Restaurant Menus Will Include DNA Barcodes to Verify Fish Species

I suppose this is good in some ways. POPSCI wrote about the development of a mutant type Samon Fish. I sure like to know when it is being cooked and so I have a choice in eating or not eating it.

On a side note, it is said our human DNA has a large quantity of junk DNA. What if a alien species let a book\history or directions our own DNA. Seem in this article if they can write things in DNA, perhaps aliens wrote in ours too. I mean really, why humans have so much junk DNA, unless it has another purpose.

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I am just so Qurious!

Still waiting for my species DNA identification app for smartphones!

How would this actually work?

Is it mainly for the FDA inspectors? Or intended for me, the consumer?

In essence, if I'm sitting at a restaurant and I order some sashimi... how do I verify the fish I'm dipping in soy sauce matches the DNA barcode displayed by the restaurant?

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"Do not offer sympathy to the mentally ill.
Tell them firmly:
I am not paid to listen to this drivel.
You are a terminal boob." - William S. Burroughs

B.V.,
The article left off; there is in development a smart phone app for you question. You simply pull out your smart phone and scan your fishies, prior to consumption.
They call the app, an "Appetizer". ;)

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I am just so Qurious!

Quasiplasma,

Humans have so much junk DNA because you evolved from single-celled bacteria to mammal over 3.5 billion years. In that time, the vast majority of your genetic sequence was designed for features you no longer have and no longer benefit from, but which benefited a long-distant ancestor of yours.

That being said, you certainly can "write" information into the genetic code, given adequate technology and motivation. Check out Craig Venter's work, who inserted 4 watermarks into a synthetic single-celled organism (he created new dna from the ground up, and implanted it into a host bacteria cell, which then accepted the new instructions and deleted the old, similar to how a virus works).

The watermarks inserted into the dna code are:

Code table for entire alphabet with punctuations
Names of 46 contributing scientists
Three quotations
The web address for the cell.

This all being said, there's no proof to date of any sort of hidden code in human DNA -- it's simply a biproduct of billions of years of evolution.

Specific information is embedded in a QR Code that typically includes a URL pointing a consumer to a website, a Facebook page or any other informational communication channel. QR codes are also used for online business cards in order to transmit information from one contact to another. Yet the most common use for QR barcodes is the process of directing consumers to a website or a landing page.

This is perfect for my father. He prides him self on being a fish aficionado. Plenty of times he will go to a restaurant and order a fish like trout but in fact is tilapia. He will get the cook out there and barrade them until they finally admit that their fresh trout is actually frozen (and much cheaper) tilapia. It was super embaraccing when I was there to witness, but in reality he was 100% in the right. A restaurant should not blatantly lie to you just becuase 99 out 100 custimosrs can not tell the difference between two simalr fish.

No more passing haddock off as cod