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TED Blog still via Vimeo

Artist can create your portrait from a single hair off your head

DNA sequencing meets 3D printing meets artistry. Wow.

THE ERA OF 3D printing and DNA technology have met spectacularly in a project from an artist and a DNA-tech lab.

Artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg can collect a single hair and with the help of Ellen Jorgensen’s Genspace lab, sequence the DNA in the follicle to find a representation of what the owner might look like. This can include traits such as eye colour, hair type, skin colour, gender, weight, facial structure and so on.

The artist likens it to TV crime drama Bones “where a tiny fragment is found… and suddenly it gets turned into this person’s face”.

Obviously, it’s much more complicated than that and the hair – which Dewey-Hagborg often collects from the street and therefore from strangers – must contain a full genome for the process to begin at all.

This short doc from the TED writer Kari Mulholland reveals the secret possibilities of DNA sequencing. Be wowed:


via TED Blog/Vimeo

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    Mute Ross
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    Aug 5th 2020, 10:33 PM

    Thistle go down well in the comments I’m sure..

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    Mute Paul Linehan
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    Aug 5th 2020, 10:36 PM

    @Ross: there’ll be a sting in the kale….

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Aug 6th 2020, 3:55 PM

    @Paul Linehan: Chapeau, Sir!

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    Mute Mattress Dick
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    Aug 5th 2020, 10:38 PM

    CO OP? Nisa? Have I just woken up in a different country?

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    Mute Jen
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    Aug 5th 2020, 10:49 PM

    We have Co Ops in the Republic?!

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    Mute RiainOg
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    Aug 5th 2020, 10:52 PM

    @Jen: Seriously

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    Mute Ríain HenC
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    Aug 6th 2020, 6:47 AM

    Been happening with years this , only brought to everyone’s attention by a Thistleblower

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    Mute Liz O'Neill
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    Aug 6th 2020, 7:58 AM

    @Ríain HenC: Brilliant

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Aug 6th 2020, 3:57 PM

    @Ríain HenC: Bravo !

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    Mute Tony Gordon
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    Aug 5th 2020, 10:43 PM

    Someone spiked the kale

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    Mute Joe Toner
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    Aug 6th 2020, 6:08 AM

    I found kale in a bag of thistles on several occasions but did I complain?
    … No, I just got on with it!!

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    Mute Quiet Goer
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    Aug 5th 2020, 10:50 PM

    An auld bit of thistle never harmed anyone. Few nettles good too

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    Mute Charles Shelly
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    Aug 5th 2020, 10:54 PM

    I wonder if they spoke Irish/English when they were picked

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    Mute BriP75
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    Aug 6th 2020, 5:15 AM

    @Charles Shelly: maybe Scottish

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    Mute Liz O'Neill
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    Aug 6th 2020, 8:00 AM

    Thistle be hard to swallow for the vegan smoothie brigade.

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    Mute BriP75
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    Aug 6th 2020, 5:14 AM

    That’s a stinger

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    Mute Deirdre Gosson
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    Aug 6th 2020, 9:50 AM

    Buy Irish

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    Mute Beanstalk
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    Aug 6th 2020, 9:49 AM

    och! gnaw…

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