Question

A body is found in the woods and all you have left to analyze are bones and teeth. Explain what isotopes would be helpful to you as you seek to identify these remains and match them to a missing person's report. How would these isotopes help in the identification of this person?

Answer 1

Answer:

The isotopes that would be helpful to identify a missing person and complete its report are the stable isotopes.

The stable isotope forensic science analysis using Sr, O and S isotope variations has been developed recently using hair strands to identify recent geographic hints as temperature in climate causes the isotopes ratio to vary indicating if the person changed its geographic area or he/she  belongs to the area it was found, for what it drank.

Explanation:

The forensic analytical science uses different isotope´s methods like gas or liquid chromatography, HPLC, mass spectrometry, immunoassays, enzymatic assays, DNA profiling techniques, PCR, biosensing, metabolomics and LC-MS which can stablish the chemical nature of most of the samples provided.

As a basic principle consider isotopes are atoms of the same element that have different quantity of neutrons but the same number of protons and electrons.