thirty-eight thousand missing persons
are reported each year in Australia of
the remaining 700 individuals are
declared missing indefinitely alive or
dead one person goes missing in
Australia every 15 minutes now these
sacs are both good and bad good in a
sense that 98% are ultimately located
but bad that 700 individuals per year /
about double the size of this audience
is still a large number missing persons
is an ever increasing challenge so let’s
focus on amending these figures now
let’s pretend for fun that you have been
found deceased your identity is lost so
we don’t know that it’s you that we’re
found this may be because we didn’t find
a full skeleton we maybe found some
bones or bits and pieces this is our
first challenge
there’s no flashing neon light that has
your name and emergency contact details
we have just started and we are very
little to work with we may never find
out who you are right now there are more
than 500 bodies or bits and pieces of
bodies in morgues around Australia
waiting to be identified so what happens
if we say we found you and your best
friend hiking and we found you as
skeletons you’re the same ancestry set
and age how will we tell you apart in
situations like this Heights is
incredibly important but do you know
your height do you know the height that
I’m talking about
you probably think that’s a really
strange question but in reality there
are several different types of height so
let’s start one your maximum height or
the maximum height that you can
potentially achieve is determined by
your genetics it can also record your
genetic potential height because we
don’t quite reach our full potential I’m
kidding but seriously though genetic
potential height is theoretical your
actual height or the actual height that
you’ve achieved today is determined by
your environment so your genetics act as
a blueprint and you as the product your
genetics could say you’d have rippling
abs and tennis ball biceps but in
reality that may not be the case this is
also the same with height you would have
to or this is also same with height why
because the environment that you grew up
in determined the person you like the
height you are today and this is because
you’d have to have a really strict diet
you’d have to live in a perfectly
healthy environment and we can measure
your actual height but there are several
different types of measured height I
know it just gets more complicated so
let’s go one forensic height this is
your height on a document license or
medical records but in reality it’s a
measurement of number two you’re living
height now this is very variable your
height can change from waking up in the
morning it’s when you go at bed at night
this is because during the day you’re
upright to the force of gravity and you
decrease in height and over time day in
and day out up right to the face of
gravity for years you eventually
decrease in height permanently so your
forensic height may not be your living
height it may not be the height you are
today and it may not be the height you
are when you’re 80 which brings me to
the third height kid average height now
as you probably guess this is your
height at death if you are a whole body
lying down with nothing missing
so which height really matters well all
of them when your family fills out a
missing-persons report the investigators
will ask for your height they like this
high but in reality how would we measure
that gesture what if it was wrong what
will we do then collect more info and
look at your license and in Queensland a
study from my lab the skeletal biology
and forensic anthropology research
laboratory here at QUT reported that 60%
of Queenslanders have the incorrect
height on their license
what does your license say probably
nothing Queensland has recently removed
height from their licenses so
investigators will have to rely on your
family even more which is the second
problem the second challenge because
height estimates are unreliable now
let’s go back to the morgue
where were analyzing your skeleton we
are trying to estimate your height so
one way to do this is if you are found
with every bone in your skeleton we can
stack them up like you’re standing to
get your height but that would mean we
would need every single bone in your
body to do this that contributed to high
it but most commonly we don’t find all
the bones we find some all bits and
pieces so more commonly we can take the
length from one or some of your bones
and enter it into an equation that
equals your height rain
so your height plus arrow this second
equation is the most applicable so the
equation was developed the equations we
use today were developed in 1952 by two
American researchers for the USA
population it was an important study and
these equations are still used all
around the world including here in
Australia but there are some problems
with this so there are one Australia’s
very different from America we would
have different heights over all
Australia is quite diverse true to our
migration but in reality America is
potentially a closest counterpart number
to both indigenous populations were
colonized by England with large
quantities of individuals migrating from
Europe to both Australia and the u.s.
