HERE'S ONE that's tailor-made for the "How cool!" file. Chicago area police recently solved a 9-year-old murder case by taking DNA samples from a half-eaten chicken dinner.
The perpetrators (who shot seven people in a fast-food restaurant) wore gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints, destroyed physical evidence and shot everyone who could identify them. Cops were stumped about their identities. But the saliva one of the shooters left on a chicken bone that investigators found in a garbage can essentially became a calling card for the killers - once DNA typing and matching were able to be used.
It's a marvelous example of technology rocketing forward and dramatically changing the societal landscape. And the Chicago case is hardly isolated.
The science of DNA and its growing use in criminal investigations are making it much harder for crooks to commit crimes and get away with them. They can't so much as leave an eyelash behind without cops now being able to use it to track them down.
The technology was born in the mid-1980s in England, when police there solved their first case through DNA evidence. And in some of the most high-profile cases in this country, it has been used to clear the convicted by proving they couldn't possibly be the perpetrators. But now, DNA science is blossoming into widespread use to decide who done it.
Police departments and the FBI have begun to compile DNA databanks in which criminals' unique genetic markers are stored and then matched against evidence gathered in crimes. The FBI reports that hundreds of its investigations nationwide have been aided by DNA evidence.
Of course, the technology has its critics, and its future could compel ethical discussions about fairness. Some say authorities are trampling civil liberties by trying to match DNA gathered from a suspect in one crime with evidence collected in other crimes. And tomorrow, movie-goers will be treated to a disturbing view of technology's potential in Steven Spielberg's Minority Report, in which science is used to anticipate crimes before they happen and perpetrators are arrested based on predictive evidence.
The movie is fiction and, for now, simply a fantasy. But together with the current objections to DNA science, it does warn against uncritical societal indulgence of the technology. Like any other crime-solving tool, DNA should be used properly and with appropriate respect for the strictures and safeguards of the criminal justice system.
It shouldn't spawn genetic spying or profiling. It shouldn't chip away at liberties. It should represent the best of what science has to offer humanity: progress that makes civility easier to defend against evil.