400 properties at risk from sea rise

MORE than 400 commercial properties in Geelong and along the Surf Coast are at risk of sea-level inundation, according to the latest report forecasting the likely impact of climate change.

The Geoscience Australia report, which is due to be released in full later this week, predicts that between 347 and 417 commercial buildings are at risk across the region.

The coastal inundation would be the result of a 1.1m, climate change-induced sea-level rise by 2100 and combined with a major weather event, according to the report which was previewed in the Herald Sun yesterday.

Of the 1000 light industrial buildings statewide that are facing inundation, including warehouses and manufacturing assembly lines, one third of them, or up to 374 buildings, are in the Greater Geelong area.

Hundreds of kilometres of roads are also at risk of coastal flooding under the projected scenario, to be detailed in the full report later this week.

The leaking of the report comes as the Federal Government steps up its push for a carbon tax, which is aimed at forcing big polluting industries, like Geelong's Alcoa aluminium smelter, to pay for the emissions they produce.

Surf Coast Shire councillor Libby Mears, who is also the chair of the Victorian Coastal Council, said the preliminary data reinforced the need for clear information to help local councils plan for sea-level rise.

"We know what the science is and that's great. We know there's areas at risk but what we need to do now is plan for the medium to long term," she said.

The Geelong Manufacturing Council and the Committee for Geelong both declined to comment on the latest report, as they were awaiting details on the Federal Government's proposed carbon tax.

Point Lonsdale resident Peter Russell, whose property is one of more than 600 in the area at risk of inundation, said while they were not commercial properties, many of the vulnerable residential blocks were worth more than half a million dollars each.

The latest report is the fourth to forecast serious inundation across the region.

The Department of Climate Change released maps in December which showed the impact on the Bellarine Peninsula of the same 1.1m 2100 scenario.

That projection showed Point Lonsdale would be cut off by the rising waters and the region between Ocean Grove and Queenscliff would be nearly entirely submerged.

It also showed the eastern edge of Torquay and Breamlea would be hit by rising tides.

UA is Top University Contributing to Global Planetary Exploration Research

Thomson Reuters Corporation data shows that only NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the world's top players in spacecraft design, construction, launch and science operations are ahead of UA's planetary sciences with regard to impact in the scientific literature.

The University of Arizona is the top ranked research university for planetary exploration with regard to citations in the scientific literature, according to new data.

UA planetary research articles were quoted more than 10,000 times over the last 10 years, according to ScienceWatch.com, a comprehensive, open Web resource for science metrics.

The analysis was conducted using a Thomson Reuters Corporation database, which includes citations from articles produced by researchers in various countries around the world.

During the survey period, which spanned Jan. 1, 2001 to March 18, 2011, the UA had 579 publications in planetary sciences. Only NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL, are cited more often than UA in planetary exploration scientific publications.

Placing third behind NASA and JPL means UA closely follows what are the world's largest players in spacecraft design, construction, launch and science operations, according to the Thomson Reuters website.

"The prominence of the UA in the planetary sciences is a tribute to the extraordinary talents of the faculty, support staff and student body in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory," said Michael Drake, head of the UA's department of planetary sciences and director of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, or LPL.

"These dry statistics mask an even more fundamental point. Only NASA as a whole, an organization with a budget of about $18 billion, and JPL with a budget of about $1.5 billion, outperform the UA," Drake said.

"When one realizes that the budget of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory is only $2.6 million from the state of Arizona, these comparisons become even more stark," Drake added.

Currently, the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory is actively involved in five spacecraft missions: Cassini; the Phoenix Mars Lander; the HiRISE camera orbiting Mars; the MESSENGER mission to Mercury and OSIRIS-REx, the first U.S. sample return mission to an asteroid, which was just selected by NASA.

Orbiting Saturn since 2004, NASA's Cassini Spacecraft has not only deployed a probe, Huygens, onto the surface of Saturn moon Titan, but also studied the Saturn system in great details, capturing stunning images of the planet, its rings and its moons. Cassini has since detected the first flash of sunlight reflected off a lake on Titan, confirming the presence of liquid on the part of the moon dotted with many large, lake-shaped basins.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will orbit and explore asteroid 1999 RQ36 for more than one year before closing in and collecting a sample of pristine organic material that may have seeded Earth with the building blocks that led to life.

