Syracuse’s all too familiar snowy winters are no match for the staying power of fingerprints, recent research shows. While quality declined over time, fingerprints placed on soda cans and then exposed to snow for multiple weeks could still be processed by forensic methods. The results suggest that non-porous items found at crime scenes can yield forensic clues, even if they’ve been exposed to inclement weather.

“A review of the literature showed that little to no research had been done on this topic. Given that Syracuse gets plenty of snow, I thought this would be a new and interesting avenue to investigate,” says Sam McCook M.S. ’15, a former Forensic and National Security Sciences Institute (FNSSI) student and the study’s lead author.

Read the fully story at AS News.