Nepal, Sept. 2 -- The recent Bhotekoshi flood tore through riverbank areas on August 26, leaving behind a trail of dead bodies, some of which were washed downstream to India. The death toll has exceeded 1,000, and at least 3,916 people are still missing. Families are desperately waiting-and searching-for their missing loved ones.

The dead cannot always be returned to their families, because no one-barring family and friends-can identify bodies with certainty. This situation led Nepal to turn to forensic DNA testing, a technology that sounds futuristic but rests on fairly ordinary biology.

DNA carries a person's inherited genetic information. A forensic laboratory can build a genetic profile from human remains and compare it with DNA fro...