Me, William and A Gel Lifter

When I was a kid, my father spent a lot of time with me taking apart and reassembling equipment. I think in many ways it’s why I do what I do. And now that I’m the adult, I get to experience this from the other side, working with my nephews. This weekend Jon and I played with the Green Screen and a stuffed moose [poor poor moose…). And William and I worked on bad weather driving and designing a new forensic product.

In this case, we were working with gel lifters. For those of you who haven’t used them, gel lifters are used to pull up pattern impressions left on some surface. They work well and the ones we were using have such a low level of tack that they pull of only part of the impression. As a result they can separate one layer from another. But the draw-back is the impression is feint, so William and I were working on a contrasting aid that could be added to the lifter to increase resolution.

William told me he prefers proof of concept testing. He was speaking in comparison to the “work” of developing a finished product. And the truth is I couldn’t agree more. As I say often, it’s like day-camp without the adult supervision.

Our first attempt actually melted the lifter, the second washed away the print, but the third shows promise. I won’t say too much about the technology since, we’re just starting with it. And anyway my point today is how cool it was to spend some small time at the bench with my nephew. If you get the chance today, show someone younger the cool parts of what you do for a living. Trust me, their enjoyment is infectious.

But the hubbub of the trade show is behind me and I’m back to business as usual.

Until Later
- Charles