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A Tale of Feathers

Biologist Sibel Karchner studies animals’ sensitivities to persistent, human-produced environmental contaminants such as dioxins and related compounds. Karchner and colleagues found that bird species show a wide variation in sensitivity, due to differences in certain DNA sequences. Karchner is developing a non-invasive procedure to sample DNA from wild birds using feathers, rather than tissue. Here she prepares to extract DNA from feathers of little blue penguins (provided courtesy of the New England Aquarium) that she will sequence to estimate the penguins’ sensitivity. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)