Fracking hell, Mikey!
Scientists in Israel have demonstrated that it is possible to fabricate DNA evidence, undermining the credibility of what has been considered the gold standard of proof in criminal cases.
The scientists fabricated blood and saliva samples containing DNA from a person other than the donor of the blood and saliva. They also showed that if they had access to a DNA profile in a database, they could construct a sample of DNA to match that profile without obtaining any tissue from that person.
“You can just engineer a crime scene,” said Dan Frumkin, lead author of the paper, which has been published online by the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics. “Any biology undergraduate could perform this.”
[Click to continue reading DNA Evidence Can Be Fabricated, Scientists Show – NYTimes.com]
So how long until this fabricated DNA appears as a plot point in a film? How long before it gets used in a police procedural drama? Months? Who’ll be first out the gate? Ooh, what about court-ordered DNA tests to get a wrongfully accused death-row murderer out of jail, and then the DNA turns out to be fake? Better start typing up my film treatment…
The relativist nature of knowledge precludes the notion of gold standard of proof in science.What seem to be true today might turns out to be erroneous in the future.
The idea that government will be able to control the population through organized science by using DNA,biometric devices,sensors and other panoptic devices will remain a mirage.The plasticity of human mind invariably will undermine them.