• a technology enabling us to extract a tiny quantity of DNA from a single hair or drop of blood at the scene of a crime and increase the amount of it a million times or more so that it can be analysed
• a technology allowing us to analyse the DNA from a bacterial or viral infection in order to diagnose an illness
• a technology that makes it possible to mass-produce DNA from fossil remains, extinct for millions of years

The polymerase chain reaction is a vital part of sequencing DNA and is used in many applications including forensic science.

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