In a proof-of-concept study released Monday, UC San Diego researchers recovered and processed enough of these chemicals from targeted cellphones to get a partial snapshot of what food the phone users recently ate, which beauty and hygiene products they used and which locations they may have visited.
The chemicals also can reveal whether the phone users are male or female, whether they take certain medications such as antidepressants and perhaps even whether they’re vegetarian or meat eaters.
Such information “should help an investigator build an unbiased composite sketch of the person the phone belonged to,” said Pieter Dorrestein, the UC San Diego biochemist who led the study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dorrestein and project scientist Amina Bouslimani reported similar results using this technique to gather trace evidence from other everyday objects such as keys and pens.
Their exploration is part of a national effort to find ways to supplement fingerprinting, a science developed in the 18th century, and DNA analysis, which was incorporated into criminal trials in the late 1980s.
Forensics experts, law enforcement leaders and molecular scientists, among others, increasingly believe they will be able to precisely identify and scrutinize chemical signatures on items used by an individual or a few individuals. For example, a cellphone is typically used by one person.
If their endeavors prove successful, they might be able to greatly expand the places and things from which molecular evidence can be collected and examined to piece together a profile of a person’s activities and behavioral traits.