoloration of painstakingly painted miniature corpses-challenges trainees' powers of observation and deduction. The Nutshells are so effective that they are still used in training seminars today at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore.

Showcasing the Nutshells at the Renwick allows visitors to appreciate them as works of art and material culture in addition to understanding their importance as forensic tools, and to see Lee's genius for telling complex stories through the expressive potential of simple materials. While the Nutshells represent composites of real and extremely challenging cases featuring homicides, suicides, and accidental deaths, Lee imagined and designed each setting herself. She was both exacting and highly creative in her pursuit of detail-knitting tiny stocking by hand with straight pins, hand-rolling tiny tobacco-filled cigarettes and burning the ends, writing tiny letters with a single-hair paintbrush, and creating working locks for windows and doors.

The exhibition also highlights the subtly subversive quality of Lee's work, especially the way her dioramas challenge the association of femininity with domestic bliss and upend the expected uses for miniature making, sewing, an other crafts considered to be "women's work." Also evident is her purposeful focus on society's "invisible victims," whose cases she championed. Lee was devoted to the search for truth and justice for everyone, and she often featured victims such as women, the poor, and and people living on the fringes of society, whose cases might be overlooked or tainted with prejudice on the part of the investigator. She wanted trainees to recognize and overcome any unconscious biases and to treat each case with rigor, regardless of the victim.

As the Nutshells are still active training tools, the solutions to each remain secret. However, the crime scene "reports" (written by Lee to accompany each case) given to forensic trainees are presented alongside each diorama to encourage visitors to approach the Nutshells the way an investigator would.

Murder Is Her Hobby: Frances Glessner Lee and The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death is the first public display of the complete series of nineteen studies still known to exist. For the first time since 1966, 18 pieces on loan to the museum from the Harvard Medical School via the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, will be reunited with the "lost nutshell," on loan from the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, courtesy of the Bethlehem Heritage Society. The exhibition is organized by Nora Atkinson, The Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft.

Lee's hyperreal constructions inspired contemporary artist and scenic designer Rick Araluce, whose immersive, large-scale installation is presented in the adjoining gallery. Rick Aracluce: The Final Stop opens concurrently with Murder Is Her Hobby: Frances Glessner Lee and The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death on October 20th.

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Murder Is Her Hobby: Frances Glessner Lee and The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death

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Lee, the first female police captain in the U.S., is considered the "mother of forensic science" and helped to found the first-of-its kind Department of Legal Medicine at Harvard University when the field of forensics was in its infancy.

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The visibilities and invisibilities of race entangled with forensic DNA phenotyping technology - PubMed

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The visibilities and invisibilities of race entangled with forensic DNA phenotyping technology - PubMed

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doi: 10.1016/j.jflm.2019.08.002.

Affiliation

¹ Communication and Society Research Centre (CECS), University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal. Electronic address: filipaqueiros@ics.uminho.pt.

Free article

Abstract

Forensic DNA phenotyping (FDP) technology represents a set of techniques that aim to predict physical features of criminal suspects, such as eye, skin and hair colour, and also ethnicity through the inference of biogeographic ancestry from their biological samples. In contrast to other forensic technologies, FDP is not used for identification purposes but valued for its potential intelligence value. Since features predicted by FDP relate to common traits shared by different population groups, critical voices highlight that this technology may (re)create dynamics of collectivisation of suspect populations. Looking at the criminal justice system, this paper aims to explore the diverse understandings of FDP by professionals working in forensic laboratories and by the members of police forces, alongside the automatic exchange of genetic profiles to fight cross-border crime. Their perceptions are explored according to the perceived potential investigative value and potential threats of FDP. Furthermore, we discuss how racial issues are implicitly and explicitly present in these narratives. Results show that FDP may be ushering in a new assemblage of racial issues along three entangled dimensions: the differentiating power of externally visible characteristics, the comparison between genetic and eyewitness testimonies, and the collectivisation of suspicion.

Keywords: Forensic DNA phenotyping; Invisibility; Race; Suspicion; Visibility.

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22 years later, two more 9/11 victims are ID'd via new DNA method

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New York (AFP) - Twenty-two years after the September 11 jihadist attacks on the United States, the remains of two people who died in the collapse of the World Trade Center have been identified through DNA analysis, the authorities said ahead of the latest commemoration of the 2001 disaster.

The identities of the two, a man and a woman, are being withheld at the request of their families.

They bring to 1,649 the number of victims whose remains have been identified, of the total 2,753 who died when an Al-Qaeda commando crashed two hijacked civilian airliners into New York's twin towers, the city's mayor and Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) said.

"We hope these new identifications can bring some measure of comfort to the families of these victims, and the ongoing efforts by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner attest to the city's unwavering commitment to reunite all the World Trade Center victims with their loved ones," Mayor Eric Adams said, according to a statement released late Friday.

But with 1,104 victims still unidentified, progress has been agonizingly slow. The previous two identifications were made in 2021.

When the trade center's south tower, and then its north, collapsed in a deafening roar, raining down a deluge of fire, choking gray dust and twisted steel on the Manhattan streets below, the violence was so extreme that no identifiable trace has been found of hundreds of the missing.

The two latest identifications were made possible through the use of "next-generation sequencing technology - more sensitive and rapid than conventional DNA techniques," the statement said. Remains of the man and woman had been found years ago.

The 2001 attacks are commemorated every September 11 in New York, as they will be again on Monday.

Nineteen jihadists, most of them Saudis, had hijacked four planes. In addition to the two that destroyed the World Trade Center, a third plane slammed into the Pentagon near Washington inflicting heavy damage, and a fourth crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew fought with the attackers.

Together, the day's terror attacks claimed 2,977 lives.

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The visibilities and invisibilities of race entangled with forensic DNA phenotyping technology - ScienceDirect

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Forensic DNA phenotyping (FDP) technology represents a set of techniques that aim to predict physical features of criminal suspects, such as eye, skin…

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Full article: Policy and regulatory implications of the new frontier of forensic genomics: direct-to-consumer genetic data and genealogy records

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ABSTRACT
Law enforcement is moving from targeted forensic DNA analysis to more extensive use of genomics in support of criminal investigations and for related purposes, such as the identification of human remains. The field of forensic genomics is data-driven and will continue to evolve as new capabilities are developed and new datasets are made accessible. Intelligence capabilities using forensic genomics include the prediction of externally visible characteristics and biogeographical ancestry, and the relatively new field of forensic genetic genealogy. This technique expands these capabilities by accessing public genetic datasets to identify potential relatives of the donor of DNA relating to an investigation. This exploitation of public datasets poses a range of ethical, legal and privacy challenges. The extended reach of these techniques expands these issues to entire families, across multiple jurisdictions. These legal challenges increase as attention turns to much larger, but less accessible, genetic data held by direct-to-consumer genetic genealogy providers.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers whose constructive criticism improved this article.

Research for this article was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. This article also draws on research funded by the Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships, a Department of Education and Training initiative.

Cases

Carpenter v United States 585 U.S. ___ (2018)

Maryland v King 569 U.S. 435 (2013)

Matter of 381 Search Warrants Directed to Facebook Inc., 132 AD3d 11 (NY 2015)

S and Marper v United Kingdom [2008] Eur Court HR 1581

United States v In the Matter of the Search of an Apple iPhone Seized During the Execution of a Search Warrant on a Black Lexus IS300, California License Plate 35KGD203 (CD Cal, Eastern Div No 5:16-CM-10, 19 February 2016)

Legislation

All Writs Act 28 USC § 1651 (1948)

General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679

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Policy and regulatory implications of the new frontier of forensic genomics: direct-to-consumer genetic data and genealogy records

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ABSTRACT Law enforcement is moving from targeted forensic DNA analysis to more extensive use of genomics in support of criminal investigations and for related purposes, such as the identification of human remains. The field of forensic genomics is data-driven and will continue to evolve as new capabilities are developed and new datasets are made accessible.

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According to my records – this is the longest term served under a wrongful conviction. Very sad.....

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Susan Friedman, a senior attorney at the Innocence Project, said the case had "many of the ingredients of a wrongful conviction". "The state's decision to continue the prosecution instead of reopening the investigation demonstrates the power of tunnel vision and the role that racial bias plays in the criminal legal system," she said.

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Their stories were lost to slavery. Now DNA is writing them

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Their stories were lost to slavery. Now DNA is writing them

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In the 1700s, a boy was born into slavery in Colonial America. He spent his life working in the coastal city of Charleston, South Carolina. And when he died in middle age, he was buried alongside 35 other slaves.

That's the likely history that researchers have uncovered for the man-there's no written record for him or the others buried at the long-forgotten site. Their names have been lost, along with any details of their lives. But their stories are now being told through what was left behind: bones, teeth and, especially, DNA.

In recent decades, advances in DNA research have allowed scientists to use ancient remains and peer into the lives of long-dead people. In Charleston, that's meant tracing some of the African roots that were cut off by slavery.

"We're bringing their memory back to life," said Raquel Fleskes, an anthropologist at the University of Connecticut who studied the remains. "This is a way of restoring dignity to individuals that should've always had this dignity."

The Charleston project started a decade ago, when construction workers unearthed the remains beneath the grounds of the Gaillard Center, an arts venue in the city that was going through an expansion.

Dating back to the second half of the 18th century, the remains are believed to be mostly from enslaved people of African descent who lived nearby. A few of them were likely among the estimated 175,000 Africans brought through Charleston's port, a hub for the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The city reburied the remains at the site, where a memorial fountain is planned. But with few recorded details available, community members were also interested in using science to learn more about the people, Fleskes said.

So, the Anson Street African Burial Ground Project was born, and researchers started looking for clues.

____

Artifacts from the site showed that the bodies were buried with care, explained Theodore Schurr, an anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania who worked on the research. Some of them had beads in their hair or coins over their eyes. Minerals in their teeth showed only a few had been born in Africa, while most had likely been born into slavery in Charleston or nearby.

Scientists also coaxed DNA from the centuries-old skeletons-drilling small samples of bones and teeth, grinding them up into powder, mixing them into a solution and filtering out everything but the human DNA. They were able to get some genetic material for most of the 36 and full genomes for half of them, which were compared with the genetic makeup of people in Africa today.

Results showed that they had ties to many different places along the West African coast, from Gambia to Gabon. They were mostly male, and largely died as adults. Their ages ranged from a child under 3 to a man over 50.

Their DNA showed they were unrelated, aside from one possible mother-child pair.

Researchers also offered DNA tests to 78 African Americans living in the Charleston area today, said La'Sheia Oubré, who led community education for the project. So far, they haven't found any direct relatives of those buried at Anson Street.

Still, Oubré-who took a DNA test-said she and other community members consider them family.

"They have such a story to tell," she said. "And because they're not related to us by blood, it doesn't mean that it's not our moral responsibility to take care of them."

___

Since it became possible to sequence DNA from ancient remains, the technology has taken us back to the days of Neanderthals and mammoths.

Some researchers have been using ancient DNA to fill gaps in our more recent history. That includes cases like Charleston as well as the New York African Burial Ground Project, which revealed new details about Africans and their descendants in 18th century Manhattan.

There aren't many records for these people from the time, said Michael Blakey, an anthropologist who served as the scientific director on the New York project. The records that are available focuses on things like how much enslaved people cost and what kinds of laws were used to control them, he said.

Oubré said it's been powerful to have DNA reveal some of the "stolen history" of those buried in her city.

"To be able to know all of this, it's still mind-blowing to me," Oubré said. "It still just warms my heart that we're able to find out where we come from-where we really come from."

In some cases, ancient DNA research has also challenged the history that's been written about certain communities.

Growing up in Puerto Rico, anthropologist Maria Nieves-Colon was taught that the Indigenous peoples of the islands were quickly wiped out by European colonization, and didn't pass on their genes to people on the island today. But after looking at ancient remains from the island in a 2020 study, Nieves-Colon found genetic links did exist between those Indigenous groups and modern-day Puerto Ricans.

Research like this shows "we need to think more critically about what was left in the historical record," said Nieves-Colon, who is now at the University of Minnesota.

___

While ancient DNA can be a powerful tool for uncovering history, it needs to be used with caution, researchers note, especially when it comes to vulnerable groups.

Unlike research on living subjects, work on recovered human remains doesn't require scientists to get consent, explained Krystal Tsosie, a geneticist at Arizona State University. And in the past, most researchers haven't consulted with groups like Native tribes or African descendants before studying the remains of possible ancestors.

But this kind of work does impact living communities and they should be part of the conversation, researchers said.

"In many ways, it's about power," Blakey said. "The right to tell your story."

In Charleston, project leaders asked community members for their permission before every step, Oubré said. The names of the 36 had been lost to history and the team gave them new ones-like Coosaw, Welela, Isi and Kuto-so they wouldn't be just numbers on a burial plot, said Joanna Gilmore, director of research and interpretation with the Anson Street project.

Now, the new memorial is set to honor the lives of these 36 individuals, as well as the thousands of enslaved people who helped build Charleston, project leaders said.

The memorial will be at the Gaillard Center, where a small plaque now marks the site where the remains were uncovered. It will include a fountain circled by pairs of bronze hands cast from current residents, and a base made of soil from other African burial grounds across the city, Gilmore explained.

Last month at an art studio, residents created a copy of their hands, leaning elbow-deep into buckets of pink goo that hardened into molds. Artist Stephen Hayes poured liquid plastic into the molds to make shiny white replicas.

Adrian Swinton got her hands cast to represent a woman given the name Tima. Swinton is descended from slaves herself, and said the memorial was a powerful way to remember their sacrifices.

