After much criticism from the scientific community, the UK Border Agency has abandoned its plan to use DNA and isotope testing of human tissue to verify the national origins of asylum seekers, reports ScienceInsider's John Travis. The UKBA reportedly spent £190,000 on the project which, Travis says, was "widely scorned." When the project was conceived in 2009, geneticists pointed out that a person's DNA might reveal their ancestry but could never prove nationality.