1.________ T/F DNA has been recovered from Egyptian mummies.


2.________ T/F Every major city in the US has a DNA bank which works like a blood bank. Donors can give a certain amount of DNA every two months to people who get sick and don’t have enough of their own.


3.________ T/F It is possible to recover DNA evidence from the air in a car you’ve sat in it longer than 10 minutes.


4.________ T/F Marijuana is a version of hemp whose DNA was modified around the end of the 19th Century to produce THC.


5.________ T/F Albinos look the way they do because they’re missing 5% of the DNA the rest of the population has. This is also why it is rare for an albino human to live beyond the age of 30.


6.________ T/F   If a person takes DNA suppliments (sold in health food stores) they will be less likely to develop gene-related problems like cancer or arthritis.


7.________ T/F   In our cells we have good DNA and bad DNA. The good DNA codes for personality; bad DNA codes for cancer and cell death.


8.________ T/F If all the DNA from our body was placed end to end it would reach from the Earth to the Sun many times (each trip is 93 million miles).


9.________ T/F   A trained pathologist can tell if a tissue sample came from a living or deceased person by examining their DNA.


10.________ T/F   Genetic scientists, bitter about CSI technicians stealing all the science limelight, used to coat gold bullets with DNA and fire it into other species to attempt to force the foreign DNA to be incorporated into the cells. Hopes were high to make mutants this way.



  1. 1.True. DNA has been recovered from a number of mummies, all older than 2000 years. In fact, DNA has been recovered from frozen wooly mammoths in Siberia estimated to be 12,000 years old.

2.False. You make all the DNA you need. The only way DNA is donated and used is with sperm banks, but stritctly speaking, DNA is not stockpiled for emergencies.

3.False. DNA is only able to be recovered from people when they’ve touched something like the inside of a glove, a cigarette, or a drinking bottle. If DNA could be blown off your body and recovered wherever the wind blows it would be mixed with a lot of other peoples’.

4.False. Marijuana is related to the hemp plant, but it is a separate species. Humans have documented pot use since the third millennium BC.

5.False. Albinos look the way they do because they lack the gene to producde melanin, a pigment. Consequently, their skin is pink and hair white. The condition itself does not affect their life-span.

6.False. If a person takes DNA supplements (sold in health food stores) they really have too much disposable income. The pills, made of filler and yeast DNA, are one of the priciest placebos out there.

7.False. The nature vs. nurture debate isn’t going away any time soon, but if your DNA plays a role in your personality we have yet to find the genes. Cancer and cell death do involve signals from a cell’s DNA, but good and bad are useless descriptors.

8.True. You have over a trillion cells in your body; each cell’s DNA, when unravelled, will be about six feet long. Do the math. It really will reach that far.

9.False. DNA is DNA. No one can tell if a purified sample of DNA came from a living cell or a dead one any more than you can tell if a steak came from a living cow or a dead one.

10. True. In their attempts to transform (or integrate foreign DNA into) bacterial cells in the early 1990s, molecular biologists would coat tiny gold pellets with DNA and fire them into bacterial targets. The success rate was low enough to discourage the DNA Gun as viable method. Too bad, because it added a small, but notable element of machismo to their work.



Scoring


 

ANSWERS

ANSWERS BELOW

Name________________________

DNA Myths Quiz

Scoring (Number correct)

0-3: We suspect you’d have trouble spelling DNA without thinking of drugs ‘n alcohol. Also, don’t get your DNA tested; they might find out your family tree resembles a telephone pole.

4-7: Average for someone who believes urban myths and really doesn’t stay current on science, like the stuff that hasn’t changed since the 19th Century. Keep working on it though. Jerry isn’t on more than two hours a day.

8-10: Excellent. You’re the kind of person others want on their team when it comes to DNA Jeopard or Twister (the chromosome version). Seriously, you’re no body’s fool when it comes to unzipping your genes--you take them off one leg at a time. Great job!