How outdated is that fingerprint?

Forensic dramas on TV make it appear simple to find out when fingerprints had been left on the scene of against the law. In actuality, the oils in fingerprints degrade over time, and it is tough to determine their age. Now, researchers have found molecular markers for modifications to those oils over a seven-day time interval — info that may very well be used to estimate fingerprints’ ages extra precisely.