Familial DNA as a method of identifying serial killers

Posted on January 8, 2019 by Brittany Hood

Trigger warning: This post contains details of specific crimes that are related to sexual assault and murder.

In 1992, an 84-year-old grandmother was brutally assaulted and killed in California. For 25 years, the mystery of her death went unsolved—and her killer unapprehended—due to the lack of physical evidence to tie him to the crime. Twenty-five years later, police paid a visit to a pizza party where they found sufficient evidence to arrest her murder.

Slice of pizza on a white plate next to a drink and condiments. — Pizza

At first glance, the murder and the pizza party seem unrelated. However, there is a link: familial DNA. Familial DNA testing has traditionally been used for a multitude of reasons, such as to identify potential genetic predispositions and to structure family trees. However, with advancements in technology, law enforcement agencies are now utilizing familial DNA testing to identify serial killers. San Diego police found a familial DNA connection suggesting a biological brother was responsible for the 1992 rape and murder of 84-year-old Angela Kleinsorge. In order to confirm that the DNA belonged to the suspect, police went undercover to a birthday party and collected Lonnie Franklin’s leftover pizza crust and utensils. The DNA was a match, and Franklin was arrested a mere two hours later. He was eventually tied to ten murders and has since been suspected of more. He is now known as the “Grim Sleeper.” (more…)

The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative: A brief look

Posted on January 1, 2019 by Alexandra Moussa-Tooks

Even for non-researchers, it is important to be informed about the various initiatives that change the way we do science and, ultimately, the way scientists choose to spend government dollars. In the wake of the 10-year anniversary of RDoC’s inception [1], I would like to unpack this commonly misunderstood acronym that is popping up in clinical science and provide some insight on how it can help researchers and the general public.

The Current Problem

As a psychologist in training, I believe the field’s ultimate goal is to develop an understanding of psychological processes for the purpose of alleviating the burden of mental illness and associated problems (i.e., decreased employment, socioeconomic status disparities, homelessness and incarceration, worsening of comorbid medical conditions, etc.). Psychologists have traditionally used a divide and conquer approach — everyone working on their favored topic (i.e., a particular disorder or process) and using their favored methods, while remaining isolated from other researchers within and outside of psychology. In clinical psychology, some key problems with this approach stunt progress: (more…)

On On the Origin of Species: An ode to scientist-writers

Posted on December 25, 2018 by ScIU Editorial Team

This post is from ScIU’s archives. It was originally published by Clara Boothby in December 2016 and has been lightly edited to reflect current events.

a stack of biology books, including On the Origin of Species — Origin of Species is the foundation for most other work in evolution

Sometimes, when we read about science in textbooks or newspaper articles, it can be easy to slip into thinking that after the scientists make their discovery, the writing is someone else’s job. Not so! In addition to being researchers and experimenters, scientists must also be writers if they wish to share their findings with the rest of the world. Before there were laminated cards with Newton’s laws of motion, Newton himself wrote Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, and before there were textbooks about evolution, Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species. (more…)

Stellar psychology part I: Evolutionary psychology informs the search for extraterrestrial intelligence

Posted on December 18, 2018 by Lana Ruck

A man stands and looks up into a very starry sky. — The Milky Way (Image credit: CC0 on Pixabay).

Last December, bombshell reports were released detailing the Pentagon’s use of tax-payer funds to investigate claimed UFO sightings. With continued discoveries of habitable planets across the universe, the probability that life exists outside the Earth is rapidly rising. This may be why the former head of The Pentagon’s UFO program, Luis Elizondo, recently stated that the existence of non-human advanced technology is “beyond reasonable doubt.”

Scientists across the STEM fields have been considering the physical and biological aspects of extraterrestrial life for decades. Those who think about extraterrestrial life are no longer crackpots on the fringe. In fact, they’re right here in IU’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences (PBS). And they’re not just thinking about alien life, but about alien psychology. (more…)

An open letter to BRAVO TV regarding the misrepresentation of schizophrenia

Posted on December 11, 2018 by Alexandra Moussa-Tooks

Dear BRAVO TV,

I have been a regular viewer of your series of shows entitled “The Real Housewives of [Insert City Here because, truthfully, I watch them all]” since it first aired in 2006 featuring Orange County. As a student of psychology, I love watching the housewives – seeing how other people engage in various interactions and decision-making and trying to understand how poor communication can spiral into unrelenting drama. I devour each episode! More recently, though, I have been disgusted by your destructive and wrongful portrayal of mental health on the show. One event, in particular, has struck me; allow me to paint a picture (or if you’d prefer, watch the clip here). (more…)

Graduate learning outside research: I CAN PERSIST STEM initiative

Posted on December 4, 2018 by Riddhi Sood

I remember one night when I was a second-year graduate student looking for an email from my advisor, feeling the pressure of yet another transition from a research filled summer to a teaching intensive fall. Instead, I found an email from my department chair with the subject “requesting assistance.” As you may have guessed, it seemed like a better idea to help someone rather than to try and find that ‘oh-so-important’ email from my supervisor. Little did I know that this email would change my life!

