New Corpse-Detection System Finds Where the Bodies Are Buried
Secret Grave A new method developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology can help identify hidden graves by testing for decaying flesh. via Flickr/ mdpettittCC licensed Cops searching for hidden graves usually rely on dogs or ground-penetrating radar. Now they have another tool in their arsenal -- a corpsefinder probe, slightly thicker than a human hair, that can quickly and easily detect decaying flesh. Before they go tearing up the ground in search of a body, authorities often want to be sure about what lies beneath. Typically, tests of soil around a suspected grave site involve extracting samples and shipping them to a lab for testing, which is expensive and time-consuming. The new system, designed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, consists of a slender probe that can simply be stuck in the ground to pull in air samples. It can even detect bodies buried beneath concrete, as...