"The UA has been involved in nearly all of the planetary exploration missions over the past 40 years, often including leadership of experiments or entire missions, such as Phoenix and OSIRIS-REx," said Alfred McEwen, professor of planetary geology at LPL and principal investigator of HiRISE.

The UA's leading role in planetary research leads to publications that receive many citations far across the scientific community, including papers from scientists and students who may not themselves be associated with missions.

"A great number of publications that result from our efforts may not even have UA co-authors," McEwen added. "There are many publications based on HiRISE data, all of which is released to anyone who wants to use it."

Other implications of this work are that the UA consistently involves students in planetary science research activities and helps create high paying jobs in Tucson and Arizona, Drake said.

"The citizens of Arizona have much to be proud of for the modest investment of their tax dollars," Drake said, "and we are honored to have the opportunity to be the best we can for Tucson and the state."

NASA to Announce New Planetary Science Mission

NASA will unveil plans for a new science mission to another world today (May 25).

The announcement will come during a teleconference with reporters at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT). So far, NASA have given few other details, except to say in a statement that the future mission "will usher in a new era in planetary exploration."

It's possible that the agency has selected the next robotic exploration mission for its so-called Discovery Program, which is scheduled to launch around 2016.

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Discovery missions explore the solar system on the relative cheap; the 2016 mission will have a fixed budget of $425 million, not including the cost of the launch vehicle. Earlier this month, NASA announced that it had whittled the contenders for that mission down to three finalists.

Those three are:

* The Geophysical Monitoring Station (GEMS), which would study the structure and composition of the interior of Mars, potentially improving our understanding of the formation and evolution of terrestrial planets;

* The Titan Mare Explorer (TiME), which would land in and float on a large methane-ethane sea on Saturn's moon Titan, providing the first direct exploration of an ocean beyond Earth; [Video: Targeting Saturn's Moon Titan: Land, Sea and Air]

* Comet Hopper, which would land on a comet multiple times and observe its changes as it interacts with the sun.

The shortlisting of these three came just two months after the release of an in-depth report from the National Research Council about the greatest needs for planetary exploration in the next decade.

The review had good things to say about the Discovery Program and its low-cost, highly focused planetary science. The report recommended maintaining the program's funding, with adjustments for inflation.

Discovery efforts currently operating include NASA's Messenger mission to Mercury and the asteroid-chasing Dawn mission.

You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcomand on Facebook.

* Solar System Explained From the Inside Out
* The Rings and Moons of Saturn
* Targeting Saturn's Moon, Titan

Spacewalkers cope with flying hardware during lube job

A spacewalking astronaut ran into trouble Sunday while trying to lubricate a joint in the life-sustaining solar power system of the International Space Station, losing one bolt and getting a washer stuck in a crevice.

Mike Fincke, one of NASA's most experienced spacemen, had to settle for a partial lube job, after the bolts holding down covers on the massive joint started popping off unexpectedly.

"Bummer," said his spacewalking partner, Andrew Feustel.

The two men went into overtime to do what they could. They managed to lubricate four sections of the joint, two fewer than planned, and reinstall three covers. The fourth cover was brought back inside because of all the loose bolts.

Their spacewalk — the second of four planned for the shuttle Endeavour's final space station visit — went one and a half hours longer than planned. It lasted more than eight hours and went into the books as the sixth longest in history.

"You guys earned your pay for the day," astronaut Gregory Chamitoff radioed from inside.

"Do we get paid?" Feustel replied. "I think our pay was just being out here looking at the Earth spinning by. It's beautiful."

Radiator line topped off:

The spacewalk started out well in the wee hours as Fincke and Feustel quickly topped off a leaky radiator line.

Ammonia is extremely hazardous, and the two did their best to avoid contaminating their spacesuits while replenishing the system with 5 pounds (2.25 kilograms) of the substance. Some frozen ammonia flakes floated toward Feustel as well as a small icy chunk, but he didn't think any of it got him.

