Friday, May 27, 2022

DNA don't lie

 On 24 August 79AD Pompeii erupted. More than 1800 years later archaeologists dig bones of a couple of human skeleton from the site. From the position [of their bodies] it seems they were not running away, The answer to why they weren't fleeing could lie in their health conditions.

Recently scientist analyzed the DNA taken from a "really small amount of bone powder" and find that the man's skeleton contained DNA from tuberculosis-causing bacteria, suggesting he might have had the disease prior to his death. And a fragment of bone at the base of his skull contained enough intact DNA to work out his entire genetic code. 

This showed that he shared "genetic markers" - or recognisable reference points in his genetic code - with other individuals who lived in Italy during the Roman Imperial age. But he also had a group of genes common,

The technology to extract DNA information from ancient skeleton is remarkable. Our silent bones just could not lie. It would not be too much stretch of imagination if someday our DNA data are routinely stored in a huge database. Below we could see that cost has dropped significantly. 

Of course there would be questions of legality etc but really how could we prevent our DNA data from being collected without our consent. Even our saliva contains our DNA. Whenever we dine out we would leave our saliva sample inadvertently.


References
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61557424
https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Sequencing-Human-Genome-cost
https://salimetrics.com/collecting-and-handling-saliva-for-dna-analysis/#:~:text=The%20DNA%20in%20saliva%20originates,then%20extracted%20by%20various%20methods.

No comments:

Post a Comment