A job for the maggot squad: Experts from the Natural History Museum hired out to help police in murder investigations
With all our talk about alternative service delivery here is an interesting new business opportunity for your local under-funded rural museum. This article tells us: The Natural History Museum might seem an unlikely participant in the frontline of the fight against grisly crime.But then few museums can boast staff with the specialist skills of Amoret Whitaker, a motorbike-riding zoologist who is one of its two forensic entomologists – experts whose craft is focused on helping police in murder investigations, principally by examining maggots and other insect life found in and around a corpse to determine a time of death. Ms Whitaker is a prime example of a growing trend for the NHM and other British museums, responding to the dire squeeze on their finances from government spending cuts, to sell and market their expertise as consultants.