Fincke moved on to preventive maintenance on the joint that rotates the solar wings on the left side of the space station. He was removing his first cover when a bolt popped out and got away from him. He caught it with his gloved hand, no easy task for something so small. But another bolt ended up floating away, and a washer got stuck between the cover and an attachment.

Mission Control worried that the washer might get into the gears of the joint. Fincke was advised to use "gentle backhand sweeping motions" to get the washer away from the gears, and the astronaut said he'd try to coax it out with a pin. He provided no further report, but the lead spacewalk officer in Mission Control, Allison Bolinger, later assured reporters that he probably took care of it.
After deliberating, flight controllers instructed Fincke to remove four covers from the joint rather than six, to lubricate the mechanisms inside.

Another bolt popped out and almost got away, but Fincke caught it. "He gets the golden glove award for another catch," Mission Control radioed. In all, Fincke managed to catch three of four loose bolts.

To his relief, the remaining covers came off much more easily.

Fincke and Feustel used grease guns to squirt the dark lubricant onto the gears, then turned to other tasks as the joint was rotated to spread the grease. They returned for more lubricating once the motion stopped, after assuring Mission Control that they had the energy to continue.

Shuttle program's last maintenance jobs
NASA wants to lubricate the joint periodically to keep it functioning properly in the years ahead. An identical joint on the opposite side of the space station had to be fixed a few years back after jamming.

Bolinger said it's uncertain when the latest lube job would be completed, but noted it would not be during Endeavour's mission.

The circular joints — 10 feet (3 meters) in diameter — turn the space station's solar wings toward the sun, like the paddle wheels of a boat. Each set of wings measures 240 feet (73 meters) from tip to tip. The panels collect sunlight and convert it into electrical power that's used to run equipment aboard the outpost, including the life support.

This is the next-to-last shuttle mission, and Endeavour's spacewalks will be the last to involve astronauts from a space shuttle. The 30-year shuttle era will end in July with the flight of Atlantis, which has no spacewalks on its agenda. For the foreseeable future, all the spacewalks to come will be taken on by the space station's residents.

Mutual admiration
Sunday's outing marked Fincke's seventh spacewalk and Feustel's fifth. They praised one another as they headed out the hatch.

"It's an honor to be walking, spacewalking with a Hubble spacewalker," Fincke told Feustel, who was part of the 2009 Hubble repair team.

"It's an honor to be walking with the man with the most time in space," Feustel replied. Fincke will become the most traveled American in space by next weekend, surpassing the current record of 377 days aloft.

On Monday, three of the six space station residents will head home in their Russian Soyuz capsule after a five-month mission. In a unique photo opportunity, the departing crew will photograph Endeavour parked at the space station.

Stephen Hawking: 'There is no heaven; it's a fairy story'

A belief that heaven or an afterlife awaits us is a "fairy story" for people afraid of death, Stephen Hawking has said.

In a dismissal that underlines his firm rejection of religious comforts, Britain's most eminent scientist said there was nothing beyond the moment when the brain flickers for the final time.

Hawking, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21, shares his thoughts on death, human purpose and our chance existence in an exclusive interview with the Guardian today.

The incurable illness was expected to kill Hawking within a few years of its symptoms arising, an outlook that turned the young scientist to Wagner, but ultimately led him to enjoy life more, he has said, despite the cloud hanging over his future.

"I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first," he said.

"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark," he added.

Hawking's latest comments go beyond those laid out in his 2010 book, The Grand Design, in which he asserted that there is no need for a creator to explain the existence of the universe. The book provoked a backlash from some religious leaders, including the chief rabbi, Lord Sacks, who accused Hawking of committing an "elementary fallacy" of logic.

The 69-year-old physicist fell seriously ill after a lecture tour in the US in 2009 and was taken to Addenbrookes hospital in an episode that sparked grave concerns for his health. He has since returned to his Cambridge department as director of research.

The physicist's remarks draw a stark line between the use of God as a metaphor and the belief in an omniscient creator whose hands guide the workings of the cosmos.

In his bestselling 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking drew on the device so beloved of Einstein, when he described what it would mean for scientists to develop a "theory of everything" – a set of equations that described every particle and force in the entire universe. "It would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God," he wrote.