Cast hands made from local volunteers are displayed on a table in Charleston, S.C., Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023. Artist Stephen Hayes, background center, will use the molds to make a memorial for 36 enslaved people whose bodies were unearthed in Charleston in 2013 during a construction project for the Gaillard Center. Credit: AP Photo/Mic Smith

Adrian Capers Swinton holds up casts of her hands in a studio at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, S.C., on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023. Swinton, the city's manager of human affairs and racial conciliation, is one of 36 people whose hands will be cast in bronze for a memorial to the likely enslaved people discovered in an unmarked burial ground. Credit: AP Photo/Allen G. Breed

Christopher Frisby shows his daughter, Mary, his molded hands in Charleston, S.C., Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023. Artist Stephen Hayes will use the mold to make a memorial for 36 enslaved people whose bodies were unearthed in Charleston in 2013 during a construction project for the Gaillard Center. Credit: AP Photo/Mic Smith

Artist Stephen Hayes works on molded hands in Charleston, S.C., Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023. Hayes will use the molds to make a memorial for 36 enslaved people whose bodies were unearthed in Charleston in 2013 during a construction project for the Gaillard Center. Credit: AP Photo/Mic Smith

Sydney Reede, left, makes sure the hands of Malaysha Middleton, 11, stay still while her grandmother, Deborah Middleton, center, smiles in Charleston, S.C., Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023. Artist Stephen Hayes will use the molds to make a memorial for 36 enslaved people whose bodies were unearthed in Charleston in 2013 during a construction project for the Gaillard Center. Credit: AP Photo/Mic Smith

"Her legacy hasn't gone unnoticed," Swinton said. "And she wasn't property. She was a human. She was part of my Black history."

Retiree Ervin McDaniel Jr. was giddy as he held up his freshly made plastic hands, which will be cast in bronze to represent the boy born into slavery who was given the name Fumu.

"They lived, they worked, they died-and now they're being remembered forever," McDaniel said

© 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Their stories were lost to slavery. Now DNA is writing them

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the 1700s, a boy was born into slavery in Colonial America. He spent his life working in the coastal city of Charleston, South Carolina. And when he died in middle age, he was buried alongside 35 other slaves.

# data[].attributes.headline
Is Forensic Science a Gateway for Women in Science?: Forensic Science Policy & Management: An International Journal: Vol 1, No 1

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Is Forensic Science a Gateway for Women in Science?: Forensic Science Policy & Management: An International Journal: Vol 1, No 1

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Abstract

Encouraging women to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers is an important part of a skilled, diverse workforce. While women constitute nearly half of the U.S. workforce, they make up only one-third to one-fifth of the nation's STEM careers. The lack of women in science is a "hallmark characteristic of science and has persisted in spite of the rapid improvement of women's social and economic status over the past few decades." One scientific discipline, however, has attracted an inordinate number of females: forensic science. In a survey of accredited forensic science educational programs, the percentage of females was 78% compared with, at most, a 35% average for non-forensic science freshmen. Why is forensic science so popular among females and, therefore, is it a gateway for women into STEM careers?

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Is Forensic Science a Gateway for Women in Science?

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Abstract Encouraging women to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers is an important part of a skilled, diverse workforce. While women constitute nearly half of the U.S. workforce, they make up only one-third to one-fifth of the nation's STEM careers.

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Bias in research- Recognise it, avoid it! Part 1 - YouTube

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Bias in research- Recognise it, avoid it! Part 1 - YouTube

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Webinar from the University of Bristol, Inclusive Research Collective event - Nov 2021 Looks at rates of article retractions as indicator or biased research. Part 2 https://youtu.be/fBRQjCDHmKk

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NETWORK: BLACK BRITISH STEM PROFESSIONALS

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NETWORK: BLACK BRITISH STEM PROFESSIONALS

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BBSTEM - Black British Professionals in Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths

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It was lovely meeting you yesterday and you've really inspired me and given me a lot of hope in becoming successful in the industry I would love to get into.

Year 13 Prospective Biomedical Engineering University

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Home - BBSTEM - Black British Professionals in Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths

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It was lovely meeting you yesterday and you've really inspired me and given me a lot of hope in becoming successful in the industry I would love to get into. Year 13 Prospective Biomedical Engineering University

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Join Pride in STEM to celebrate the third annual LGBTQ+ STEM Day at the LGBTQ+ STEM Day Virtual Conference on 18th November, 2020! #LGBTQVirtualConf2020

To commemorate American Astronomer and gay activist Frank Kameny's US Supreme Court fight against workplace discrimination, the conference is about what motivates and challenges us - in our professional lives, in our personal lives, in our practice as researchers, in our lived experiences as members of plural, intersecting, communities, in our pasts and in our futures.

This year we're welcoming four leading, international members of the LGTBQ+ STEM community to share their thoughts on motivations and challenges in their work in and beyond STEM. You can read their bios below.

14th of November: Speaker videos (see below) go live on this websiteso you can watch them in advance of the live event . We will also send registered attendees a link to the videos.

18th of November, 14:00-16:00 GMT: Live event on Microsoft Teams*, with:

We will share the link to the Hangout with registered attendees in advance of the event.

We encourage you to bring your thoughts and ideas into the discussion with the panellists to explore new futures in our STEM practices and beyond. *Please download the Microsoft Teams desktop app for best performance.

The speaker videos will have closed captions and full transcriptions provided by AAT Transcriptions. The live event will have two live BSL interpreters, Martin Fox-Roberts and Jacqui Beckford. Automatic closed captioning will be provided through Microsoft Teams, so we recommend external captioning. If you have any questions or additional needs, please contact us.

This event is a space that supports and welcomes all LGBTQ+ people around the world, but especially those with intersecting marginalised identities. By signing up to this event you are agreeing to the following code of conduct which will be in place during all interactions associated with this event (through moderation and reporting), and the violation of which will lead to ejection from the event:

No harassment or negative comments based on race/ethnicity, gender (including gender identity), sexual orientation, disability, age, religion, physical appearance, citizenship, or other protected categories;

No threatening or endangerment of other participants, including the moderators, via text, video or images;

No unwelcome sexual attention;

No encouragement of any of the above behaviours;

Please also note that we will also be ensuring:

No interruption of speakers or other attendees,

No GIFS or other flashing images in the chat

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Join Pride in STEM to celebrate the third annual LGBTQ+ STEM Day at the LGBTQ+ STEM Day Virtual Conference on 18th November, 2020!

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Women in Forensics: An international overview - ScienceDirect

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Women in Forensics: An international overview - ScienceDirect

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Women in Forensics: An international overview

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Forensic science plays a crucial role in criminal justice. In the last few years, due to great advances in technologies and the effect of many TV show…

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The library is here to support all conversations around diversifying teaching and learning at KBS.

We want to collaborate with you to review our library subject guides, host reading groups and workshops. We can also lead sessions on interrogating bias and identifying fake news  in research.

For more information please contact your NATS Divisional Librarian SarahField NATSlibrary@kent.ac.uk

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out in science technology engineering and mathematics incorporated

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Home Page | Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

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Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (oSTEM), Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit professional society focused on LGBTQ people in the STEM community. With hundreds of student chapters at colleges/universities and professional chapters in cities across the United States and abroad, oSTEM is the largest chapter-based organization focused on LGBTQ people in STEM.

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TIGERS is a group of UK-based STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine) professionals & students who are passionate about improving equality, diversity, inclusion & accessibility. We work together on campaigns with broad impact & also support one another in our activism within our own disciplines, demographics or institutions

As a group, we formed early in 2019. This website is still in its infancy, so please bear with us while we find our stripes.

Equality: The quality or condition of being equal.

Diversity: The condition or quality of being diverse, different, or varied; difference, unlikeness.

Inclusion: The action, practice, or policy of including any person in an activity, system, organisation, or process, irrespective of race, gender, religion, age, ability, etc. (Now frequently without complement specifying who is included.)

Accessibility: The quality or condition of being accessible (in various senses).

Equity: The quality of being equal or fair; fairness, impartiality; even-handed dealing.

(These definitions are taken from the Oxford English Dictionary.)

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Recent Activity We are hosting a letter which has been written by some of our members and other colleagues in the higher education sector to protest recent actions by Advance HE that indicate a backsliding away from support of full inclusion of trans colleagues in the Higher Education sector. We

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Promoting Social Mobility and Diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

In2scienceUK empowers young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve their potential through life changing opportunities that give them insights into STEM careers and research and boosts their skills and confidence.

Covid-19 Statement

The In2scienceUK programme has gone online, so we can continue to connect our students with world-class scientists, engineers, technologists, and researchers to develop the skills and confidence for a successful career in STEM. Use the links below to find out what that means for you and how you can get involved.

Why In2scienceUK Exists

In2scienceUK exists to unlock the potential of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and boost diversity and inclusion in the sector to ensure the UK remains at the forefront of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) based industries. With salaries in STEM being 20% higher than other sectors, this helps young people progress to better-paid jobs and economic stability.

Our Programme

We leverage the skills, expertise, and passion of STEM professionals and researchers, to support young people from disadvantaged backgrounds become the innovators and pioneers of the future.

Inspiring Work Placements

High-Quality Information Skills Days and Careers Workshops

University, Apprenticeship and Further Training Guidance

Public Engagement Competitions

Students Apply for our free STEM summer placement programme. Find Out More

STEM Professionals Inspire a young person, provide virtual mentoring and in-person experiences. Find Out More

Partner With Us Support our mission and help us to deliver even greater impact. Find Out More

Breaking Down Barriers to a STEM Career

Our Impact

We are an impact led organisation passionate about supporting young people to achieve their potential and pursue a STEM career.

Evaluations show that after the programme students are more likely to:

Feel that anyone can become a scientist or engineer

Know a wide range of STEM careers and pathways

Feel confident to write a high-quality personal statement

It's given me many more ideas about what I could do, things that I didn't think were available to me. All I could base my ideas on before was what was taught in school, but now I have real-life experience.
Laura
Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, University of Oxford

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In2scienceUK | Promoting Social Mobility and Diversity in STEM

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In2scienceUK empowers young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve their potential through life changing opportunities that give them insights into STEM careers and research and boosts their skills and confidence. The In2scienceUK programme has gone online, so we can continue to connect our students with world-class scientists, engineers, technologists, and researchers to develop the skills and confidence for a successful career in STEM.

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Stem Village:platform to improve visibility of the LGBTQ+ STEM community 

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Stem Village:platform to improve visibility of the LGBTQ+ STEM community 

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Improving LGBTQ+ Visibility in STEM | The STEM VIllage

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Welcome to The STEM Village. The STEM Village is a space dedicated to increasing visibility of the LGBTQ+ community in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). We aim to showcase the work of the LGBTQ+ STEM community and inspire LGBTQ+ people who are thinking about joining STEM fields

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How could this happen

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The icon indicates free access to the linked research on JSTOR.

Lynette White was murdered in 1988. When the three men first imprisoned for her murder were found to have been wrongfully convicted, it seemed that her killer would go unpunished. However, new technology invented in 2002 was used to analyze DNA found at the scene of the murder. The only match was to a boy too young to have committed the murder, but DNA samples were taken from his family. The youth's uncle confessed, and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2003.

In criminal investigation, DNA evidence can be a game-changer. But DNA is just one piece of the puzzle, rarely giving a clear "he did it" answer. According to a consortium of forensic experts who released a report earlier this year, there are limits to what DNA can tell us about a crime. And what it can and can't reliably prove in court needs to be much clearer.

Audio brought to you by curio.io

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is a code that programs how we will develop, grow, and function. Humans are thought to have DNA that is 99.9% identical, but the remaining 0.1% makes us individuals, marking us out as unique. The fact that humans and chimpanzees have just a 1% difference in their DNA further highlights how meaningful a small difference can be. Generally, the more closely related we are to someone, the more similar our DNA will be to theirs.

The tiny part of our DNA that is unique to us can be used to generate a DNA profile. This profile is usually represented as a graph showing different peaks, which reports the patterns at different points where our DNA is most likely to be unique.

"The increasingly prominent role played by forensic science in the administration of criminal justice is due in no small measure to the meteoric rise in DNA profiling," wrote the law professor Liz Hefferman in a 2008 article for the British Journal of Criminology.

* * *

DNA profiling has had some remarkable successes, including finally ending a two-decade long hunt for the "Green River Killer," who strangled at least fifty women, dumping their bodies in various spots around the Green River in Washington State. However, DNA profiles are often not clean enough to conclusively identify an individual. Ideally, a DNA sample would be complete enough to examine at least 16 different "markers," points at which an individual's DNA fingerprint can be sketched out. But when DNA is damaged, as it often is through exposure to moisture or extreme temperatures, only some of these markers will be available, and forensics teams will generate a partial profile. Put simply, if a DNA profile is a complete description of a person's appearance, a partial profile might describe only one of their traits-hair color, for instance.

Even full DNA profiles may match with a person other than the culprit.

Partial profiles will match up with many more people than a full profile. And even full profiles may match with a person other than the culprit. Further complicating matters, a single DNA profile might be mistakenly generated when samples from multiple people are accidentally combined. It's a messy world.

Realistically, then, DNA profiles should only be thought of as being likely to have come from a specific individual. Statistical approaches such as "match probability," which is based on comparisons between crime scene DNA and a hypothetical "random" person, often are misunderstood. A more rigorous statistical approach is likelihood ratio, which directly compares two hypotheses: the likelihood of the DNA coming from the suspect vs. the likelihood of the DNA coming from someone else. If the likelihood ratio is less than one, the defense position (the DNA is not the suspect's) is better supported; if it is greater than one, there is more support for the prosecution case. Still, the ratio at most provides scientific support for a theory, not a yes-or-no answer.

* * *

A study from the University of California published in Law and Human Behavior tested undergraduate students' abilities to interpret statistical evidence as it would be presented in court by prosecution and defense attorneys. The researchers found that the majority of these undergraduates failed to detect errors in statistical arguments and "made judgements based on fallacious reasoning."

"Telling a jury it is implausible that anyone besides the suspect would have the same DNA test results is seldom, if ever, justified."

When the American Bar Association reported on DNA technology, it backed the use of DNA evidence, but urged caution in how statistics were interpreted. The ABA urged lawyers not to oversell DNA evidence and suggested that courts take the standards of the lab into account when considering DNA evidence. "Telling a jury it is implausible that anyone besides the suspect would have the same DNA test results is seldom, if ever, justified," the report states.

In addition, the European Forensic Genetics Network of Excellence ( EUROFORGEN) and the charity Sense about Science collaborated on a report released earlier this year. The report sought to clarify what DNA analysis can and cannot do within the criminal justice system. EUROFORGEN researcher Denise Sydercombe Court, based at King's College London, said:

We all enjoy a good crime drama and although we understand the difference between fiction and reality, the distinction can often be blurred by overdramatised press reports of real cases. As a result, most people have unrealistic perceptions of the meaning of scientific evidence, especially when it comes to DNA, which can lead to miscarriages of justice.

