# DNA in hair
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-in-hair/782615
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 20, 2017, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-in-hair/782615 "2017-03-20T15:33:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@blood63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blood63)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2017, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-in-hair/782615/1 "2017-03-20T15:33:18Z")
The Netflix series Bigfoot Files is a great investigation into the Bigfoot phenomenon. In this series, hair samples from a variety of Bigfoot sources are sent to a lab to be studied by a top geneticist in England.
Did you know that the hair shaft itself contains DNA. No root needed. Does anyone know why there is DNA in the core of a hair?
Also, does anyone know how long it takes to sequence a specie’s DNA using modern technology? This lab was able to sequence and compare DNA from these samples and determine the species of the source. Presumably, all known species have had their genomes sequenced and stored in a database. It was not too long ago that the 10 year human genome project was in full swing. We seem to have come a long, long way if we can do the same thing in a few days.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2017, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-in-hair/782615/2 "2017-03-20T15:56:44Z")
DNA sequencers (and synthesizers) have pretty much become commodity machines, so anyone with the basic expertise can buy one or a roomful and do analysis. Yes, it’s astounding that this was esoteric bleeding-edge lab tech just a few years ago.
Hair has small amounts of DNA because the initial formation is as living tissue. It’s still easier to extract useful amounts from truly living (okay, once-living) tissue than from these sparse sources.
So when the analysis shows the hair to be human, wolf, dog or acrylic, will the series end? 🙂
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2017, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-in-hair/782615/3 "2017-03-20T16:06:18Z")
It looks like[26 hours](https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/21/the-genomics-intelligence-revolution/) for a full human sequence is the current record, but actual turn-around time from sending the sample to a lab to getting results is in the [2 to 6 weeks range](https://www.scienceexchange.com/services/whole-genome-seq). (We are a loooOOOOooooOOOOoooOOOng way from having all species sequenced.)
BTW, bigfoot is the offspring of a [possum](http://www.skepticblog.org/2013/07/10/bigfoot-dna-bogus/) who had sex with an [angel](http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/the_ketchum_project_what_to_believe_about_bigfoot_dna_science).
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### Author:  [@blood63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blood63)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2017, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-in-hair/782615/4 "2017-03-20T16:12:09Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> DNA sequencers (and synthesizers) have pretty much become commodity machines, so anyone with the basic expertise can buy one or a roomful and do analysis. Yes, it’s astounding that this was esoteric bleeding-edge lab tech just a few years ago.
>
> Hair has small amounts of DNA because the initial formation is as living tissue. It’s still easier to extract useful amounts from truly living (okay, once-living) tissue than from these sparse sources.
>
> So when the analysis shows the hair to be human, wolf, dog or acrylic, will the series end? 🙂
I have always been a Bigfoot fan since I was a kid. There were very interesting results from Yeti samples. The north american samples showed horse, deer, bear etc. Great show.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2017, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-in-hair/782615/5 "2017-03-20T16:17:50Z")
> [@blood63](#):
>
> There were very interesting results from Yeti samples.
What did they say that [wasn’t bear](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4366689/)?
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### Author:  [@blood63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blood63)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2017, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-in-hair/782615/6 "2017-03-20T17:02:31Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> What did they say that [wasn’t bear](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4366689/)?
Yes, it was a bear. Specifically a polar bear. And not a modern polar bear but from a 50000 year old jawbone. And this result was found in two samples from different regions.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2017, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-in-hair/782615/7 "2017-03-20T17:07:38Z")
> [@blood63](#):
>
> Yes, it was a bear. Specifically a polar bear. And not a modern polar bear but from a 50000 year old jawbone. And this result was found in two samples from different regions.
Read the paper I linked. Or at least this part of the abstract:
_Our results demonstrate that the very short fragment of the 12S rRNA gene sequenced by Sykes et al. is not sufficiently informative to support the hypotheses provided by these authors with respect to the taxonomic identity of the individuals from which these sequences were obtained. We have concluded that there is no reason to believe that the two samples came from anything other than Brown Bears._
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### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2017, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-in-hair/782615/8 "2017-03-20T17:07:56Z")
As one comedian said, “now that everyone is carrying a video camera in their pocket all the time, we’ve pretty much proven there’s no aliens or bigfoot.”
