Littering cigarette butts and chewing gum on the street, if someone picks up and extracts DNA from it, and reshapes your appearance, it is really "shameless". Please pay attention-can DNA restore the appearance of people?
A few days ago, American artist Heather extracted the DNA of the sample owner from cigarette butts with human saliva, chewing gum and hair with hair follicles, and analyzed the data obtained to simulate their facial images on a computer and print them with a 3D printer A three-dimensional human face appeared. In a personal work exhibition held in New York, she exhibited this three-dimensional face art series called "Unknown Face".
According to Wikipedia ’s definition, DNA, also known as deoxyribonucleic acid, is a biological macromolecule that can form genetic instructions to guide biological development and life functions. In the eyes of most people, DNA is a professional term in the field of biology, and now, this proprietary vocabulary of biology is related to works of art, and many people feel very new.
From a hair to a strange face
"The first time I thought about this idea was in the doctor's office, there was an ordinary painting hanging on the wall. I saw a crack in the glass frame of this painting with a hair in it. Then I It ’s curious, who owns this hair? What does its owner look like? Then, on the way home, I saw the DNA left by people everywhere, in the hair, nails, cigarette butts, chewing gum, It ’s just that people do n’t realize that their DNA is spread in public places. â€
Heather Dewey-Hagberg is currently a PhD student in the electronic arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She extracts DNA from the collected samples and then uses polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology to amplify some of the genome. Regions, and then study the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in these regions, she sent the analysis results to a special laboratory for sorting, and then input the sorting results into a computer program written by her to decode. Finally, it is possible to determine the sex of the DNA owner, the color of the eyes, the height of the cheekbones, the hair color, the skin color, the width of the nose, the distance between the two eyes, and even determine whether the person has freckles.
Heather used a DNA sample to detect the following characteristics of the owner: female, Nordic origin, straight hair, freckles, 50% chance of being overweight, light skin, 56% chance of brown eyes, green possibility Sex is 37%. Based on a facial recognition study in Switzerland, Heather constructed a 3D facial model of the person and printed it in full color with a 3D printer to make the final art product.
Genetic privacy concerns
Heather ’s press release for his series of “Unfamiliar Faces†stated: “If I have your genome sequenced, in theory, I can learn about your very personal information, and I can even clone you, which sounds Like science fiction, but this is the truth. "
At the same time that people are wondering, the "unfamiliar face" has also attracted all kinds of doubts. The most worrying thing about people is personal privacy.
Xiao Liu is a graduate student at a university in Beijing. She expressed concern about this: "Imagine that one day you walked on the street, and the people on your face had the same face as you, and the shops on the street hung like you. Photos, that ’s scary. I think DNA has been taken by others for art, which has threatened my personal safety. Nowadays, many companies are using face recognition technology to identify their identity. In this case, this This technology is very dangerous. "
In addition to security concerns, some people questioned the legality of Heather. Ms. Zhang, a private company employee, believes that it is actually an infringement to collect and analyze the DNA of others without the consent of others, and to display the simulated faces in public.
Regarding the concerns raised by Ms. Zhang, Heather responded: "On this issue, the law has not been clearly stipulated, and the laws of each state in the United States are different. Everyone in public will leave DNA every day. Things, such as saliva, hair, nails, dander, etc., but everyone never thought that the things left behind contain important information about ourselves. My project also aims to make the public pay more attention to genetic monitoring And the issue of genetic privacy. "
DNA analysis may not be able to determine appearance
Liu Su, a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Life Sciences at Peking University, believes that the current DNA analysis technology has not been developed to the extent that human appearance can be determined, nor will it be in the foreseeable future.
He explained that because the appearance development is a complex result of the innate genes and the acquired environment. Without understanding the role of acquired, it is impossible to construct a person's appearance accurately by genes alone. Not only that, but in terms of innateness, most of the characteristics of human appearance are also the complex results of multiple genes working together. We still know very little about the complex mechanism of action of this multi-gene, and it is impossible to establish an effective model. Only a few features, such as the color of the human eye, can be reliably predicted by a single or a few genes, but it is also difficult to be 100% accurate.
In fact, Heather himself admits that these three-dimensional faces can only reach a level similar to that of the owner. Perhaps it looks like a relative of the owner. At present, no one "recognizes himself" through her works.
Heather also said: "One thing that everyone needs to pay attention to is that this research has just started, it is just art, not what new products are to be developed. I am still exploring and learning. I hope that by the end of this semester, I can pass this A technique to determine the age of a person from the extracted DNA. "
When asked if this technology can help people diagnose some congenital diseases, Heather said: "My project is not currently involved in this field, but I know this is entirely possible. For example, in the United States, there are now 23andMe Of companies are doing such things, they use customer DNA samples to determine whether they have hidden health risks, such as congenital diseases and adverse reactions to certain drugs. "
Regarding the use of DNA to detect human congenital diseases and age mentioned by Heather, Deng Yajun, director of the Beijing Zhongzheng Forensic Laboratory, said: "It is possible to detect diseases by DNA. Now many diseases related to genetics, especially single genes Inherited diseases (such as sickle cell anemia) can be diagnosed by a small amount of DNA testing. However, the current technological level of DNA testing is not yet reached. "
Pillow Packing Machine,Automatic Wrapping Machine,High Speed Packing Machine,Custom Bread Packing Machine
Jinan Guoqiang Machinery CO,.ltd , https://www.jinanpackaging.com