The Untrodden Path of Forensic Podiatry
By day, Michael Nirenberg of Crown Point, Indiana is ‘America’s podiatristSM’, helping people treat warts, arthritis, ingrown toe nails, heel pain and all sorts of other foot problems. In his spare time, he helps the police solve murders.For one case, a double homicide in Idaho, Nirenberg analyzed foot impressions left inside shoes that the suspect wore in jail. They matched those left at the crime scene. “The way you wear one pair of shoes, a lot of times, will carry over to your other shoes,” he told a local TV news reporter.From the O.J. Simpson trial to the popularity of Nancy Grace and CSI, it’s clear that the public loves forensic science. We never tire of hearing about the justice system’s use of DNA screening, fingerprinting, fiber analyses, and evenbrain imaging. But when’s the last time you read about foot forensics? I got curious about it, and discovered that loads of information can come out of a humble footprint—whether left on the ground, a body or inside of a shoe.Read more at...PLoS Blogs, November 2010.