STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Dina Temple-Raston begins a series of reports on high-tech forensics with a visit to the FBI crime lab in Virginia.
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DINA TEMPLE: Hear that? That's the sound of a small revolution.
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TEMPLE: That kind of database would have taken years to put together if human technicians had to do it. The revolution is this robot. It can do 500 samples a day, many more than a human ever could.
TEMPLE: We still use people to find the DNA...
TEMPLE: Jennifer Luttman runs the convicted offender program at the lab.
TEMPLE: ...to look for the stains, to test if it's blood, to test if it's semen, to cut out the stains, because they need to see how much is there, and that's all based on - on experience.
TEMPLE: But Luttman says there are parts of the DNA database-building process that can be done more efficiently by machines. And that's new.
TEMPLE: Once, though, the DNA is extracted in a purified form, we then are starting to do all of the casework aspects on robotics, because that then is a very consistent process. And so we're putting robots into place to allow the humans to concentrate on the areas that they - are most needed.
TEMPLE: Mitchell Holland is a member of the forensic science department at Penn State. He thinks juries are raising the bar on evidence.
TEMPLE: The data is suggesting that interviews of jurors are such that they're saying if they'd only done DNA I would have convicted, when they probably had enough in the case to already convict.
TEMPLE: Expectations are rising because the science is getting better. Not so long ago, forensic experts needed a sample the size of a nickel for processing. Now it just needs to be the size of a pin prick. So cases that were unsolvable just a decade ago are now ripe for reopening.
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TEMPLE: Alice Eisenberg is the head of the FBI's Mitochondrial DNA Analysis Lab, where experts can find clues and evidence that's been sitting around for years.
TEMPLE: Cold cases are our meat and potatoes, if you will. They typically include bones that have been found several years ago and have never been identified as belonging to a certain individual, or it can also include hair samples that have been stored with other evidence for many years and no one ever was able to perform DNA analysis on them until we came along with our mitochondrial DNA technology.
TEMPLE: The newest wrinkle in that technology is a rather innocuous-looking machine called a mass spectrometer. The actual machine is not very big. It's about the length of a kitchen counter and a little over 5 feet tall. Inside, you can see little robotic arms moving trays around a series of short towers.
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TEMPLE: Les McCurdy is a forensic examiner in the DNA analysis lab. He likes to use a coin analogy.
TEMPLE: You have pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. Each one of those coins will have a different weight. So if I have a pocketful of 10 coins and I put that on a very sensitive scale, we can whittle down that number and determine how many pennies, how many nickels, how many dimes and how many quarters. It's the same type of thing that we're doing with mitochondrial DNA with this instrument.
TEMPLE: Essentially, the machine helps them shake out and identify several individuals from a DNA mixture. The robot picks up a plate, reads a bar code on its side, cleans the DNA and then using magnetic beads separates it out so it can be put in the mass spectrometer for weighing. A computer then records the various weights and DNA combinations.
TEMPLE: I got to tell you, as a scientist, this is very exciting. Not only is it technologically advanced and it's cutting edge, but it's also going to have a tremendous application. And I think it's really going to open up all new types of evidence to us, all new types of cases, and I think it's going to have a huge impact on how we can assist different investigations.
TEMPLE: This new mass spectrometer technology is still in its infancy, but it is part of a larger program to expand the use of DNA, and even people outside the FBI, like Penn State's Mitchell Holland, see new uses for DNA.
TEMPLE: The power of DNA is what is beginning to emerge in that by using it just like a fingerprint, you can actually get a match to a previously convicted offender, and that's really exciting.
TEMPLE: Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News, Washington.
INSKEEP: Later today, Dina Temple-Raston looks at audio forensics. Just how do they know those Osama bin Laden tapes are real?