Miniatures used for CSI

Thought you guys might like to read this. In the 1930s and 1940s they used miniature reproductions of crime scenes for forensic investigations. They formed the foundation for modern CSI forensic science. Each diorama cost as much to build as a full-sized house with every detail painstakingly reproduced.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-06/frances-glessner-lee-dolls-house-murder-recreations/12192088

Amazing! Thank you for sharing!

I love this quote:

"They're still valuable as teaching tools because there's still no substitute for observing a three-dimensional object," Mr Goldfarb says.

"There's no other medium that comes close. There's no virtual reality or anything that comes near to matching what you can observe through a diorama."

That was pretty interesting, and really cool. Every time I hear the acronym CSI, I think of this teenage girl that used to work for me part time (at the height of all those idiotic CSI TV shows). She told me that was what she wanted to do — become a CSI, and I asked her if she liked Science, Math, Biology and Chemistry. She said she hated ALL of those subjects — I told her that THAT was what CSI was all about (among other things), and pointed out the stupidity of all those shows — like how they carried guns, chased down criminals, arrested people, etc. — and that that wasn’t at all what they did. I probably shattered her dreams, but no point in letting her think being a CSI was like playing Cops & Robbers, instead of being a Nerdy Lab Rat.

Very interesting find. I suppose in retrospect I had seen clues that this sort of thing existed, but never quite realized it. Thanks for sharing, Dan.

Amazing work!

A lady named Frances Glessner Lee was the driving force behind it. There was a documentary made about her in 2012.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1588446/

My favorite podcast, 99 Percent Invisible, did an episode on this, very interesting:

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-nutshell-studies/

Tom