A portrait from a single hair

We are so far with present technology that we can figure out how someone looks by a investigating one single hair. This is what really intrigued the artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg, who spent time collecting hairs shed in public spaces... and then sequencing the DNA therein to print 3D sculptures of what those hairs’ owners might look like.
The video 'DNA Portrait' is a lovely short documentary shot by TED. 'It's a very accessible way for the public to engage with this new technology. It really brings to light how powerful it is, the idea that a hair from your head can fall on your street and a perfect stranger can pick it up and know something about it', says TEDGlobal speaker Ellen Jorgensen, who runs a lab in DNA-based technology. Adding: 'With DNA sequencing becoming faster and cheaper, this is the world we’re all going to be living in.'


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In 20 years most types of cancer can be cured

'In 20 years, cancer will rarely be fatal.' This prediction is from the cancer center Antoni van Leeuwenhoek in the Netherlands. According to the representatives of the center there is increasing knowledge about treatments, surgical techniques are becoming more accurate and also methods to identify DNA abnormalities in tumors are getting better.

This allows the doctors to treat patients with a more specific treatment, adapted to their own DNA. The cancer center is expected to cure 90 percent of all cancer cases over 20 years. Now only half of all cancer patients survives. Most of the time they don't get a customized treatment, but a standard treatment that has been tested on a large group of people, but this doesn't mean it will work with every patient.



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