Sue Black
The Life Scientific
BBC
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 25 February 2014
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Forensic anthropologist Professor Sue Black began her career with a Saturday job working in a butcher's shop. At the time she didn't realise that this would be the start of a lifelong fascination with anatomy.
Her job has taken her to some extreme and challenging locations to identify human bodies, such as Kosovo, where she uncovered evidence used in the UN's War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.
Back home, Sue has been integral in solving many high-profile criminal cases, including cracking Scotland's biggest paedophile ring in 2009.
In The Life Scientific, Jim Al-Khalili asks how she deals with the emotional pressures of the job, and why she is so fascinated by the inner workings of the human body.
In her spare time, Sue Black also advises crime fiction authors like Val McDermid, providing inspiration for new plotlines and characters.
In return, Val and a group of writers have offered to help with Sue's latest challenge - fundraising for a mortuary. This facility will use new techniques to embalm bodies and promises to revolutionise the way surgeons are trained.
Producer: Michelle Martin.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Once you've wrapped up this podcast, how about trying a very British cult? |
| 0:06.0 | What happens if the person you trust with your future isn't what you think they are? |
| 0:10.0 | I did feel the whole time he was watching me Yeti. I saw a footprint and that really gave me gusmas. |
| 0:16.4 | Or people who knew me. Emme, I remember every secret, every lie. I'm the only one who knows the truth. |
| 0:23.0 | Discover more of our biggest podcast from 2003. |
| 0:27.0 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.0 | Thank you for downloading The Life Scientific from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:34.0 | Most of us would find the work that today's guest does pretty tough to cope with. |
| 0:38.0 | As a forensic scientist, she identifies bodies, both living and deceased, and has worked on many high-profile |
| 0:44.8 | criminal cases from mass graves in Kosovo to pedophile rings in Scotland. But as |
| 0:50.6 | we'll hear the grim and serious nature of her job contrasts with her lively personality. |
| 0:56.0 | Her friends and colleagues describe her as bubbly and funny with an insatiable curiosity for uncovering hidden evidence. |
| 1:03.0 | Professor Sue Black received an OBE for her services to forensic anthropology |
| 1:08.0 | and is director of the Center for Anatomy and Human Identification at the University of Dundee. |
| 1:14.3 | She also advises crime writers, providing inspiration for characters and plot lines, and now she's |
| 1:20.0 | pitied a group of these authors against each other in a competition to raise cash for a new |
| 1:25.3 | mortuary. |
| 1:26.3 | Sue Black, welcome to the Life Scientific. |
| 1:29.3 | Thank you. |
| 1:30.3 | Now to many people I guess your job must sound pretty gruesome, but what is it that fascinates you |
| 1:35.2 | about the inside of the human body? |
| 1:37.5 | It is just such an amazing adventure, so the ability to look inside the enormity of information that's in there so beautifully |
... |
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