CONTEXT:  One of those quirky stories that catch our interest every now and again.  Who knows where this research will lead….? IMPACT:  Low READ TIME:  2 mins Quality Level Mean [1 – 10]:  7 1. “Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain. . Researchers from Queen Mary University of London have shown for the first time that animal DNA shed within the environment can be collected from the air.”  2. “The proof-of-concept study, published in the journal PeerJ, opens up potential for new ecological, health and forensic applications of environmental DNA (eDNA), which to-date has mainly been used to survey aquatic environments.”  3. “In this study, the researchers explored whether eDNA could be collected from air samples and used to identify animal species.”  4. “The scientists also found human DNA in the air samples suggesting a potential use of this sampling technique for forensic applications.”  5. “Here we provide the first published evidence to show that animal eDNA can be collected from air, opening up further opportunities for investigating animal communities in hard to reach environments such as caves and burrows.””  Source URL: https://phys.org/news/2021-03-evidence-dna-air.html