Fortune tellers delve into the spirit realm to offer clients glimpses of what may lay in store at work, in marriage and even at the moment of death. Everything you touch leads back to you. Your diet, your medications, your daily commute - your hands carry chemical evidence of all of it and rub it off on all of your belongings.
That's the message University of California San Diego researchers get across in a paper in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which discusses using the "skin-associated lifestyle chemistries" on cell phones, keys, pens and handbags as clues for criminal investigators and scientists. These groups could use a mass spectrometer device to separate the substances collected while swabbing a personal object and look at the results "as a form of trace evidence."
One article says that, "We can provide insights into personal lifestyle profile by predicting the kind of beauty product the individual uses, the food he/she eats, the medications he/she takes, or the places he/she has been."
UC San Diego also suggested in a statement that the method could prove useful in airport screenings, studies into environmental exposure, or even monitoring whether patients are taking medications.
Senior author Pieter Dorrestein imagined a scenario in which investigators find a personal object that doesn't have any fingerprints or DNA on it. Seemingly they "would have nothing to go on to determine who that belongs to." But the chemical lifestyle profile, Bouslimani said, "is the kind of information that could help an investigator narrow down the search for an object's owner."
Ham Davy, 65, tells fortunes in front of Wat Ounalom in Phnom Penh, where locals and tourists alike often inquire about their futures.
Fortune teller Ta Vannak, 47, works in front of the Royal Palace and says he has been in the business since the age of six.
The knowledge provided by his spirit allows him to offer clients specific recommendations about the most important aspects of their lives.
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