Forensic Diatom Analysis: Where Do We Stand and What Are the Latest Diagnostic Advances?

Abstract

Background: diatoms are unicellular algae that have been used for more than a century for forensic purposes to diagnose drowning, with more or less success depending on the historical era. Although many years have passed, scientific research on diatoms has never ceased, which testifies to their enduring allure in forensics. Of course, diatom research has evolved and expanded over time, changing with the availability of new techniques and technologies. The volume of articles and their production over a period of many years has resulted in old, current, and new knowledge on diatoms being scattered over a large number of books and articles. Objectives: the purpose of this narrative literature review is, therefore, to summarize all this information and bring it together in a single work that can be useful for those who are studying diatoms and their usefulness for forensics for the first time, for those who are looking for proven methods of analysis, and finally for those who are interested in exploring new frontiers of research. Methods: a comprehensive literature search that included all studies dealing with the applications of diatoms in forensic science was performed in the most popular electronic databases. Results: traditional methods have been complemented by molecular and imaging methods and, more recently, by artificial intelligence. In addition, new biological substrates have been found for the analysis of diatoms. Conclusions: all this has led, on the one hand, to the consolidation of a whole body of knowledge on diatoms, on which this forensic analysis is still based, and, on the other hand, has opened up numerous new research directions.