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Meet nature’s detectives; how bugs, plants, bones … even dust can be formidable enemies of crime.

In the dark recesses of a warehouse, a drunken game of cards explodes into a shocking murder. Now the night watchman lays dead. The only witnesses a housefly or perhaps a cockroach that might be skittering by.

That stylized tribute to our seemingly endless appetite for TV programs about forensic science sets the stage for an examination of how, in the real world of police investigations, nature is being enlisted in the war on crime.

With the help of Dr. Jennifer Gardy, of British Columbia’s Centre for Disease Control (CDC) we spend the next hour sifting through the mayhem, murder and science that make up the world of forensic investigation. In the field and the lab we follow scientists who are able to read the subtlest evidence and turn nature to righting wrongs. Sometimes these clues are disturbing, sometimes they are surprisingly beautiful. You’d be hard pressed to find a better guide, than Dr. Gardy, to this world where, plants, bones even dust, can be turned into formidable enemies of crime.

But the real secret of using science for solving crime may be less about technology and more about the careful observation of the natural world. Partnering the latest technologies with nature’s own detectives produces a powerful combination that is giving law enforcement new and astounding advantages in this high stakes game of cat and mouse.