Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 20:44:44 -0500 (EST)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at keithlynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Murder at the Clone Convention
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

"Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at keithlynch.net> wrote:
> Identical twins don't even have the same fingerprints.

"Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net> wrote:
> Really?  Even allowing for one mirror-imaging the other?
> (Mirror-image fingerprints?)

Yes.  See http://www.forensic-evidence.com/site/ID/ID_Twins.html

I've never heard of mirror-image twins.  "Situs inversus" (mirror
image of normal internal layout) occurs in only about one in ten
thousand people, and has nothing to do with whether they have an
identical twin.

> Are you suggesting that clones would *also* have differing
> fingerprints?

Yes.  Identical twins *are* clones.

Nothing about clones is identical *except* their DNA.  Of course
they're going to be more similar to each other than two randomly
chosen people.

I heard of one case where the only evidence against a murderer was a
DNA match.  But he had an identical twin.

They figured out which one was guilty by looking at ratios of stable
carbon and nitrogen isotopes.  Those depend on diet.  For instance the
more nearly vegetarian you are, the smaller the proportion of nitrogen
15 in your nitrogen (which is found in DNA and in protein).
--
Keith F. Lynch - kfl at keithlynch.net - http://keithlynch.net/
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