meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Science Quickly

How 9/11 Transformed Forensic Science

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2 • 639 Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2024

⏱️ 17 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Content warning: This episode contains some details about the 9/11 attacks and victims’ remains. Twenty-three years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, forensic scientists are still working to identify victims from the World Trade Center site. Host Rachel Feltman speaks with Kathleen Corrado, forensics executive director at Syracuse University’s College of Arts & Sciences, about what unique challenges have been posed by the massive scale of the tragedy and how the lessons learned are now helping investigators solve cases from wildfires to criminal investigations—in addition to aiding efforts to identify the remaining victims of 9/11. Recommended reading: Health Effects of 9/11 Still Plague Responders and Survivors What Structural Engineers Learned from 9/11 E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new everyday: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yachtold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:20.1

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co.

0:22.7

.jp. That's Y-A-K-U-L-T.C-O.JP. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacult.

0:35.2

23 years ago, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks killed nearly 3,000 people,

0:40.8

and turned Manhattan's iconic World Trade Center into ground zero.

0:45.7

Most of you probably remember seeing footage and photos of the long, complicated process

0:50.6

of looking for victims in the smoldering debris.

0:53.4

But you might not realize that for

0:55.2

forensic scientists, that work is far from finished even today. For Scientific American Science

1:00.9

Quickly, I'm Rachel Feldman. I'm joined today by Kathleen Carrotto, the Forensics

1:05.5

Executive Director at Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences. She's here to tell us how the staggering

1:11.5

scale of 9-11's mass casualty event presented forensic scientists with new challenges,

1:16.8

and how the lessons they learned are helping them identify wildfire victims, suspected criminals,

1:22.4

and the many remaining casualties of 9-11 itself. Thank you so much for joining us today.

1:29.4

My pleasure.

1:30.6

So broadly speaking, what kind of impact did 9-11 have on the forensic science community?

1:37.4

Well, the event that happened in 9-11 in the World Trade Center was basically the first time that DNA analysis was used to identify

1:46.4

victims on such a large scale. So while there were about 2,700 victims or so, due to the fire,

1:55.0

the explosion, the building collapse, there were a lot of very small samples. A lot of the bodies

2:00.3

were degraded. Really, that's the first

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Scientific American, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Scientific American and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.