There are a lot more ways to reveal a fingerprint than the black powder you see on TV.In this second part of our forensic chemistry series with Nicki Stewart, we explore the surprising chemistry behind fingerprints. From powders and iodine vapor to super glue fumes and chemical reactions, we break down how forensic scientists reveal invisible fingerprints—and why choosing the right method depends entirely on the surface, the chemistry, and the evidence they’re trying to preserve.

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• 0:00 – What are fingerprints, really?
• 5:30 – What’s actually left behind when you touch something?
• 9:20 – The two main categories of fingerprint detection
• 14:00 – How fingerprint powder actually works
• 18:40 – Iodine fuming and why fingerprints disappear again
• 25:25 – Revealing fingerprints on sticky tape
• 29:40 – Ninhydrin and the chemistry behind purple fingerprints
• 35:05 – The surprising science of super glue fuming
• 42:20 – Why collecting fingerprints is much harder than TV makes it look
• 46:10 – Jam’s biggest takeaways from fingerprint chemistry

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References from the Episode:

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What does it mean to teach chemistry like a scientist? In this BCCE Community Conversation preview, Melissa talks with chemistry education researcher Ellen Yezierski about scholarly teaching: making evidence-guided decisions about how we teach and how students learn. They discuss why content knowledge alone isn’t enough, how educators can improve their teaching without becoming full-time researchers, and why some of the best chemistry teaching ideas come from asking better questions about learning.

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• bcce.divched.org/2026
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• chemforyourlife.com

Time Stamps

0:00 – Why Melissa loves BCCE and chemistry education 2:50 – Meet Ellen Yezierski and the idea of scholarly teaching 4:00 – Moving beyond intuition and using evidence to improve teaching 6:35 – What chemistry educators can learn from cognitive science and education research 8:30 – The biggest challenge: finding time to improve your teaching 11:00 – Why conferences and community matter for innovation 13:45 – Barriers to evidence-based teaching and the risk of changing what’s familiar 16:20 – Applying the same scientific scrutiny to old teaching methods 19:40 – A practical first step toward scholarly teaching 21:00 – Finding useful teaching research without getting overwhelmed 25:20 – Meet the panelists and the ideas they’ll bring to BCCE 29:10 – How the Community Conversation will work 32:35 – Why good teachers are made, not born 34:00 – Filling your teaching cup back up at BCCE

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#061

Be honest. Have you ever glued yourself with super glue? Everyone should accidentally make that mistake at least once, so you can literally feel the impressive stickiness of super glue. Well today, you can learn about the chemistry within super glue, without putting any fingers or other body parts at risk! Let's do this.

References from this episode

1. Introduction to Polymers R.J. Young and P. A. Lovell
2. http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/superglue/superglueh.htm
3. https://www.chemistryworld.com/podcasts/cyanoacrylate/6261.article
4. https://pubsapp.acs.org/cen/whatstuff/86/8624sci5.html
5. https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/students/highschool/chemistryclubs/March_ChemClubCal.pdf
6. https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/resources/highschool/chemmatters/articlesbytopic/bonding/chemmatters-dec2006-glue.pdf

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