[originaltext] Last summer I was working in Washington, D. C., as an intern

Last summer I was working in Washington, D. C., as an intern at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. In one way it was an awful job because the purpose was to figure out ways to identify dead people, like identifying the remains of soldiers in wars, or bodies after disasters such as plane crashes or earthquakes. But the exciting part was that I was working with a scientist who heads a program that is identifying bodies by their DNA structures. As you know, DNA is the name for the genetic material in our bodies. In the past, all soldiers had to wear a necklace and a metal tag with their names and identification numbers on the tag. But this method of identification was not very accurate because the tags could be lost or switched around. So in my job I worked at helping the Institute to set up a DNA file to store the genetic information for new soldiers. The armed forces will get a blood sample from each person in the military. Then, if the body of a military person cannot be identified by its tag, fingerprints, or dental records, the body tissue can be analyzed and matched with DNA records at the Institute.