Blog Entry for Forensic Tri-Lab Set Two

1. What scientific ideas or theories would help you explain why you are able to use the procedures to analyze evidence?
There are different ways in which scientific theories helped me make inferences and observe the similarities differences between various pieces of evidence in the three labs. In The Ink Is Still Wet, we dipped paper strips with an ink dot on them in alcohol and water to help get a better picture of how different the four inks were by observing the colors they produced and the ways the ink climbed up the sheets of paper. Each pen mark produced a different result. This is likely because inks behave differently based on what they contain and what colors and chemicals they are made up of. Even if inks appear to be the same with the naked eye, the concentration of certain colors and chemicals is something that you can't determine just by looking at pen tips and helps you figure out what the true answer to the problem is. Without using the science behind the "simple" inks that we see, or anything else for that matter, there is no way to tell what is really going on and inferences are not nearly as accurate as they are when you use the sciences behind the components in your experiments.

2. How has your approach to lab procedures changed from the first round of labs. Are you more or less confident in you results? Why?
Since my first round of labs, I think about and analyze the evidence and results with more thought, partially because I have used some of the technology since the first set of labs, but mostly because now I know roughly how close numbers and observations should be and how well my results have to line up in order to make a good, accurate inferences. Because of this, I would say that my confidence in my inferences and results boosted slightly. Though each lab is still different and I don't entirely know what to expect, I have a better understanding of how the labs are set up and am more prepared because I know what the range of difficulty is for each lab more or less. I will not say that I felt better about the labs when going into the second round, nor did I feel that they were going to be easier after doing my first set of labs, but I do think I did have a better understanding for what these labs were about and their importance after the first round.