Saliva Science: New Forensics Tool Can Determine a Person's Age from a Spit Sample
Saliva Science Crime scene investigators could soon use saliva left behind at crime scenes to determine the ages of those involved at the scene. U.S. Army Thinking of pulling off the perfect crime? Here's one more thing you now need to take into account (thanks for nothing, science): your saliva. Yes, it's no longer enough to keep track of every single hair, every last skin cell, and and absolutely everything you touch at the scene of your nefarious scheme. Researchers at UCLA have figured out how to determine age to within five years from nothing more than a saliva sample. The method relies on a process called methylation, which is a chemical change to one of the four building blocks of a person's DNA. Methylation changes as our bodies grow older, contributing to age related diseases. In extracting DNA from saliva samples from more than 100 test subjects, the team found that...