The University of Otago’s Iso-Trace Research Lab in the Chemistry Department has been in the news recently for helping in a fisheries prosecution that relied on matching tiny flakes of paint found under the scales of some discarded fish with the appropriate fishing boat. This kind of forensic chemistry has seen the lab dubbed ‘CSI South’ and Alison Ballance went to Dunedin to meet lab director Russell Frew, who showed her the lab and explained the kind of work they have been involved in recently.
Russell Frew was part of the team that won the 2011 Prime Minister’s Science Prize, and you can listen to an interview with other members of that team here. The Iso-Trace Research Lab also featured in an earlier story on our Changing World – you can listen to that here.
