Confessions of a Bubble Maker

CONFESSIONS OF A BUBBLE MAKER

We grew up chewing it. Bubble gum, spearmint, peppermint, cinnamon — seemingly every flavor imaginable.

And we find it everywhere. Under theater seats. Stuck beneath tables. Smashed into sidewalks. And, if you're particularly unlucky, stuck to the bottom of your shoe.

It's just an old piece of gum. Right?

Not exactly.

When you chew gum, you leave something behind besides teeth marks… your DNA.

And with today's technology, DNA can reveal an extraordinary amount of information about the person who left it behind.

That's essentially what happened in Denmark when a small piece of birch pitch, over 5,700 years old, was found.

From this ancient wad, researchers recovered enough human DNA to reconstruct the complete genome of the person who chewed it.

She was a woman. Researchers concluded she likely had dark skin, dark brown hair and blue eyes.

They could even tell that she had recently eaten duck and hazelnuts.

Think about that for a moment.

Someone chewed something and discarded it 5,700 years ago — and thousands of years later, strangers were still able to learn things about them.

So the next time you're finished with a piece of gum and you're about to spit it out...