Students in Forensic Chemistry were discussing a Web
site claiming that people who ate poppy seed bagels could test positive
for opiates. An interesting notion, Prof. Mary Carroll interjected.
In the spirit of forensic chemistry, she suggested a test: “Let's bring
in some poppy seeds next week and put them in a test kit.”
The application of forensic chemistry to criminal justice
has permeated news and popular culture. Forensics has been key
to cases such as the O.J. Simpson case and the September 11 attacks.
And rare is the television show about police or lawyers in which
forensics doesn't play a key part.
So, it shouldn't be surprising that Chemistry 17 (Topics
in Chemical Analysis: Forensic Chemistry) drew about
50 interested students at its inaugural offering this term. While selecting
a class of 30 for the GenEd course, Carroll said she was surprised
that nearly all were majoring in the social sciences. “I think the
legal aspects of forensics appealed to most of them,” she said.
Senior Amanda Comunale is a political science major planning
a career in law. She said she was drawn to the course because
the cases are relevant to law and current news stories. “This is a
field I never would have looked at if it didn't have the legal aspects,”
she said. “I'm always wondering, `Did he do it?'”
Comunale finished a group presentation on technology
and fingerprints, asking, “When are fingerprints not admissible
in court? Fingerprints are subject to human-based decisions … are
the experts expert enough?”
“One of the main goals of the course is to give non-scientists
an appreciation for the way that science works, the thinking and
the tools we use and how we approach a scientific problem,” Carroll
says. “I want students to come away with a knowledge of
chemical methods, both quantitative and qualitative. This is really
an analytical chemistry course for non-science majors.”
With forensic chemistry so much a part of the news,
Carroll leads discussion of current events at nearly every class, and she
has students present clippings on topics ranging from advanced
technology for fingerprinting to Afghanistan's production of opium.
Carroll scheduled the drug analysis experiment to
coincide with the winter Olympics, assuming that a doping scandal
would provide classroom discussion. But it wasn't until nearly the end of
the games that three Nordic skiers tested positive for
darbepoetin, which boosts oxygen-carrying
hemoglobin. “We almost made
it through the Olympics without a drug scandal,” Carroll
told Tuesday's class before the discussion.
Most students say their favorite part of the class is
the biweekly lab. Said one: “It's fun solving the mystery that
Professor Carroll has created.” Another student said, “It's interesting to
see how someone could try to get away with a crime, not that I would.”
In one recent lab, groups were using a combination of police
field test kits (mistakenly called “narcotics” test kits, even though they
are also used to test a wide variety of other drugs) and spectroscopy
to analyze drug-like powders, vegetative matter, and fake
urine (widely available through chemical supply firms, Carroll notes)
to detect controlled substances.
What the professor didn't tell the students was that some of
them would get false positives for cocaine or marijuana. The field kit
is simply a presumptive test to see if further, more sensitive, lab tests
are warranted, Carroll explained. The “marijuana” was parsley soaked
in patchouli oil. Students with the “cocaine” sample subsequently
used infrared spectroscopy to identify their sample as
diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in the
common anti-histamine Benadryl.
Other labs have covered determination of blood
alcohol levels, arson investigation using gas chromatography, and
DNA analysis.
“It's interesting to see how involved some of the analysis
can get,” said Adam Cappel, a senior majoring in managerial
economics. “It would be neat to see a full forensic arsenal and all
the methods they use.”
And did poppy seeds provide a false positive for opiates? Not
in Tuesday's lab. A more sensitive laboratory test may find
trace amounts, Carroll notes, but not likely at levels comparable to
those of a drug user.
So, that poppy seed bagel shouldn't be a problem.