Science research

One of my friends, a former community college student at the school at the same time I was working there, has decided to go into biotech research. She is technologically savvy and at the same time is fascinated with and good at working with the environment, and hopes to make some important contributions to our area (Northern California). So what does it mean to do biotech research? What does it take to get into the field of biotechnology? And how much dough can you make?

Biotech research can involve anything in the life sciences, from “human health and computational disease mapping to crop and tree improvements,” as those studies are done by students at the Biotech Research Center at Michigan Tech, from “forensics, [the] testing of biotoxins, and management of the nation’s organ transplantation process” to “drug development, medical diagnostics, biomedical engineering, and environmental analysis,” such as those done at Virginia Biotechnology Research Park, or from biogenetic engineering, farming, or nutritional assessment and engineering to toxicology, biomedical imaging and engineering, or food, drug, and environmental technologies, as conducted by University of California Biotechnology Research and Education Program (UC BREP).

How much a person in biotech research makes depends on what funding the biotech research facilities are backed by. At the Biotech Research Center at Michigan Tech, for instance, funding is at $8.3 million, provided by such organizations as the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE),the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Health (NIH), and the U.S. Drug Administration (USDA). At the same time, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the biotech research engineer (as well as the biomedical engineer) make an average of $48,503 with a bachelor’s degree and around $59,667 with a master’s degree.

But will the jobs in biotech research be there when my friend and you finish your degrees? Well, again according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the projection for job growth in the field of biotech research in particular but biotechnological engineering in general looks good through 2014, with the growth “much faster than average. This, BLS asserts, will be attributed to the aging of the population, the increased focus on health issues, and the demand for “better medical biomedical engineers.” Because of the heightened interest in biotech research and biomedicine, more degrees are granted in these fields/areas…and hopefully, more grants are awarded!

By: Morgan Hamilton

By: Sean M. Clarke

Fingerprints collected from a crime scene, or from items of evidence from a crime, can be used in forensic science to identify suspects, victims and other persons who touched the surface in question. Fingerprint identification emerged as an important system within various police agencies in the late 19th century. This system replaced anthropometric measurements as a more reliable method for identifying persons having a prior record, often under an alias name, in a criminal record repository. The science of fingerprint identification stands out among all other forensic sciences for many reasons because of its superiority and reliability.

Worldwide, fingerprinting has served all governments during the past 100 years to provide accurate identification of criminals. No two fingerprints have ever been found alike in the billions of human and automated computer comparisons. Fingerprints have become the very basis for criminal history foundation at almost every police agency.

The first forensic professional organization, the International Association for Identification (IAI), was established in 1915. It established the first professional certification program for forensic scientists, the IAI’s Certified Latent Print Examiner program in 1977, issuing certification to those meeting stringent criteria and revoking certification for serious errors such as erroneous identifications.

Fingerprints remain the most commonly used forensic evidence the world over. In most jurisdictions, fingerprint examination cases outnumber all other forensic examination casework combined. It continues to expand as the premier method for identifying persons, with tens of thousands of persons added to fingerprint repositories daily in America alone – far outdistancing similar databases in growth. Fingerprinting has outperformed DNA and all other human identification systems to identify more murderers, rapists and other serious offenders (fingerprints solve ten times more unknown suspect cases than DNA in most jurisdictions).

Although some reporters and authors claim that fingerprints have long enjoyed a mystique of infallibility, the opposite is true. Fingerprint identification was the first forensic discipline in 1977 to formally institute a professional certification program for individual experts, including a procedure for decertifying those making any investigative errors. Other forensic disciplines later followed suit in establishing certification programs whereby certifications could be revoked for any error found.

Fingerprint identifications lead to far more positive identifications of persons worldwide daily than any other human identification procedure. The American federal government alone effects positive identification of over 70,000 persons. A large percentage of the identifications, approximately 92% of US Visit identifications, are affected in lights-out, no human involved computer identification process with 100% accuracy based on only two fingerprints.

By: Elizabeth Morgan