The book sold a reported 9 million copies and propelled the physicist to instant stardom. His fame has led to guest roles in The Simpsons, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Red Dwarf. One of his greatest achievements in physics is a theory that describes how black holes emit radiation.

In the interview, Hawking rejected the notion of life beyond death and emphasised the need to fulfil our potential on Earth by making good use of our lives. In answer to a question on how we should live, he said, simply: "We should seek the greatest value of our action."

In answering another, he wrote of the beauty of science, such as the exquisite double helix of DNA in biology, or the fundamental equations of physics.

Hawking responded to questions posed by the Guardian and a reader in advance of a lecture tomorrow at the Google Zeitgeist meeting in London, in which he will address the question: "Why are we here?"

In the talk, he will argue that tiny quantum fluctuations in the very early universe became the seeds from which galaxies, stars, and ultimately human life emerged. "Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in," he said.

Hawking suggests that with modern space-based instruments, such as the European Space Agency's Planck mission, it may be possible to spot ancient fingerprints in the light left over from the earliest moments of the universe and work out how our own place in space came to be.

His talk will focus on M-theory, a broad mathematical framework that encompasses string theory, which is regarded by many physicists as the best hope yet of developing a theory of everything.

M-theory demands a universe with 11 dimensions, including a dimension of time and the three familiar spatial dimensions. The rest are curled up too small for us to see.

Evidence in support of M-theory might also come from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern, the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva.

One possibility predicted by M-theory is supersymmetry, an idea that says fundamental particles have heavy – and as yet undiscovered – twins, with curious names such as selectrons and squarks.

Confirmation of supersymmetry would be a shot in the arm for M-theory and help physicists explain how each forces at work in the universe arose from one super-force at the dawn of time.

Another potential discovery at the LHC, that of the elusive Higgs boson, which is thought to give mass to elementary particles, might be less welcome to Hawking, who has a long-standing bet that the long-sought entity will never be found at the laboratory.

Hawking will join other speakers at the London event, including the chancellor, George Osborne, and the Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

Latest in Fun Science: Oregon Coast from Space, Stellar Mystery, Whales, Odd Formations

Oregon coast never ceases to surprise. This past week we've been able to time travel back millions of years, down to the ocean bottom and then up to space because of the region.

Oregon Coast Beach Connection’s sister site, OregonTravelDaily, had the pleasure of bumping into a tremendous image – that of the mouth of the Columbia River as seen from space. Thanks to the International Space Station and a new imaging systems called HICO – for Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean – we are seeing lots of new ocean and near-shore environments from orbit. But the image of the Columbia River from orbit is seen up top.

There are some seriously confounding rock formations around the Oregon coast, some dazzling shapes that spark the imagination. But it takes a geologist to read them, frankly.

Sometimes, you may have noticed some really mysterious formations that look like steps – or even seats – in those vast, basalt structures that dominate some parts of the coastline. These, it turns out, were a sort of lava flow within a lava flow – in a sense. The story begins millions and millions of years ago. There’s more at Mysterious Rocky Steps Along Oregon Coast Explained by Geology

Killer whales are a rare sight along this stretch of the world’s coastlines. You’ll see way more of them in Washington than here. But they do show up now and again, such as in April and May, as they seek out baby gray whales to feed on as the grays make their way northward. There was a flurry of sightings early in April: More Killer Whales Spotted on Central Oregon Coast.

If you like feeding the seagulls on the beaches, you’re not going to like this story. It turns out it’s a very bad idea to feed them, and yet this is not well known.

For fans of creatures washing up on Oregon shores, this week saw a good dose of that too. A Broadnose Sevengill shark showed up at Gearhart this week, already dead. It’s a rare but fascinating find. And tiny jellyfish called Sea Gooseberry have been seen in great abundance recently. They look like small, gelatinous bubbles lying around the beach. You should be able to see them on most beaches right about now, but this is hard to predict.

Finally, from depths of the ocean to the galaxy and universe in general, there’s a bit of a stellar mystery that came to the attention of Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff recently. Taking night photographs of the coast – especially above Manzanita – is a favorite activity around here. But in doing so, we discovered one particularly bright star that stood out above the rest.

