A brief history of DNA Testing
As most any episode of CSI (= Les Experts) will tell you, DNA testing is a staple of modern crime investigations.
Since the advent of DNA testing in 1985, biological material (skin, hair, blood and other bodily fluids) has emerged as the most reliable physical evidence at a crime scene, particularly those involving sexual assaults. DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, contains the complex genetic blueprint that distinguishes each person. Forensic testing can determine if distinctive patterns in the genetic material found at a crime scene matches the DNA in a potential perpetrator with better than 99% accuracy.
As accuracy rises and costs drop, DNA analysis is becoming increasingly widespread. It’s familiar to daytime-TV fans as the leading method to determine paternity; do-it-yourself tests are now sold at drugstores in the USA.
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Tags: DNA, DNA testing, paternity tests, science, Sciences Po