(Photo : Reuters)


Most people look to the stars in the hopes of finding aliens. One need only look in the New York City subways, however, as half the DNA found there match no known organism on record.



A massive new DNA sequencing project was done on the subways of New York City. The project is called the PathoMap project. It sampled turnstiles, benches and even keypads at 466 station.



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The results have just been published. The obvious parts of the result state there is a ton of bacteria there. What's more interesting, though, is the bacteria we don't know about.



As many as 15,152 life-forms were found in the subway system. Only half were bacterial.



The results of the project were made even more mysterious with the help of DNA sequencing.



Over the last few years, DNA sequencing has become more common and more affordable. The process allows scientists to see the precise order of nucleotides within a DNA molecule. From there, we can identify what it belongs to.



The problem is our genetic libraries haven't yet been completed. We might never be able to figure out what the DNA belongs to.



That is exactly what happened with half the number of DNA on the subway.



There is a whole world too small for anyone to really experiment on. The bacterial world continues to baffle us with a whole slew of new DNA matches we've never encountered before.



This explanation does not make the results of the project any less stranger.



Out of the entire DNA collected, the research team found plenty of non-microbial DNA and that just doesn't fit in.



Human DNA was the most prevalent on the subways, while beetle and fly DNA were also found.



The next most common type found was cucumber DNA. The initial database searches turned up false matches to the Tasmanian devil, a Himalayan yak and even a Mediterranean fruit fly.



While were not alien proof in the "other-worldy organism" sense of the world, there are just as many organisms and DNA codes that are just as alien all around us.




TagsDNA, New York City subway, PathoMap project