Using Dust and DNA to Bring Total Transparency to Supply Chains

DNA analysis has long been the gold standard for establishing identity. Now there’s technology that may do the same for product provenance—as in, where exactly clothing, furniture, food or pretty much anything else comes from.

Bacteria, pollen, tiny fungi and—as the entire world knows all too well—viruses can be found in dust coating every object and floating in the air around us. What you may not know is that every place on the globe has its own unique signature of different kinds, amounts and combinations of these micro-organisms.

If you take a cotton swab, wipe it across your desk, and ...