----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, July 19, 2002 1:29 PM
Subject: Yesterday's CSI episode
(TV)
Yesterday evening's episode of CSI (Crime
Scene Investigators) on the local network channel here in Montreal, featured a
story involving uranium detection at the crime scene -- tiny flakes of paint
from a little statue which was used as the murder weapon.
I thought that a somewhat positive aspect of
the show was how the investigator's initial panic reaction became moderated.
Unfortunately it only became so as a result of the lab-tech's explaining that
it was just "trace amounts of uranium" ....as if a brick of 100% pure uranium
would kill you on the spot (or something like that -- who knows what the story
writers were thinking...).
Another minus was when the investigator
exposed a film to some more uranium paint flakes taken from the murderer's
gloves -- the film was exposed in a matter of seconds, showing bright specs of
light on the print.
All I managed to get after exposing dental
x-ray film to a 1-inch piece of high-grade uranium ore for about 8 hours, was
a diffuse silhouette of the rock :-(
Pretty entertaining show nonetheless.... one
of very few TV programs I bother watching.
Jaro