Raychelle Burks
Raychelle Burks is associate professor in chemistry at American University, Washington, DC, US
PodcastBook club – Murder isn’t Easy by Carla Valentine
Delving into Agatha Christie’s pioneering forensic writing with special guests Raychelle Burks and Kathryn Harkup
- Opinion
Why eating a sleigh’s worth of candy canes is a bad idea
Like any compound, the festive flavour of peppermint can be harmful in high doses
- Opinion
The dead of aconite
Whether human, witch or werewolf, beware a flower known as the queen of poisons
- Opinion
Insulin as a murder weapon
Forensic experts can tell if high insulin levels have a natural or criminal cause
- Opinion
Stable isotopic analysis identifies unknown casualties of war
Humanitarian aid provided by forensic science
- Opinion
Identifying mineralised tissue in the fight against wildlife crime
Is it horn, antler, teeth, ivory… or artificial?
- Opinion
Ancient antidotes
Favourites of emperors and royalty, theriacs were the universal cures of their day
- Opinion
Poisons leave no mushroom for error
Will you enjoy a delicious treat, or endure excruciating agony?
- Opinion
The non-romantic history of Valentine’s Meat Juice
If ‘meat juice’ be the food of love, the appetite may sicken, and so die
- Opinion
How to break up a Christmas party
Did a thrown glass shard fell a festive partygoer, or was he stabbed?
- Opinion
A rice kind of fingerprint powder
A new method for producing print powders goes against the grain
- Opinion
The deadly domino effect
People trying to save victims of gas poisoning can suffer tragic consequences
- Opinion
Beating the scopolamine clock
New techniques could increase the window to detect predatory drug poisoning
- Opinion
A lunchtime killer?
The deaths of 21 people are suspected to have been caused by workplace poisoning
