questioning uniqueness
2008-07-20 18:08:14.645612+00 by Dan Lyke 1 comments
One of the issues with fingerprints is that there's remarkably little evidence backing up some of the claims of uniqueness. Turns out that's also true for "DNA fingerprinting": DNA matches are starting to turn up among completely unrelated people:
The FBI estimated the odds of unrelated people sharing those genetic markers to be as remote as 1 in 113 billion. But the mug shots of the two felons suggested that they were not related: One was black, the other white.
In the years after her 2001 discovery, Troyer found dozens of similar matches -- each seeming to defy impossible odds.
Via.