Science Fun From Sherlock Holmes to modern forensics: reveal the mysteries of ink
Young Women in Bio(YWIB)

Young Women In Bio (YWIB) is part of the Women In Bio (WIB) organization, a professional organization committed to promoting career development, leadership and entrepreneurship among women in the life sciences. YWIB is a special initiative of WIB, designed to introduce and inspire middle and highschool –age girls to careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.

YWIB and Concordia University presents a 2 hour, hands-on lecture that shows that there is more to the ink with which a letter or a note is written than meets the eye… and that ink analysis can discover it.
Specialized investigative processes developed from Sherlock Holmes’ time to modern-day can characterize the properties of inks in a number of ways.. Using destructive techniques, such as paper chromatography you will see that ink isn’t as simple as it seems.Using modern-day, exquisitely sophisticated molecular spectroscopy methods you will be able to differentiate various inks non-destructively. These same methods are in routine use in forensics labs worldwide. You will also have a chance to put what you have learned into practice by examining the ink of a note left at an imaginary crime scene and link potential suspects to this evidence.