THIS magazine recently published an interview with Simon Cole, a historian of
science who claims that fingerprint experts match prints to the wrong person as
much as 20 per cent of the time
(16 June, p 42). It also published an editorial
on the issue
(p 3).
I asked John Denham, the new Home Office minister, for his
views on this matter.
Denham says the system the police use for matching fingerprints is tried and
tested and has proved reliable. Furthermore, fingerprint experts can now
register with the Registration Council for Forensic Practitioners, which will
regularly review and accredit those practising in the field and enable others to
check an expert鈥檚 credentials. He went on to add that the Criminal Justice and
Police Act 2001 allows police to retain all fingerprints and DNA samples taken
from a person they suspect of involvement in a crime. This is an area of some
controversy, but Denham says the prints and samples will be used to prevent and
detect crime.
Personally, I am on Denham鈥檚 side. I do not see that law-abiding individuals
have anything to fear from having their fingerprints and DNA retained. As a
constituency MP, I used to see agonising cases of people under suspicion for
months who then turned out to be innocent. Their lives were made a misery.
Nowadays, many in such a position would be eliminated from an inquiry at an
earlier stage.
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SALVAGING and reusing materials from a demolished office block can halve the
amount that has to be dug up to build a new one, and cut the energy needed by 10
per cent. But how do you persuade constructors to recycle?
I was glad when the minister responsible for the construction industry, Brian
Wilson, told me that the government was funding research into ways the industry
could reduce waste. Last year a team from Bovis Lend Lease, funded by the
Department of Trade and Industry鈥檚 Partners in Innovation research programme,
looked at three London building sites and showed how waste could be
significantly reduced or eliminated. Its report, Construction鈥擳he Price of
Waste, shows that environmentally friendly practices often save money. It has
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快猫短视频 warned in an editorial at the end of April that atmospheric
chemistry is more complex than we had imagined
(28 April, p 3). Climate-change
scientists know that how a gas reacts with hydroxyl鈥攁 combination of
hydrogen and oxygen鈥攊s crucial to determining its full contribution to
global warming.
Now advisers to the environment minister Michael Meacher tell me that there
is little likelihood of hydroxyl radicals being destroyed in the manner
described by Fred Pearce in the same issue (p 21). They explained that the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has assessed the changes in the
oxidising capacity of the atmosphere that we can expect over the coming 100
years. The IPCC scientists predicted a reduction of between 6 and 25 per cent in
hydroxyl radicals by 2100. As a test of whether methane and carbon monoxide
emissions would overwhelm the hydroxyl鈥攁s Pearce suggested鈥攖hey
increased methane by 10 per cent in their models but found only a small
additional reduction.
The scientists qualified this by stating: 鈥淚t is acknowledged that chemical
models of the atmosphere are still at a relatively early stage of
诲别惫别濒辞辫尘别苍迟.鈥�
Meacher鈥檚 office assures me they will continue to work within the UN
Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution to assess and limit
emissions of pollutants.
Congratulations to Tam Dalyell, who has won an award for outstanding services
to science by the Royal Society of Chemistry.