A Curve in the Road

Last January, I wrote a post called The End of a Personal Era. I was marking the end of my career in the HIV lab I’d been a part of for nearly twenty years. Times are tough in scientific research right now; the collapse of the economy means that funding opportunities are few and far between and competition has never been more fierce. My lab was dramatically downsizing and nearly all the staff and students were being let go and not replaced.

Since I’ve been laid off, I’ve been trying to get into a new position at the University. But in my spare time, I still spent a lot of time writing. While I love that I’ve been able to concentrate on my craft, I’ve noticed a few things about my writing when it’s the main focus of my attention:

• I managed my time better when I had less of it: This may seem counterintuitive. How can you make more out of less? But I think when you have more time it’s easier to waste it. When I was working in the lab and writing in every spare second, I made sure all of those spare seconds counted in a really big way.

• Time away from writing is invaluable: When the current project is all you think about because it’s the main focus of your life, sometimes it can wear you down and you stop feeling the love. Then it’s hard to kick yourself back into gear. I think that having another focus can be a good thing, and allows you to return to your writing feeling fresh.

• Built-in pondering time: This is one of the things I’ve missed the most. When I had rote tasks to perform as part of my job, it would give me the opportunity to mull over what I’d recently written and then consider different forward directions. I really missed that time and, in some ways, while I could write faster, I definitely felt that occasionally the storyline was getting away from me because I didn’t have enough time to think things through.

• Time in the outside world can lead to new ideas: New people, new situations, new places, these can all lead to inspiration or a different outlook that can create a new idea or a new angle on an old one.

Last week I accepted the offer of a new position at the University. So it’s back into infectious disease research for me—now, instead of HIV, it’s West Nile and Dengue Fever. One of the reasons why I love scientific research is because it’s relevant and important; what you do in your day-to-day job can have a very meaningful impact on someone else’s life. But, through it all, the writing will continue. In the mean time, I have a new novel and new proposal that are both nearly finished so it’s onwards and upwards from here.

I’m going to take a couple of weeks off from blogging as I settle into my new position and to take a little stress off while I find my feet. So I hope everyone has a great couple of weeks and I’ll be back with a new post on August 14^th!

Photo credit: hpaich

Forensic Case Files: The Mystery of Philadelphia’s Mass Grave

In 1832, 57 Irish immigrants arrived in the United States, hired to lay track through Duffy’s Cut, a densely wooded area in what is now a Philadelphia suburb. But six weeks later, every immigrant was dead, their demise blamed on a local cholera epidemic. However, to the modern eye, these deaths are a mystery. Under normal circumstances, only 40 – 50% of untreated cholera cases perish, so why did they all die? The official story simply doesn't ring true. What really happened to the immigrants of Duffy’s Cut?

The story was originally brought to life by Immaculata University history professor William Watson and his brother Frank after reviewing records kept by their grandfather, a former employee of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The section of track in question had originally been built by the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad which later became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The brothers became suspicious at the overwhelming death toll and the lack of official death certificates files by the railroad. Historical records indicated that after the first few men were buried in individual graves, the remaining immigrants were buried together in a shallow ditch along the edge of the rail line. But where?

The Watson brothers set out to find that mass grave in 2004, but it wasn’t until 2007 when they first started to use ground penetrating radar that victims were found thirty feet below the surface. In 2009, the first remains were uncovered—two human skulls, a handful of teeth and 80 other bones. But almost immediately the fate of some of the men became clear from significant blunt force trauma to the skulls.

To date, the remains of five men and one woman have been recovered. Of the five men, three appear to have died not of cholera but of violent means, as indicated by bludgeoning, bullet wounds and axe trauma to the skulls. Unfortunately, the fate of the remaining men may remain a mystery as Amtrak, which owns the land, will not allow the excavation to continue because of safety concerns that it would venture too close to the active rail line. There are hopes of continuing at some point in the future, but, for now, the excavation is at an end.

Even the few remains recovered tell something of early 19th-century life. One of the recovered men has been identified as 18-year old John Ruddy of County Donegal in Ireland, based on both ship’s logs of the time as well as a characteristic dental trait—a missing first molar, a trait still shared by modern Ruddys. Muscle attachment points on the bones speak of a strong muscular build, and wear on the teeth show that he clenched them during heavy lifting. He had gum disease, but no cavities since, as a poor working man, he could not afford sugar. Once his identity is absolutely confirmed, his remains will be reburied in his family’s cemetery plot in Ireland.

Why did all the men die? In the early 1800s, prejudice against Catholics, and Irish Catholics in particular, was rampant. Sick immigrants seeking care were often turned away, leading to a higher death rate among that population. The Watson brothers theorize that local vigilante groups killed the remaining Irishmen in an attempt to curtail the cholera epidemic sweeping through the area.

