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A consortium of scientists from almost 50 nations is overseeing the building of a global database made from tiny pieces of genetic material. Called DNA barcoding, the process takes a scientist only a few hours in a lab and about $2 to identify a species from a tissue sample or other piece of genetic material.
David Schindel, a Smithsonian Institution paleontologist and executive secretary of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life, said the purpose is to create a global reference library — "a kind of telephone directory for all species."
"If I know that gene sequence, I can submit it as a query to a database and get back the telephone number," he said. "I can get back the species name."
If you think liek this then your on the wrong site and if you used logic you could see no one is going to spend the amount of money on this programme that the govt did without using it or seeing the potential for other applications
Originally posted by Octavius Maximus
um, wow.
Perhaps you can all take off your tinfoil hats for a moment and consider that maybe this database is to, well, help study?
A lasting database of information about all the species could be incredibly useful in hundreds of fields including science and medicine.
stop being so paranoid.
The Food and Drug Administration has begun eyeing it as a tool to ferret out hazardous fish species and to confirm a type of leech used in some surgery. In May, the FDA used it to warn that a shipment labeled monkfish from China might actually be a type of pufferfish that could contain a deadly toxin if not prepared properly.
The Federal Aviation Administration and Air Force hope it will help them identify birds prone to collide with aircraft. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sees it as a means to track commercial fish and reduce killing of unwanted species also caught by nets.
If you think liek this then your on the wrong site
\if you used logic you could see no one is going to spend the amount of money on this programme that the govt did without using it or seeing the potential for other applications
Umm yeah that’s nice and all for science. Problem is if they find a cure for cancer by studying these animals and bar-coding them and whatever else the government wants to do. There will be no way in hell your insurance will cover you for this cure.
They may cover you only partially but the rest of it is on you. I mean think about how much money they are putting into making these ideas work. You think the cures will be cheap. NOPE!!
They are always working on cures for everything. I watched these guys in action on the phone with insurance companies and doctors and whoever else gets involved. Its just another business like everything else.
thats not what we are speculating we are simply saying that yes the technology exist but how long untill someone rationlizes using it on us,they keep a database of sex offenders you think they wouldnt use this to catalog thier DNA?! and i propose how long untill people with aids or people of ethniticities. rationality is a wonderful thing to governments when it works in their favour
Originally posted by DragonsDomain
umm I don't think they're barcoding all individual animals and humans, they're just barcoding the species...
111111 = giraffe
Not
111112 = Len the Giraffe
111113 = Max the Giraffe
I think this could actually be a good thing. It'll certainly save money.