science

The New Detectives

The New Detectives is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The New Detectives rather than just read about it. In short: The New Detectives: Case Studies in Forensic Science (or simply The New Detectives, formally "Forensic Detectives") is a documentary true crime television show that aired two to three different cases in forensic science per episode from 1996 to 2004. Episode reruns currently air on the Discovery Channel, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Pluto TV, and True Crime Network.

Key takeaways

The New Detectives belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The New Detectives to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The New Detectives from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The New Detectives: Case Studies in Forensic Science (or simply The New Detectives, formally "Forensic Detectives") is a documentary true crime television show that aired two to three different cases in forensic science per episode from 1996 to 2004. Episode reruns currently air on the Discovery Channel, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Pluto TV, and True Crime Network. Before the series was canceled, the show also aired on The History Channel and Court TV in the United States and Canal D in Canada, as well as Botswana TV. The show was also carried by international markets where the series was shown on the Discovery Channel UK, Discovery Europe, the Crime & Investigation Network in Australia, Prime TV in New Zealand, TV Norge, TV Danmark, Kanal 5 in Sweden, and RTL in the Netherlands. In Brazil, the TV series was narrated by the Italian-Brazilian announcer and journalist Wilson Versolato.

Synopsis The New Detectives centers on murders that are committed in North America and the forensics used to convict the murderers of their crimes. The New Detectives shows reenactments and dramatizations of events surrounding a murder. Real-file footage is shown on occasion. Unlike The FBI Files, a sister show, also produced by Tom Naughton and New Dominion Pictures, The New Detectives mostly centers on murders that police departments solve without assistance from the FBI, but there have been episodes where the FBI was called in to assist with particularly serious crimes. The series was narrated by Gene Galusha from 1996 to 2004. Anthony E. Zuiker, the creator of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation got the idea for the show from The New Detectives. In a talk at the International Mystery Writers Festival in June 2008, Zuiker said that he was working as a tram driver in Las Vegas when he came up with the idea for the series. He said he was about to go out to play basketball with some friends when his first wife asked him to stay in and watch The New Detectives on the Discovery Channel. "I decided to stay, and that changed everything". Several international episodes were dubbed by Susan Rae. One of these was Burning Evidence about forensics done on broken and charred bone and tooth remnants and another was Short Fuse about forensics done on bomb sites and pipe bomb fragments.

Episodes

Home media Timeless Media Group has released the first four seasons of The New Detectives on DVD in Region 1.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The New Detectives

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The New Detectives claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The New Detectives before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The New Detectives ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The New Detectives

In research: The New Detectives appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The New Detectives in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The New Detectives is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1990s American crime television series, 1990s American documentary television series, 1996 American television series debuts, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The New Detectives outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The New Detectives in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The New Detectives means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The New Detectives out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The New Detectives in simple terms?

Why does The New Detectives matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The New Detectives?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The New Detectives.