DNA extracted from thin air and more

[Ombligo]

This may end up on the other side, but worth a shot here..

Scientists at the University of Florida have been able to extract DNA from the air in a lab. Through that DNA they were able to identify the six individuals that work in the lab. The same technique was able to extract DNA from a footprint in the sand and river water flowing from a town.

The scientists were tracing sea turtle DNA when they picked up human DNA as well. Further research shows it is a viable method.

There are already ethical concerns being raised about the technique and its potential uses or abuses.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/15/healt...index.html

Hate to say it, but the genie is out of the bottle. This will be abused by any number of groups.

[Lew Zealand]

Hollywood guesses wrong again (Gaataca) because it's very difficult to imagine some things in a realistic way, and of course this finding would destroy the narrative of the movie.

[RgrF]

Visualize it!

Police arrive at a murder scene, immediately seal off the room and suction the existing air into an analyzer unit and then go build a case against a suspect.

[mikebw]

RgrF wrote:
Visualize it!

Police arrive at a murder scene, immediately seal off the room and suction the existing air into an analyzer unit and then go build a case against a suspect.

Of course if someone were to "steal" your air you could easily be placed at a scene and made a suspect.

[Janit]

mikebw wrote:
[quote=RgrF]
Visualize it!

Police arrive at a murder scene, immediately seal off the room and suction the existing air into an analyzer unit and then go build a case against a suspect.

Of course if someone were to "steal" your air you could easily be placed at a scene and made a suspect.
Yeah, but they would still need to be clever about it. Stolen air will also contain DNA from the other people who who inhabit your space, and would generate a complex and therefore suspect profile. They need to steal and aerosolize your DNA profile only.

[Tiangou]

mikebw wrote:
[quote=RgrF]
Visualize it!

Police arrive at a murder scene, immediately seal off the room and suction the existing air into an analyzer unit and then go build a case against a suspect.

Of course if someone were to "steal" your air you could easily be placed at a scene and made a suspect.
DNA evidence is almost wholly unreliable precisely because it is so easy to pick it up. Your clothes pick up DNA from your co-workers and their family and their pets and you then carry it home with you and scatter it around. It’s in your car. It’s in your food. It’s everywhere. And yeah, it’s just very small traces, but when they test for DNA they “amplify” every piece of DNA they pick up. If it’s not blood on the murder weapon, it’s probably not good evidence that someone was actually present anywhere that the DNA was found.

Courts are only just now glomming onto that, but a lot of judges/juries still hear “99.99% certainty that the DNA we found belongs to the suspect” and then jump to the conclusion that science just proved a criminal act, so lawyers love it.

[mrbigstuff]

this is along the lines of what I think will happen in the future: someone will be able to extract DNA from some object or bone, or whatever, and then clone your old body!

[RAMd®d]

Oh no!

Now there will ADNAR just like ALPR/ANPR devices!

We're going from beleaguered to DOOMED!

[gadje]

Note to myself: don’t fart when killing the next victim.

[Rolando]

RgrF wrote:
Visualize it!

Police arrive at a murder scene, immediately seal off the room and suction the existing air into an analyzer unit and then go build a case against a suspect.

every single person they can identify, without telling any other 'suspect' about this. The poorest person will be forced to confess and cut a deal. DA & Cops score multiple wins. Real killer likely goes free.