The Secret History of the Future: Unreliable Evidence

The Economist Podcasts

• Episode: The Secret History of the Future: Unreliable Evidence
• Website: The Economist Podcasts
• Feed URL: https://rss.acast.com/theeconomistallaudio
• Duration: 00:27:52
• Published: 2019-07-17 06:30

In the early 20th century a new forensic technique—fingerprinting—displaced a cruder form of identification based on body measurements. Hailed as modern, scientific, and infallible, fingerprinting was adopted around the world. But in recent years doubts have been cast on its reliability, and a new technique—DNA profiling—has emerged as the forensic gold standard. In assuming it is infallible, are we making the same mistake again?

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