At times, DNA evidence has been misused or misunderstood, leading to miscarriages of justice. A man with Parkinson's disease who was unable to walk more than a few feet without assistance was convicted of a burglary based on a partial DNA profile match. His lawyer insisted on more DNA tests, which exonerated him. In 2011, Adam Scott's DNA matched with a sperm sample taken from a rape victim in Manchester -a city Scott, who lived more than 200 miles away, had never visited. Non-DNA evidence subsequently cleared Scott. The mixup was due to a careless mistake in the lab, in which a plate used to analyze Scott's DNA from a minor incident was accidentally reused in the rape case.

Then there's the uncomfortable and inconvenient truth that any of us could have DNA present at a crime scene-even if we were never there. Moreover, DNA recovered at a crime scene could have been deposited there at a time other than when the crime took place. Someone could have visited beforehand or stumbled upon the scene afterward. Alternatively, their DNA could have arrived via a process called secondary transfer, where their DNA was transferred to someone else, who carried it to the scene.

Additionally, DNA technology is becoming more and more sensitive, but this is a double-edged sword. On one hand, usable DNA evidence is more likely to be detected than ever before. On the other hand, contamination DNA and DNA that arrived by secondary transfer is now more likely to be detected, confusing investigations. If legal and judicial personnel aren't fully trained in how to interpret forensic and DNA evidence, it can result in false leads and miscarriages of justice.

Another consideration is that people shed DNA at different rates. DNA is found in bodily fluids, such as blood, semen, and saliva, but we also lose microscopic pieces of skin and hair on a regular basis. Some people lose DNA more quickly than others-if they have a skin condition, for example. If a thief uses a particular location as a stash, and a caretaker who suffers from eczema stumbles on it and reports it to the police, the forensics alone might implicate the caretaker. The quantity of their DNA present might suggest a significant period of time spent at that place. But in fact, the caretaker's eczema resulted in more DNA being deposited there over a shorter time period.

National DNA databases, then, present some ethical quandaries. Many cases would never have been solved if not for DNA databases. In the Lynette White case, the breakthrough came when the police obtained the DNA profile of a relative of the murderer. However, the retention of DNA details raises legitimate privacy concerns, especially in the context of familial searching. Partial matches are more likely to lead to false positive identification of suspects who are already in the DNA database. Given that less privileged groups tend to be over-represented in DNA databases, this is a serious issue.

In 2011, a group of scientists asked whether forensic DNA databases increase racial disparities in policing. They pointed out that, in the U.S., different communities are differently policed, leading to different rates of incarceration and DNA recording. According to the study authors, actual drug use is relatively higher in white communities, but "buy and bust" operations by police are more common in African American and Latino communities, leading to disproportionate arrests.

The lesson of all this research: DNA evidence is a powerful tool in criminal investigation and prosecution, but it must be used with care. It should never be oversold in court, and it should only ever be considered in light of other available evidence. For example, if DNA is recovered in a kitchen that has been broken into, it could be from the homeowner, their guests, or even a member of the CSI team (if sufficient care hasn't been taken to avoid contamination). If a tool-mark impression reveals that a screwdriver was used to force open the window, and DNA is recovered from a screwdriver found at the scene that does not belong to the homeowner, that's incriminating. If that DNA is a partial or full match with an individual with the same shoe size as a footprint left in the grass under the window, even more so. If that individual has a torn piece of clothing that matches cloth fibres snagged in the window, that's more incriminating still. If digital evidence such as their mobile phone records place them at the scene at the time the break-in happened-even though they claim to have been elsewhere-then you have a more complete picture.
Editor's notes: An earlier version of this story contained an unclear reference to evidence seized by police investigating the murder of Meredith Kercher. The example has since been removed. We regret any error.
A study cited in an earlier version of this article is no longer available for free on JSTOR.

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How Forensic DNA Evidence Can Lead to Wrongful Convictions - JSTOR Daily

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Forensic DNA evidence has been a game-changer for law enforcement, but research shows it can contribute to miscarriages of justice.

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The Global Practice of Forensic Science  Douglas H. Ubelaker

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The Global Practice of Forensic Science  Douglas H. Ubelaker

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Just Diversity & Inclusion in Forensic Science

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Just Diversity & Inclusion in Forensic Science

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Donia Slack is the Director of the Research, Technology, and Evaluation Program (RT&E) in RTI's Center for Forensic Sciences (CFS). In this role, Ms. Slack leads technology-driven efforts in support of basic and applied research serving the criminal justice and forensic science communities. She maintains a PMP certification and has a Master of Science degree with over 17 years of experience in the forensic DNA community, directing and overseeing programs pertaining to genomic analyses of human, plant, and microbial DNA. Ms. Slack has more than 12 years of executive program management experience directing complex research and operational efforts serving the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and the intelligence community, and she has provided contractual and programmatic oversight of cooperative agreements, grants, contracts, and subcontracts. Before joining RTI, Ms. Slack was the Director of the U.S. Government Research and Development division at Bode Technology, the country's largest private forensic DNA company. While at Bode Technology, Ms. Slack worked on the extraction and analysis of degraded human remains from the World Trade Center Attack of 9/11. Ms. Slack has supported human identification programs not only through operational management and laboratory support, but through the development of novel DNA technologies such as massively parallel sequencing (MPS) for complex mixture deconvolution and inferences of phenotype and ancestry from samples of unknown origin. Ms. Slack currently serves as the Executive Program Manager of the National Missing and Unidentified Missing Persons (NamUs), a national clearinghouse funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), which offers critical investigation support and free forensic services to facilitate the resolution of missing and unidentified persons cases nationwide. View RTI Profile.

Dale Hart has over 30 years of toxicology experience including drugs of abuse testing in urine, oral fluid and blood. Since 1998, he has worked as a Research Forensic Scientist in the Center for Forensic Sciences (CFS) at RTI International as a member of the Performance Testing (PT) Team for the National Laboratory Certification Program (NLCP) under contract with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). He is currently the NLCP PT Lead for Oral Fluid and Hair and serves as an NLCP inspector. In addition to his work with the NLCP, he participates in CFS Research and Development projects and is the manager of RTI's Oral Fluid Proficiency Testing Program. Prior to joining RTI, Mr. Hart worked in forensic drug testing laboratories in the U.S. Military and in the private sector, including work at an HHS-certified laboratory as a laboratory manager and expert witness.

Lawrance Mullen, a member of the RTI Center for Forensic Sciences, works on the National Laboratory Certification Program (NLCP), which inspects drug testing laboratories for federally regulated workplace programs. He specializes in disseminating health knowledge as it relates to toxicology testing and toxicological drug analytes. Dr. Mullen joined RTI in 2016. His background also includes experience as a college professor, allied health instructor, and toxicology data review supervisor. He is a member of the Society of Forensic Toxicologists (SOFT) and the Council of Forensic Science Educators (COFSE). View RTI Profile.

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Just Diversity & Inclusion in Forensic Science

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Donia Slack is the Director of the Research, Technology, and Evaluation Program (RT&E) in RTI's Center for Forensic Sciences (CFS). In this role, Ms. Slack leads technology-driven efforts in support of basic and applied research serving the criminal justice and forensic science communities.

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Edmonton police rethink DNA tech used to identify sexual assault suspect | Edmonton Journal

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Edmonton police rethink DNA tech used to identify sexual assault suspect | Edmonton Journal

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Edmonton police are dialing back a last-ditch effort to find a suspect after using his DNA to reverse engineer and circulate a "broad" image of his likeness.

On Tuesday, police announced they used DNA phenotyping to generate and release an image of a Black male suspect sought in a violent sexual assault from March 2019. Police had only a limited description of the suspect, who was masked and wearing heavy winter clothing, and this procedure, described as "a last resort," uses a person's genetic material to predict parts of their appearance such as eye, skin and hair colour as well as facial features including shape.

But on Thursday, police said they are removing the image from the news release on its website as well as its social media accounts.

Enyinnah Okere, chief operating officer of Edmonton Police Service's bureau for community safety and well-being, said his team commissioned the profile to advance the case in lieu of tips, leads and ultimately justice for the victim - a young woman left unconscious and nearly naked in -27 C weather.

"But we were not and are not oblivious to the legitimate questions raised about the suitability of this type of technology," Okere told media at a Downtown news conference Thursday. "The potential that a visual profile can provide far too broad a characterization from within a racialized community - and in this case, Edmonton's Black community - was not something I adequately considered."

Community members criticized the "broadness" of the image and expressed concerns that it stigmatizes and criminalizes racialized groups, he said.

Okere also said police decided to release the image after the technology had been used to generate leads in other jurisdictions.

Parabon Nanolabs, the U.S. DNA technology company that produced the visual profile, boasts that its "snapshot genetic genealogy" has helped identify more than 230 persons of interest since it started offering the service in May 2018. As of Thursday afternoon, the snapshot generated for Edmonton police was still available on the company's list of investigations.

However, a 2019 article in Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, the German Medical Association's official international science journal, reports several concerns around forensic DNA phenotyping, such as discrimination against minority groups, invasion of privacy and exaggerated expectations from both users and the general public.

"Many experts see the greatest problem in the risk that forensic DNA phenotyping will be used in a way that discriminates against minority groups, particularly in societies where racism and xenophobia are now on the rise," the article reported, adding that even supporters of the technology recognize it shouldn't be used in police investigations before appropriate measures are in place to ensure it's used transparently and proportionately.

"The training of forensic DNA experts and investigators is essential to ensure that the laboratory findings are correctly generated, interpreted, documented, and transmitted to the investigating authorities, and that the authorities understand them correctly and use them properly," the article said.

Police Chief Dale McFee, who was also present at the conference, said while the technology was deployed for the "right reasons," namely to generate leads, the image could end up confusing the investigation.

"Unfortunately, that describes way too many people in our community," McFee said of the image, adding that a police investigation also requires a significant amount of subject matter expertise before an arrest.

Okere said Edmonton Police Service will review its processes to ensure its tools for informing future decisions to ensure they are "appropriate, robust and stress-tested."
hissawi@postmedia.com @hamdiissawi

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Edmonton police rethink DNA tech used to identify sexual assault suspect

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Edmonton police are dialing back a last-ditch effort to find a suspect after using his DNA to reverse engineer and circulate a "broad" image of his likeness. On Tuesday, police announced they used DNA phenotyping to generate and release an image of a Black male suspect sought in a violent sexual assault from March 2019.

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 Forensic DNA phenotyping and its politics of legitimation and contestation: Views of forensic geneticists in Europe - Rafaela Granja, Helena Machado, 2020

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 Forensic DNA phenotyping and its politics of legitimation and contestation: Views of forensic geneticists in Europe - Rafaela Granja, Helena Machado, 2020

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Exploring the often unsavoury history behind many significant advances can be enlightening and empowering for students, argues Daniel Akinbosede in a blog originally published by Times Higher Education.

The murder of George Floyd has caused outrage across the US and the world, forcing everyone to confront the fact that the goal of racial equity remains a distant one.

This is as true in the academy as it is in Minneapolis' police service. In the past few years, we have seen a huge movement in academia led by students of colour to "decolonise the curriculum" and open up conversations around race. As a bioscientist, I was hopeful that the movement might eventually arrive in our departments. Unfortunately, this hasn't happened. The main opposition to "decolonising" science is the persistent belief that science is objective and neutral. Yet if scientists live in a society with enormous biases, how can science be objective?

Injustices can be found in almost every scientific discipline. Weaving the origins of those injustices into the way the curriculum is delivered could actually make for a more engaging learning environment.

James Watson, who won a Nobel Prize for the discovery of the structure of DNA, expressed the view that "There's a difference on the average between Blacks and Whites on IQ tests. I would say the difference is genetic." He was also "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours". Watson's vocal racism is not, of course, backed by any scientific evidence. While my first-year lecture on DNA mentioned Watson and Francis Crick by name, it failed to include the former's racist ideologies. It also failed to mention Rosalind Franklin, whose contribution to the discovery was sidelined and essentially unacknowledged because of sexism. We need to think seriously about what these omissions say to students.

Although Watson went on to lose both his job and his honorary titles due to his (still unchanged) views on race, he has many university buildings named after him and is idolised in science education in a way that suggests that racist views can be overlooked if the discovery is significant enough. Some undergraduates still don't really understand why race is not a legitimate human category. Talking about Watson's racist ideologies allows us to have a crucial scientific discussion in a dynamic way.

Even on the rare occasions when science curricula address ethical issues, it is conveniently omitted that most of the scientific progress made since the Enlightenment has been carried out in societies where black people were not even considered full human beings. Major medical innovations relied on experiments performed on slaves. An example is the modern form of vaginal speculum, invented by the "father of modern gynaecology", James Marion Sims. Sims performed horrific experiments on enslaved black women, most of the time without anaesthetic. By neglecting to teach students about such atrocities, are we sending a message that the means are not as relevant as the scientific breakthrough?

Although some forms of race science were discredited by their association with the Nazis, contempt for racial minorities persisted - and for some scientists, the ends continued to justify the means. A highly relevant example is the creation of the HeLa cell line. Widely regarded as the world's first immortal cell line, this is widely used in biochemistry and molecular biology research, and has led to significant pharmacological discoveries. The problem is that the cells were stolen from a black cancer patient called Henrietta Lacks in 1951. The scientists probably didn't ask for permission because they lived in 1950s Virginia, an American state that enforced racist Jim Crow legislation that made its black citizens second-class by law.

Recent healthcare statistics show us that racist contempt continues. In the US, black patients are over twice as likely to be denied appropriate pain medication than white patients, and black women in the UK are five times more likely to die in childbirth than their white counterparts. Research into the contributory factors in the former case found that some medics held highly problematic pseudoscientific views, such as that black people have higher pain thresholds or thicker skin or are more prone to drug addiction.

These are just a few of the examples scientists in academia can and should use to discuss race, because, unfortunately, students are often discouraged from raising them. Jarita Holbrook, associate professor of physics at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, stated that, "Black students have their capacity for objectivity questioned simply because their standpoint on racism is different from that of white students and scientists who don't have to experience its consequences." Some of the science fields that perceive themselves as being the least prone to bias show large racial gaps in degree awards in universities across the UK, including my own. One of the factors consistently cited by black students is a curriculum which fails to represent them and their experiences.

A lot of black and ethnic minority students can already see the inequality in science. Knowing the reality behind many scientific discoveries but having it completely ignored in education feels like gaslighting.

Instead, encouraging science students and academics to confront and discuss race in the context of their subjects might increase engagement and a sense of belonging for students of colour. But it's also important for white students. All students need to understand the historical context for what they learn - a critical first step in ensuring history does not repeat itself.

