Scientists have found ways to tease even more clues out of fingerprints’ telltale marks — one in a string of developments that gives modern forensics even better ways to solve mysteries like the anthrax attacks or JonBenet Ramsey’s murder. For example, if a person handled cocaine, explosives or other materials, there could be enough left in a fingerprint to identify them, says chemist R. Graham Cooks of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. Progress in forensics comes from a combination of new and existing techniques.
