Professor Bob Shaler on Forensic Science

The Penn State Public Broadcasting depart­ment inter­viewed their own Professor Bob Shaler, direc­tor of the foren­sic sci­ence pro­gram at Penn State.

Professor Shaler’s inter­view is well worth watch­ing. It cov­ers many inter­est­ing aspects of foren­sic sci­ence, includ­ing the devel­op­ment of today’s DNA test­ing pro­ce­dures in the United States.

Professor Shaler also hits on the fol­low­ing top­ics, which in some ways mir­ror my own opin­ions (approx­i­mate time in video listed in minutes):

10:00 — Accreditation is vol­un­tary, foren­sic sci­ence is non-regulated.

12:00 — Many per­ceived “errors” in foren­sic tes­ti­mony aren’t what the sci­en­tist tes­ti­fied to, but rather how the lawyers mis­rep­re­sented the sci­en­tists state­ments later in the trial.

13:30 — And of course the CSI Effect