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Science curricula must be decolonised too

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Exploring the often unsavoury history behind many significant advances can be enlightening and empowering for students, argues Daniel Akinbosede in a blog originally published by Times Higher Education. The murder of George Floyd has caused outrage across the US and the world, forcing everyone to confront the fact that the goal of racial equity remains a distant one.

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How LGBT+ scientists would like to be included and welcomed in STEM workplaces

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How LGBT+ scientists would like to be included and welcomed in STEM workplaces

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Black artist brings diversity to medical textbook illustrations

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Black artist brings diversity to medical textbook illustrations

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You've probably seen medical illustrations in textbooks or at the doctor's office, but have you ever seen one featuring a person of color?

Last month, an illustration of a pregnant Black woman went viral on Twitter and many users commented that they'd never seen an image like it. The image, created by future Nigerian medical student and illustrator Chidiebere Ibe, has drawn attention to efforts by artists of color to bring more diversity to the drawings, which can impact patient care.

Medical illustrations predominantly depict white male bodies, Black illustrators say. Less than 5% of images in four of the medicine textbooks assigned at top medical schools in the United States show dark skin, researchers found in a 2018 study.

Ibe, who will attend Kyiv Medical University in Ukraine next month, became interested in medical illustration in July 2020 and spent a year teaching himself to draw anatomy. From the start, he realized that there was a lack of diversity in the images he was studying.

"Because of the lack of representation, the learning process were very difficult for me," he told USA TODAY. "During that process, I realized that there was a problem somewhere that needed to be addressed."
Not just Tuskegee: America has a history of medically abusing Black people.
Ibe, 25, began advocating for more inclusive medical literature and sharing his work on social media. But he was surprised that his drawing of a Black pregnant woman and fetus got the most attention. The image was retweeted more than 47,000 times and attracted more than 332,000 likes.

Although he's received some negative comments, Ibe said he's been inundated with positive responses, including people who said the images made them feel valued and inspired their children to study medicine.
'It's hard to be what you can't imagine':America has an urgent need for Black doctors
"I never expected that," he said. "I felt just amazed."

Anatomy drawings have been used for thousands of years, but medical illustration wasn't established as a profession in the United States until the late 19th century, according to the Association of Medical Illustrators, which has about 800 members.

The association launched a diversity committee in 2018 that has been pushing illustrators to include more variation in their work for several years and doing outreach in schools to increase diversity in a field not many people are familiar with, said committee chair Ni-ka Ford.

Illustrations - as well as animations, augmented and virtual reality simulations - are used in training material for medical professionals as well as inpatient educational material, pharmaceutical company advertisements and even in legal settings.

Like the larger medical field, medical illustration is predominantly white. There are fewer than 2,000 trained medical illustrators worldwide and Ford estimated less than 8% are people of color.
Hundreds of communities declared racism a public health crisis:What are they doing about it?
"If you don't have diverse people creating this content you're not going to see as much diversity within the content being created," she said.

The disparities persist even in the literature related to diseases that affect people of color more often. Despite the fact that COVID-19 disproportionately sickens and kills people of color, an analysis published by the British Journal of Dermatology in 2020 found articles describing the rashes associated with the coronavirus almost exclusively show clinical images of patients with lighter skin.

Ford, who has been a medical illustrator for four years, said the lack of diversity is a "huge problem" that can perpetuate a cycle of implicit bias which "does at the end of day affect patient health."

"The medical provider may not know how to accurately diagnose someone with darker skin if they've never been exposed to that in their training," she said. "For patients, if they don't see themselves reflected in these materials, it can really create a sense of isolation and distrust in their health care provider."

Hillary Wilson, a 27-year-old medical illustrator based in Durham, North Carolina, was studying biology and planning to go to medical school when she first learned medical illustration was a potential career that could combine her love of art and science.

Wilson said many people ask why she showcases a wide variety of skin tones in her work, which primarily involves patient education. For her, the illustrations feel incomplete without them.

"It just makes sense to try to account for the fact that there's so many different people," she said. "Why wouldn't I include these other examples? As a Black person, if I were to be doing something using an arm as reference, it's probably gonna be my arm."
Follow N'dea Yancey-Bragg on Twitter: @NdeaYanceyBragg
Wilson said shehopes the attention Ibe's illustration has received will help stop people from seeing white skin as the "default."

"Sometimes I think that people feel as though there needs to be a reason for why you've chosen to make somebody not white in an illustration," she said. "They just exist ... people of color, marginalized people don't need a reason to be there."

Ibe wants to help further normalize the images by producing textbooks and public health materials for community health centers around the world. He said he also hopes to start a scholarship fund to "give back to my roots."

"This is no longer just my project, but the community's project," he said.

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Patients in medical illustrations are usually white. Meet the Black artists trying to change that.

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You've probably seen medical illustrations in textbooks or at the doctor's office, but have you ever seen one featuring a person of color? Last month, an illustration of a pregnant Black woman went viral on Twitter and many users commented that they'd never seen an image like it.

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Alternative Science - Shiv Visvanathan, 2006

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Alternative Science - Shiv Visvanathan, 2006

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Understanding unconscious bias | The Royal Society

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Just Diversity and Inclusion In Forensic Science by Just Science

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Just Diversity and Inclusion In Forensic Science by Just Science

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Just Diversity and Inclusion In Forensic Science by Just Science

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In this special release episode, Just Diversity & Inclusion in Forensic Science, Just Science sat down with Donia Slack, the Director of the Research, Technology, and Evaluation Program in RTI’s Center for Forensic Sciences, and Dale Hart, a Research Forensic Scientist in RTI’s Center for Forensic Sciences, to discuss the importance of diversity and inclusion in forensics. 

Forensics is a fast-growing field making the need for racial and gender representation among its practitioners critically important. From confronting biased research to experiencing microaggressions and feelings of “imposter syndrome,” our expert panelists know the realities of being underrepresented in the field. Listen along as they detail their experiences as forensic scientists of color, articulate how bias and underrepresentation can produce flawed findings, and discuss the impact that diversity and inclusion has had in their careers in this episode of Just Science.  

This episode is funded by the National Institute of Justice’s Forensic Technology Center of Excellence.

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The Journals Online (JOLs) project aimed to provide increased the visibility, accessibility and quality of peer-reviewed journals published in developing countries so that the research outputs produced in these countries can be found, shared and used more eﬀectively.

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The Journals Online (JOLs) project aimed to provide increased the visibility, accessibility and quality of peer-reviewed journals published in developing countries so that the research outputs produced in these countries can be found, shared and used more eﬀectively.

The project began in 1998 under the Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information ( PERI) and continued as part of INASP's Strengthening Research and Knowledge Systems ( SRKS) programme.

Improving the quality, credibility and visibility of developing country research journals is crucial to ensure balanced and representative global research dissemination, and to helping research achieve greater impact by making it accessible and valued by those that need it.

Supported the development of online journal hosting platforms by existing institutions in developing countries or regions

Provided training in publishing best practices, and various other supporting services to the editors of participating research journals hosted on the platforms

Strengthened the capacity of the local hosting organization to run the journal platforms themselves

Advised on Open Access, creating and maintaining a user-friendly interface and technical support on online publishing workflows

Developing the capacity of teams based within national science agencies to manage journal platforms

African Journals Online: The Journals Online project began with AJOL in 1998. AJOL currently operates as an African non-profit organization. www.ajol.info

Philippines Journals Online: PhilJOL was established in association with Ateneo de Manila University and De La Salle University. In 2010 the management was transferred to the Philippines at the Asia Pacific College.

While the visibility of Southern research has improved, they are often overlooked by Southern and Northern researchers alike, with their quality and thus credibility questioned. In 2017, INASP and AJOL launched the Journal Publishing Practices and Standards (JPPS) - a unique framework for providing accreditation and support for journals hosted on the Journals Online platforms. It is already proving to be a powerful incentive for editors to improve the quality of their journals.

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The Journals Online (JOLs) project aimed to provide increased the visibility, accessibility and quality of peer-reviewed journals published in developing countries so that the research outputs produced in these countries can be found, shared and used more eﬀectively.

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Why Do Global South Scientists Struggle To Get Published?

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Why Do Global South Scientists Struggle To Get Published?

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Hayat Mahdjoub. Research scientist. University of Guelma, Algeria
Hyat Mahdjoub

Algerian biologist Hayat Mahdjoub used to feel her struggles to produce scientific papers were "her fault," but now she's using her experiences as a female scientist from the Global South to analyse those same barriers through a study of equity, diversity and inclusion.

Mahdjoub, a research scientist at the University of Guelma, Algeria says people from underrepresented groups and especially women from the Global South are struggling in academia, across many fields.

"I encountered barriers during my research career and I assumed that my lack of scientific productivity was 100% my fault," she says, "But I started to understand that there are many reasons why I am not as productive as a researcher from the Global North, including the lack of various resources, lack of funding, English as a foreign language, and low opportunity for knowledge exchange."

Mahdjoub says that her the interest in equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) started following her experiences, resulting in a paper called "An intersectionality lens is needed to establish a global view of equity, diversity and inclusion."

"I aim to present a global view of equity diversity and inclusion that highlights the barriers and struggles of scientists from the global south; helps identify the privileges of certain groups; and facilitates the establishment of solutions for equal opportunities," she says.

Mahdjoub and Rassim Kalifa (the corresponding author), developed the KLOB framework, which structures barriers to academic success into four components: knowledge exchange (K), language (L), obligations (O), and biases (B).

In the paper, the researcher say this framework helps scientists to think about the cumulative effect of multiple barriers that individuals from different backgrounds encounter to succeed in academic activities such as scientific publishing, which they explain is the biggest currency of success in the current academic system.

"This motivated me to share my perspective and speak up about inequities in academic leadership," she says, " The biggest challenge in this project is to speak up and highlight privileges that some people have over others, allowing them to succeed in science."

In February 2022, Mahdjoub also published a paper about the environmental impacts of "experimental" viral videos, where unconventional methods of hunting or fishing, for example with soda and candy, are filmed and garner massive audiences.

Algerian scientist Hayat Mahdjoub at the UBC experimental ponds Vancouver 2020
Hayat Mahdjoub

Algeria to the World

Mahdjoub grew up in Guelma, a small town in Northeast Algeria.

"When I was a child, I used to watch wildlife documentaries with my father which increased my curiosity about nature and wildlife," she says.

Mahdjoub says her journey began when she was an undergraduate student and decided to pursue Ecology as a major despite knowing that this area of study was not appealing especially to women because it generally involves going to unsafe, remote areas.

"What attracted me to ecology was the positive experience of discovering biodiversity in the wild and the passion that some of the graduate mentors transferred to me through their teaching and guidance," she says.

Mahdjoub explains that the world is facing serious environmental issues that require inclusive and global perspectives.

"The integration of the scientific views and opinions from the Global South is valuable to increase the diversity of perspectives in ecology for better understanding and solving of these environmental issues that need urgent actions," she says.

Mahdjoub says people from the Global South have a better understanding of their environments and biodiversity, which in turn bring valuable and necessary solutions.

"I think that the perspective of researchers from North Africa is not well represented in ecology," she says, "As a North African woman in science, I can present an interesting view that could be complementary to other international opinions."

Algerian Hayat Mahdjoub in the lab at the University of Zurich 2018
Hayat Mahdjoub

Mahdjoub's frequent collaborator and fellow Algerian biologist is Rassim Khelifa who studies dragonflies.

MORE FROM FORBES Can Dragonflies Help Replace Pesticides? Ask This Algerian!

Khelifa, a quantitative ecology postdoctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia's Biodiversity Research Centre, studies the diet of these flying predatory insects to see if they can be used on farms to control insect pests.

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Why Do Global South Scientists Struggle To Get Published?

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Algerian biologist Hayat Mahdjoub used to feel her struggles to produce scientific papers were "her fault," but now she's using her experiences as a female scientist from the Global South to analyse those same barriers through a study of equity, diversity and inclusion.

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ARTICLE: ROYAL SOCIETY ON BLACK STEM ACADEMIA 

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ARTICLE: ROYAL SOCIETY ON BLACK STEM ACADEMIA 

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People from Black backgrounds in science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM) higher education in the UK have poorer degree outcomes and lower rates of academic career progression than other ethnic groups, research for the Royal Society shows.

Two reports published today using Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA) data lay out the "unacceptable" inequalities in UK STEM higher education over the past 10 years, and in the pool of UK-based researchers eligible for the Society's own early career fellowship grants.

The proportion of Black students entering undergraduate and postgraduate education has increased over the past decade, as it has for other minority ethnic groups, but they are leaving STEM in greater numbers at all stages of the career pipeline.

The Royal Society is convening a roundtable with representatives from the higher education sector, funders, and diversity and inclusion groups, to discuss the reports and what action is needed to close the attainment gap.

President of the Royal Society, Sir Adrian Smith, said: "Talented Black people are not finding science careers in UK academia and that is unacceptable. The reasons are complex and have been much discussed but we have not made enough progress.

"Our reports show that Black people are more likely to drop out of science at all points of the career path. It is time that the whole science community comes together to find out why and put it right.

"We cannot fix this overnight but we have to start making more progress.

"These reports highlight the challenges faced by Black researchers, but we also need to tackle the wider inequalities which exist across our society and prevent talented people from pursuing careers in science."

Diversity in UK STEM academia

The first report Ethnicity STEM data for students and staff in higher education was compiled by Jisc using diversity statistics from 2007/08 to 2018/19.

There is significant variation in rates of progression and outcomes across ethnicity groups, though Black staff and students have consistently poorer outcomes than white and Asian students.

The report identifies several persistent trends which should be researched further, including:

Higher non-completion rates among Black STEM students - In 2017/18 , the non-completion rate among Black STEM first degree students was 4.7% and 6.3% among postgraduates. This compared to undergraduate and postgraduate dropout rates of 2.9% and 4.4%, respectively, for Asian students and 2.7% and 3.8% for white students.

Disparities in degree outcomes for Black students - White students in 2018/19 were twice as likely as Black students to graduate with first class honours - 35.7% compared to 17.9%. Black students were roughly three times more likely than white students to leave their first degree with a third - 9.5% of Black students compared to 3.2%.

Variation in progression through STEM study and careers across ethnicity groups - In 2018/19, 18.7% of academic staff in STEM were from ethnic minority groups, 13.2% were Asian compared to 1.7% who were Black. This is a pronounced drop off from postgraduate studies, where 7.1% of entrants are Black and 11.9% are Asian.

