DNA And Its Many Uses The examination of DNA can be quite time-consuming in some instances, but many times it produces surprises. Recently scientists from Tel Aviv University, Uppsala University in Sweden, the Israeli Antiquities Authority working with Weill Cornell Medicine just completed a seven year study of DNA on the Dead Sea Scrolls. When I first heard this, I thought these scientists were trying to get the DNA of the people who wrote the scrolls, but what I didn’t realize is each scroll they examined was made of sheepskin. This is an important fact because DNA would allow scientists to tell what fragments belong to a particular scroll. The DNA testing was used to sort out many of these fragments to further the process of fitting them into the correct scroll. This eases somewhat the system of reconstruction. While it may not tell scientists where in the scrolls the pieces belong at least they know what scroll they belong to. We know DNA testing has become very important in criminal investigations. It is a way to know who was on a site where a crime was committed and allows investigators to eliminate those who are innocent. In recent years DNA has been used to prove some people who were in jail were innocent of a crime and they have been let out. One problem however was the fact some prosecutors didn’t want DNA testing to be used this way. What were they afraid of? I think they didn’t want to have cases overturned which would take them from winners to losers. As far as I’m concerned this is unconscionable. Just a few decades ago when paternity suits were brought in the court the only test which could be conducted was a blood test which might prove the person charged with being the father could not have been. There was no blood test to prove a person was the father. This has all changed over the years because DNA testing can prove to such a degree a person is or is not the father of a child. It is now being used all the time in paternity cases. DNA testing is becoming very popular with people who want to know their backgrounds. Many companies which deal in ancestry are advertising they will do DNA testing for us for somewhere between $60 to $100. The question is what happens to DNA results the company has? Do they keep a record of the DNA results when they send the results to you? It is said at least some of these companies are sharing your DNA results. This means you are paying a company to perform a test which they will then sell the results of to someone else. It doesn’t sound right to me; how do you feel about it? Remember everything on a computer can be hacked and that includes DNA results. DNA testing has become quite popular in tracing ancient bodies found during archaeological digs. An example of this is taking DNA from mummies. Recently archaeologists announced testing the DNA of ancient mummies and of modern Egyptians. This proved the Egyptians today are more closely related to people from the Sahara region then they were to the ancient Egyptians. I think this was a surprising find. Doctors have found DNA testing on an unborn fetus can show potential health problems in the future. They can help predict whether somebody will have a certain disease during their lifetime. Actually, I should put it a different way which is it will predict the risk factor for a disease. DNA testing has found its way into some civil cases in the courts. It has its uses on the civil side of the law in proving death cases. Another type of case a DNA test might be used for is a custody case. Someone might say they are related to somebody else and want custody of them for various reasons and a DNA test can prove if they are related to that person or not. One example might be someone wanting to take charge of the custody of somebody else who has a lot of money. They might claim to be a long-lost relative and the people who have current custody are not relatives. They might have their lawyer demand a test before they turned the person over which they have custody of. It could also be a case where a child is involved and somebody claims to be a father who lost his child years ago. Sometimes DNA testing produces totally unexpected results. One case on record was of a woman who had several brothers. One of the brothers thought it would be nice to buy her a testing kit for her birthday. What she found out really disturbed her. One brother turned out to only be a half-brother and her DNA was not a match for her father. As you can see this test result was one of the worst things she felt could happen to her. So, there are times where sometimes things are best left alone. While this occurrence is unusual and does not happen most times, it happens enough to really upset some people. Sometimes DNA testing does actually find long-lost relatives. One man who was adopted had lost both his adopted parents. At that point he was feeling very down. He said he didn’t know we was. I guess that could be very disturbing. He ran ads and did many investigations trying to find out who his true parents were and if they were still alive. It was at this point he was given a DNA kit as a present. It seems there are quite a few stories that is similar to this where people want to know who their parents were. He took the test and this led him to finding some of his true relatives. It wasn’t until he reached middle-age he found out his background and the relatives. He found out he had brothers. The discovery of DNA testing has revolutionized many parts of our society. In the beginning it took a long time to get DNA results but today the testing results are produced a lot faster. There is no doubt in my mind DNA testing will prove invaluable as we go to other planets and test the life we find there. We might even find out some aliens have similar DNA to humans.
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