TIME's Best Inventions of 2008

The Other 49 Best Inventions

39. Enhanced Fingerprints

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English physicist John Bond developed a technique for analyzing fingerprints on a gun after it's been wiped clean. Sweat corrodes metal, so Bond applied an electrical charge and a fine carbon powder to a gun's corroded part, revealing a fingerprint pattern. Police are already using the four-month-old technology to reopen some cases.

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