At senior levels, just 3.5% of Black academic staff hold a Professor post, compared to 6.6% of Asian staff, and 11.9% of white staff.

Within groups there is variation across, subject, gender, age, nationality, institution type and postcode, demonstrating the diminishing value of reporting broad categories like Black, Asian and minority ethnicity (BAME).

Dr Mark Richards, Senior Lecturer and Head of Outreach in the Physics Department at Imperial College London and a member of the Royal Society's Diversity Committee, said: "This data is so potent because it looks at these trends over ten years and shows where there might be systemic issues at play and where collective action is required.

"We need targeted interventions across the pipeline; raising aspirations in primary schools, bringing more clarity to prospective PhD students in terms of career pathways, and supporting existing Black researchers and academics to achieve their full potential.

"If we're serious about system change, we might not see meaningful results for a generation, though this can be a turning point."

Diversity in the Royal Society's UK early career fellowship grants

The Jisc report calls for funders to undertake detailed diversity profiles of their grants and the pool of researchers eligible to apply for them.

The second report published today, produced by the Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) aims to address this for postdoctoral researchers in the UK eligible for the Royal Society's early-career fellowship programmes.

From the potential pool of 13,405 eligible postdoctoral researchers, around 42% are female; 29% are from a minority ethnic group of all nationalities - but only around 2% from a Black background.

Of the 5,070 eligible UK nationals, just 1% are from Black backgrounds, 7.5% are from Asian backgrounds and, overall, 12% from any ethnic minority background.

Comparison against the applications from UK nationals that the Royal Society received for these early career fellowships between 2018-2020, published separately, shows they do not represent this eligible pool:

Just 8% of applicants to the University Research Fellowships and 11.5% of Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships were from individuals who identified as from an ethnic minority background

In the last three years there were no applications from Black British researchers to the Society's prestigious University Research Fellowship scheme (excluding Sir Henry Dale Fellowships)

Next steps

As well as the roundtables and work across the sector, the Society is commissioning further work on socioeconomic inequalities. It is also looking to improve diversity of its grant applications by running networking events and workshops, with partners, for eligible early career researchers from ethnic minority backgrounds and facilitating peer support and mentorship from existing grant holders.

"As someone outside of STEM, it's clear how important sponsors are when embarking on an academic career," said Sandra Kerr CBE, Race Equality Director with Business in the Community and a member of the Society's Diversity Committee.

"That person who can help to open doors and support your applications and ideas is so important, and may be one reason we don't see so many young Black people in academia."

The Society supports two existing mentoring partnerships, Destination STEMM and In2Science, aimed at increasing STEM higher education participation among Black secondary school students and pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds respectively.

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STEM sector must step up and end unacceptable disparities in Black staff and students academic progression and success | Royal Society

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People from Black backgrounds in science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM) higher education in the UK have poorer degree outcomes and lower rates of academic career progression than other ethnic groups, research for the Royal Society shows.

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Royals Society Of Biology - Diversity Conference 2016 - Bonnie Greer OBE

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Royals Society Of Biology - Diversity Conference 2016 - Bonnie Greer OBE

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Diversity Conference 2016: Diversity matters - the road to inclusivity - Bonnie Greer OBE

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Critically Appraising for anti racism - Ramona Naicker

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Critically Appraising for anti racism - Ramona Naicker

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Critically Appraising for Anti-Racism: Ramona Naicker. 2022 UHMLG Spring Forum

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Why I am editing Wikipedia by Dr. Jess Wade at Women in STEM Connect

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Why I am editing Wikipedia by Dr. Jess Wade at Women in STEM Connect

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Wikimedian in Residence - University of Edinburgh

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Why I am editing Wikipedia by Dr. Jess Wade

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Decolonising the sciences podcast series

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Decolonising the sciences podcast series

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Dr Daniel Akinbosede talks about how to decolonise the STEM curriculum

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A voice for diversity in science | Dr Jessica Wade | TEDxLondonWomen

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Decolonising the sciences podcast series

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Decolonising the sciences podcast series

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Dr Daniel Akinbosede talks about how to decolonise the STEM curriculum

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Ethnicity STEM data for students and academic staff in higher education, ROYAL SOCIETY REPORT 2021

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Ethnicity STEM data for students and academic staff in higher education, ROYAL SOCIETY REPORT 2021

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Ethnicity STEM data for students and academic staff in higher education

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Webinar from the University of Bristol, Inclusive Research Collective event - Nov 2021

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The Next Generation of Scientists in Africa,

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The Next Generation of Scientists in Africa,

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Sean D. Tallman and Cate E. Bird. Diversity and Inclusion in Forensic Anthropology: Where We Stand and Prospects for the Future. Forensic Anthropology. Vol. 3 N

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Study finds field of forensic anthropology lacks diversity

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Study finds field of forensic anthropology lacks diversity

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Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The field of forensic anthropology is a relatively homogenous discipline in terms of diversity (people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with mental and physical disabilities, etc.) and this is highly problematic for the field of study and for most forensic anthropologists.

At the core of the forensic sciences are basic sciences and the STEM fields, which have struggled with increasing diversity and inclusion. The lack of diversity in the STEM fields and the forensic sciences is concerning because it can limit the types of questions being asked in research.

"As forensic practitioners, we do not reflect the demographics of the highly dynamic populations that we serve across the country. Relevant and successful research relies on a diversity of ideas, perspectives and experiences, and without such diversity, the field stagnates and does not keep up with important issues that are relevant to society," explained corresponding author Sean Tallman, Ph.D., RPA, assistant professor of anatomy and neurobiology at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM).

In order to explore the demographics of the forensic anthropological community and perceptions of diversity and inclusion, an anonymous survey was sent out to the Anthropology Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS), which included more than 500 individuals. The survey consisted of 48 questions that asked about demographic information; whether participants believe that diversity exists in various educational contexts; their experience with diversity, inclusion, and harassment at the AAFS annual meetings; and what the field could do to increase diversity and inclusion.

The data then was analyzed for trends in order to propose actionable measures that could produce meaningful change that positively impacts diversity and inclusion in forensic anthropology. According to the researchers they found many forensic anthropologists had experienced or witnessed discriminatory behavior within the AAFS, which is the scientific society that most forensic practitioners maintain membership in the U.S. "Problematically, many individuals in forensic anthropology do not know how to report incidents of discrimination or harassment that occur at the AAFS," added Tallman.

While the discipline has been slow to address issues of diversity, inclusion and discrimination, Tallman believes the field can mitigate these issues through regular tracking of membership demographics by the AAFS, reassessing graduate admission requirements and indicators of success, creating mechanisms for reporting discrimination and harassment, targeted outreach, and developing mentorship opportunities.

"Striving for a culture of diversity through inclusion in forensic anthropology helps to reflect the greater populations that we serve and encourages us to challenge our own assumptions and inherent biases that can complicate the analysis of skeletal remains in forensic casework. Diversity and inclusion initiatives should be substantial and well-supported, rather than merely token gestures to increase the number of minorities or underrepresented groups."

More information: Sean D. Tallman and Cate E. Bird. Diversity and Inclusion in Forensic Anthropology: Where We Stand and Prospects for the Future. Forensic Anthropology. Vol. 3 No. 1 (2020): Winter 2020

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Study finds field of forensic anthropology lacks diversity

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The field of forensic anthropology is a relatively homogenous discipline in terms of diversity (people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with mental and physical disabilities, etc.) and this is highly problematic for the field of study and for most forensic anthropologists.

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Diversity in forensic sciences: Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) representation in different medicolegal fields in the United States - ScienceDirect

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Diversity in forensic sciences: Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) representation in different medicolegal fields in the United States - ScienceDirect

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The Importance of Diversity and Inclusion in the Forensic Sciences | National Institute of Justice

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The Importance of Diversity and Inclusion in the Forensic Sciences | National Institute of Justice

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The benefits of diversity within an organization are well documented.[1] Having people of different races, ethnicities, genders, socioeconomic status, and backgrounds within a workplace can drive innovation, problem-solving, and competitiveness. Research has shown that diverse teams perform better, are more creative, and outperform homogeneous teams.[2] Increasing diversity in thought, perspectives, and backgrounds allows for new and more complex research questions and problems to be addressed. Research has also documented a direct link between diversity and quality of scientific work as measured by peer review journal citations.[3]

As the forensic sciences continue to evolve, it is critical that we leverage the skills and expertise of people from all backgrounds to provide innovative solutions to complex issues. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in the science and engineering sectors - which support the forensic sciences - grew by 10.5 percent (817,260 jobs) between May 2009 and May 2015,[4] compared with 5.2 percent net growth in nonscience-related occupations. This growth outpaces the production of talent currently being trained to fill these jobs. To strengthen the forensic sciences, it is imperative that we train and employ more forensic scientists and foster an environment in which uniqueness and difference are embraced and valued.[5]

To this end, NIJ is developing strategies and policies to solicit the participation of all segments of the population to fulfill its mission. NIJ is committed to casting a wide net that will allow us to engage the best and the brightest from a broad array of scientific disciplines and backgrounds to support rigorous and innovative research to solve criminal justice problems.

The Diversity of the Forensic Sciences

The word "forensic" comes from the Latin term forensis, which means "in open court, public, from the forum."[6] Forensic science is the application of scientific principles and methods to matters of law and comprises a broad array of science, math, and engineering disciplines, the largest being biology and chemistry. Most forensic scientists obtain a bachelor's or master's degree in chemistry or biology and then specialize in a specific area of study, such as toxicology, pathology, or DNA.[7] These broad scientific disciplines give rise to many forensic subdisciplines that require specialized training and expertise (see exhibit 1).

Forensic scientists work in crime laboratories, police departments, medical examiners' offices, academia, and research labs. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, publicly funded crime labs employed 14,300 full-time forensic personnel in 2014.[8] In the same year, these labs received an estimated 3.8 million forensic requests, 3.6 million of which they completed. At the end of 2014, publicly funded crime labs had an estimated backlog of 570,100 requests for forensic services, and 38 percent of these labs outsourced one or more types of services.[9]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that, between 2014 and 2024, there will be a 27 percent increase in open positions for forensic science technicians.[10] These data and projections indicate a significant need to produce more forensic scientists over the next decade to develop highly discriminating, accurate, reliable, cost-effective, and rapid methods for the identification, analysis, and interpretation of physical evidence. Due to the inherent nature of the forensic sciences and the broad scope and depth of disciplines needed to address various crime-related problems, we must employ research, development, and technology in all areas of science and engineering.

What Is STEM?

The acronym STEM refers to science, technology, engineering, and math. First introduced by the National Science Foundation in the late 1990s and officially accepted in 2000,[11] STEM embodies the interrelatedness of the four disciplines as they relate to education.[12] It represents an integrative curriculum that incorporates the 21st-century skills needed for the jobs of the future, such as problem-solving, innovation, and teamwork.[13] Over the past decade, STEM has evolved to refer not only to an integrative teaching strategy but also to a policy response and priority of K-12 school districts, federal science agencies, and higher education institutions. STEM generally includes the physical sciences (physics, math, and chemistry), life sciences (biology, anatomy, botany, and anthropology), engineering, and technology. Some federal agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, have a broad view of STEM and include the social and behavioral sciences (psychology and sociology). Other organizations also include architecture, medical sciences, and computer sciences.

In 2007, the groundbreaking report Rising Above the Gathering Storm highlighted the importance of STEM and its vital relation to U.S. global competitiveness, national security, and scientific literacy.[14] Since then, there has been continued concern about the steady decline of U.S. dominance in science and engineering. Additional concerns regarding mediocre U.S. performance in science and math compared with other countries, low STEM interest among K-12 students, STEM achievement gaps between racial and ethnic minorities and white students, and low representation of females and minorities in STEM majors and careers continue to shape federal and local science policy throughout the nation.

The Leaky Pipeline

The STEM sectors continue to face challenges in recruiting and sustaining individuals from diverse backgrounds.[15] The "pipeline" metaphor refers to the accepted concept that to produce sufficient numbers of highly qualified STEM professionals for the workforce, there must be sufficient input of students starting in elementary school (see exhibit 2). The main segments of the STEM pipeline are:

K-12 education: Students are exposed to STEM concepts through formal and informal activities.

Undergraduate education: Students major in a broad scientific discipline.

Graduate education: Students specialize in or master a specific field within STEM that involves conducting and publishing research.

Career: Students are successfully placed into STEM careers.

There are many points along this pipeline where students exit for various reasons - a phenomenon generally known as the "leaky pipeline."[16] This is particularly true for females and underrepresented minorities, including African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, Alaska Natives, American Indians, Asians/Pacific Islanders, and Native Hawaiians. This analogy suggests that there should be mechanisms in place to support and sustain students throughout their educational pathway.[17]
See "Why So Few?"
The pivotal report Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America's Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads chronicled the challenges of filling and sustaining the STEM pipeline and the impact of the lack of females and racial and ethnic minorities in the STEM workforce.[18] According to the report, the U.S. STEM labor market is projected to grow faster than any other sector over the decade, and participation by females and racial and ethnic minorities is not only a national priority but is critical to maintaining U.S. global competitiveness in technologically based sectors.

The 2010 census indicates that racial and ethnic minorities are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population, and projections indicate that, by the year 2044, more than half of all Americans will belong to a minority group.[19] However, these groups continue to be underrepresented in STEM fields (see exhibit 3). According to the National Science Foundation, women represent approximately 51 percent of the total population, but they represent only about 30 percent of science and engineering fields.[20] Within the science and engineering fields, representation of women continues to vary greatly, with approximately 70 percent in psychology and 18 percent in computer sciences.[21]

Additionally, Hispanics and African Americans represent 17 percent and 13 percent of the total population, respectively, but they represent only 6 percent and 5 percent of science and engineering fields.[22] A wide gap in educational attainment continues between underrepresented minorities and their white and Asian counterparts, who consistently have higher representation in science and engineering fields than they do in the U.S. population.

