Found on the ninemsn news website, this reports on the case of an innocent man who was convicted through DNA testing. The article focuses not on the story itself but on the inquiry that is taking place over the accuracy of DNA fingerprinting, in particular reference to cold cases.

DNA has been used for 17,000 cold cases dating to 2001 and in the inquiry, so far only this one has been proven to have been in error. The cause of this error is also known - a human mistake of placing the wrong sample in the well during gel electrophoresis.

The quotes in the article, and the article itself defend this method, and state that they aim to limit the possibility of human error even more by using robots and the like. It is very clear that the mistake in this case lay with the lab technitions and not the method: "he stressed the science behind DNA testing was not in question".

It draws to a close reminding the public that science is not infallible. It claims that people place too much faith in DNA fingerprinting despite the fact that it is not an "exact science": "People who look at that science - and they are lay people, judges and juries - are disproportionately impressed by it."

This is an important message - people need to be aware of the failings of science as well as the success. They need to have an accurate view, not a glamorised picture. It is good that this article highlights the errors that can occur in a process such as this, but encourages people to keep their faith in science and even in DNA fingerprinting. One mistake should not condone a method (as long as the mistake is human error and not the method itself causing mmajor problems).

The article also says that one form of evidence should not stand alone, which matches my last post. Evidence should appear from all sides and the majority should agree.

So don't throw science out there just to impress people. That is not what it is for. Science is all about truth.

Image from news article.

Although this story is 10 days old, it is an amazing one.

An 18-year old from a small village in Nepal has invented a solar cell which uses human hair instead of silicon. It is cheap, easy to mass produce and, most importanly it works.

This is a great example of how a young person has seen a need (Nepal has very poor access to electricity) and created a wonderful solution.

Check out the article here.

What makes this story even more amazing is that the village that Milan Karki comes from was skeptical of his inventions, and of science in general. Milan says, "They believe in superstitions, they don't believe in science. But now they believe."

That's pretty cool that he was able to show the people that science is not something to be afraid of. It could be bad if science went barging in to other people's cultures and just threw out all their beliefs. And it's happened before. But Milan is from the village, and has showed, by example, that science can help the village. His motivations were not just progress for the sake of progress, but simply to address a need in his community.

(Internet is being slow. I'll attach a pretty picture later.)

Firstly, most sincere apologies for not posting on Friday. My brain was, well, elsewhere. I shall try hard not to get distracted so much again without warning. Hopefully as I get into a rhythm it will be better.

I would like to post about interesting and intriguing science news when I hear it, as it is important to keep on top of current science as a science communicator. So, for today:

The first picture of a molecule has been released!

Scientist have taken a photo (sort-of) of a pentacene molecule. Its sort of a shady image, that looks like an x-ray.



Have a look at the article here at the UK Daily Mail.

They use a very fine point - a carbon monoxide molecule, to detect the molecule underneath. An image is created from the information that the tip gathers.

So it's not really a picture, as advertised. Its a computer image, but generated from the real molecule, not just from assumed molecular structures. Regardless, it is very cool to have advanced to this level. Technology has come so far, and this technique may be able to show us if we have other molecules exactly right. Who knows what we might discover?

This is what science is about: discoveries to further our knowledge of the wonderful world around us.