Stable Isotope Forensics: An Introduction to the Forensic Application of Stable Isotope Analysis

This book provides the first comprehensive, overview and guide to forensic isotope analysis, an exciting new application of stable isotope analytical techniques.  Topics are introduced using examples and real-life case studies such as food quality control where isotope analysis has already had a major impact, in terms of consumer protection, These examples illustrate the underlying principles of isotope profiling or fingerprinting. A section comprising actual criminal case work is used to build a bridge between the introduction and the technical section to encourage students to engage with this novel departure for analytical sciences while at the same time providing hands-on examples for the experienced researcher and forensic practitioner to match problems and success stories encountered with the topics discussed in the technical section. What little information is available on the subject in book form so far, has been published as individual chapters in books dealing either with mass spectrometry, forensic geoscience or environmental forensics, this is the first book to focus on the entire spectrum of forensic isotope analysis and will be an invaluable reference to both researchers in the field and forensic practitioners.Content: Chapter 1 What are Stable Isotopes? (pages 1–4): Chapter 2 Natural Abundance Variation of Stable Isotopes (pages 5–7): Chapter 3 Chemically Identical and Yet Not the Same (pages 8–9): Chapter 4 Isotope Effects, Mass Discrimination and Isotopic Fractionation (pages 10–15): Chapter 5 Stable Isotopic Distribution and Isotopic Fractionation of Light Elements in Nature (pages 16–35): Chapter 6 Stable Isotope Forensics in Everyday Life (pages 36–48): Chapter 7 Mass Spectrometry versus Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (pages 65–71): Chapter 8 Instrumentation and ? Notation (pages 72–84): Chapter 9 Isotopic Calibration and Quality Control in Continuous Flow Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (pages 85–90): Chapter 10 Statistical Analysis of Stable Isotope Data within a Forensic? Context (pages 91–99): Chapter 11 Forensic Stable Isotope Analytical Procedures (pages 100–101): Chapter 12 Generic Considerations for Stable Isotope Analysis (pages 102–120): Chapter 13 Forensic Context (pages 143–148): Chapter 14 Distinguishing Drugs (pages 149–168): Chapter 15 Elucidating Explosives (pages 169–183): Chapter 16 Matching Matchsticks (pages 184–189): Chapter 17 Provenancing People (pages 190–213): Chapter 18 Stable Isotope Forensics of Other Physical Evidence (pages 214–221):