Hair test can map movements in US: study
- From: rpautrey2 <rpautrey2@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:42:09 -0800 (PST)
Hair test can map movements in US: study
Agence France Presse
Mon Feb 25,
5:12 PM ET
A single hair is all it takes to map a person's movements across the
United States with a new test aimed at helping police check alibis and
identify murder victims.
Using tap water samples and clippings from barbershops across the
country, researchers at the University of Utah were able to find
significant chemical differences that can be used as geographic
markers.
"You are what you eat and drink -- and that is recorded in your hair,"
said geochemist Thure Cerling, who co-authored the study published
Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study found that 85 percent of the variation in hydrogen and
oxygen isotope levels in a person's hair was due to variations in
local drinking water.
So a single strand of hair can help trace a person's location during
recent weeks or even years, depending on the length of the hair and
thus how much time it took to grow.
Cerling and his team used the water and hair samples to produce color-
coded maps showing how ratios of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in scalp
hair vary in different areas of the United States.
The maps can't pinpoint an exact location but can be used to identify
general geographic areas and has already been used to help trace an
unidentified murder victim in Utah.
"It's a phenomenal method," said detective Todd Park, who is using the
new type of hair analysis in an effort to identify a murdered woman
whose partial remains were found in Salt Lake County, Utah in October
2000.
The hair sample told Park that she had spent the last two years of her
life moving around within the Idaho-Montana-Wyoming area and possibly
into Oregon and Washington state. An analysis of her teeth could show
where she grew up.
"Every little bit helps," the detective said. "You put pieces of the
puzzle together to get a whole picture. And this is definitely
something that will give us a piece of the puzzle."
The technique could also prove useful for doctors trying to track to
worsening symptoms of a dietary disease, and anthropologists or
archaeologists trying to trace migratory patterns of long-dead peoples
or animals, the authors said.
A similar type of analysis developed by study co-author ecologist Jim
Ehleringer is used by the US Drug Enforcement Administration to help
determine where cocaine or heroin samples were produced.
Copyright © 2008 Agence France Presse
Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! Inc.
.
- Prev by Date: Re: Acupunture: Mechanism of action
- Next by Date: Re: Acupunture: Mechanism of action
- Previous by thread: How popular are organic foods and why
- Next by thread: Tips from the Mayo Clinic to prevent low back pain
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
