Track 19

Unit 11

biology

DNA testing

Page 110

Extend the topic

Part A

For years I’ve been a sports collector. I’ve got baseball cards Olympic souvenirs. I’ve even got a few Super Bowl footballs, and you know what I like, that I can finally make sure that these are the real thing. Before I buy them.

How DNA testing? They now use a little bit of synthetic DNA to mark the footballs, for example. Same for the signed baseball cards and the Olympic souvenirs, bags, hats, shirts, whatever…

They mark these items with a little bit of special ink. You can’t see the mark but it shows up when a special laser is used.

So, now people can know if something is authentic or not. If it doesn’t have the mark. It’s not authentic. We don’t have to worry about wasting our money, crate stuff.

So, DNA testing can tell you if you have the real thing or a knockoff and is any serious collector knows there’s nothing worse than getting stuck with a fake.