If anyone here hasnt seen the movie Gattaca yet, I highly recommend it, even though it doesnt have any hot sex, violence, or extreme action. The
reason I recommend it is because it is likey the MOST accurate portrayal of our lack of personal privacy in the future.
In this movie, all decisions for social status, employment, ect, are made according to your genetics, and those with less than perfect genetics are
relegated to a second class existence.
This is an article specifying the technology that makes this possible TODAY.
DNA extractable from fingerprints
By Charles Choi
UPI Science News
Published 7/31/2003 9:30 AM
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NEW YORK, July 31 (UPI) -- Even if the only evidence forensic analysts can pull from a crime scene is a fingerprint smudged beyond recognition, a new
technique developed by Canadian scientists soon could harvest enough DNA from the print to produce a genetic identity.
The novel system can extract DNA in only 15 minutes, even if a print has been stored for a year. Scientists expect the invention to help
crime-fighters solve mysteries, and already are in talks with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In addition, researchers predict the technology could
be at least twice as cheap as existing DNA collection methods.
"If you wanted to use blood as a source of DNA, you have fear of contamination, people who don't want to give it, storage issues, and you have to
sign a lot of paperwork to get it," research scientist Maria Viaznikova of the Ottawa University Heart Institute in Canada told United Press
International. "We can now have DNA reliably and simply with our method."
Viaznikova said her team's method consistently yields 10 billionths of a gram of DNA, on average, from a single fingerprint. The findings were
revealed at the American Society for Microbiology's nanotechnology conference in New York earlier this month. Although 10 "nanograms" might not
sound like much, for DNA analysis, even 0.1 nanogram is enough, Viaznikova said. "Scientists try not to use less than 5 to 10 nanograms, so this is
fine."
www.upi.com...