Who Killed Captain Cornball?
In this project we studied the mysterious murder of the infamous Captain Cornball at a picnic that Norma Nanny, Fred Fleckstone, Glen Glendora, Theresa Thyme, and Sam Stubs attending. The murder at the picnic made us consider each of these participants as suspects. We did this by examining various evidence left at the scene of the murder.
Our Methods
FingerprintingThere were fingerprints at the scene. We found out who they belonged to through examining them with fingerprint dust, under UV light, and gel electrophoresis and then identifying them as matches to Sam Stubs and Norma Nanny.
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ChromatographyAt the scene of the murder there was a note left for Captain Cornball saying "U R A DEAD MAN." We tested to find whose pen wrote this, as each of the suspects had a pen, through dipping strips of chromatography paper with the ink on it in alcohol and examining the similar strips of ink. We found the ink matched either Norma Nanny's or Sam Stubs' pen.
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Blood TypingThere were two blood types found at the scene: O and A. We found this out through putting antigens into the samples of blood and examining their reaction. Of the people at the picnic, Norma Nanny, Theresa Thyme, and Glen Glendora had type A blood, and Fred Fleckstone, Sam Stubs, and Captain Cornball had type O blood
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DNA SequencingUpon coding the DNA found at the scene, we saw the match for a sequence among Cornball, Glendora, and Stubs for one sample, and a match with Thyme, Fleckstone, and Nanny.
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Chromosomal DisordersWhen karyotyping the chromosomes of the suspects, we saw that many of them had chromosomal diseases. Nanny had Trisomy X, Fleckstone had Klinefelter Syndrome, Stubs had XYY Syndrome, Thyme had Down Syndrome, and Cornball had XYY Syndrome. These chromosomal abnormalities are sometimes known to lead to abnormal behavior which can explain the murder
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Pedigree
We made a grand family tree for all parties involved and their family, documenting their history of disease and blood types. This helped us work out connections among the suspects.
Guest Speaker
We had a forensic criminologist come in and speak to us about a local case a few years ago. It was very interesting and I thought beneficial to speak to someone about work that we're doing and they specialize in.
What I Learned
In this project I learned more about chromosomal disorder and how they can affect people, such as XYY Syndrome being known to increase impulsiveness and temper. I also learned about methods of finding out who could have committed a crime such as karyotyping and chromatography. I also learned about making pedigrees and inheritance of diseases.
Reflection
I liked this project. It felt like we were free to reach our own conclusions which was refreshing. I also liked the experiments within the project, they were fun and simple which made me feel like I had a good understanding of what we were doing. I wonder if next time there could be a more concrete answer to who the murderer was because it would have been nice at the end of the project to learn if we were correct in our thinking of who the murder was.