Ultraviolet...?

chiphead · Feb 3, 2006

We had a nasty accident at work to night, while watching the "bio-containment" people clean up the blood trail, it made me think! Gee, how nice would it be to have an ultraviolet led light right now, just like on CSI! Could have used it to find the blood that was missed! Anyone have such a unit?

chiphead

Walking through life at DEFCON-3.

Planterz · Feb 3, 2006

I was under the impression that UV light does nothing useful to aid in detection of blood.

rfwjr · Feb 3, 2006

Is it blue light that will pickup the blood trail? I think I read that somewhere here before.

Macaw · Feb 3, 2006

Blue light will make blood appear black, as it is absorbed by the blood. This is of use to hunters who track their quarry after the sun goes down. I doubt that it would help enhance blood detection in a lighted environment. And, as stated above blood will not fluoresce under UV. A chemical called Luminol is sprayed around crime scenes and when added to blood stains, will fluoresce under UV. This fact seems to have created the myth that blood will fluoresce by itself under UV.

photo2000a · Feb 3, 2006

one thing is for sure about it, uv lights are cool!

chiphead · Feb 3, 2006

Thanks for the feedback fellas, I'd just remembered that an area in the crime scence (on CSI) was sprayed with something first. I think one of my goals this year is to cover the whole light spectrum, I've already got some infared!

chiphead

You're going to see me, I don't care if it's 200 yards or geosychronos orbit!

xenopus · Feb 3, 2006

As everyone said -- without adding Luminol to the blood (which don't even need UV), UV won't help by making blood "Glow in the dark", dispite the claims of some others out there

Blue light makes blood look black, since it's absorbed by the hemo. Blue light can be useful for many other detections, however. With the correct orange filter, fibers and semen are viewed glowing brightly, as well as other bodily fluids.

Piers!

elgarak · Feb 3, 2006

UV is also absorbed by the blood, just like blue. So if the blood stain is on something fluorescing, say a nice white sheet, you can use the UV light to make everything else except the blood glow.

And to make it completely clear: Blood + luminol = glow in the dark. No UV or other light necessary.

IsaacHayes · Feb 3, 2006

but doesnt UV help excite the luminol chemical illuminescens glow even brighter?

MMXER · Feb 3, 2006

I have a keychaing LED blacklight. They can be found here http://ledshoppe.com/Product/ledp/LP1022.htm For $6 bucks and free shipping it was pretty good. Only problem I have had is the plastic button for the on/off fell off, but the plastic trigger is still there.

Its a real blacklight. Range is short, but you can see it from far away with the purple glow. It does show up stuff you cant normally see.... Dont even break this out in a hotel room

.

They call it a money detector, because the strip in big bills glows underblacklight.

Ultraviolet...?

chiphead

Flashlight Enthusiast

Planterz

Flashlight Enthusiast

rfwjr

Newly Enlightened

Macaw

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photo2000a

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chiphead

Flashlight Enthusiast

xenopus

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elgarak

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IsaacHayes

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MMXER

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