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An atlas of scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) may turn out to be useful for studying the many issues that are submitted to the coroner’s attention. It may also offer interesting ideas to experts of biomedical subjects who are still interested in pushing back the frontiers of scientific explanation. Many of these are at the limits of disciplines that today are contiguous, and had, until a short time ago, been separated by distances that were more apparent than substantial, in the tumultuous implementation of the models designed to explain the technologies.

An ethanol-based fixative (FineFIX) has been used, together with rapid microwave-stimulated processing, in postmortem material, resulting in a rapid fixation and processing of the tissues with morphology, histochemical stains, and immunocytochemistry comparable to formalin-fixed material. Furthermore, this alternative fixation gives better DNA recovery in higher amounts if compared with DNA extracted from formalin-fixed tissue, particularly advantageous in forensic pathology.