How did DNA forensics begin?
DNA was first used to solve a crime in 1986. Using a new technique called DNA fingerprinting, British geneticist Alec Jeffreys cleared an innocent man of a double rape-murder and helped catch the real rapist/murderer.Science of DNA ForensicsDNA is the genetic material inside every cell that determines individual characteristics. This information is encoded in certain chunks of DNA, or sequences. Although more than 99 percent of these DNA sequences are shared by all humans, a small number of them vary from person to person and are unique to each individual (except for identical twins). In 1984, Alec Jeffreys developed a method to compare these unique DNA sequences to determine whether two samples came from the same person, related people or unrelated people.Landmark CaseIn 1986, police sent Jeffreys semen samples taken from the bodies of two women who had been raped and murdered. Jeffreys found that the samples could not have come from their prime suspect, although they were most certai
