Design a Scarf With Your DNA

All humans have 99.9 percent of their DNA in common with each other, but that doesn't mean we don't have unique traits and appearances. That mysterious portion of a percent is part of what makes each person easily distinguishable from the people around them. While .1 percent seems like a pretty measly amount, consider that humans share 50 percent of their DNA with bananas, and about 84 percent of their DNA with dogs. When your DNA is only about 16 percent different from something that eats out of the garbage, .1 percent suddenly seems like a lot.

Dot One wants to take advantage of that sliver of unique information and turn it into an interesting visualization. The London company takes customer DNA and illustrates it as a blocky design on posters, family trees, scarves, and tartan. 

English designer Iona Inglesby created this company as a celebration of what makes people unique. With a simple cheek swab, costumers can submit their DNA to be represented on Dot One's products. The company uses a genetic testing facility called AlphaBiolabs for their profiling. Once the sample is submitted, lab techs can scan for stretches of genetic code known as Short Tandem Repeats (STRs). STRs vary in a unique way from person to person and are often studied for forensic cases or paternity tests. 

AlphaBiolabs uses 23 STRs from each genetic sequence to create a unique fingerprint that they claim is completely different from anyone else on Earth. They then turn that information over to Dot One, who matches each STR with a numerical value, based on its molecular characteristics. Each number is matched with a color and the pattern is created. In this way, the company manages to turn cold numbers into something much prettier. The resulting scarves are colorful and personal, making an excellent fashion statement for the colder weather. 

[h/t: WIRED]