What life would really be like for Deschanel's "Bones" character (ContributorNetwork)

The television show "Bones," which features fictional forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan working in Washington, D.C., makes the work look exciting. Every case gets solved in dramatic fashion with compelling evidence to back the conclusion drawn. But like many works of fiction, "Bones" takes liberties with both the science and the occupational practice. If you're considering a career in forensic anthropology, don't expect to graduate and do what Emily Deschanel's character does.

Forensic anthropology careers

Real-world forensic anthropologists generally study bones and teach osteology in academic settings. Those who do crime work usually do so part-time while working at a university. Opportunities to do crime work full-time are scarce.

Forensic pathology is a distinct field whose experts are medical doctors. Those are the specialists who make determinations based on soft tissue and fluid analysis. They are often responsible for autopsies, particularly in complicated cases. Forensic pathologists often work side by side with forensic anthropologists to help establish the identity or cause of death of a deceased person.

Evidence derived from disease pathogens

Dr. Bones can always solve her case. She often finds evidence of - or suspects - the presence of diseases that help her prove her theory of a crime. That's what happened, for example, in "The Man in the S.U.V." A real-life forensic anthropologist wouldn't be so lucky. And a real-life anthropologist also wouldn't draw definitive conclusions from bone changes caused by disease processes.

Diane L. France, director of the Laboratory for Human Identification at Colorado State University, noted that different pathogens have one of two effects on bone - they either cause the addition of new bone or the destruction of old bone. Thus, a forensic anthropologist wouldn't focus on a specific disease process, but on describing the specific bony changes seen throughout the skeleton.

Conclusions about age and sex

When it comes to findings about age, a real forensic anthropologist deals in broad ranges, not specifics. Looking at cranial sutures, the anthropologist might conclude a person was older than 37 because he or she are all completely closed or younger than 37 and probably younger than 26 if all completely open. Other clues like osteoporosis or arthritis might tend to suggest old age, but even that's not conclusive, since disease processes can also be responsible for such conditions.

Sex can be difficult to establish in young victims - it's not always as clear-cut as it looks on television.

Glamour and precision replace tedium and estimation in 'Bones' forensics

The job of the forensic anthropologist isn't as glamorous as "Bones" suggests. When a dead body is found outdoors, a real anthropologist would be at the scene for hours doing tedious work. Some of those tasks might include sifting through soil to see if the layers are intermingled indicating the ground has been dug up, cataloguing bones and other items found, mapping the location of each item found on a grid, and documenting the chain of custody of each item. When multiple bodies are found at a particular site, such as in a mass casualty situation, it may be impossible to determine which bones came from which person.

Of course, the work of the television anthropologist is not only less tedious, it's also a lot easier and more precise. Dr. Bones is handed clues like a voodoo object sold only in a single store in "The Man in the Morgue" episode or environmental isotopes under the jawbone that identify the uncooperative living subject's childhood residence as Los Angeles in "The Signs in the Silence."

The real-life Body Farm

The Body Farm Dr. Bones sometimes refers to on the show is a real place with expertise in establishing the time of death. The original Body Farm was located at the University of Tennessee. It's a place where researchers leave bodies outdoors for extended periods of time to observe different effects on them. The Body Farm became a resource for police puzzling over how long a body had been dead.

In recent years, other universities with forensic programs have copied the original Body Farm established by Dr. Bill Bass in 1981.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/fossils/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111028/us_ac/10306959_what_life_would_really_be_like_for_deschanels_bones_character

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