No matter where you go, your DNA is there for the taking

Below, highlights from an informative and surprising (to me) just published Nature article:

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The Air is Full of DNA — Here's What Scientists Are Using It For

Airborne genetic material can be used to paint a picture of ecosystem health, watch for invasive species, and even identify humans.

... the idea of continuously collecting airborne DNA in public spaces troubles some scientists, who raise concerns similar to those about the sampling of DNA in waste water. [I'm surprised they didn't mention Meta's AI camera glasses, which are capable of instant facial recognition and identification, so far disabled by the company but that could change at any minute.]

Breathe out on an evening walk and your DNA could waft into a discreetly placed urban sampler. Shotgun sequencing, using rapidly emerging, cheap, portable techniques that can generate the type of read-out that helps to identify individuals, could produce results in the field, in near real time.

"People who have been recently in a building, within a day or so, you can certainly pick up their DNA" from the air, says University of Oslo forensic geneticist Peter Gill. For a longer-term record, he says, there is airborne DNA on surfaces. "You can take the dust from on top of a door sill, where people don't normally clean. And then you'll have a sort of mini-historical record of people who have been in there."

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But it's not just for propeller head scientists, not by a long shot: You can too!

For a mere $3,150 UK-based Oxford Nanopore will send you your very own state-of-the-art pocket-sized DNA sequencer (top).

Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?