A team of analytical chemists in Brazil have been doing some pioneering experiments on earwax to see if it can be used as a forensic or diagnostic tool. Not only have they found that they can extract plain old DNA from it but they can also detect drug use up to 3 months after use, tobacco use and diagnose both types of diabetes. With easy collection and it taking a tenth of the time to analyse, compared to other samples we might need to provide a specialist, could this be the tip of the iceberg in terms of what other information our earwax may hold? Interesting stuff!
Source: New Scientist December 2017.