Additional data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics indicate that while women continue to see strides in the life and social sciences, they remain significantly underrepresented in the physical and engineering sciences.[23]

In 2018, 2.4 million STEM-related jobs will need to be filled.[24] Will we be able to meet this growing demand for STEM talent? By diversifying the STEM pipeline, we will be able to draw on the brainpower and talent of segments of the population that have been historically discouraged from scientific enterprise. This will allow us to expand the problems and issues that can be addressed and the questions that can be asked. Research indicates that to improve diversity in STEM fields, from which forensic professionals are drawn, there must be concerted and intentional efforts to attract students by building pathways to STEM careers.[25] We know that underrepresentation in STEM careers is a direct result of lack of diversity in STEM majors.[26] We also know that efforts must start early in the K-12 years and must incorporate active learning and guided inquiry.[27] By focusing on closing key transition gaps between middle school, high school, college, and graduate school, we can retain and support more students, particularly those from diverse backgrounds. Without a sustained and highly qualified STEM workforce to undergird the forensic sciences, the United States will not be able to compete globally or provide innovative solutions to reduce crime and ensure public safety.

NIJ's Strategic Diversity and Inclusion Initiative

As the lead agency for forensic science research and development and programs dedicated to reducing backlogs of evidence in the nation's forensic laboratories, NIJ's Office of Investigative and Forensic Sciences (OIFS) relies on the knowledge and expertise of a vast array of scientists, forensic practitioners, and criminal justice professionals to strengthen the forensic sciences. OIFS recognizes the need to enhance diversity in the forensic sciences and has undertaken a strategic planning process focused on expanding the pool of diverse talent in the various forensic science disciplines, particularly grant applicants, peer reviewers, and graduate research fellows. This strategic planning process includes three primary areas: assessment, outreach and engagement, and sustainability.

Assessment

To determine the state of awareness and to share diversity goals and planning efforts, NIJ has been participating in a series of workshops focused on the importance of diversity and inclusion for science organizations and how it affects everyday work, particularly with stakeholders. NIJ has also been evaluating the available demographic data on peer reviewers, principal investigators, grant applicants, and graduate fellows - data that will help NIJ determine areas of opportunity to focus on diversity efforts.

Outreach and engagement

Over the past year, NIJ has worked to expand awareness of the agency to the broader scientific and research communities. For example, NIJ has developed and implemented marketing strategies to expand communications to larger audiences of underrepresented students and professionals. These efforts include collaborating with professional scientific organizations with diverse membership profiles to share opportunities for research and development grants, peer reviewing, and graduate fellowships. Many of the professional scientific organizations - including the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Consortium of Social Science Associations, the National Society of Black Engineers, and the American Chemical Society - have memberships in the thousands and serve as conduits for information for potential candidates who were not being reached.[28]

To reach a broad range of scientific disciplines, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and educational levels, NIJ partnered with the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities to facilitate two webinars and share opportunities for graduate student and faculty researchers.[29] As a result of this strategic collaboration, NIJ was invited to serve on an "Education and Justice" panel at the 2016 Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week Conference and discuss opportunities in forensic science and criminal justice with undergraduate and graduate students and faculty from around the country.[30] The White House Initiative has a stakeholder database of more than 4,000 students, faculty, and administrators involved in all areas of STEM and the social and behavioral sciences. These types of partnerships enable NIJ to reach broader and more diverse audiences in the higher education, research, and scientific communities.

NIJ has also expanded its outreach and engagement efforts by participating in conferences that target diverse populations in STEM. Over the past year, NIJ has participated in conferences for the Society for Advancing Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science, the AAAS, the National Organization of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers,[31] and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. NIJ also presented at the 2017 Emerging Researchers National Conference in STEM, which is sponsored by the AAAS and the National Science Foundation; it included approximately 1,000 undergraduate and graduate student researchers of color from 10 National Science Foundation research programs.

Participation in these types of events has increased awareness and helped lift the science of NIJ to broader and more scientifically diverse audiences. These efforts will also help expand the pool of potential peer reviewers who will be called on to serve on grant review panels, which is the primary mechanism that guides award funding decisions.

Sustainability

NIJ has several research initiatives aimed at building the STEM pipeline and creating pathways for students and early researchers from diverse backgrounds to advance scientific knowledge to solve criminal justice problems. These include the Graduate Research Fellowship in STEM (GRF-STEM) and the Research Assistantship Program (RAP). Both programs support STEM degree attainment and expand the talent pool in scientific disciplines engaged in criminal justice and forensics-related research.

For decades, the Graduate Research Fellowship Program has been NIJ's primary vehicle for supporting graduate research aimed at providing solutions for problems related to forensic science and criminal justice policy and practice. The GRF-STEM Program provides awards to accredited academic institutions to support graduate research leading to doctoral degrees in topic areas that are relevant to ensuring public safety, preventing and controlling crime, and ensuring the fair and impartial administration of criminal justice in the United States. This program supports research in a broad array of scientific disciplines, including the life sciences, physical sciences, math, computer sciences, and engineering.
See "Supporting Innovative Research to Address Complex Criminal Justice Problems"
Exhibit 4 shows demographics for the graduate fellowships awarded in FY 2016 and indicates support of various scientific fields that correspond to multiple forensic disciplines. Some of the research studies that were awarded in FY 2016 include:

Improved detection of kratom alkaloids in forensic toxicology.

A mechanism-based forensic investigation into the post-mortem redistribution of morphine.

Developing forensic epigenomic age-estimation tools for diverse populations.

New concept for fingerprint analysis: bioaffinity-based systems utilizing amino acids.

Nanostructural characterization of ballistic fiber degradation.

Characterization of personal and condom lubricants using DART-TOFMS and comprehensive GC-MS.

Nanoparticles for chemical imaging of latent fingerprints.

By supporting graduate student research in these areas, NIJ addresses some of the persistent barriers to completing STEM doctoral degrees - lack of funding and research opportunities. Moreover, NIJ is strengthening forensic science policy and practice by advancing technology, improving analytical sensitivity and selection, and enhancing processes to accurately identify crime scene evidence.

RAP has historically supported students in the social and behavioral sciences to address issues related to violence, victimization, corrections, and sexual assault. NIJ recently expanded the program to include support for students in STEM fields, allowing the institute to support student development and research in additional areas related to science and engineering, including digital forensics and multimedia analysis, data science applied to crime justice, body armor for female law enforcement officers, geospatial and crime mapping, and forensic analyses on sexual assaults. RAP involves an onsite residency at NIJ for a minimum of 20 hours a week. The benefits of this residency include interacting with criminal justice researchers who can serve as mentors, provide authentic career advice, and help students develop the skills needed to be successful in the workforce.

As NIJ develops and implements its diversity and inclusion strategic initiative, it will continue to engage, collaborate, and partner with stakeholders throughout the scientific, educational, and research communities. For example, NIJ has committed to serve an active role on the American Academy of Forensic Sciences Diversity Committee to help broaden the pool of students and practitioners in the forensic sciences. The NIJ Diversity Working Group is also actively developing and implementing the strategic diversity initiative and will work with leadership to advance these efforts.

Diversifying the Future

As the forensic sciences continue to evolve, it is imperative that we value and leverage all segments of the population to tackle complex criminal justice problems. It is well documented that diversity in STEM drives innovation and discovery, expands the questions that can be probed, and harnesses unique perspectives and skill sets. While diversity in gender, race, and ethnicity is critical in broadening the pool of forensic and criminal justice researchers, diversity in scientific disciplines is equally important as we seek to take advantage of more interdisciplinary approaches to problem-solving.

NIJ remains committed to engaging the best and brightest talent to assist with advancing scientific knowledge for criminal justice purposes. To achieve this goal, we must cast a wide net and leverage all of the available human capital. These efforts are critical to attracting and sustaining STEM talent to address both current and future needs in the forensic sciences.

In 2016, Candice Bridge at the University of Florida earned a research and development grant from NIJ to improve rape investigation methods in cases where DNA is limited or nonexistent. Her lab will analyze lubricants and condoms and build a database that will provide another potential connection between the perpetrator and the victim. This work will hopefully help to identify and convict more rapists.

Bridge obtained her Ph.D. in forensic chemistry at age 25 and is one of the first African American females to teach chemistry at her alma mater, Howard University. By funding this work, which will support one postdoctoral fellow and one doctoral student, NIJ is not only helping to advance the careers of early STEM faculty and researchers but is also creating a pathway for students from diverse backgrounds and scientific disciplines to make vital contributions to the forensic sciences.

Return to text.

For More Information

Learn more about the Graduate Research Fellowship in STEM.

Learn more about the Research Assistantship Program.

About This Article

This article was published as part of NIJ Journal issue number 279, April 2018.

Editor's note: This activity was supported by an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship served at the National Institute of Justice, Office of Investigative and Forensic Sciences.

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The Importance of Diversity and Inclusion in the Forensic Sciences

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The benefits of diversity within an organization are well documented.[1] Having people of different races, ethnicities, genders, socioeconomic status, and backgrounds within a workplace can drive innovation, problem-solving, and competitiveness. Research has shown that diverse teams perform better, are more creative, and outperform homogeneous teams.[2] Increasing diversity in thought, perspectives, and backgrounds allows for new and more complex research questions and problems to be addressed.

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Forensic Evidence Processing in Gender-Based Violence Cases

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Less than a week ago, we were celebrating National DNA Day, which commemorates the 1953 anniversary of scientists publishing the double helix structure of DNA for the first time in a paper in Nature. Admiration and reverence for James Watson and Francis Crick as the fathers of DNA go hand-in-hand with that day.

Less often do we talk about Maurice Wilkins, a DNA researcher at King's College London, who would later share the 1962 Nobel prize with Watson and Crick for the discovery of the molecular structure of DNA. But that's only ¾ of the team whose research led to the discovery of DNA's structure.

While she was not awarded the Nobel prize, we know that Wilkins' colleague Rosalind Franklin, a physical chemist, played a vital role in Watson and Crick's ultimate discovery. Oral history says Watson made his big breakthrough after he was shown an X-ray image of DNA taken by Franklin-without her permission or knowledge. For this and many other reasons, Franklin has been portrayed as the "wronged heroine" in the DNA story, another female casualty of the male-dominated scientific industry.

But, new work by Matthew Cobb and Nathaniel Comfort at University of Manchester and Johns Hopkins University, respectively, argues the assumed perspective is not really how the events unfolded. In a commentary in , the professors say they found an unstudied draft news article from 1953 meant for Time magazine that tells a different story. While visiting Franklin's archive at Churchill College in the UK, the professors-who are separately writing biographies on Watson and Crick-also went through her notes, reconstructing the timeline and development of her ideas.

"Together, these documents suggest a different account of the discovery of the double helix. Franklin did not fail to grasp the structure of DNA. She was an equal contributor to solving it," they write in . "Getting Franklin's story right is crucial because she has become a role model for women going into science. She was up against not just the routine sexism of the day, but also more subtle forms embedded in science-some of which are still present today."

Early DNA ideas

In the early 1950s, the structure and function of DNA remained unclear. It had been found in every cell type investigated, and was known to consist of a phosphate backbone to which were attached four kinds of base-adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine (A, T, C and G).

In 1951, Franklin joined Wilkins at King's College London as an expert on using X-ray diffraction to study the structure of molecules, including potentially DNA. But, the two quickly clashed, stalling their collaboration, but not their similar research interests.

Franklin was quickly able to exploit a discovery that Wilkins had made earlier-DNA in solution could take two forms, what she called the crystalline or A form, and the paracrystalline, or B form. That same year, Franklin gave a seminar where she described both A and B collectively as "big helix with several chains, phosphates on outside, phosphate-phosphate interhelical bonds, disrupted by water." However, unable to resolve the A-form structure, Franklin decided by the middle of 1952 that it was not actually helical.

Photograph 51

According to Watson, in early 1953, he visited King's and got into an argument with Franklin. Wilkins, he wrote, rescued him from the confrontation and then showed him Photograph 51, a particularly clear image of the B form, taken 8 months earlier by Franklin and her graduate student. Watson says this is the image that told him a DNA helix must exist as only that structure could produce the marks clearly seen in the image.

"But Watson's narrative contains an absurd presumption," Cobb and Comfort write in their new commentary. "It implies that Franklin, the skilled chemist, could not understand her own data, whereas he, a crystallographic novice, apprehended it immediately."

The two professors/biographers suggest it was not the photograph that led Watson to his breakthrough, but other measurements and data from Franklin and Wilkins in the duo's Medical Research Council (MRC) report.

As Cobb and Comfort rehash, shortly after Watson saw Photograph 51, Crick's supervisor, Max Perutz, handed them an informal report of the activity of the Franklin and Wilkin's MRC unit, which Perutz had been given as part of an official visit to the unit in December 1952. This included a page from Franklin, describing her work. The letter was not confidential, but questions still remain on whether it was meant to be shared with Watson and Crick,

In her contribution to the MRC report, Franklin confirmed the 34 Å result for the B form. She also reported that the unit cell of DNA was huge. Franklin added some key crystallographic data for the A form, indicating that it had a "C2" symmetry, which in turn implied that the molecule had an even number of sugar-phosphate strands running in opposite directions.

"Notes by Crick for a lecture on the history of the double helix, given to historians of science at the University of Oxford in May 1961, together with formal and informal remarks made throughout his life, reveal that, unlike Photograph 51, this report was truly significant for confirming the structure that Watson and Crick eventually obtained," write Cobb and Comfort. "In the end, neither Photograph 51 nor the MRC report 'gave' Watson and Crick the double helix. What did was six weeks of what they later described as trial and error-making chemical calculations and fiddling about with cardboard models."

In a full description of DNA's structure in a paper submitted in August 1953 and published in 1954, Crick and Watson acknowledged that their conclusions would have been "unlikely if not impossible" without the MRC report.

A missing piece of TIME

Three weeks after the DNA papers were published in Nature, they caught the attention of Joan Bruce, a London journalist working for Time. In the draft news article that Cobb and Comfort recently discovered, Bruce portrayed the DNA research as being done by two teams-one consisting of Wilkins and Franklin gathering experimental evidence using X-ray analysis; and the second comprising Watson and Crick working on theory.

To a certain extent, wrote Bruce, the teams worked independently, although "they linked up, confirming each other's work from time to time, or wrestling over a common problem". The professors point to two specific examples of Franklin's work that they say "render [her] in a position of strength, every bit a peer of Wilkins, Crick and Watson."

"[This] strengthens our case that Franklin was an equal member in a group of four scientists working on the structure of DNA. She was recognized by her colleagues as such, although that acknowledgement was both belated and understated," write Cobb and Comfort.

