Å®ÉúСÊÓƵ

Hands up everyone who knows what the term ‘forensic’ means. If, like
me, you were glued to the TV detective thrillers over the festive season,
you’ll be in no doubt. It means ‘scientific’, of course, as when the boss
detective carefully picks up a bloodstained murder weapon in his hanky and
says to his sidekick something along the lines of ‘Better get this over
to forensic for a few tests.’

And should there be any doubt in your mind as to the interpretation
of the word, or the nature of those tests, in recent months New Å®ÉúСÊÓƵ
has also used ‘forensic’ synonymously with ‘science’ or ‘scientific’, in
reporting the background to the release of the wrongfully imprisoned Irish
groups. A forensic lab is a scientific lab, isn’t it?

Well, maybe. But anyone with a vestige of a classical education, or
a copy of the Collins English Dictionary (New Å®ÉúСÊÓƵ’s standard reference)
will know that ‘forensic’ means ‘relating to, used in, or connected with
a court of law’. Thus, forensic science is science associated with legal
work; a forensic lab is a place where legally related scientific work is
carried out, and forensic medicine is medicine having to do with the legal
process, often for the purpose of determining the cause of injuries or death.

The suggestion from the ace detective to his sidekick that the bloodstained
weapon might be given ‘some forensic tests’ is no more, and no less, than
a suggestion that it be given some legal tests (‘OK, knife, try this one.
Is trespass a criminal or a civil offence? Come on, now, out with it’).

The image this conjures up is even more bizarre for the minority of
the viewing populace who know that ‘forensics’ is the art of formal debating.
‘Just take this bloodstained knife off for a debate, Smith’ doesn’t quite
carry with it the same sense of drama as ‘Just take this bloodstained knife
off for some scientific tests, Smith’ does it?

So why do thriller writers, and some New Å®ÉúСÊÓƵ reporters, say ‘legal’
when they mean ‘scientific’? Is it simply confusion? Is it because the very
word ‘science’ is instinctively deemed to be a turn-off? Or is it because
‘forensic’ has a nice Latin sound? I suspect the last possibility is closest
to the truth. In which case, it serves scientists right to be misrepresented
in this way, since they are still more often than not guilty themselves
of using two or three long words with a Latin flavour where a simpler, English
version would do.

Not that any of this really matters, when according to the Association
for Science Education only one teacher in five in Britain knows how the
planets are arranged in the Solar System, and according to Hansard there
are MPs who refuse to believe that spraying underarm deodorant in a bathroom
in London can possibly affect the stratosphere over Antarctica. And probably
all those teachers and Teresa Gorman both know the meaning of the word ‘forensic’.
But still, I feel better for getting it off my chest.