forensic science

Roach researched animal misbehaviors for her new book, Fuzz. Though animals are all but charged with crimes when they run afoul of human values, she learns, they often have the last laugh.

People are dumping corpses in the high desert of western Colorado. But those unloading bodies aren't criminal masterminds. They're scientists. And out here, the usual rules of human decay don't apply.

Dr. Elizabeth Ford treated mentally ill inmates in New York City for more than a decade. It was almost universal, she says, that they had suffered abuse or significant neglect as children.

When bodies decompose, the types of bacteria on and around the body change in predictable ways. These patterns can be used to estimate time of death, a crucial clue in solving murders.