[Adam Murphy (OP)]

Paul's been in touch to ask

"I was wondering if it was possible to get DNA out of crematorium ashes. Could you get any information about the person such as weight or height, from their ashes?"

We'll be answering this question on the show, but what do you think?

[chiralSPO]

DNA should not survive cremation at all.

You might be able to get some information about mineral content, isotope ratios of non-volatile elements etc. but this is probably not going to be particularly useful for anything. One could imagine detecting the presence of metallic poisons (like arsenic, or thallium, etc.) even after cremation, but the dosage would need to be pretty high, and one would need to know what they're looking for...

[LaurenaS]

From what I know, the ashes have to contain at least some bone or teeth fragment to be able to be tested.

[Bored chemist]

From what I know, the ashes have to contain at least some bone or teeth fragment to be able to be tested.

You can test them for mineral composition, but you won't find any DNA.
The minerals may be able to exclude an identity, but they can't confirm it.

[searchingscience]

DNA degrades when it gets burnt. Any DNA is thus destroyed by the process of cremation. As mentioned before, there could potentially be some DNA in the teeth and bones. This could be viable for an analysis.

[LookOut2021]

DNA degrades when it gets burnt. Any DNA is thus destroyed by the process of cremation. As mentioned before, there could potentially be some DNA in the teeth and bones. This could be viable for an analysis.

Yeah, but a professional cremation should not leave such fragments behind. Of course in certain instances like a police investigation such things can become very helpful, but even when there's still a corpse left, it's still pretty hard to find DNA that survived the heat.

[ScienceMann]

As already mentioned, I also believe that DNA should be difficult to find after the cremation. As the temperatures reached inside the cremation are very high and in combination with the pulverization it may be very hard to extract DNA

[Bored chemist]

" Can you get DNA from ashes?"
No.


The end.

[Zer0]

Still pondering over the thought...

Ashes of an infant vs teenager vs adult vs old...

Would the total residual weight of the ashes(without bones) be able to
provide a distinction between the above classes of different ages?

If the OP would have Specified a CSI type investigation...then Surely even without the bones, one could atleast figure out the height & approx weight of the ashed out individual, Right?

& Also...can there be a distinction made between amphibian, reptilian & mammalian ashes if all the samples are of equal mass/weight?

ReEdit - Can someone plz plz answer these questions, my curiosity is killin me maan!
🥴