Slashdot Mirror
DNA To Solve History's Mysteries?
ATKeiper asks: "DNA evidence has been used in criminal trial proceedings for years, perhaps most notoriously in the Simpson murder trial. Now, however, people are just starting to awaken the possibility that DNA might prove or disprove settled or forgotten cases. The son of Sam Sheppard, the doctor on whom the film The Fugitive was based, is trying to use DNA evidence to prove his dad's innocence. This week, a company announced it will use DNA profiles to investigate unsolved crimes. Genetic data has been used to determine whether Thomas Jefferson had an affair, and to examine a mystery of the French monarchy. Can Slashdot readers think of other historical debates which DNA evidence might help resolve definitively?"
I have been told that the situation is a little different in the US, where DNA fingerprinting was adopted in the crime labs much earlier. A set of sites to cut the DNA has been chosen and the lengths of the fragments produced are used. This method has been critisized for not being understood well enough. This may have changed since I heard about it though. Anyone with details?
The exclusion capacity of DNA fingerprinting is something like 99.999%. That is, the probability of two people sharing the same pattern is 1 in a 100000. This means that if you can reduce the number of people that could have been involved in the crime significantly, then you can quite confidently convict someone. However, the strength of DNA fingerprinting is of course exclude people from an investigation.
Lars
__
Reality or nothing.
Why not test the old theory that Jimmy Hoffa was buried under the pile of makeup called Tammy Bakker?
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
"So it's very unlikely, that you'd find someone with the same DNA as you. But it much easier to find two people with the same DNA (and that still ain't likely)."
The point though, is that we may find out at a later date that the probability of these sections of DNA used for testing have a very high chance of being the same. Imagine your birthday analogy, except instead of finding a similar birthday, you're looking for someone with a 2 as the last digit in the month section. There's no doubt in my mind that if we were compariing two complete strands of DNA, we could find differences.
AFAIK, there's a chance that an complete DNA strand from one person might be somewhat different after 2 months.
Bad Mojo
Bad Mojo
"If you can't win by reason, go for volume." -- Calvin
Given that even the slightest physical contact will leave DNA, howzabout examining JFK's magic bullet? Obviously you'd have to discount all the CIA DNA because they investigated the cubans and would probably have to handle the bullet. Oh, and the FBI probably examined it too. The mafia probably sold the bullet to Oswa^Hthe killer, so all that mafia dna would have to be thrown out as well. And if the CIA were talking to the cubans, then Castro's DNA could be eliminated as well.
All that superfluous DNA would probably mask Oswald's, so his probably wouldn't appear on the bullet. But as we've eliminated everyone else, it must have been him.
the Dead Sea scrolls are in large part thumbnail sized fragments that are damned hard to piece together. That hasn't stopped all sorts of scholars trying to do it (mostly with selotape). Interestingly you can now sequence the mtDNA (mitochondrial D-loop mutates very fast providing fine resolution distinction between individuals) of part of each fragment. This reveals whether the skin the fragments are written on all come from the same type of organism (within certain resolution limits). They've found that some of pieces come from goats and others from a springbok-like creature, so they should definitely not be put together. They claim that they're also able to identify the "herd" that each piece came from. I'm not so sure about that but it may be possible.
(The above post is meant as a _joke_, not meant to offend anyone)
~=Keelor
You know, this idea of the celebrity death that didn't really happen isn't a new one. Sure, we have examples of Elvis or Jim Morrison or even Anastasia. But the practice goes back much much further. The Emperor Nero, who some have called one of the most hated emperors of ancient Rome, had a notable cult following after his death and there were many 'false Neros' in the fifty or so years after his (supposed) death. Jesus Christ's resurrection is assumed by many scholars to be a manifestation of this tendency for humans to not accept the death of people they deem important (coupled with a grave-robbing, a practice which was prevalent at the time, prevalent enough that they emperor issued a decree outlawing it). The reasons why people assume that such people aren't dead is unclear, but most of the times, it's just disbelief that the person could be dead. Look at our own Propaganda. JFK is alive and well and leading the charge against Redmond, fighting for the democratic ideals he must have died for (nevermind that he got us into Vietnam, supported the whole Bay of Pigs fiasco, and manipulated government to his own personal whims).
Should we disprove these ideas? I say no. Elvis fans happen to like thinking that Elvis is alive. It gives them comfort and solace which the real world can't give them. Some people will never accept the truth, and trying to rub it in their face will only exacerbate the problem.
As someone famous once said, "Let it go cause man, they're gone." I think it was Stuart Smalley referring to keys lost in a river of molten lava.
PING soul.bill.microsoft.com
waiting...
waiting...
waiting...
Connection timed out.
Pope
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.