Portrait Sculptures From Genetic Material

rogue-girl writes "Artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg showcases portrait sculptures from genetic material collected in public spaces. DNA extraction and processing are done in a DIYbio-compliant fashion at the DIYbio hackerspace Genspace in Brooklyn, the collected information is then given as input to a 3D printer. The software developed and used for this project is awkwardly dubbed 'friendware', that is it is neither open nor closed, but only available to friends. Reconstructing faces from DNA is not new: scientists already successfully reconstructed Neanderthal man's face from ancient DNA back in 2008. At first sight, the artist's project may seem fun and quite impressive as high-voltage science proves once more feasible at home, but all the data one can have access to from totally banal samples leaves open worrying perspectives about how easy it is to use DNA collected in public spaces for "fingerprinting" people against their will and without their consent."

No, we cannot make portraits from genetic material

[Dr. Spork]

Sure, your genes have a lot to do with how you look. That's why identical twins look so similar. However, we are absurdly far from being able deduce facial features from genes. Even in the linked article, most of the information in the Neandrathal reconstruction came from discovered bone shapes. What did we learn from the genes? Maybe something about skin pigment and possibly hair color. That's it. Nothing about the facial structure came from the genetic information. So any fantasies about pouring genetic material into a box and then finding a corresponding picture of a face on a monitor... that will probably be a fantasy forever.