Jun 29

I have been working at the internship. I have been able to test reagents for the different chemical
tests for the controlled substances. I made fliers for the safety fair that the forensics lab was in
charge of. I ran a quantitative analysis on a meth control. I have also verified that pipettes and scales
are working popularly.
Each month they have to record all data of the drug reagent test to verify that the are working
properly to be able to use them in the courtroom. Also they have to ensure that all equipment is up to
pare. If anything is not working properly then they either must replace or send the equipment in for
repair. The repair on the equipment can take up to weeks or even months slowing to time to be able
to get the results for the cases.
Recently the lab has gone from paper case files to computerized case files. This is suppose to help
with efficiency and allow for better communication between the different departments in the forensics
lab. With this new computerized system in place it is beginning to seem like the modern forensic lab
shown on the television shows might not be to far off from reality except for the time line.
One of the forensic scientist in the lab has been working on a single case since I start my internship
the first week of May. They are trying to identify a particular new type of mushroom to see if it falls
under the criminal definition of the control substance of the known mushrooms. He has had to run
several tests and is still uncertain if the chemical makeup of the shroom is similar because of the
complexity of the shroom.
Not only do the forensic scientist in the lab just work on cases that are given to them but they also
have found time to do they only scientific research. However, this scientific research mostly falls
along the lines of helping with solving criminal cases. The most notable research was being able to
create a new computerized system that allows any forensic scientist to run any given chemical
structure in a database and then it gives the top closest related chemicals. These closely related
chemicals could even be considered controlled substances. Thus the forensic scientist would then
be able to conclude that the substance that they are testing is also a controlled substance.
Jul 12
Last week I attended a mock court trial with the serology department. I was able to learn that
anything that is given as your educational background could be used to determine if you are an
expert witness. This also showed me that when on the stand that you need to understand your
report and make sure that there are no errors present in the report or the defense may tear the
report apart.
I also had to make new Froedes reagent for the chemistry section. This allowed me to use my
chemistry knowledge to be able to combine the needed chemicals for the reagent so that the would
be able to perform more unknown drug tests for the different know controlled substances.
Jul 19

My mentor and I went to a junkyard and collect 75 paint chip samples to be able to send them into
the national database. Not only did we have to collect the paint chips, but the weather that day was
not our friend and was in the hundreds. After collecting the samples I have to separate them into
three different coin size enveloped and make sure that the VIN numbers of the each of each of the
vehicles were correct. By making sure they were correct I was making sure that they were not
stolen and belong to the type of car that they were found on.
Once determining the VIN numbers were correct I then had to make labels for each of the 75 paint
chip samples and labeled them for transport to the main national lab. This took a long time to do
and was one of the hardest part of the internship due to the fact that I had to ensure the correct label
and VIN went with each of the samples that were collected at the junkyard.