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Entomologists are detectives02.04.2008 In January 1982, New Zealand police seized 12 suitcases of marijuana at Auckland Airport. Several people were detained, and police also found marijuana in their car and home. It didn't cost anything to prove that the marijuana belonged to these particular people; a more serious question remained open: was the narcotic plant grown in New Zealand or imported?Chemists subjected the confiscated marijuana to chromatographic analysis, comparing it with local samples and with samples from the notorious “golden triangle” – the center of drug production in Southeast Asia. Without success: the ratios of soluble organic compounds in the marijuana samples under study varied greatly, and the question remained open. Finding themselves at a dead end, criminologists came up with a new idea. Could insects reveal the origin of the drug? Entomologists were invited, and they examined marijuana samples under a microscope. Fragments of sixty insects were discovered: bees, wasps, ants, beetles... Only one of these species, the rice weevil, is found in New Zealand. Eight species were characteristic of Asia, two species of beetles are found only in southern Burma and the Indo-Malayan region. Having established the distribution areas of insects, entomologists from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research were able to indicate the source of origin of marijuana. It turned out to be an area located 200 kilometers southwest of Bangkok, known as Tenasserim. Not content with this information, the entomologists added: “The area where the drug was collected is adjacent to a river or lake. There are termite mounds and fig trees nearby, and there are also poisonous ants that can make living in this area almost unbearable for a person.” After this information was obtained, one of the suspects admitted his guilt - so convincing was the evidence. This case is notable primarily because a field of science that seemingly has nothing to do with forensics helped to convict criminals. Another story from neighboring Australia is also curious in this regard. Its citizen, biochemist Robert Marshall, devoted most of his life to studying the protein composition of sheep wool, the country's main raw material export. And he developed a new version of the electrophoretic method for analyzing proteins under the influence of an electric field. Using this method, Marshall isolated wool proteins – keratins; they are also found in human nails and hair. When comparing the data from the analyses, the scientist discovered that there were species-specific differences in the sets of these proteins. “Although I was working with wool,” Marshall recalled, “I realized that this method could be applied to human hair as well.” By analyzing many samples of human hair, Marshall was able to show that even members of the same family have different keratin compositions. Although there are doubts that each of us is endowed with a unique and unrepeatable set of these proteins, in many cases such analysis allows us to exclude a person from the list of suspects if their hair is clearly different from that found at the crime scene. golos.com.ua
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On the site Cannabis Fun Club in Russia You can find out the latest news about marijuana and hemp. In the section gardening you can learn all about growing marijuana and hemp. In the section workshop describes the methods of smoking marijuana, how to make a joint and how to make hashish. There is also a Rastafarian forum here where you can clarify any question you are interested in. |
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