30-second forensic science : the 50 key topics revealing criminal investigation from behind the scenes

Humanity's most appalling crimes are solved by experts presenting painstakingly gathered evidence to the court of law.

Investigators rely on physical, chemical and digital clues gathered at the scene of an incident to reconstruct beyond all reasonable doubt the events that occurred in order to bring criminals to justice.

Enter the forensic team, tasked with providing objective recognition and identification and evaluating physical evidence (the clues) to support known or suspected circumstances.

Far from the super-sleuths of fiction, the real-life masters of deduction occupy a world of dogged detection, analysing fingerprints or gait, identifying traces of toxins, drugs or explosives, matching digital data, performing anatomical dissection, disease diagnosis, facial reconstruction and environmental profiling.