Slashdot Mirror
How Hair Can be Used To Track Where You've Been
First time accepted submitter kandelar writes "PBS recently ran a story about how some scientists are using human hair to trace where a person has been. The combinations of different isotopes in water make for somewhat unique signatures from place to place. These isotopes get placed in growing hair strands which can then be traced back to identify where a person has been."
This has been done for year, it isn't a new concept.
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
Bald people no longer need a tinfoil hat?
My hair would say I've been in southern France for a long time.
We eat food and drink water.
Food comes from multiple sources, some transported large distances.
This will distort results significently and reduce the accuracy of the claimed results.
I drink exclusively Perrier, so the cops think I was in Vergèze in the Gard département of France the whole time.
So if you eat imported food and (imported) bottled - where have you 'been'
They laughed at me when I would drink nothing but Evian or, in a pinch, Perrier. Now my hair proves nothing about where I've been.
where the protagonists are would-be thieves or revolutionaries who seem to have all the superstitiousness of medieval peasants, but it turns out that it's merely behaviour to defend against such high-tech genetic snooping.
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
Red headed girl who was able to accurately identify where her boyfriend has been when she discovered a blond pubic hair in his briefs... he wasn't blond. I believe this technology has been around for a while now.
Work,
Home,
Work,
Home, Supermarket, Wine bar,
Work,
Home,
Work,
Home,
Home,
Work,
etc.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
This could have an interesting impact on cold cases. Fortunately, I expect this will quickly find disgrace like previous forms of hair and fiber analysis.
Globalization has made the world much smaller, with most goods mass produced in such volume with such great consistency that matches are increasingly probable.
I say that because this kind of technology has been around for many years. But hair or otherwise, location by isotope has so far turned out to be a boondoggle.
For example, for years TV shows (and the FBI themselves) claimed that they could trace ammunition to the manufacturer by the particular isotopic composition of the lead in bullet fragments.
False. It just isn't reliable. They did it for years, and it just doesn't work. The better the technology got, the more unreliable it was shown to be. Lead formulations change; suppliers change; the very ore from which the lead is refined, varies even from the same mine. Convictions were overturned.
In some ways, it parallels the evolution of DNA as evidence: it is far, far less reliable than it was first made out to be. Not only is it ridiculously easily contaminated, it can be deliberately planted, even more easily.
What? These results can't be right.
I've never even been to Kilmarnock.
I can tell you where this gentleman hasn't been. The shower.
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
By gum, we need a meta-story that summarizes the fantastic 15-year anniversary logos that we've been enjoying this month when the celebrations come to an end.
They've been great. Middle-earth? Braille? Mysterious crypto-patterns? Imagination! Experience! Effort!
We true Slashdotters must all appreciate the effort put in; we should therefore demand a forum to discuss and congratulate the various artists.
Who's with me? Vote this post up! I'm AC, so there's no karma-whoring here! Vote this post up to show: we want a story about the logos!
I've just ate a bag of skittles that was made in the USA. But I've never been to the USA before.... That's nearly half way around the world.
So bring me some water from asia and when I drink it Ive been there? I believe the test, if accurate, proves where the water is from.. not necessarily here you have been... just sayin...
Ehleringer realized that what an animal eats and drinks does get recorded—in its tissues.
Another astonishing cutting edge information—Earth is round!
Holy crap, the holistic people have been on to something... Except they're not healing you with "trace elements", they're simply disguising where you've been so the bad germs can't find you!
Can they do this with poop too? ^_^
Oh yes, cause Louis Vuitton sells through outlet shops, online, and the /. crowd are SUCH huge fashionistas they're just dying to visit your crappy chinese knock-off shop and buy bags for girlfriends whoa re too stupid to recognize that no one can buy genuine LV for 29.99 with free shipping...
fucking spammer *spits*
captcha: staffed
Oh captcha what are you trying to tell me?
If used improperly, i.e. to determine where any individual has been, such a thing cannot be used to ascertain where you've been at any time prior to the eruption of any individual strand from its follicle. It MIGHT, if what has been written is true, determine where the food and/or water a person has consumed came from, or if anthropologists were using the technique to identify the migration patterns of ancient humans before the rise of international, then intercontinental trade.
A quick census of my kitchen and fridge would imply that I have been to Ecuador, (where my bananas came from,) Mexico, (where my avocados and tomatoes came from,) Florida, (where my oranges and the oranges that were squeezed to form my orange juice came from,) Iowa (where the corn that goes into 50 different products in my diet came from,) Italy, (where the wheat that goes into my pasta was grown,) Japan, (where the rice that goes into many of the soups and snacks I enjoy was grown,) Columbia, (where the beans in my coffee were grown,) Greece, (where the olives that were squeezed to make my olive oil were grown,) France, (where most of the water I drink was bottled,) Spain, (where the grapes in my Sangria were grown,) to say nothing of China, where the lead in my toys comes from.