you can think of this as a similar
European genetic pool number three
Australia’s nutrition is pretty good we
consume a lot of meat due in part to our
strong agricultural economy we also have
fruit and vegetable readily available at
all times of the year this adds to our
benefit as with good nutrition can
increase our height which then leads me
to number four Australia has free access
to health care comparative to the costs
accumulated in the American healthcare
system
small or solvable conditions such as
broken bones may not necessarily be
corrected in a health care system that’s
expensive five we live in a pretty hot
humid climate over all these factors can
increase our arm and leg length to help
us expel heat quickly which can then
contribute to high and finally six the
bones use to establish these equations
and not the current population we are
seeing in America today let alone here
the old adage that you are taller than
your grandparents actually has some
truth but what do all these factors mean
well populations with improved living
standards you will have different
heights so different populations with
different living standards will have
different heights and one population
equation shouldn’t be applied to another
it’s just not applicable so we need our
own equations oh you’re probably asking
why in Australia we’re using such
equations from America well then the
best we had but we now also know that
these equations are under estimating
Australian height based on your femur
Australians are taller than what these
American equations are saying now think
about if we use these equations in the
field today we may not find the
individual to whom there are along
remote remains belong to you could be
missing for a while we need our own
equations our own skeletal collection
facilities and my lab has gone ahead and
done just that we are able to 3d create
bones and then create estimation
equations based from these bones we’ve
created height equations based on the
femur and my research is creating height
equations based on the humerus so my day
in the lab is actually pretty cool right
so I take CT scans from the morgue all
qts body donation facility and a 3d
model the bone that I want in this case
the humerus from there I measure it to
come up with correlations to height and
then we create hide estimation equations
from this
so this means that we only have two
bones that can estimate height which is
how would that help find you though if
you have 206 bones in your body if
you’re a textbook skeleton so we’ve only
done about 1.9 percent of the work
realistically it’s more than 1.9 because
we aren’t going to measure all the
individual bones of your skull that’d be
a little bit ridiculous
and we aren’t going to measure all the
tiny bones in your hands
your feet or even your ribs so that
brings us to about 7 percent of the work
done which means we’ve got 93 percent of
the work still to do which brings me to
the third challenge our equations need
work I know right though so many
challenges to overcome just to find out
who you are but these challenges are a
part of everyday life for the people
that investigate missing persons or even
help or assist with their identification
but there’s something you can do today
you can help us with the second
challenge it’s really simple measure
your height tell that measurement to
your family give us the best chance to
find you it’s been 15 minutes
[Applause] [Music]
are reported each year in Australia of
the remaining 700 individuals are
declared missing indefinitely alive or
dead one person goes missing in
Australia every 15 minutes now these
sacs are both good and bad good in a
sense that 98% are ultimately located
but bad that 700 individuals per year /
about double the size of this audience
is still a large number missing persons
is an ever increasing challenge so let’s
focus on amending these figures now
let’s pretend for fun that you have been
found deceased your identity is lost so
we don’t know that it’s you that we’re
found this may be because we didn’t find
a full skeleton we maybe found some
bones or bits and pieces this is our
first challenge
there’s no flashing neon light that has
your name and emergency contact details
we have just started and we are very
little to work with we may never find
out who you are right now there are more
than 500 bodies or bits and pieces of
bodies in morgues around Australia
waiting to be identified so what happens
if we say we found you and your best
friend hiking and we found you as
skeletons you’re the same ancestry set
and age how will we tell you apart in
situations like this Heights is
incredibly important but do you know
your height do you know the height that
I’m talking about
you probably think that’s a really
strange question but in reality there
are several different types of height so
let’s start one your maximum height or
the maximum height that you can
potentially achieve is determined by
your genetics it can also record your
genetic potential height because we
don’t quite reach our full potential I’m
kidding but seriously though genetic
potential height is theoretical your
actual height or the actual height that
you’ve achieved today is determined by
your environment so your genetics act as
a blueprint and you as the product your
genetics could say you’d have rippling
abs and tennis ball biceps but in
reality that may not be the case this is
also the same with height you would have
to or this is also same with height why
because the environment that you grew up
in determined the person you like the
height you are today and this is because
you’d have to have a really strict diet
you’d have to live in a perfectly
healthy environment and we can measure
your actual height but there are several
different types of measured height I
know it just gets more complicated so
let’s go one forensic height this is
your height on a document license or
medical records but in reality it’s a
measurement of number two you’re living
height now this is very variable your
height can change from waking up in the
morning it’s when you go at bed at night
this is because during the day you’re
upright to the force of gravity and you
decrease in height and over time day in
and day out up right to the face of
gravity for years you eventually
decrease in height permanently so your
forensic height may not be your living
height it may not be the height you are
today and it may not be the height you
are when you’re 80 which brings me to
the third height kid average height now
as you probably guess this is your
height at death if you are a whole body
lying down with nothing missing
so which height really matters well all
of them when your family fills out a
missing-persons report the investigators
will ask for your height they like this
high but in reality how would we measure
that gesture what if it was wrong what
will we do then collect more info and
look at your license and in Queensland a
study from my lab the skeletal biology
and forensic anthropology research
laboratory here at QUT reported that 60%
of Queenslanders have the incorrect
height on their license
what does your license say probably
nothing Queensland has recently removed
height from their licenses so
investigators will have to rely on your
family even more which is the second
problem the second challenge because
height estimates are unreliable now
let’s go back to the morgue
where were analyzing your skeleton we
are trying to estimate your height so
one way to do this is if you are found
with every bone in your skeleton we can
stack them up like you’re standing to
get your height but that would mean we
would need every single bone in your
body to do this that contributed to high
it but most commonly we don’t find all
the bones we find some all bits and
pieces so more commonly we can take the
length from one or some of your bones
and enter it into an equation that
equals your height rain
so your height plus arrow this second
equation is the most applicable so the
equation was developed the equations we
use today were developed in 1952 by two
American researchers for the USA
population it was an important study and
these equations are still used all
around the world including here in
Australia but there are some problems
with this so there are one Australia’s
very different from America we would
have different heights over all
Australia is quite diverse true to our
migration but in reality America is
potentially a closest counterpart number
to both indigenous populations were
colonized by England with large
quantities of individuals migrating from
Europe to both Australia and the u.s.
you can think of this as a similar
European genetic pool number three
Australia’s nutrition is pretty good we
consume a lot of meat due in part to our
strong agricultural economy we also have
fruit and vegetable readily available at
all times of the year this adds to our
benefit as with good nutrition can
increase our height which then leads me
to number four Australia has free access
to health care comparative to the costs
accumulated in the American healthcare
system
small or solvable conditions such as
broken bones may not necessarily be
corrected in a health care system that’s
expensive five we live in a pretty hot
humid climate over all these factors can
increase our arm and leg length to help
us expel heat quickly which can then
contribute to high and finally six the
bones use to establish these equations
and not the current population we are
seeing in America today let alone here
the old adage that you are taller than
your grandparents actually has some
truth but what do all these factors mean
well populations with improved living
standards you will have different
heights so different populations with
different living standards will have
different heights and one population
equation shouldn’t be applied to another
it’s just not applicable so we need our
own equations oh you’re probably asking
why in Australia we’re using such
equations from America well then the
best we had but we now also know that
these equations are under estimating
Australian height based on your femur
Australians are taller than what these
American equations are saying now think
about if we use these equations in the
field today we may not find the
individual to whom there are along
remote remains belong to you could be
missing for a while we need our own
equations our own skeletal collection
facilities and my lab has gone ahead and
done just that we are able to 3d create
bones and then create estimation
equations based from these bones we’ve
created height equations based on the
femur and my research is creating height
equations based on the humerus so my day
in the lab is actually pretty cool right
so I take CT scans from the morgue all
qts body donation facility and a 3d
model the bone that I want in this case
the humerus from there I measure it to
come up with correlations to height and
then we create hide estimation equations
from this
so this means that we only have two
bones that can estimate height which is
how would that help find you though if
you have 206 bones in your body if
you’re a textbook skeleton so we’ve only
done about 1.9 percent of the work
realistically it’s more than 1.9 because
we aren’t going to measure all the
individual bones of your skull that’d be
a little bit ridiculous
and we aren’t going to measure all the
tiny bones in your hands
your feet or even your ribs so that
brings us to about 7 percent of the work
done which means we’ve got 93 percent of
the work still to do which brings me to
the third challenge our equations need
work I know right though so many
challenges to overcome just to find out
who you are but these challenges are a
part of everyday life for the people
that investigate missing persons or even
help or assist with their identification
but there’s something you can do today
you can help us with the second
challenge it’s really simple measure
your height tell that measurement to
your family give us the best chance to
find you it’s been 15 minutes
[Applause] [Music]
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