If you are planning an offense in the near future, then you can forget about different “fingerprints” and “hairnets”. Very soon, the government won't need your DNA, your fingerprints, or even your TV footage. The fact is that now there is other reinforced concrete evidence that you were somewhere there once were there. What kind?
It turns out that the microorganisms crawling by the billions on your skin are completely unique. Your skin, hair, breath, saliva and even your intestines contain colonies of these little creatures, and each such colony is a completely unique population. It sets you apart from the other 8 billion people.
And you cannot wash away these microbes - they will remain in every pore of your body. And you won't be able to put on some kind of protective suit - the microbes are so small that they will crawl out anyway. And wherever you have ever been - stood and breathed in the room, walked somewhere on the carpet - a plume of microbes stretches behind you like scattered bread crumbs.
In addition, there are similar unique colonies of microorganisms on every sufficiently large stone, on every animal and plant. Therefore, wherever you are, there is also a microscopic exchange between you and the place of the offense.
These microscopic colonies, termed microbiomes, have long been known to microbiologists, but the study and cataloging of microbiomes was something of a science fiction about the future of forensics. A similar development of events, although it was assumed by futurists, but, at best, in a hundred years.
However, starting in 2011 and without much fanfare in the press, a national database began to be created to register the categories of microbiomes found almost everywhere. Unique biological prints of tens of thousands of "volunteers" were collected in a large electronic file cabinet, and the goal was to collect information … from all 8 billion people on the planet.
How complete this database is nowhere and no one is reported, however, it is known that the National Institute of Justice began working with more than twenty other institutions on the development of documentation for turning this new science and all this data into forensic reality.
So far, no one has certainly been prosecuted using microbiome evidence, but it's just a matter of time. In addition to creating a legal framework and legal documents for the new industry, the main strategic areas of work are named as follows:
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a) Creation of a necrobiome base - that is, communities of microorganisms living on decaying organic matter at one time or another after death. Based on this base, it will be possible to accurately determine the time of death even after the passage of years.
b) Creation of a database of soil microbiomes, when compared with which it will be possible to say for sure that the suspect was in one place or another.
c) Creating a way to reliably take samples of the microbiome from objects - similar to how forensic scientists are now taking fingerprints.
In addition, the question of an intermediate link in sampling remains unresolved. So, these samples cannot be removed by forensic experts, because, even being dressed in protective suits, they will still leave samples of their microbiomes on the surface being examined. Therefore, a police robot dog is now being developed as an intermediate link, which will collect samples.
Finally, there is one more unresolved issue - filling the database. So far, as an option, special air and other catchers with a system of biological analyzers are being considered, which will be installed in places where traditional recognition systems already exist.
What could possibly go wrong with this super cool new technology? Nobody knows that.
Posted by David Brockett, Vietnam veteran, USMC officer and pilot. Upon retirement, he completed a civilian profession and continued to work in the health sector as a consultant and hospital administrator. Lives in Texas and Idaho.