The FSA also said that late last month a burger from hotel chain Whitbread had tested positive for horse DNA above 1%.

BBC: Horse DNA found in two takeaway burgers, FSA says

Ms. Dewey-Hagborg amplifies small DNA strands using a technique called PCR polymerase chain reaction.

WSJ: Art Emerges from DNA Left Behind

In particular, this sensitivity makes the new chips better at searching for strands of DNA. At the moment, such searches require the number of DNA molecules in a sample to be multiplied using a trick called the polymerase chain reaction before there is a decent chance of detecting the target.

ECONOMIST: Labs on a chip

In Bulgaria, the government said that DNA tests conducted in Germany had found imported frozen dishes being sold in a supermarket chain to be as high as 80 percent horse meat.

NPR: Russia Seeks EU Guarantees Over Horse Meat Scandal

Current detection tools using nanotechnology allow high-speed molecular detection of pathogens through analysis of their DNA in a matter of a few minutes where classical detection tools using regular PCR (polymerase chain reaction) would take over six hours.

FORBES: Nanotech Takes On Homeland Terror

Meanwhile, fast food chain McDonald's announced that none of its meat products had tested positive for horse DNA, adding customers could "continue to trust in the quality of food" served at its restaurants.

BBC: Horsemeat scandal: Four new products test positive

For years, he had been making the case that polymerase chain reaction (PCR) would be the best way to test for the existence of Earth-like DNA on Mars.

FORBES: The DNA Sequencer That Could Go To Mars