Encyclopedia of Science

[RonPrice]

As a retired teacher with an interest in science and writing, I could not help but write this personal reflection on a TV program I watched 2 or 3 days ago:
__________
FORENSIC SCIENCE GETS GOING

While the Baha’i temple in Sydney was in its final months of construction before its official opening in September 1961, Stephen Bradley was convicted of the murder of an eight year old boy, Graham Thorne, in the first trial in which modern, complex forensic science--and particularly forensic botany--played a dominant role in securing a conviction. Thorne had just won Australia’s first big lottery to finance the building of the Opera House.–Ron Price with thanks to WIN TV, 9:35-11:15 p.m., “Kid For Ransom,” Crime Investigation Unit, 27 November 2007.

Forensic sciences has an interesting history going back to the Roman physician Galen who performed the first autopsies in the 2nd century BC. But in the 19th century the history of forensic science developed exponentially. In 1844 the first forensic medicine was taught in London. A method for the identification of bloodstains was discovered in 1863. In 1892 Galton wrote a book on the classification of fingerprints. the story had just begun.-Ron Price with thanks to Jim Fisher, “Forensic Science Timeline,” Internet Site, 28 November 2007.

They were very big years with
Yuri Gagarin going around
the earth and with TV sets
going to two million from
1958 to 19611 Downunder.

I joined Baha’i, a movement
that had just got going back
then with, say, three hundred
members in that far-off isolated
continent where they had started
building that temple back then in
Sydney finishing it in ’61 just after
the greatest manhunt in Australian
history, the trial of Stephen Bradley
and the use of forensic botanical
science for the first time in a
major criminal investigation.

1 Noel Sanders, “Crimes of Passion: TV, Popular Literature and the Graeme Thorne Kidnapping,” The Australian Journal of Cultural Studies, Volume 1 No.1 May 1983.

Ron Price 28 November 2007