Imagine that a freighter has just arrived at a Japanese port with a cargo of farm products and an inspector spots a small insect in the load. Does it pose a danger?
A ready answer would be available if researchers around the world are able to get their way by instantly identifying such creatures through "DNA bar coding."
The technique uses a short genetic sequence from a standard part of the genome the way a supermarket scanner distinguishes products using the black stripes of the Universal Product Code. In either case, two items may look alike to the untrained eye but their codes are distinct.