Don't let the orange colour scheme of this firearm put you off. It's definitely not a toy. It's actually a new gun produced in the UK that's designed to fire non-lethal pellets of DNA at targets so that they can be identified later.

That's right. No rubber bullets, no beanbags. Just little green pellets of synthetic DNA, which will leave a long-lasting biological mark on targets for weeks after exposure.

The DNA gun will be used by police to confirm or eliminate people from their involvement in a particular situation and will come in handy, for example, in situations where suspects are fleeing the scene of a crime.

The DNA gun is accurate to distances up to 40 metres and is completely non lethal – though it remains to be seen how effective the pellets are at tagging skin through clothing.

We're holding out for immunisation crossbows. That should make next year's flu shots a lot more fun.

[via The Verge]

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