Ultimately, Bruce's article was scraped as it needed a lot of revisions to ger the science correct. Still, even as a draft, the article portrays franklin as a valued member of the four-person DNA team.

"It is tantalizing to think how people might remember the double-helix story had Bruce's article been published, suitably scientifically corrected. From the outset, Franklin would have been represented as an equal member of a quartet who solved the double helix, one half of the team that articulated the scientific question, took important early steps toward a solution, provided crucial data and verified the result," conclude Cobb and Comfort.

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Biographers: Draft News Article Shows Rosalind Franklin was Part of DNA Team

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Less than a week ago, we were celebrating National DNA Day, which commemorates the 1953 anniversary of scientists publishing the double helix structure of DNA for the first time in a paper in Nature. Admiration and reverence for James Watson and Francis Crick as the fathers of DNA go hand-in-hand with that day.

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James Watson and Francis Crick are two of the twentieth century's most renowned scientists. The seminal paper from the pair at the University of Cambridge, UK, detailing the discovery of the DNA double helix, was published as part of a trio in Nature 70 years ago this week ⁻. They are also widely believed to have hit on the structure only after stealing data from Rosalind Franklin, a physical chemist working at King's College London.

Lore has it that the decisive insight for the double helix came when Watson was shown an X-ray image of DNA taken by Franklin - without her permission or knowledge. Known as Photograph 51, this image is treated as the philosopher's stone of molecular biology, the key to the 'secret of life' (not to mention a Nobel prize). In this telling, Franklin, who died of ovarian cancer in 1958 at just 37, is portrayed as a brilliant scientist, but one who was ultimately unable to decipher what her own data were telling her about DNA. She supposedly sat on the image for months without realizing its significance, only for Watson to understand it at a glance.

This version of events has entered into popular culture. It is the subject of Photograph 51, a play by Anna Ziegler that starred Nicole Kidman on the London stage in 2015. The image graces a British 50 pence coin that marked the centenary of Franklin's birth, in 2020. The whole affair has provided fodder for scornful Twitter jokes ("What did Watson and Crick discover in 1953? Franklin's data.") and even a marvellous rap battle by seventh-grade students in Oakland, California.

But this is not what happened.

One of us (N.C.) is writing a biography of Watson, the other (M.C.) is writing one of Crick. In 2022, we visited Franklin's archive at Churchill College in Cambridge, UK, and went through her notes together, reconstructing the development of her ideas. We also found a hitherto unstudied draft news article from 1953, written in consultation with Franklin and meant for Time, a US magazine with international reach - as well as an overlooked letter from one of Franklin's colleagues to Crick. Together, these documents suggest a different account of the discovery of the double helix. Franklin did not fail to grasp the structure of DNA. She was an equal contributor to solving it.

Getting Franklin's story right is crucial, because she has become a role model for women going into science. She was up against not just the routine sexism of the day, but also more subtle forms embedded in science - some of which are still present today.

Franklin and DNA

In the early 1950s, the structure and function of DNA remained unclear. It had been found in every cell type investigated, and was known to consist of a phosphate backbone to which were attached four kinds of base - adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine (A, T, C and G).

In 1944, the microbiologist Oswald Avery and his colleagues had shown that DNA (not protein) could transform benign Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria into a virulent form. But it remained far from clear that it was the genetic material in all organisms.

At King's College London, biophysicists funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), and led by John Randall, with Maurice Wilkins as his deputy (who would later share the Nobel prize with Watson and Crick in 1962), were using X-ray diffraction to study the structure of the molecule. In 1951, they were joined by Franklin, who had been using this technique to investigate the structure of coal at the Central State Laboratory of Chemical Services in Paris.

As is well known, Franklin and Wilkins clashed, in both personality and scientific approach. Although Franklin relished a good argument and was determined to make progress, Wilkins abhorred confrontation and was slower to act. To ease tensions, Randall divvied up the DNA work. In what Wilkins later called a bad bargain for himself, he agreed to turn over to Franklin the small supply of very pure DNA that he had obtained from the Swiss chemist Rudolf Signer. Wilkins was stuck with poorer quality stuff from the Austrian biochemist Erwin Chargaff, at Columbia University in New York City.

With the Signer DNA, Franklin was able to exploit a discovery that Wilkins had made earlier - DNA in solution could take two forms, what she called the crystalline or A form, and the paracrystalline or B form. Franklin found that she could convert A into B simply by raising the relative humidity in the specimen chamber; lowering it again restored the crystalline A form.

Franklin focused on the A form, Wilkins on the B form. To a physical chemist, the crystalline form seemed the obvious choice. When bombarded with X-rays in front of a photographic plate, it yielded sharp, detailed diffraction patterns. More detail meant more data, which meant a more accurate, albeit more difficult analysis. The B form, by contrast, yielded patterns that were blurrier and less detailed, but simpler to analyse. Initially, Franklin understood both A and B as helical. In notes for a seminar she gave in November 1951, she described them collectively: "big helix with several chains, phosphates on outside, phosphate-phosphate interhelical bonds, disrupted by water".

Unable to resolve the A-form structure, Franklin had decided by the middle of 1952 that it was not actually helical - she even teased Wilkins with a mock funeral notice for the crystalline DNA helix. She was not alone in being thrown off by the A-form data: after the double-helix paper had been published, Crick wrote of Franklin's precise but complex, data-rich A-form image, "I am glad I didn't see it earlier, as it would have worried me considerably".

As for the B form, she and everyone else at King's recognized that it was some kind of helix. But to Franklin it was a distraction. At high humidity, water molecules crowded the atoms in DNA, producing a structure she described as "swollen", "distended", disordered. "Anyway," she wrote in the notes for her 1951 seminar, under increased humidity, "the stuff ultimately dissolves, i.e. chains are separated from one another by water". She saw the B form as an artefact of being water-logged, a symptom of the loss of crystalline order - hence "paracrystalline". This explains why, in late 1952 and early 1953, she rejected the argument that DNA was intrinsically helical.

From a chemist's perspective, Franklin's decision to focus on the crystalline A form was perfectly logical, as were the conclusions she drew from analysing it. But her focus on the drier A form ignored the very wet reality of the inside of a cell - which would mean that DNA took the more humid B form. Together with her insistence that the diffraction data be fully analysed before any modelling was attempted, it would hamper Franklin's efforts for more than a year.

The meaning of Photograph 51

Even Franklin's advocates often unwittingly perpetuate a caricatured view of her science - one that can be traced back to Watson's reality-distorting 1968 bestseller, The Double Helix. Watson's version of the next, crucial stage in the story is often repeated to highlight how Franklin was deprived of due credit. Inadvertently, this undermines her.

According to Watson, in early 1953, he visited King's and got into a row with Franklin. Wilkins, he wrote, rescued him from the confrontation and then showed him Photograph 51, a particularly clear image of the B form, taken 8 months earlier by Franklin and her graduate student Raymond Gosling. Franklin had put the photograph aside to concentrate on the A form. She was preparing to transfer to Birkbeck College, also in London, and had been instructed to leave her DNA work behind. Gosling was now being supervised by Wilkins, and he had given Wilkins the photograph. (He says he did so with Franklin's knowledge.) The image, Watson claimed in The Double Helix, showed that a DNA helix "must exist" - only a helical structure could produce those marks.

Because of Watson's narrative, people have made a fetish of Photograph 51. It has become the emblem of both Franklin's achievement and her mistreatment.

But Watson's narrative contains an absurd presumption. It implies that Franklin, the skilled chemist, could not understand her own data, whereas he, a crystallographic novice, apprehended it immediately. Moreover, everyone, even Watson, knew it was impossible to deduce any precise structure from a single photograph - other structures could have produced the same diffraction pattern. Without careful measurements - which Watson has insisted he did not make - all the image revealed was that the B form was probably some kind of helix, which no one doubted. Furthermore, various lines of evidence - including The Double Helix itself, read carefully - show that it played little, if any, part in Watson and Crick's inching towards the correct structure between January and March 1953. In fact, it was other data from Franklin and Wilkins that proved crucial, and even then, what really happened was less malicious than is widely assumed.

Watson did get a jolt from seeing the photograph - because of when he saw it. Just days before, the Cambridge group had received a manuscript from the US chemist Linus Pauling, in which he'd claimed to have solved the DNA structure. Although Pauling had made some elementary errors, Lawrence Bragg, head of the Cavendish Laboratory, who had a long-standing rivalry with Pauling, had encouraged Watson and Crick to resume their model building. Watson had dropped in at King's to show off Pauling's blunder, and Wilkins had shown him the photograph. Fashioning that moment into the climax of The Double Helix was a literary device: a classic eureka moment, easy for lay readers to understand.

From 1951, Wilkins had kept Watson and Crick abreast of his work on the B form, in particular his belief that the structure contained one or more helices, repeated every 34 angstroms, and he might have said that within each repeat there were probably 10 elements. Shortly after Watson saw Photograph 51, Crick's supervisor, Max Perutz, handed them an informal report of the activity of the King's MRC unit, which he had been given as part of an official visit to the unit in December 1952. This included a page from Franklin, describing her work. In a 1969 letter to Science, although Perutz said that he regretted sharing the report without first consulting the King's group, it was not confidential. Indeed, a letter we have discovered from a King's researcher, Pauline Cowan, written to Crick in January 1953, invites Crick to a talk by Franklin and Gosling, who, Cowan continues, "say that it is mostly for a non-crystallographic audience + that Perutz already knows more about it than they are likely to get across so you may not think it worthwhile coming". Thus, Franklin seems to have assumed that Perutz would share his knowledge with Crick as part of the usual informal scientific exchange.

In her contribution to the MRC report, Franklin had confirmed the 34 Å result for the B form. She also reported that the unit cell (the repeating unit of the crystal) of DNA was huge; it contained a larger number of atoms than any other unit cell in any other known molecular structure. Franklin also added some key crystallographic data for the A form, indicating that it had a 'C2' symmetry, which in turn implied that the molecule had an even number of sugar-phosphate strands running in opposite directions.

Notes by Crick for a lecture on the history of the double helix, given to historians of science at the University of Oxford in May 1961, together with formal and informal remarks made throughout his life, reveal that, unlike Photograph 51, this report was truly significant for confirming the structure that Watson and Crick eventually obtained.

In the end, however, neither Photograph 51 nor the MRC report 'gave' Watson and Crick the double helix. What did was six weeks of what they later described as "trial and error" - making chemical calculations and fiddling about with cardboard models. (Watson made this plain in The Double Helix; Crick did so in a series of interviews with the historian Robert Olby in the late 1960s and early 1970s.)

Franklin's data and Watson and Crick's many conversations with Wilkins had provided what seem like key pieces of information - the phosphate groups were on the outside of the molecule; there was a repeat every 34 Å; perhaps there were ten bases per repeat and an even number of strands running in opposite directions (the implication of the C2 symmetry). Yet, according to their own accounts, the pair ignored every one of these facts at one point or another during those six weeks. Once they had hit on a conceptual model of the structure, the MRC report provided a valuable check on their assumptions.

So it was not a case of them stealing the King's group's data and then, voila, those data gave them the structure of DNA. Instead, they solved the structure through their own iterative approach and then used the King's data - without permission - to confirm it.

What Franklin really did

Franklin contributed several key insights to the discovery of the double helix. She clearly differentiated the A and B forms, solving a problem that had confused previous researchers. (X-ray diffraction experiments in the 1930s had inadvertently used a mixture of the A and B forms of DNA, yielding muddy patterns that were impossible to fully resolve.) Her measurements told her that the DNA unit cell was enormous; she also determined the C2 symmetry exhibited by that unit cell.

The C2 symmetry was one of 230 types of crystallographic 3D 'space groups' that had been established by the end of the nineteenth century. Franklin failed to appreciate its significance not because she was obtuse, but because she was unfamiliar with it. According to her colleague Aaron Klug, Franklin later said that she "could have kicked herself" for not realizing the structural implications. Crick did realize the implications because he happened to have studied C2 symmetry intensely. But even he did not use Franklin's determination of this symmetry when building the model; rather, it provided a powerful corroboration when their model was complete.

Franklin also grasped, independently, one of the fundamental insights of the structure: how, in principle, DNA could specify proteins. In February 1953, she was working hard to finish her analyses of DNA before leaving King's. The A form had continued to resist her attempts to interpret it, so she had turned to the much simpler, clearly helical B form. Her notes reveal that by late February, she had accepted that the A form was also probably helical, with two strands, and she had realized that the order of the bases on a given strand had no effect on the overall structure. This meant that any sequence of bases was possible. As she noted, "an infinite variety of nucleotide sequences would be possible to explain the biological specificity of DNA". This idea, which Watson and Crick grasped at around the same time, had first been proposed in 1947 by chemist John Masson Gulland at University College Nottingham, UK (now the University of Nottingham).

Franklin did not apprehend complementary base-pairing - that A could bond only with T and C only with G, with each pair of bases forming an identical structure in the molecule. In fact, she was not working with the correct forms of the bases, so she could not have made a satisfactory model had she tried (the same was true of Watson and Crick until the very last phase of their work). Neither did she realize that her data implied that the two strands were oriented in different directions - or that the B form, found at high levels of humidity, must be the biologically functional form. (The A form is found only under laboratory conditions.) She did not have time to make these final leaps, because Watson and Crick beat her to the answer.

Franklin did not succeed, partly because she was working on her own without a peer with whom to swap ideas. She was also excluded from the world of informal exchanges in which Watson and Crick were immersed. Even though some at the time - notably the researchers at King's and a small flock of what Watson called "minor Cambridge biochemists" - were not happy about Watson and Crick's use of the King's group's data, the lead scientists at the Cavendish - Perutz, Bragg, John Kendrew - thought it was quite normal. And there is no evidence that Franklin thought otherwise.

Acknowledging the truth

After Watson and Crick had read the MRC report, they could not unsee it. But they could have - and should have - requested permission to use the data and made clear exactly what they had done, first to Franklin and Wilkins, and then to the rest of the world, in their publications.

In April 1953, Nature published three back-to-back papers on DNA structure, from Watson and Crick, from Wilkins and his co-workers, and from Franklin and Gosling ⁻. Watson and Crick declared that they had been "stimulated by a knowledge of the general nature of the unpublished experimental results and ideas" of Wilkins and Franklin. They insisted, though, that they were "not aware of the details", claiming that the structure "rests mainly though not entirely on published experimental data and stereochemical arguments". The truth of those statements depends on highly charitable interpretations of "details" and "mainly though not entirely".

