Researchers from the University of Florida said a new accidental discovery could help solve criminal activity or find missing persons after learning investigators could collect human DNA samples from the air.
According to Nature Ecology & Evolution, researchers learned the potential source for fighting crime while studying endangered sea turtles and analyzing sand samples at a beach where the reptiles lay eggs.
“We cough, spit, shed and flush our DNA into all of these places and countless more,” the university’s team said in a news release.
David Duffy, the UF professor of wildlife disease genomics who led the project, said the discovery of gathering genetic information from a scoop of sand, a vial of water, or a person’s breath presents ethical dilemmas that scientists and regulators could face
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