Thursday

Forensic Confusion

Here’s a nice illustration of some of the problems that can pop up in the use of forensic evidence. This, in the context of the shroud of Turin. Turns out the shroud may be more than 1,000 years older than previously thought. It’s not that the carbon dating was wrong—it’s just that the tiny sample they chose to test came from a patch rather than the original shroud—like so much science--valid result, invalid conclusion. Good thing no one was on trial.

No comments: