Although it is better under the law that ten guilty people go free than that one innocent person be convicted - as eighteenth-century English judge William Blackstone said - it is better still to make as few mistakes as possible. Forensic science is a powerful tool to help achieve this, but many research-based tools are not as foolproof as they are presented - both in court and in television dramas. Just over a year ago, this journal stressed the need for more research on forensic techniques (see Nature 464,340-342,344-346,347-348; 2010). In that time, the United States has taken some tentative steps forward, but the United Kingdom is about to stumble backwards. Britain used to boast one of the great powerhouses of the forensics research world, the Forensic Science Service (FSS). A botched attempt at privatization by the former Labour government left the FSS in an unstable position, and in December last year the coalition government said that the service would close by next March, blaming ongoing losses of £2 million (US$3.2 million) a month.
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