There were several papers published in 2009 on fibres. Some of these are considered below in no particular order.
The population, transfer and persistence of fibres on the skin of living subjects was published in Science and Justice. Papers that deal with the difficult issue of fibre persistence are always of great interest because of the complexities involved in the subject. This paper did a good job of converting theoretical knowledge of fibre transfer and persistence into casework situations involving exposed skin and provided a scientific basis for assessing fibre populations on skin. Scene-going scientists would benefit from understanding the data as it would assist in their evaluations of the potential for fibre recovery.
The kinetics of colour change in textiles and fibres treated with detergent solutions: Part I—Colour perception and fluorescence microscopy analysis and The kinetics of colour change in textiles and fibres treated with detergent solutions: Part II — Spectrophotometric measurements both published in S&J. Fibres that have been washed could theoretically appear different under the microscope owing to the contribution from the detergent. This not only could affect items of clothing submitted as reference samples (so that the reference sample is different from any at the scene), but populations of fibres on clothing (so that any potentially linking recovered fibres appear to be different). These papers describe in detail the types of changes that could occur for several different fibre types at the microscopic and chemical levels. The papers serve as good background information and as a reminder to fibre examiners to question and challenge what they see down the microscope.
Automotive flock and its significance in forensic fibre examinations this was one of our papers and was a study that came directly from our casework experiences.
The application of laser scanning confocal microscopy to the examination of hairs and textile fibers: An initial investigation this paper, from Forensic Science International, showed that the LCM technique produces some excellent images of fibres in terms of their cross section and gave some valuable pointers for optimizing conditions for capture. LCM is a technique that at present is not widely available to all. The non-destructive aspect of the capture of the image is most appealing, although when compared to the cheap alternatives (such as cutting the fibre) it is a luxury.
The Analysis of Metameric Blue Fibers and Their Forensic Significance , this paper focussed on metamerism and demonstrated that even though samples are metameric - they are likely to be distinguishable via their UV-VIS-NIR spectra. This study may seem obvious, but it was an important point.