These star trails below show this near the upper right hand corner. We’ve sent out questions to some astronomy experts regarding this, but haven’t heard back. Is it a planet? A star? And if it’s a star, does it stand out this just because of the way certain atmospheric gasses have gathered?

Let the nerdy fun begin. We haven’t heard back yet. When we do, the answer will be posted on our Facebook page first: You may want to “like” it in advance for the answer.

Also of note: while making this three-minute exposure below an enormous shooting star went streaking across the southern sky from east to west. It was bright and magnificent.

This happens a lot from this viewpoint above Manzanita. We strongly recommend you hang out here on a clear night if you want to witness some amazing stellar phenomena.

Richland Co. crime lab finds a world of evidence

It’s a series of drab rooms jammed with uncommon devices that have become a place unlike any other in South Carolina’s local police circles.

The crime lab at the Richland County Sheriff’s Department solves crimes as often as deputies do. It also bears a seal of approval that rates it even better than the lab at the State Law Enforcement Division, which services nearly all of the rest of the state’s law enforcement and prosecution community.

The 24-person lab with a $1.6 million budget is a key to getting quick and accurate results that deputies and detectives count on, Sheriff Leon Lott said.

“They’re like Santa Claus. They’ve got presents, and you never know what you’re going to get,” Lott said of their findings. “It’s like Christmas around here when they’ve got the results.”

The lab gets offenders, including those who commit property crimes, off the streets faster, Lott said, protecting residents from repeat offenders. SLED’s lab doesn’t deal with the vast volume of property crimes. In that regard, Lott views the forensic unit as a crime stopper.

In June 2009, the lab achieved a rating that meets rigorous international accreditation standards, said Demi Garvin, who started the unit in October 2000 and oversees it.

The unit is accredited in the analysis of crime scenes, drugs, DNA, fingerprints, firearms and evidence from fires and tools used in crimes.

Garvin, who has a doctoral degree in clinical pharmacy, preaches to detectives that forensic analysis can’t solve crimes by itself. But it can fast-forward good police work and can save investigative time by keeping deputies from chasing evidence that goes nowhere.

“We’re the gravy. The satisfaction is being able to so quickly impact an investigation,” she said from the lab, which is at the sheriff’s department headquarters on Two Notch Road.

Even someone who logically might be a critic lauds the lab.

“They have managed to achieve the gold standard,” said Joe McCulloch, a prominent Richland County defense attorney and the state head of the Innocence Project, which ferrets out police misconduct that leads to wrongful convictions.

One local attorney, Jerry Finney, is a critic.

He has filed a lawsuit against the sheriff’s department and a former member of the lab for falsely accusing a man in the stabbing death of his wife. Lott has publicly apologized to Justin Mallory, and a second man has been charged.

Mallory’s suit largely alleges misconduct by detectives. But it also faults the lab for delays in analyzing the DNA of Joshua Porch, now accused of killing Nekia Mallory on Mother’s Day in 2006, and for mislabeling DNA evidence from her husband. Mallory was never convicted in two trials but spent about 14 months in jail awaiting his court date.

Lott dismisses the contention that the lab did anything wrong. The case turned on other evidence he declined to disclose because Porch’s criminal trial is pending.

A handful of sheriff’s and police departments in the state have in-house capability to conduct more than fingerprint analysis. But none can do as much as Richland County’s, said Jeff Moore, director of the South Carolina Sheriffs’ Association.

“The other labs that are out there do a little bit of this or a little bit of that, but not the full gamut,” Moore said.

CASE STUDY

The lab has been instrumental in solving innumerable crimes, according to Lott, detectives and forensic staffers.

Its staff discovered a serial rapist in 1996, quickly tied a handgun to the February murder of popular Korean-American restaurant owner Steve Kim and located minute DNA from a sock in the 2009 beating death of an elderly minister, Tryon Eichelberger, that led to an arrest in a case that gone cold. The DNA — from a few skin cells — was found inside a sock that a lab analyst deduced was worn on the hand of Eichelberger’s pipe-wielding assailant.

One of its most memorable cases, which also underscores the relationship between the lab and detectives, involved the brutal beating death in January 2009 of Linda Derrick in her Denny Terrace neighborhood home.

