9781422273449

Using science to solve crimes can be traced back to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s protagonist, Sherlock Holmes.

Potential Career Paths According to the American Chemical Society, about 90 percent of forensic chemists in the United States work in labs affiliated with federal, state, or local law enforcement agencies; fire departments; the military; medical examiner’s offices; forensic services labs; or branches of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Additionally, there are some private labs that do forensic analysis, and they partner with investigating agencies on a contractual basis. Regardless of which agency forensic chemists work for, there are basic qualities and skills that are essential for specialists to acquire. As forensic chemists use a variety of methods and tools to help identify unknown materials or analyze recognizable samples collected from

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Introduction: Bringing Chemistry to the Crime Scene