ABSTRACT
Molecular biology is a very technical field. Although we have tried to explain some of the basic concepts and avoid the worst jargon, we suspect that a reader will need a fair amount of biology or chemistry training in order to follow all of the details included within this chapter. It will be a lost opportunity, though, if we fail to reach the crime scene investigator who lacks a bench science background. To state the obvious, if the evidence is not collected in the first place, and then properly handled, the analyses described in this chapter will not be possible.
