Some scientists have used 4000 year old DNA to find out what a Palaeo-Eskimo looked like. Using his DNA they even found out he had a dry earwax problem. Very short but also informative. My biochemistry professor was talking about it and I found it interesting.
Heres the link:
http://www.aolnews.com/science/article/scientists-rebuild-iceman-genome-from-very-old-hair-sample/19355181?icid=main|main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fscience%2Farticle%2Fscientists-rebuild-iceman-genome-from-very-old-hair-sample%2F19355181
I think that is really amazing. Science has taken human society to places no one can even imagine. I think that knowing that the hair actually protects DNA from being contaminated by other DNA or damage by fungi and bacteria is a very interesting fact because now we can try to fight crime more effectively. Often people are sentenced for crimes they did not committed, and this is due to contaminated DNA. However if the DNA is taken from a strand of hair, the chance for contamination would be minimal. I think that forensics should look more often for hair at crime scenes.
ReplyDeleteNow that I think about it, that true. You can use hair as a more reliable source of DNA.
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