A botanical macroscope.

Abstract

In 2003 zoologists proposed a short, standardized DNA sequence from a uniform locality on the genome to serve as a DNA barcode to identify the species of tissue from almost all animals—reliably, quickly, and economically. In 2008 two New York City high school students, Kate Stoeckle and Louisa Strauss (1), used the accumulating barcode reference library to prove that about ¼ of fish items they purchased in Manhattan were inaccurately labeled. Their “Sushigate” investigation earned front page coverage in the New York Times and attention from top managers at major food retailers and caterers.