If luminol reveals apparent blood traces, investigators willphotographorvideotapethe crime scene to record the pattern. Typically, luminol only shows investigators that theremightbe blood in an area, since other substances, including householdbleach, can also cause the luminol to glow. Experienced invest...
Have you seen investigators on crime shows who spray some stuff on a "clean" carpet and suddenly -- blood stains! Well, of all the fictional technology on TV, it turns out this stuff is real! Find out how luminol reveals the blood.
The basic idea of luminol is to reveal these traces with alight-producing chemical reactionbetween several chemicals andhemoglobin, an oxygen-carrying protein in the blood. The molecules break down and theatomsrearrange to form different molecules (seeMicrosoft Encarta: Chemical Reactionfor more informat...
Investigators may use other chemiluminescent chemicals, such as fluorescein, instead of luminol. These chemicals work the same basic way, but the procedure is a little bit different. How Investigators Use Luminol If luminol reveals apparent blood traces, investigators will photograph or videotape the...