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### Author:  [@blood63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blood63)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2017, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-in-hair/782615/9 "2017-03-20T17:36:28Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> Read the paper I linked. Or at least this part of the abstract:
>
> _Our results demonstrate that the very short fragment of the 12S rRNA gene sequenced by Sykes et al. is not sufficiently informative to support the hypotheses provided by these authors with respect to the taxonomic identity of the individuals from which these sequences were obtained. We have concluded that there is no reason to believe that the two samples came from anything other than Brown Bears._
Very interesting. Thanks.
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### Author:  [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2017, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-in-hair/782615/10 "2017-03-20T18:00:31Z")
> [@md2000](#):
>
> As one comedian said, “now that everyone is carrying a video camera in their pocket all the time, we’ve pretty much proven there’s no aliens or bigfoot.”
So true. It’s interesting that the peak of alien sightings came in the 40’s/50’s as radar became common. Screen resolution was pretty abysmal then and strange screen artifacts were easily explained by and to the credulous as aliens.
I wonder sometime how much the behavior of the police around the world, or at least that part with a free press, is being changed by the knowledge that just about everyone has a video camera in their pocket. Many of the recent atrocities in the USA would have gone unremarked without video evidence.
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### Author:  [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2017, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-in-hair/782615/11 "2017-03-20T18:01:11Z")
> [@md2000](#):
>
> As one comedian said, “now that everyone is carrying a video camera in their pocket all the time, we’ve pretty much proven there’s no aliens or bigfoot.”
Now that Photoshop and After Effects are ubiquitous, the question is back on the table. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@str8uptopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/str8uptopher)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2017, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-in-hair/782615/12 "2017-04-08T03:20:16Z")
When you have a permanent wave service on your hair the internal bonds are broken down which allows the hair to form in the shape of the rod.However,it only holds that shape when it heals itself(i.e. re bonds itself in the shape of the rod) All that is required for this to happen is the presence of oxygen.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2017, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-in-hair/782615/13 "2017-04-08T17:06:36Z")
> [@md2000](#):
>
> As one comedian said, “now that everyone is carrying a video camera in their pocket all the time, we’ve pretty much proven there’s no aliens or bigfoot.”
See [xkcd: Settled](https://xkcd.com/1235/)
> [@bob\_2](#):
>
> …
> I wonder sometime how much the behavior of the police around the world, or at least that part with a free press, is being changed by the knowledge that just about everyone has a video camera in their pocket. Many of the recent atrocities in the USA would have gone unremarked without video evidence.
In my job I’m used to being recorded by various official data recorders and computer tracking systems. This has been true to an increasing degree since the 1960s. But it’s always been for specific good reasons and subject to specific protections and due processes.
I just did our semi-annual refresher training and part of the curriculum was a new and disturbing tidbit from HQ:
All of us should remember that every minute we’re in public or at work we’re on video. All the walls in public spaces have eyes and ears and recorders. For everything we do or don’t do, somebody nearby will think that’s interesting enough to video. Likewise our every social media interaction, credit card purchase, web page view, etc., is recorded and discoverable both by official investigators and by a sensationalist press and public.
“So \*always \*behave accordingly; the career you save will be your own” was their bottom line. Interesting that they chose to spend some precious classroom time on this.
The punch-line for everyone else is this: Anonymity in public is so over. Doubly so if, like police or us, whatever you’re doing is inherently interesting to passersby.
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### Author:  [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2017, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-in-hair/782615/14 "2017-04-08T17:22:23Z")
> [@md2000](#):
>
> As one comedian said, “now that everyone is carrying a video camera in their pocket all the time, we’ve pretty much proven there’s no aliens or bigfoot.”
But we haven’t ruled out vampire aliens and vampire bigfoot.
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### Author:  [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2017, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-in-hair/782615/15 "2017-04-08T17:23:30Z")
> [@str8uptopher](#):
>
> When you have a permanent wave service on your hair the internal bonds are broken down which allows the hair to form in the shape of the rod.However,it only holds that shape when it heals itself(i.e. re bonds itself in the shape of the rod)
“Heal” seems an odd word to describe this process, since hair isn’t alive. If I heat a piece of plastic until it’s soft and then let it harden again, is it “healing” itself? When water freezes in a freezer, is the water “healing” itself?