DNA profiling may be a complex issue, but whatever your take, go ahead and try your hand at genetic sleuthing with this spiffy flash interactive.
posted by moonbird on Nov 15, 2003 - 2 comments

Hoffa Hair Found In Car, Body Still Presumably In Giants Stadium So, the cops found a hair in a car they thought he was in before. Now, with DNA testing, they can prove Hoffa was "taking a ride" with Charles (Chuckie) O'Brien the last day he was alive. Film at 11.
posted by rev- on Sep 7, 2001 - 8 comments

Could this actually be proof of the legendary Yeti? Scientists may have a sample of Yeti DNA. Clone this, and a wooly mammoth and you'd have one Hell of a sideshow...
posted by Spanktacular on Apr 15, 2001 - 10 comments

Within a year, one authority expects, a judge will declare fingerprint evidence unscientific. The Age of Genetics is upon us. I didn't know twins have identical DNA, but different fingerprints. And, for other reasons as well, fingerprinting will still be used. Just not the standard anymore.
posted by aflakete on Apr 8, 2001 - 4 comments

Gould, earthworms and you: Stephen Jay Gould discusses the recent discovery that the human body has only about 1/4th of the DNA originally estimated. NYTimes op-ed piece. One of the best results of this discovery is that it sounds death knell of reductionist biology; as usual, the human body turns out to be more complicated than anyone could have imagined. ("Gee, we haven't explained life, the universe and everything? Gosh darnit!") I have always thought it was silly to ascribe artistic talent, criminal behaviour, musical aptitude or computer savvy to the foibles of some single gene. Now here's independent confirmation of that opinion...

So once again we find that we ourselves, and not our parents or our grandparents, are responsible for who we are and what we become...
posted by hanseugene on Feb 19, 2001 - 14 comments

Chromosomes to the rescue!
posted by tamim on Sep 7, 2000 - 1 comment

"Such screenings are common in Britain, with more than 100 carried out in the last five years." You know, guns and lawyers and creationists notwithstanding, sometimes I'm really glad I live in the US and not in places that don't have a Bill of Rights.

A mass genetic screening like this would be a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

While genetic testing is permitted here, it can only be done on a suspect when there's reasonable cause to believe that that particular suspect is guilty of the crime. It requires a search warrant.

And that, in my opinion, is how it should be.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Apr 8, 2000 - 5 comments