Sunday Focus: You & your DNA

 Have you noticed a burst of DNA related stories in the past few days?

•      DNA evidence has been used to clear and to convict numerous people charged with crimes, and to identify long dead crime victims too---as it will be used to confirm that bodies found on Friday in California are those of a missing family.....though DNA cannot, as The Detroit News reported this morning, help in all cases.  

• A soldier in Colorado on Friday won approval to blame his twin bother for a series of sexual assaults---perhaps the only way he can explain the presence of his DNA as evidence.

•      Earlier in the week scientists reported using DNA to track the emergence of Fido--the domesticated dog--to wolves in Europe...with both humans and their new canine friends benefiting from a partnership that continues today. 

•  And companies are profiting from the sale of DNA kits that may help predict future medical problems. But do you want to know you may carry the genes needed for a fatal disease that has no cure?

• Perhaps the most creative use of the building blocks of live is the artist who picks up stuff off the street that contains DNA....like a discarded cigarette butt, and creates 3D portraits...like half-sculptural busts.

[Sunday Focus is  a regular feature of TimLennox.com]