Summary
Dr Sheila Willis is a forensic scientist who was Director General of Forensic Science Ireland for many years.
She has spent her life using science to help solve cases, working on crime scenes and then analysing material in the lab, and presenting scientific evidence in court.
It’s a complicated business. Forensic science relies on powerful technology, such as DNA analysis, but it cannot be that alone - it’s also about human judgement, logical reasoning and asking the right questions.
It is these fundamentals of forensic science that Sheila has fought for through her long career and what she fears may be becoming lost from the field now.
We find out what happens when the two very different worlds of science and the law clash in the courtroom. How to walk the line of presenting scientific evidence where there is pressure to be definitive where often science cannot be - and what this part of the job has in common with food packaging.
And what makes a good forensic scientist?
We’ll turn the studio at London’s Broadcasting House into a live crime scene to see if host Professor Jim Al-Khalili would be any good as a forensic investigator…
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before this BBC podcast kicks off I'd like to tell you about some others you might enjoy. |
| 0:05.0 | My name's Will Wilkin and I Commission Music Podcast for the BBC. |
| 0:08.0 | It's a really cool job, but every day we get to tell the incredible stories behind songs, moments and movements, |
| 0:14.7 | stories of struggle and success, rises and falls, the funny, the ridiculous. |
| 0:19.2 | And the BBC's position at the heart of British music means we can tell those stories like no one else. |
| 0:24.5 | We were, are and always will be right there at the center of the narrative. |
| 0:28.6 | So whether you want an insightful take on music right now or a nostalgic deep dive into some of the most famous and |
| 0:34.4 | infamous moments in music check out the music podcasts on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:38.7 | Picture the scene. Plain clothes police swarm over a blood-spattered alleyway sealed off with striped tape. |
| 0:46.0 | Next, the action moves to a pristine white-walled laboratory filled with white-coated technicians. |
| 0:52.0 | Then it's onto a wood-paneled courtroom with the eyes of a |
| 0:55.3 | jury fixed on a smartly dressed scientific expert. Of course this is how we often see the |
| 1:00.3 | process of forensic science imagined in books and on TV. It's also |
| 1:04.8 | depicted as black and white as right versus wrong, guilty or not guilty. But as we |
| 1:09.9 | know science is more often about shades of grey it's about uncertainty and |
| 1:14.9 | the things we don't know rather than what we do so what happens when these two |
| 1:19.6 | very different worlds collide the world of science and the law. As my |
| 1:24.8 | guest today will testify the reality can be difficult and often fraught and in |
| 1:29.7 | some thankfully rare cases there can be grave mistakes. |
| 1:34.0 | Dr Sheila Willis is a forensic scientist who was Director General of Forensic Science |
| 1:38.8 | Ireland for many years. |
| 1:40.5 | The advancements in technology she's seen during her career have been astounding. |
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