[Artemisia] Forensics and History...was " the princes in the tower discussion"

[Michael the Loud]

> And Michael, do you mean to crush my optimism that
> all the really cool DNA things they do on CSI: Las
> Vegas aren't real?!?!?!?!?  OMG!  Whatever will we
> do?????

NO!!!

DNA is great science however DNA doesn't exist forever
and can be easily destroyed.  The Egyptians did this
when they used gama radiation to kill the bacteria on
their mummies.  Gama radiation destroys raditaion and
the DNA they are discovering are found in teeth.  

However if you bury somebody in a pine coffin in
Missouri in say the 1850 and exhume the body you
probably aren't going to find any usable DNA because
the amount of ground moisture.  Dust-to-dust.

There is theory that in DNA you can determine exact
genealogy as only about 10% of DNA is used for genetic
reproduction.  This has been theory for at least 20
years and I'm not aware of anything disproving that
theory yet but only partical genealogical lines can be
determined.  

I found working with DNA on Dead Sea Scrolls to date
historical events based on the goat genealogy very
interesting.  While DNA matches permit placing
fragments of scrolls together it's also used to say
this event happened here because this goat is
descended from that goat.

The instant identification that people think about
with DNA really isn't possible because DNA doesn't
last forever in too many cases.  Recently an "Unknown
Soldier" was identified so there is precident to
exhume as this was done even at the Gettysburg site
($1.98 per body was winning bid - $9 was high bid.)
With the number of mass graves and based on 9/11 many
historicians would like to know where men fell on key
battle sites.  If you knew that a soldier fell from a
regiment fell on a given site it would sure help
reconstructing battle sites.  If you can sue to get
John Lennon's FBI file (today's story) then if the
science was solid then this would be a much easier
case.

Michael


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