In a full description of the structure in a paper submitted in August 1953 and published in 1954, Crick and Watson did attempt to set the record straight. They acknowledged that, without Franklin's data, "the formulation of our structure would have been most unlikely, if not impossible", and implicitly referred to the MRC report as a "preliminary report" in which Franklin and Wilkins had "independently suggested that the basic structure of the paracrystalline [B] form is helical and contains two intertwined chains". They also noted that the King's researchers "suggest that the sugar-phosphate backbone forms the outside of the helix and that each chain repeats itself after one revolution in 34 Å".

This clear acknowledgement of both the nature and the source of the information Watson and Crick had used has been overlooked in previous accounts of the discovery of the structure of DNA. As well as showing the Cambridge duo finally trying to do the right thing, it strengthens our case that Franklin was an equal member in a group of four scientists working on the structure of DNA. She was recognized by her colleagues as such, although that acknowledgement was both belated and understated. All this helps to explain one of the lasting enigmas of the affair - why neither Franklin nor Wilkins ever questioned how the structure had been discovered. They knew the answer, because they expected that Perutz would share his knowledge and because they had read Watson and Crick's 1954 article.

Three weeks after the three DNA papers were published in Nature, Bragg gave a lecture on the discovery at Guy's Hospital Medical School in London, which was reported on the front page of the British News Chronicle daily newspaper. This drew the attention of Joan Bruce, a London journalist working for Time. Although Bruce's article has never been published - or described by historians, until now - it is notable for its novel take on the discovery of the double helix.

Bruce portrayed the work as being done by "two teams": one, consisting of Wilkins and Franklin, gathering experimental evidence using X-ray analysis; "the other" comprising Watson and Crick, working on theory. To a certain extent, wrote Bruce, the teams worked independently, although "they linked up, confirming each other's work from time to time, or wrestling over a common problem". For example, Watson and Crick had "started to work on the double helix theory as a result of Wilkins' X-rays". Conversely, she wrote, Franklin was "checking the Cavendish model against her own X-rays, not always confirming the Cavendish structural theory". It has not escaped our notice that both examples render Franklin in a position of strength, every bit a peer of Wilkins, Crick and Watson.

Unfortunately, Bruce was not so strong on the science. Her article got far enough for Time to send a Cambridge photographer, Anthony Barrington Brown, to shoot portraits of Watson and Crick, and for Watson to tell his friends to watch for it. But it never appeared, perhaps because Franklin told Bruce that it needed an awful lot of work to get the science straight. Bruce's take on the discovery was buried, and Barrington Brown's compelling images disappeared until Watson resurrected the best of them 15 years later, for The Double Helix.

It is tantalizing to think how people might remember the double-helix story had Bruce's article been published, suitably scientifically corrected. From the outset, Franklin would have been represented as an equal member of a quartet who solved the double helix, one half of the team that articulated the scientific question, took important early steps towards a solution, provided crucial data and verified the result. Indeed, one of the first public displays of the double helix, at the Royal Society Conversazione in June 1953, was signed by the authors of all three Nature papers ⁻,. In this early incarnation, the discovery of the structure of DNA was not seen as a race won by Watson and Crick, but as the outcome of a joint effort.

According to journalist Horace Freeland Judson and Franklin's biographer, Brenda Maddox, Rosalind Franklin has been reduced to the "wronged heroine" of the double helix,. She deserves to be remembered not as the victim of the double helix, but as an equal contributor to the solution of the structure.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01313-5

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What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA's structure

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Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player. Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved.

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Nice to see, Rosalind Franklin being recognised for her massive contribution to the field of DNA.

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DNA discovery: Work of Rosalind Franklin finally recognised on blue plaque - Latest From ITV News

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Watch the latest from ITV News - 20 years ago a blue plaque was placed on a pub in Cambridge to honour the pioneers of DNA. Only now has it been replaced to commemorate those who were missing.

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James Watson DNA pioneer questions around his controversial remarks

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James Watson DNA pioneer questions around his controversial remarks

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Independent News article 2019. Trigger warning contains views that may be deemed offensive.

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First position, two years in succession. Score of 100 - very proud 

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First position, two years in succession. Score of 100 - very proud 

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The Guardian University Guide 2024 - the rankings

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Find a course at one of the top universities in the country

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Some amazing opportunities for the BBSTEM Community here

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Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States 2022 by the National Registry of Exonerations

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Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States 2022 by the National Registry of Exonerations

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Juries don't understand Forensic science I can send people to prison.

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Ledura Watkins was 19 years old when he was accused of murdering a public school teacher. At trial, a forensic expert testified that a single hair found at the scene was similar to Watkins' and stated his conclusion was based on "reasonable scientific certainty." He explained that he'd conducted thousands of hair analyses and "had never been wrong."

This one hair was the only physical evidence tying Watkins to the crime. In 1976, Ledura Watkins was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Here's the catch: The expert's testimony was inappropriate and misleading, and the jury made a mistake. Watkins was innocent. Ledura Watkins lost over 41 years of his life to a wrongful conviction based on improper forensic testimony.

Our interdisciplinary team of legal psychologists, forensic experts and an attorney worked to develop an educational tool to help jurors avoid making similar mistakes in the future.

Forensic testimony carries weight with jurors

One out of every five wrongful convictions cataloged through September 2023 by the National Registry of Exonerations involved improper forensic evidence.

There is reason to be concerned about jurors' ability to adequately evaluate forensic evidence. Jurors tend to rely heavily on forensic evidence when making decisions in a case, despite struggling to understand the statistical analyses and language used to explain forensic science. They might ignore the differences between appropriately worded forensic testimony and testimony that violates best-practice guidelines, fail to grasp the limitations of forensic science in expert witness testimony and overly rely on an expert's experience when evaluating the evidence.

Despite all these issues, jurors remain overconfident in their ability to comprehend forensic testimony.

Researchers have long suggested that part of the problem is the way forensic evidence is presented in courtrooms. In response to calls by scientists, the U.S. Department of Justice approved the Uniform Language for Testimony and Reports in 2018. These guidelines aimed to lessen misleading statements in forensic testimony and outlined five statements forensic experts should not make. The expert in Ledura Watkins' case made several of these statements, including claiming that his examination was perfect because of the number of examinations he had conducted.

It's understandable that jurors are swayed by an expert who uses terms like "error free," "perfect" or "scientific certainty." We are interested in finding ways to help people critically evaluate the forensic testimony they hear in court.

An informational video for jurors

Inspired by one court's use of videos to help train jurors on relevant concepts, our team developed what we call the forensic science informational video. It's about 4½ minutes long and focuses on latent print examinations, including fingerprints, footwear impressions and tire impressions.

In the FSI video, a narrator explains what a forensic expert is and how they might testify in court. The video describes how latent print examinations are conducted and what types of statements are appropriate - or not - for an expert to make in their testimony, based on the DOJ guidelines.

In two different studies, we recruited jury-eligible adults to test whether our video had any effect on how jurors judged forensic testimony.

In our first study, some participants watched the FSI video and others didn't. Participants who watched the FSI video were more likely to give lower ratings to improper forensic testimony and the forensic expert who gave it.

In our second study, we tested whether the video could help jurors differentiate between low-quality and high-quality testimony without creating a general distrust in forensic evidence. Participants watched a 45-minute mock trial video. Without training from the FSI video, participants rated both low- and high-quality forensic testimony highly. That is, they didn't differentiate between testimony in which the expert violated three of the DOJ guidelines and testimony that followed the guidelines.

But participants who watched our informational video prior to the mock trial were more likely to differentiate between the low- and high-quality testimony, rating the expert giving low-quality testimony more poorly than the expert giving high-quality testimony.

Training helps jurors assess forensic testimony

These findings suggest that our informational video helped mock jurors in two ways. Participants learned how to identify low-quality forensic testimony and how to adjust their evaluations of the expert and their testimony accordingly. Importantly, the video did not cause participants to distrust latent print evidence in general.

Our study is a promising first step in exploring ways to help jurors understand complex forensic testimony. A brief video like ours can provide standardized information about forensic experts and types of appropriate and inappropriate testimony to jurors across courts, much like similar videos about implicit bias already being used in some courts.

We believe a training video has the potential to be easily implemented as an educational tool to improve the quality of jurors' decision-making. A better understanding of the distinction between proper and improper testimony would improve the justice system by helping jurors fulfill their roles as objective fact-finders - and hopefully prevent wrongful convictions like that of Ledura Watkins.

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Juries that don't understand forensic science can send innocent people to prison − a short training video could help

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Educating mock jurors about what kinds of statements are appropriate − or not − led to more critical assessments of forensic testimony and improved the quality of their decisions.

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Phenomenal Women: Black Female Professors (part of the Inside Out Series)

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Phenomenal Women: Black Female Professors (part of the Inside Out Series)

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Phenomenal Women: Black Female Professors (part of the Inside Out Series)

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Paying tribute to Romanian engineer, Eliza Zamfirescu

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Google Honors One Of World’s First Female Engineers Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu

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Google Doodle on Saturday honoured Romanian engineer Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu, on what would have been her 131st birthday.

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Register your vote for this magnificent initiative.

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Register your vote for this magnificent initiative.

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Fault Lines : A Primer on Race, Science and Society
Jonathan Jansen and Cyrill Walters

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Fault Lines : A Primer on Race, Science and Society
Jonathan Jansen and Cyrill Walters

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You may be seeing this page because you used the Back button while browsing a secure web site or application. Alternatively, you may have mistakenly bookmarked the web login form instead of the actual web site you wanted to bookmark or used a link created by somebody else who made the same mistake.

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Forensic scientists can become instruments of positive social change

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Forensic scientists can become instruments of positive social change

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To prevent criminals from using advanced technology for committing crimes and achieve uniformity in the quality of investigation across the country, it is imperative to create a talent pool of skilled forensic scientists to put criminals behind bars.

The central government plans to integrate forensic science-based investigation with the justice system to increase the conviction rate which is currently around 50%. The Union home minister Amit Shah had recently announced that forensic evidence will be compulsory for legal offences attracting more than six years of punishment.

India's first woman forensic scientist Rukmani Krishnamurthy says that people are becoming more aware of what Forensics entails. "It includes diverse subjects including Science and Social Sciences. Whenever any legal issue requires evidential value, Forensics is involved in it. Today, Cyber Forensics is important as many individuals, corporations and government employees have been a victim of cyber fraud."

Krishnamurthy is an academic council member of National Forensic Science University, Gujarat. She was a technical advisor to the Institute of Forensic Science, Maharashtra government, and director, Directorate of Forensic Science Laboratories, Maharashtra. She says that 50-60 years ago, most government departments had forensic science laboratories. "People from Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physics, and Engineering backgrounds were trained to handle forensics cases. A lot depends on the type of crime and the quality of the exhibit. Forensic scientists are required to carry out standardised tests on a small exhibit and be also present in the court of law as a witness," elaborates Krishnamurthy, adding that this made the senior forensic scientists realised the need for creating a skilled talent pool of forensic scientists instead of getting people from different branches and training them.

Krishnamurthy recalls that Sagar University in Madhya Pradesh was among the first universities to start MSc in Forensic Science. Gradually, more universities began such courses under Chemistry or Biology departments because it was difficult to classify Forensics as it involved Chemistry, Maths, Biology, Physics and many other subjects. The need for creating a dedicated forensics department emerged so that universities could cater to the field.

Preventing frauds
In 2008, Gujarat Forensic Science University was established for conducting Forensics courses at the MSc level in Gandhinagar. It eventually became the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) in 2020, and has campuses in Gujarat, Delhi, Tripura, Bhopal, Pune, Guwahati, Manipur and Dharwad. Krishnamurthy was instrumental in establishing the Institute of Forensic Sciences in Mumbai, Nagpur and Aurangabad in Maharashtra. "Now, a large number of students exclusively study Forensics. Students learn the basic principles of investigation and are given hands-on training on how to collect evidence at a crime scene. The Ministry of Home Affairs, (MHA), Government of India, plans to establish a National Forensics University in all states of the country," says Krishnamurthy, adding that students from this branch can work as lecturers in the Forensics department of various universities. Almost all banking and insurance companies require forensics experts for their frauds department, and preventive forensics plays an important role in the corporate sector. Every state has a forensic science laboratory and regional laboratories where forensic scientists can work; today, several private colleges such as Amity University also provide courses on Forensics.

Capacity building
To build a career in forensics, a student needs to know how to collect samples from a crime scene, and what is the chain of custody, a process used to track the movement of an asset. "This can be done only when students are attached to an operational forensic laboratory. Also, students should know that just giving the report on a case is not enough, they have to relate to the case and connect the findings to social causes to bring about social change," says Krishnamurthy, citing the Matunga Fire case, when the fire broke out on a train, several people were charred to death. On running experiments, kerosene was found to be the culprit, and rules banning passengers from carrying inflammable materials in public transport were put in place.

JM Vyas, vice-chancellor, (NFSU), Gandhinagar, Gujarat, adds, "Criminals are using more advanced technology to commit crimes; hence it is important to use Forensics for investigative support. We have so far helped 70 countries in capacity building in this field. The government of India has given us a charter for strengthening the country's forensics capabilities; improving forensic laboratories; providing fully equipped mobile investigation vans in every district and establishing centres of excellence in different areas related to forensic science. The MHA is encouraging uniformity in the quality of investigation carried out across the country."

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Forensic scientists can become instruments of positive social change

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To prevent criminals from using advanced technology for committing crimes and achieve uniformity in the quality of investigation across the country, it is imperative to create a talent pool of skilled forensic scientists to put criminals behind bars. The central government plans to integrate forensic science-based investigation with the justice system to increase the conviction rate which is currently around 50%.

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The nobodies: unidentified dead bodies, a global health crisis requiring urgent attention

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The nobodies: unidentified dead bodies, a global health crisis requiring urgent attention

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What a shocking and sad state of affairs

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The troubling legacy of Francis Galton - Langkjær‐Bain - 2019 - RSS

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The troubling legacy of Francis Galton - Langkjær‐Bain - 2019 - RSS

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Link to article

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-9713.2019.01275.x

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UK commission to investigate forensic science amid wrongful conviction concerns | NZ Lawyer

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UK commission to investigate forensic science amid wrongful conviction concerns | NZ Lawyer

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UK commission to investigate forensic science amid wrongful conviction concerns

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Commission will take evidence over 18 months