DNA Swapping May Cloud Evidence

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.