# @themacrosift on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DVuJm46gbJy
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/61612714-themacrosift-instagram
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- **Posted:** 2026-03-10T22:43:08.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** The Macro Sift | Exponential Tech (@themacrosift) — https://gondola.cc/themacrosift

## Caption

🔎 Cracking Cold Cases with AI 

To investigate a crime like murder, forensic specialists can use clues from fly larvae feasting on a decomposing corpse. Specific larvae species can provide clues about the places the body maybe have been moved. Larval development can reveal when the victim died. But such determinations can require genetic sequencing of the larvae, which isn’t a viable option if living larvae are not present on a body. And even if they are, sequencing them often means destroying the larvae. Now, a few labs are using machine learning to find alternatives. 

How it works: One lab at Louisiana State University used mass spectrometry to measure the chemicals that insect eggs, larvae and pupae leave behind. The team then turned that into a database of the chemical profiles, or metabolomes, of insects that colonize decomposing remains. Next, they trained a machine-learning algorithm to use that database to identify which insects might have been on a body, based just on the metabolomes they left behind. With this technique, the larvae no longer need to be present at all. Another lab is substituting genetic sequencing with a combination of infrared spectroscopy and machine-learning to identify the sex of larvae using light.

What the experts say: These advances could bring answers to cold cases. But forensic entomologist Paola Magni, who is not involved in either project, says that use of AI in this process can be risky: “The flip of the coin of artificial intelligence can become very dangerous in a forensic context because you can really cause a miscarriage of justice.” 
~Scientific American

#AI #ColdCases

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## Tags

coldcases, ai

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