A person analyzing my hair might well assume I've been to all of these places, as they might so many people, who like me, rarely leave their home-towns for any reason, but they'd be WRONG. This is phrenology all over again.
But then, this has given me an opportunity to realize just how many different locales on this planet contribute to my diet. Globalism, hey?
Imagine if the human race still exists a thousand years from now, and assuming the pace of forward technological progress and human knowledge and proliferation continues to follow the pattern it has. Our distant descendants could look around their kitchens and marvel at how they've hardly ever been off whatever interstellar habitat they live in, or how given what moon or planet they live on, how very many different worlds their consumables come to them from. Well, Blue Sun, hey?
Gloves then shower cap?
Well, we'll just see about that! Watson, the laser tweezers!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
...to not drink the local tap.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
Wel water from Fukushima on Ebay helps area recover!
Most successful criminal mastermind EVER.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Or does the water get into your hair only after you drink actual water? (Because if so, you could really confuse the investigators by drinking nothing by bottled beverages.) Then they'd end up guessing that you came from wherever the bottling plant was located!
I like to drink a variety of beers from around the world. All of them are bottled with their local water or treated water. Oh, snap!
The ex-Presidents are surfers!
50 posts, and still no oblig.xkcd?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
This is new? Back in 1991, they used this technique to figure out what breaks the Ex-Presidents surf.
I can tell, with upwards of 50% confidence, what some "scientists" may have been smoking by reading every other line from every other para (Fibonacci sequence sampling is faster but less accurate) of their articles.
Considering the rate I'm losing my hair, all they have to do is follow the trail to figure out where I've been
Monstar L
Remember that bald guy that kind of looked like mr clean? He was the one that put his whole head in this girl's vagoo. Do you think he let his hair grow afterwards? If so, would these scientists be able to know where he's been?
I'm completely bald, you insensitive hairy clod!
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
Next up in the news: TSA taking a lock of hair from random airline passengers...
Having lived in very dry places. (It frequently gets below 5% humidity in the summer outdoors) I know that with low humidity you can dry out fairly quickly. In Phoenix you are allowed to carry water into most sporting events because you need to replace the water that evaporates and everyone does it in the summer.
When you are in someplace that is humid, you do not dry out as quickly because the water is being replaced by water in the air (yet I know there are other factors),
It would be interesting to strictly control the isotope content in diet/drink for a month but in two different regions and then do a comparison.
Supervillians are often bald?
Cool...
I mainly drink Italian bottled water... According to their technique I spent all my time in Italy ?!?
develop a brand of water which contains water from various states in several different locations within each state. the same could be done with food and sold likewise as "Confusion".
I've been down the drain a lot.
This is essentially what Sherlock Holmes did, right? Massive knowledge of soil, mud, water, tobacco, etc -- allowing him to determine where a person has been merely from a hint of dirt on the cuff of their trousers? Or pallywags or whatever it is they call pants across the pond.
Isotope Forensics, July 8, 2010 Tikalon Blog.
In the mane, the article is quite good, but it does rather brush over some of the finer details.
I'm here all week ;-)
Why... I'm a hairy guy.
Support my political activism on Patreon.
...at the movies with a friend, I swear!
i have long curly hair. The people who clean the gym showers know exactly where i've been
"As they were leaving. The hair tested positive for selenium and titanium. The beaches are always being closed due to waste spills and stuff. If we check it out and find a match for the hair, then we'd know which break the Ex-Presidents surf!"
"Angelo, are you buying this?"
"I am Johnny Utah!"
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!
I don't know why they just don't show CSI episodes in forensics schools. Of course I am also surprised anybody is still caught for murder these days with all the crime investigation shows showing you what not to do.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
I shave my body completely, totally bald. My pork and beans look like a catchers glove and I regularly stick glue rat traps to my bottom to ensure proper sanitation.
Sorry, you'll need a better tracking method.
I'm not supposed to commit crimes?
I RFTA, and I didn't see the citations to the peer-reviewed studies demonstrating the reliability of this technique. I also didn't see any cites to case law where these results have been found to be admissible in court.
Of course it depends to some extent on how the results are being used. If they are being used for purposes of exclusion of suspects, or as a means of narrowing a search, reliability or admissibility may have yet to be tested. But sooner or later they will be. I just hope it happens before this gets widely accepted and someone gets hurt.
On a personal note, I drink bottled water almost exclusively for health reasons (immune suppressed and bottled water has, on average, lower bacterial counts than tap). But I buy what's cheapest and available, which means I switch brands all the time. Assuming water does account for the majority of the isotopes these tests check, the stuff I'm drinking right now comes from two different sources, one 600+ miles north, the other 200+ miles northeast of here. Since this is in California, that's not exactly narrowing things down.
In Phoenix you are allowed to carry water into most sporting events because you need to replace the water that evaporates and everyone does it in the summer.
I'm amazed that it's even worth mentioning that you are allowed to carry water into sporting events. Isn't the right to carry water just assumed?
I like my coffee the way I like my women - roasted and ground up into little tiny pieces.