The article, “Does CODIS Contain Untapped Ancestry Information” by Seth Augenstein, immediately caught my attention. I was intrigued by the possibility that CODIS, an FBI software that is compiled with all of the DNA patterns of criminals, could have the power to uncover unknown ancestral information. The original perception of CODIS was that it could only yield individual identification. One of the authors of the new study, Jun Lin, who is also a Michigan professor in the Department of Human Genetics stated, “Everyone knows these markers are great for ‘fingerprinting’ people – we just didn’t know how much ancestry information came along with it,” The study consisted of analyzing the DNA of 978 people from 53 different populations around the world. Due to this discovery in CODIS, the software has the capability of identifying phenotypes and ancestral information. Labs are now to increase the amount of loci--the positions of genes on a chromosomes, or markers--used because the amount of ancestry information available may increase in turn.
The topic and question that this article explored has enormous relevance to today’s world. This new found information and capability can be extended beyond its use in CODIS and the DNA profiles of only criminals and arrestees. This way of determining a limited amount of ancestral information has the possibility to be further developed and investigated in order to uncover genetic/ancestral information that might not have been available about a person.
The author this article, Seth Augenstein, wrote it as such to bring the topic to a full circle. The opening paragraph briefly describes what CODIS actually is: FBI controlled Combined DNA Index System. The closing sentences brought the subject back to the origins of CODIS and the fact that it was used in only fourteen states. Now, CODIS contains more than fourteen million profiles of criminals and arrestees and many more, as it continues to grow. Another good point about this article was the title choice, in which it states a direct question, but the actual answer is woven throughout and indirectly answered. However, my first reaction to this article when I read it was that the writing style felt too choppy. Luckily, this opinion changed as I read the article a few more times in which the style seemed more fluid and the transitions from paragraph to paragraph made more sense. Lastly, the author could have defined certain words, such as loci (the position of a gene on a chromosome) in order to help the audience overall to have a better understanding of what the article is about, since most are not well versed in biological terms, specifically those that concern DNA. Overall, the article was fascinating to read because of this new found capability of CODIS to reveal ancestral information, not only identifying individuals.
"Does CODIS Contain Untapped Ancestry Information?" Forensic Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 20
Apr. 2016.
7 comments:
Sara I really enjoyed your review of the article “Does CODIS Contain Untapped Ancestry Information?” There were a few things that stood out. One, I enjoyed your summary. It was concise enough and straight to the point, so I understood the article you were reviewing. Two, I liked your addition of statistics and numbers such as “the DNA of 978 people from 53 different populations.” This gave your review a new layer. Three, I liked the relevance of your review because we have learned about fingerprints in class.
Although your review was great, there are a few things that you could do to make it even better. One, it would have been nice if you added a quote or two from the article, as this would have strengthened your review. Two, you mention that CODIS comes with ancestry information, and I was wondering what the result of knowing this new information would be. Like how if the FBI going to use this new information.
I was interested by the fact that the FBI created this software, yet they did not know that this information would be provided. This new information is very helpful because it could probably help solve future crimes. Again, I really enjoyed your review.
"Does CODIS Contain Untapped Ancestry Information?" Forensic Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.
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Sara’s article was very intriguing. It is common knowledge that DNA is a personal identifier. It has been used in criminal investigations for some time now, but what is so interesting is how she said it could link a person to their heritage and family tree. It really goes to show how much information is available in our DNA. Sara also did a good job of providing specific information to help support the thesis. Her discussion of the CODIS really provided deep insight. She also gave a view into where this research could go in the future. She talked of how it could give ancestral information that is currently entirely unknown.
While it was a great review, she could have used a bit more information about the science of how this ancestral information is derived. It is just such a new and crazy thing to be able to do, and it would be beneficial to know the science behind it. She also started giving her opinion of the piece in the summary which takes away a bit from the factual nature of the first paragraph. It is best to follow the format and leave most of the opinion parts for the later paragraphs.
Overall this was a very interesting piece, and it greatly expanded my knowledge of what DNA is capable of. It is quite remarkable and it is something I will continue to keep track of.