After reading the email, I found that it was about a mentoring opportunity for graduate women of color called the I CAN PERSIST (ICP) STEM initiative. My curiosity was piqued and after looking at the website, I knew that this was an initiative that I had to be a part of. ICP is a mentorship-based STEM initiative for women and girls of color to promote STEM awareness and academic and career persistence founded by Dr. Kerrie Wilkins-Yel (1). Another aim of this initiative is to foster relationships and support systems among women of color (WOC). The program works with WOC across multi-disciplinary STEM fields to engage in professional development and scientific communication skills. There are 3 tiers of ICP scholars — graduate, undergraduate and high school students (through a partnership with Ben Davis High School). In this post, I will tell you about ICP through my interviews with Dr. Wilkins-Yel and several other students who participated in ICP. (more…)

Getting to the root of the global carbon cycle

Posted on November 27, 2018 by ScIU Editorial Team

This post is from ScIU’s archives. It was originally published by Adrienne Keller in March 2018 and has been lightly edited to reflect current events.

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations in our atmosphere continue to rise, and global warming has transitioned from a possible future phenomenon to a present environmental reality. Given this reality, scientists are motivated to improve calculations of how much carbon there is on Earth and how it flows from the biosphere to the atmosphere and back to the biosphere. This understanding of how carbon moves through our Earth system will help scientists develop better strategies to mitigate the effects of global warming on our natural and built environments.

On land, much of the carbon in soils originates from plants. Recall that during photosynthesis, plants take in CO₂ from the atmosphere and convert this carbon into sugars to enhance plant growth (an example of a carbon flux from the atmosphere to the biosphere). Then, when these plant tissues die and begin to decompose, the carbon again moves from one pool to another. Some of the carbon will be released back to the atmosphere, but about half of the carbon from the decomposing plant will get incorporated into the soil. This movement of carbon from the atmosphere, to the biosphere and then eventually to the pedosphere (the soil) is fundamental to the global carbon cycle. To understand this cycle, we must be able to estimate how large the plant carbon pool is.

Image of many trees, showing surface root systems.

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The Microorganism Survival Toolkit: Dormancy

Posted on November 20, 2018 by Guest Contributor

The author is ScIU guest writer Emmi Mueller, a graduate student in IU’s Department of Biology.

Alt Text: Colorized microscope image of multiple soil bacteria. — Diverse soil microorganisms are integral in supporting biogeochemical processes.
Image courtesy of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

What do the deepest parts of the ocean, the human intestine, and outer space have in common? All of these environments are able to harbor a diverse community of microorganisms. Microbes are involved in everything from nitrogen and carbon cycling to amino acids synthesis for other organisms. Because of the important processes they undertake, microbes are integral to ecosystems. However, not all ecosystems are perfectly matched for microbial growth. So how do microbes survive when they encounter harsh conditions?

One method microorganisms use is dormancy — the ability to produce a metabolically inactive state during less-than-optimal growth conditions. Think “hibernation mode” for microbes. An estimated 60% of earth’s microbial biomass exists in some form of dormant state. The Lennon Lab in the Department of Biology at IU is interested in studying how dormancy helps microbes survive harsh conditions through the lens of both ecology and evolution. (more…)

Graduate learning outside research: Science Fest

Posted on November 13, 2018 by Riddhi Sood

If you are a Bloomington (or a nearby city) resident, you probably have heard about Science Fest. Science Fest is an annual multi-department science outreach event managed by office of science outreach showcasing IU research rolled up as uber fun activities for kids and adults to enjoy.

As a veteran volunteer who has participated in Science Fest for the past 2 years, I was incredibly excited to volunteer for my 3rd year. For my research in Dr. Heather O’Hagan’s lab, I study ovarian cancer stem cells. These types of cancer cells are not visible to naked eye, so we use flow cytometry, a technique used to analyze properties of a cell like their shape, size, etc, to identify a protein that is more prevalent in these cancer stem cells opposed to normal cancer cells.

Imagine my surprise when I talked to Christiane Hassel, manager of Flow cytometry core facility here at IUB, about Science Fest and learned that she will be participating in an exhibit! I signed up to volunteer with her and in this post, I will tell you about my experience with the flow cytometry group’s exhibit.

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Joining science to liberal arts: The many ways of doing history and philosophy of science

Posted on November 6, 2018 by Chris ChoGlueck

Scientific thinking, like that in any arts subject, is carried on by human beings seeking to take a small, faltering step into the unknown. … It has natural ancestors, a genesis, a development, a logical structure; it has conceptual consequences; it has practical applications. … The Department of History and Logic of Science will navigate this stream in the hope that our graduate students may yet learn to set sail on their own in these exciting new studies.

―Norwood Russell Hanson
Arts & Sciences: The Review (May 1960)

With these words, Professor Norwood Russell Hanson announced the grand ambitions of his new department—the first of its kind anywhere—at IU Bloomington in 1960. Hanson, a young and wily professor, had ditched the department of philosophy to start one of his own. He shunned the abstraction of speculative philosophy, which he mocked as “metaphysics,” for a more concrete and situated study of what he called “the logic of science.” He joined forces with Professor Edward Grant, a historian who shared his interest in the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century. Their goal was to teach students the cultural importance of the sciences along with their structures of reasoning. With several other faculty additions, they would soon reclaim the title of “philosophy” to become the Department of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS).

Ornate "drop cap" letters for H, P and S in black and white, adorned by illustrations of practitioners of medicine, cherubim, and book makers. — If nothing else, everyone in history and philosophy of science (HPS) agrees that science is a historical process. These ornate “drop cap” letters come from early in that process: in 1543 Andreas Vesalius published the ground-breaking *De Humani Corporis Fabrica*, wherein he represented the human body with illustrations available here. Courtesy of History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries.

Nevertheless, as a graduate student in the HPS department, I find myself having to explain what exactly “HPS” is to friends, family, and strangers. I am met often with blank stares, gaping mouths, and cautious nods. (more…)