This week my power word in the news is microbiome. I found the article titled, “How your microbiome can put you at the scene of the crime” by Kai Kupferschmidt a correspondent for Science Magazine. The article describes how the microbiome of a person may be used as a method of forensics when determining who committed a crime. The microbiome can be used because each persons is highly individual with a mix of species and strains. The microbiome also varies by gender, age, and lifestyle so details about the person can be determined. Humans are constantly shedding bacteria, which is why knowledge and possible use of a person’s microbiome is helpful because there is no way not to lead a microbiome trace. This method of forensics is still very new so it is not down to a perfect science and it is not close to actually being used to convict someone of a crime. One issue is that the microbiome can change due to time, moving to a different country, or antibiotics. A large library of microbiomes would also have to be compiled so that evidence from a crime can be compared to peoples’ microbiomes. It is a very new science so more research needs to be done to determine the viability of this method in solving crime, however, it does show potential to be a game changer in forensics, just as DNA analysis was many years ago.

         This article was well written, easy to understand, and interesting. The author did a good job hooking the reader in with a story about a robbery that was set up to test the use of microbiomes in catching criminals. Many quotes were used from credible figures that are doing research on the subject, increasing validity and accuracy of the article. The article does not formally cite any references, however. The article was more aimed at informing the general public of the possible use of microbiomes in forensics. Understanding of the uses of the microbiome and its characteristics were gained from this article, making it a helpful and informative article.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/03/how-your-microbiome-can-put-you-scene-crime