"Does CODIS Contain Untapped Ancestry Information?" Forensic Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2016."
I found Sara's article to pretty interesting and straight to the point. The topic of using DNA to identify somebody is as basic as it gets for forensics, however, I liked how she emphasized how this discovery is different than the others. Otherwise, the review would not have been nearly as interesting as it was. I also liked how she gave insight to how this discovery would develop more in the future. This is important because it gives the topic more importance.
Even though it was a great review, I thought that perhaps it could have elaborated more on how exactly the ancestral information is decided. I also though that she could have included a few more clips from the article, this would have provided the reader with more information on how exactly this discovery works.
I found this review to be really interesting, and even though I knew that heritage could be linked by DNA, I thought that the article expanded upon it greatly, and It taught me a lot more that I did not know.
"Does CODIS Contain Untapped Ancestry Information?" Forensic Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2016."
This article caught my eye right from the title. I found it extremely interesting how CODIS may contain previously unknown information about peoples ancestry and family. Sara's current event was very well written and concise. I really enjoyed how she used an article that added onto the knowlege that we learned in class. I had never thought to use CODIS to look into the ancestry of those whos DNA is stored in it. Overall this was a great current event with lots of information. If Sara wanted to improve this, she could go into greater detail about how this discovery was made and why it had not been discovered before
I thought that Sara overall did a great job with her current event review. One of the things that I liked about her review in particular was the fact that she left no details out of the article. She told the full events of the article, to make it a clear read. Another thing I liked about this review was that she reviewed the article in an interesting yet concise manner. I was intrigued to continue reading throughout the review, and thought that Sara did a great job at keeping the reader interested. Finally, I liked Sara’s review on the writing style of the article was very to the point and excellent. She was able to critique the author’s writing in an interesting and proper way.
While I thought that overall this was a great article review, one of the things that I thought could have been improved upon was better discussing the relevance of the article to the modern forensics world. Another thing she could have improved on was discussing the problems that come along with CODIS.
I was fascinated to discover that CODIS was a system created by the FBI, and even the FBI had no idea that CODIS supplied this kind of information that it does.
Works Cited
"Does CODIS Contain Untapped Ancestry Information?" Forensic Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.
I thought Sarah did a nice job on this current event review. Specifically, she was very detailed and explained the full event of what happened in the article. As she did this, it made it very clear and concise. I found it interesting how CODIS contains previously unknown information about someones' ancestry. Also it is crazy how CODIS is owned by the FBI and the FBI was unaware of the information CODIS had access to. I thought it was beneficial how Sarah explained how this CODIS insight could benefit us in the future. One thing Sarah could have improved on is discussing the issue to science and our society today, as one of the requirements has to do with how it is relatable to us. I thought overall, she did a nice job picking an interesting article, and made it very easy to follow with great detail and interesting points.
"Does CODIS Contain Untapped Ancestry Information?" Forensic Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.
"Does CODIS Contain Untapped Ancestry Information?" Forensic Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.
<http://www.forensicmag.com/articles/2016/04/does-codis-contain-untapped-ancestry-informa
Overall, Sara overall did a great job with her current event review. One of the things that I liked about her review was that she was very detailed. She explained all the events in the article very thoroughly and made everything super clear. Another thing I liked about this review was that she reviewed the article in an interesting way because she’s a really talented writer in general. Sara did a great job at keeping the reader interested by staying on track with the most important points of the article. Lastly, I liked Sara made it apparent that she was really well informed on the topic of her article and therefore was providing her own opinions with a lot of credibility. She was able to critique the author’s writing in a thoughtful way.
While I thought that overall this was a great article review, one of the things that I thought could have been improved upon was better discussing the relevance of the article to the modern forensics world. Another thing she could have improved on was discussing the problems that come along with CODIS.
I thought it was interesting to discover that even though CODIS is a system that was created by the FBI, the FBI had no idea that CODIS supplied this kind of information that it does. It’s amazing that forensic science is always making progress and there’s always new information to be learned.
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