In terms of where we came from, DNA fingerprinting is commonly used to probe our heredity. Since people inherit the arrangement of their base pairs from their parents, comparing the banding patterns of a child and the alleged parent generates a probability of relatedness; if the two patterns are similar enough (taking into account that only half the DNA is inherited from each parent), then they are probably family. However, DNA fingerprinting cannot discriminate between identical twins since their banding patterns are the same. In paternity suits involving identical twins - and yes, there have been such cases - if neither brother has an alibi to prove that he could not have impregnated the mother, the courts have been known to force them to split child care costs. Thankfully there are other, less “Jerry Springer-esque”, applications that teach us about our origins. When used alongside more traditional sociological methodologies, DNA fingerprinting can be used to analyse patterns of migration and claims of ethnicity.