In 2004, a historical marker was erected by the Pennsylvania Historical Society in memory of those who may never be recovered. The excavated remains of the four other men and one woman were laid to rest with full Catholic ceremony in West Laurel Hill Cemetery on March 9, 2012.

Photo credit: Duffy’s Cut Project and Duffy’s Cut Project Facebook Page

Forensics 101: Race Determination Based on the Skull

**Note: This post was written in July 2012. Since then, forensic anthropological consideration of social races (white, black, American Indian, as described below) has changed. Today, scientists realize that these ancestry estimates are too cut and dried for the full range of mixed populations; there is simply too much human variation. Furthermore, such identifications may be conflated by the racial bias of involved investigators.

Rather than deleting this post, I’m leaving it in place as a snapshot in time. Please consider it as such.

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The three key factors required to identify skeletal remains are age, sex and race. In previous Forensics 101 posts I’ve reviewed age estimates of an adult versus a pre-pubescent victim, age estimates based on epiphyseal fusion,  adult age based on the pelvis, and sex determination based on features of the pelvis and skull. The final aspect of general skeletal identification is race.

Physical anthropology considers that there are six main races—black, white, American Indian, East Asian, Polynesian and Melanesian/Australian, but for simplicity’s sake, we’re only going to consider the first three as they are the most comprehensively described.

Racial differences in skeletal structure originally arose when small genetic changes developed in populations isolated by geography. Now, as world travel increases and people of different racial backgrounds intermix and produce children, it is becoming harder to differentiate individuals of different races. But there are some key features of the skull that can help forensic anthropologists:

• Mouth: Whites tends to have smaller teeth, often with significant crowding and impacted third molars, and frequently exhibiting an overbite. Blacks rarely have crowding and the upper teeth often project outwards due to the angled shape of the maxilla. American Indians have well spaced teeth but often exhibit sclerosed dentition—when calcium deposits build up inside the tooth, thinning the root canal—leaving teeth loose within the mandible and easily cracked.

• The palate and palatine suture:  The hard palate is the bony structure at the top of the mouth bordered by the upper teeth. In American Indians, the palate is elliptical, with the ‘U’ shape angling in at the back teeth. In blacks, the palate is hyperbolic—a perfect ‘U’ shape with straight lines. And in whites, the palate is parabolic with the ends of the ‘U’ flaring outwards. The transverse palatine suture that horizontally transects the palate also varies by race: It is straight in American Indians, curved in blacks, and a jagged line in whites.

• Incisors: The shape of the incisors is the most important indicator of race in the teeth. In American Indians (and East Asians, both of Mongoloid ancestry), the incisors are shovel-shaped, named because the inner surface is scooped or curved. Black and whites both have blade-form incisors where the tooth has a flat profile.

• The nose: The nose provides multiple race indicators. In whites, the nasal aperture is long and narrow, with a high bridge and a sharp nasal sill (the lower edge of the nasal aperture projects sharply outwards). In blacks, the nasal aperture is short and wide with a low bridge and a guttered or trough-like nasal sill. In American Indians, the nasal aperture is medium-sized with both a medium bridge and nasal sill.

• The mastoid process: The shape of the mastoid process differs between the races. In blacks, the bony projection is wide, in whites it is narrow and pointed, and in American Indians, a secondary smaller projection forms on the back surface of the mastoid process.

Rarely do all of these indicators point firmly to a single race. Instead, it is the story told by the majority of physical characteristics that suggests the victim’s ethnic background. If in doubt, additional post-cranial (skeletal features in the rest of the body) can help indicate race as well.

The information gathered by a forensic anthropologist concerning age, sex and race can lead criminal investigators to a narrowed missing persons search and hopefully to a definitive victim identification.

Illustrations: Gray’s Anatomy

Guest Post: Crime Scene Science - A Reference Infographic

Occasionally I get requests for guest posts on the blog. By and large, most of these requests don't fit my platform, but this past week I was introduced to a really informative infographic on crime scene science and I wanted to share it with my readers, especially those who write mystery or crime fiction. Jaclyn Nicholson was kind enough to share her graphic and a little information about it with us:

Crime scene science has come a very long way with the advancement of technology. Many professionals gather at the scene of the crime, and utilize their expertise to retrieve evidence. These clues vary from finger prints to bloodstain analysis. Every small detail can indicate a clue. Forensic science is a very intelligent process in which many aspects are considered. This infographic dives into the world of crime scene science, briefly going step by step through the process. Did you know that insects could determine the time of death?

(Click on the image to enlarge)

Source: eLocalLawyers.com

Isn't that a great reference for crime writers? Definitely a useful resource. Thanks for sharing it with us, Jaclyn!

Jaclyn is a content marketing specialist at eLocal.com, in which she works primarily with infographics. eLocal's designs are all created in-house, topics ranging from legal to home improvement. eLocal owns some of the top online business directories.