This week on Futureproof we speak to a real Forensic Scientist who spent his career dealing with the macabre world of Crime scenes

Mike Silverman has just written a part-memoir part casebook of his career as a forensic scientist. The book,‘ Written in Blood’, details his work investigating crime scenes and providing the science that led to convictions of dozens of murderers, rapists, thieves and gang members.

He details his early days before the advent of DNA. He always believed you could find the clues to cases by looking at the biology that was left behind. His early years were spent looking for fibres that matched other fibres. His job was basically to compare samples of the suspect and samples found at the scene but there had to be a suspect. It was all based on Lockhart’s ‘Principle of Interchange’ which means that every contact leaves a trace between two things that come into contact with each other.

But with a DNA database, his job became much more investigative. You can find DNA anywhere once you have a molecule. With DNA you can definitely say that ‘Jonathan McCrea’ was there and this is his DNA. The problem with this is that DNA is everywhere. So DNA brings its own problems.

Mike says that CSI and shows like that are great entertainment but have no basis in reality. He is a forensic scientist and spends most of his time looking down a microscope.

Mike also speaks about the detachment you need as a forensic scientist. His job was mostly investigating horrific things where there was always either a dead body or a rape victim.

There are lighter moments too like where he was exhuming a dead body and nobody had brought a spade to dig the coffin up.

Ultimately though science is making it much harder for you to become a criminal.

Tune in to Futureproof this Saturday from 10am to hear more about a job in science that’s a little less ordinary.