Air filters can now collect DNA traces from wildlife, viruses and humans

Every breath you take carries an invisible record of the living world, and scientists have discovered a way to read it using ordinary air filters.By studying the tiny particles trapped inside standard air-quality monitoring equipment, researchers can now detect nearby wildlife, track viruses, and even monitor human activity without ever seeing the organisms themselves. Every living thing constantly releases genetic material into the air through skin cells, hair, feathers, saliva, faeces, and spores. This material is known as environmental DNA, or eDNA.For many years, eDNA was mainly used to study water and soil. Now, the technology has moved into the air. Although biological material is highly diluted in the atmosphere and easily carried away by the wind, scientists have shown that they do not need complete genomes to identify a species.