Super Bowl Footballs Get The DNA Touch

theodp writes "All 120 Super Bowl XL footballs will be marked with a drop of synthetic DNA to thwart potential counterfeiters (free reg. required to read) who might be tempted to sell phony game-used Super Bowl footballs, which can be worth thousands of dollars. Exposed to a specific laser frequency, the DNA glows to a bright green. 'The chance of replicating this exact DNA sequence is one in 33 trillion,' said the president of PSA/DNA Authentication Services."

Comments

Billions, so what?

[leob]

Who cares about the probability of replicating the exact sequence? What is the probability that an arbitrary sequence DNA will glow under that light?

Not a zero sum game.....

[Brian_Ellenberger]

"At least the we know where the United States' priorities are. War? Famine? Fuck that, let's support a sport so they can put synthetic DNA on a football. Sorry, but sports are valued entirely too fucking much imo."

Why do people always have to view things in zero-sum terms. Just because research is going into something entertaining like sports doesn't mean it won't translate into other usages. We have spent millions and millions of dollars into figuring out how to make athletes perform better and fix them when they are hurt. This has translated into practical, useful things such as Gatorade and much better procedures for knee and shoulder injuries. The NFL anti-counterfiting measures may turn out to be useful in the future for things such as legal documents.

I think people have a bias against science and research that is not done for "the love of knowledge" itself. The truth is that most of our progress comes from necessity, and many times this necessity is a manufactured necessity rather than a real one. Sometimes it is war research, sometimes sports, sometimes other entertainment such as video games. These things merely provide opportunities for challenges to overcome.

Re:Perhaps

[DigiShaman]

Depends on how much that football actually is worth. Say for example such a football sold for a hundred thousand dollars. In this case, it would be worth paying a few grand to have the DNA sequence tested and verified for authenticity.

Now if it's worth only a grand, chances are some sucker will plunk his cash down without actually going through all the trouble. In such cases, getting away with counterfeiting is much more likely.

Not a Challenge

[Marko DeBeeste]

OJ Duped a jury using identical odds

Not that hard!

[VincenzoRomano]

'The chance of replicating this exact DNA sequence is one in 33 trillion'

... unless you already know exactly the sequence itself. It's as hard as opening the combination lock of a safe: it's quite simple if you already know the combination!
So one could steal the combination and replicate it in a snap. And the combintion itslef could be a simple file stored in an unsecure system.
It'd be better to educate people about the real value of a used dirty football ball!