• Question: can you get some of barac obamas DNA

    Asked by qwer to Alison, Artem, Caroline, John, Gunther on 11 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Caroline Dalton

      Caroline Dalton answered on 11 Jun 2012:

      In theory yes. You can obtain DNA from a saliva sample or hair for example. In practice, you would have to ask him first though! I think a person has to give permission for a DNA sample to be taken from them and he might want to know what you plan to do with it 🙂

    • Photo: Artem Evdokimov

      Artem Evdokimov answered on 11 Jun 2012:

      There are two aspects of this – the scientific and the legal one. I would start with the legal – and that is a hairy question indeed. I am not sure if it is such a good idea to just grab people’s DNA without asking them first. And honestly if someone asked me out of the blue if they could have mine, I would say no, unless there was a good reason (like using it for heritable disease research).

      The scientific aspect is simple – getting DNA is pretty easy these days. You can get it from a half-eaten chocolate bar if you want, or from a chewed and discarded piece of gum. Almost anything that we come in contact with (including other people!) receives a tiny amount of our cells, and with them – the DNA that’s inside. But it’s not always easy to get the DNA out intact because very large DNA molecules (like those in the human genome) break and rip very easily.

    • Photo: John Short

      John Short answered on 14 Jun 2012:

      I personally can’t, I would probably be taken out by the secret service or CIA if I did try illegally!

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