Virtopsy: The future of forensics

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY of forensic science is forensic pathology - post-mortem examination to determine the cause of a death. While there have been groundbreaking innovations in the fields of DNA analysis and toxicology in recent years, most forensic pathologists continue to rely on techniques developed in the 19th century or even earlier. Their day-to-day work differs little from that of their medieval predecessors - dissecting corpses in a basement morgue and writing reports of the findings. That may be about to change.