Pressing gelatin onto fingerprints then exposing it to a special vapour can determine when the prints were made
Chemistry
30 July 2022
Which came first, the fingerprint or the text in the document it was lifted from? Cultura Creative RF/Alamy
A technique for determining whether a fingerprint appeared on a piece of paper before or after text was printed on it could help resolve fraud cases. The approach uses standard forensic tools and so would be simple to put to use.
In forensics, the “when” is often as important as the “who”. In a case, for example, there could be a situation where someone is suspected of tampering with a will or contract by printing …