An attacker chased Derrick, 63, throughout her house, pummeling her with a weapon that has yet to be found.

“Blood was everywhere,” said Stan Richards, one of six board-certified crime scene experts on the staff. It took the forensic team three days to gather measurements, take more than 1,000 photographs and video, conduct blood-spatter analysis, take fingerprints and begin examining the evidence.

“There was one drop (of blood) on the living room floor that we happened to see by the victim’s purse,” Richards said. “That one drop is the only one that came back to the suspect.”

The team ran the blood DNA through the database at SLED and got a hit on a convicted felon, said Maj. Stan Smith, who is second in command over detectives. The blood also matched samples from two burglaries committed nearby on the same day that Derrick died. The suspect had cut himself during one of the break-ins, which included one in which another woman was beaten, Smith said. Elbert Wallace, 46, has been charged with murder, burglary, armed robbery and assault and battery with intent to kill.

Deputies already were on Wallace’s trail: They had evidence he had pawned the Sweet Sixteen ring Derrick’s mother had given her — even before anyone had found the body, Smith said.

DISCIPLINE AND TOYS

The lab double-checks its findings before releasing them to deputies or detectives, Garvin said.

“It’s 100 percent peer review,” meaning another lab professional examines evidence looking for anything that conflicts with initial findings.

The lab’s forensic specialists meet face-to-face with detectives and their supervisors within two days of any major crime for an evidence review, said Garvin, who worked in SLED’s lab for 16 years.

Asked whether any of its findings have been overturned in court, Garvin responded, “Zero. None.”

Lott said he fashioned the lab around her and she helped select the rest of the team on the basis of their areas of expertise. “This lab is Demi Garvin,” the sheriff said.

Lott and Garvin share a thirst for pushing deeper into the latest in forensic science.

By this fall, a new $250,000, portable, 3-D laser camera with 360-degree capability will be used at major crime scenes to gather video evidence and take precision measurements. The lab team has spent months training with the camera and testing it, Garvin said.

In addition, DNA specialists have been trying for years to find a way to lift samples from fingerprints taken from thousands of people already arrested by deputies, Lott said.

Another specialty device is a $100,000 combination of two machines that use helium to separate substances such as drugs or fire debris into their components, then bombard them with electron beams to analyze them.

Not all the techniques are whiz-bang. Missy Horne does drug- and fire-debris analyzes. She sniffs with her nose in early tests of evidence brought to her. And she uses paint cans or heat-sealed plastic bags to gather and preserve soil and other burned samples before any accelerant evaporates.

Firearms expert David Collins uses microscopes and an 8-foot-long water tank to examine bullet fragments or firearms. Collins said his work is based in science, but he acknowledged that forensics “always comes down to the fact that it’s opinion evidence.”

Altogether, the lab handled about 6,100 analyzes last year, according to statistics supplied by Garvin. The largest number were from drug cases.

The lab started out 11 years ago doing only fingerprint analysis and grew into what it is today. In the past year, it conducted tests for 12 other law enforcement agencies or defense attorneys, bringing in about $60,000 of income.

FORENSICS UNDER attack

Forensic labs have been under fire, especially since the accrediting agency, the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors, fell under suspicion in North Carolina, where it is based.

Known commonly as ASCLAD, the organization certified the work of the State Bureau of Investigation lab starting in 1988. An audit last summer by N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper found 229 cases tainted by analysts who omitted the results of tests that favored defendants.

A series of articles in the Raleigh News & Observer exposed widespread troubles inside the SBI, including agents who bullied the vulnerable and analysts who pushed past the bounds of science to deliver results that helped prosecutions.

A National Academy of Sciences report in early 2009 found serious deficiencies in the nation’s forensic science system and the need for a major overhaul.

In January, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduced a bill that would require that any lab that receives federal money be accredited under standards set by new organizations comprising experts in the field. In addition, it would create an arm of the Justice Department to work with a board that would establish and enforce tougher standards.

All of that does not mean forensics is not a helpful tool in law enforcement, Garvin said. “The support we can give (deputies) will get better and faster.”