Sharon Howard continues the ongoing discussion (see here and here) on forensics with a captivating tale of sheep in court as material evidence — although she still cannot quite picture the fleecy flocks inside a Welsh legal institution.

Jonathan Edelstein at the Head Beeb reminds us that modern forensics has three constitutive parts: investigative methods, physical evidence, and the presence of expert witnesses in court. He looks at these expert witnesses in eighteenth-century legal cases, and ventures that modern forensic science perhaps originated with insurance companies who did not trust their clients’ claims.