In a newly-released paper in the journal Forensic Science
International: Genetics, scientists in Tel Aviv, Israel,
describe how they have found a process to fabricate DNA. The
process involved removing DNA from a woman’s blood sample and
adding DNA from a different person. The process was so easy,
they say, that any biology undergraduate has the tools to
engineer his or her own crime scene. (DNA evidence left at crime
scenes has been considered nearly incontrovertible in the past;
this process raises questions about its reliability going
forward.) We talk to Timothy Bestor, a professor of genetics and
development at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of
Columbia University, and Tania Simoncelli, a science advisor at
the American Civil Liberties Union.