Sean Ryan
3/26/14
Earth Science
C-Even
Parker,
Will. "Interesting Science News And Discussion." Interesting Science
News And Discussion. Penn State, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
Mug shots from DNA possible, say
scientists
My
current event will be on DNA, which we already know can tell us about the sex
and ancestry of unknown people. This topic which I chose can be very important,
especially by giving Police an advantage in catching the culprits. This
revolutionary discovery is being worked on by an International team. Their
mission is to use DNA to find what a person face would look like. To do this
study these researches used people of mixed West African and European ancestry
from the U.S., Brazil and Cape Verde. Next the researches placed a grid on 3-D
images of the faces, and measured the spatial coordinates of the grid points.
They then used the relationship between the variation of the faces and the
effects of sex, genomic ancestry and genes that affected the shape of the head
and face. To
identify the genes, the researchers observed known genetic mutations that cause
facial and cranial deformation because these genes in their typical variations
could also affect the head and face. Though this invention is not complete yet,
it could serve to be very effective in the future. In many cases where
detectives find DNA, but not from a person with a record, they are stumped
unless they have any other leads. With this invention, it could be it a lot
easier to find who the criminal of the crime is, especially if he is a
relative, neighbor or friend of the victim.
I chose
this article because of the possibility it has to impact the future. DNA, which
can be used for many different things such as paternity testing, solving trial cases
such as murder, and determining health
problems in an unborn fetus. It can also be used to reunite lost siblings or
families and establish the origins of a species. It hopefully will soon be able
to provide pictures of the people with that DNA, so that things listed above
can be more likely to be solved quicker.
I though
this short article was written very well. It gave me information on what their
plan was to do with the DNA, and informed me on what steps they had already
taken to get there. I would have liked though to have learned about what DNA,
has already achieved, since I found that information in another source.
This is indeed a very interesting topic. The possibility of giving Police an advantage in finding criminals is truly incredible. I think you did a very good job of explaining both how and why the study of DNA is important. I especially liked how you gave specific details and steps on how this invention is being created, and also how it could be used to find criminals. I definitely agree with you that the article was well written, and also that the study of DNA has the potential to quickly solve complex issues. Additionally, I think that you were able to draw in and interest the reader, due to a strong, simple, and truthful introduction. I found it very interesting to learn that scientists are now able to connect genetics, with facial features, degrees of femininity, and racial characteristics. This, as was described in the review, can solve many complex issues, especially finding murderers, without making a mistake. If this could consistently, and accurately determine who the criminal is, it would result in a significant reduction in investigation time. Additionally, since the criminals are found quicker, it would prevent them from continuing to steal or kill, hopefully saving many innocent. I also found it intriguing to read and see how they use 3-D images of the subject's faces, to identify specific genes. I believe that Sean did a very good job in both writing and analyzing this topic, and that he did a great job of providing a simple explanation for how scientists plan on using this technology. This current event report was strong, however I think that the article was not very long, and the report itself could have been improved if it was edited and read over.
ReplyDeleteThis article really stuck out to me. I've been interested in the uses of DNA technology for a while now and to see a possibly new way of using DNA that will impact the world is fascinating. I really liked how you spoke about how this new face-detecting technology could be used. Investigators, detectives, the police, the FBI, and many others will definitely benefit from it by being able to see the faces of criminals. This will lead to a future with less incorrect trials and sentences, which will have a positive impact on society. Hopefully people will think twice before committing a crime now due to the fact that they can have their faces detected by their DNA. I also liked how you described the process of how this DNA-reading technology is used, and how it can detect different races and ethnic backgrounds. The part about the 3D images of the faces was very interesting. The entirety of your write-up of the article is new to me, as this is an unfinished but up-and-coming way to use DNA. Either way, your details, descriptive vocabulary, and writing style were very captivating and portrayed this new information very clearly and interestingly. If I had to suggest one thing, I’d talk a bit more about how this new piece of technology came to be and how it was/is being produced and able to create these facial renderings from DNA.
ReplyDeleteI think the topic of the article you chose is very fascinating and I hope scientists do find a way to make this possible. I think you did a great job of explaining how scientists would make this happen and I am very excited to see them getting closer to their goal. I had no idea that it was even a possibility for this to happen maybe even in the near future. I think the reason why chose to read this article was very strong and I completely agree with you. DNA is a really big part of solving crimes and doing great things for the world. I also believe your paragraph about how you liked the article and what could have been better about it was very straight-forward and to the point with no fluff. I think it’s great that you went to other sources and researched what advancements have already been made in DNA. This shows us that you truly were interested in the topic you chose. I also think that you chose a really interesting kind of Earth Science. Most people do their current events on layers of the Earth or space but you chose yours on something that generally affects us day-to-day. This is something that could make an impact that would be more visible to us and help us in other ways than a discovery in space could (not that those are not important of course). The only suggestion I have for you is maybe you should have talked about specific projects they are working on now to develop this better and how close they think they are to making this a "reality."
ReplyDeleteI agree with Roy's comment that the article chosen was not very long, and that Sean's report could have benefited from some additional editing in terms of the writing mechanics.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting topic. Can you imagine a world where the "wanted" images of criminals on the news is generated using DNA samples? It is known that sometimes verbal descriptions of perpetrators can be highly inaccurate because victims are often so traumatized that they cannot accurately recall details of the facial features of their perpetrators.
Imagine a world then where these computer generated faces are then combined with facial recognition technology, such as is used by Google and Facebook, and you could identify criminals with a simple internet search! The implications in terms of forensics and law enforcement are staggering.
But how realistically close is this technology? Have they tried to test it out and compare it to real faces and see how closely they match up? Would it help in the case of a criminal line-up? Could they compare the accuracy of DNA generated facial recognition to old-fashioned finger-pointing and recognition by eye-witnesses? How would you test this technology out? This article perhaps raises more questions than it answers.