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Episode details

Radio 4,20 Dec 2007,30 mins

Algae - Voice Forensics

Material World

Available for over a year

Algae We take algae for granted - scum on a lake or seaweed round your toes... but algae is being used to develop cancer and malaria drugs, as well as being used in food, toothpaste, and even keeping the head on your pint of beer. Quentin talks to Michael Guiry, who is attempting to catalogue all algae and to Juliet Brodie who is using DNA barcoding to look at algae’s genetic makeup. Voice Forensics Humans are pretty good at recognising voices, but would you trust your ears to link a voice recording to a suspect in a court of law? How reliable is ear witness testimony and what clues can the professional phonetician use to help solve crimes? Quentin talks to phoneticians Peter French and Francis Nolan about how they unearth hidden information in the voice to help police find and identify potential suspects.

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