Would You Wear a Ring With Someone Else's DNA Inside of It?

"Til death do us part" doesn't have to be the end of things, thanks to a new jewelry invention that can keep you and your loved ones together for much longer. Robert Grass of the Swiss company TurboBeads has developed a way to take samples of DNA and store them beneath diamonds on rings and other jewelry so that the wearer can carry a piece of you wherever they go. Grass recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the project.

Grass says the idea came to him while shopping for his wife. Disappointed by the lack of truly personal gifts on the market, he developed the idea for Identity Inside. The scientist-turned-entrepreneur studied ancient fossils for clues about how to make DNA last outside of the body. Grass claims that he can store DNA in a "stable form" for 100 years.

Grass explains the process on his Kickstarter page: "Upon receiving your sample (from a buccal swab) we purify the DNA and after further quality control, it is fossilized into glass utilizing our patent pending, room temperature, water based process (not harming the DNA). The result is a white powder (DNA fossil), which safeguards the DNA, very similar to what is found in ancient amber and bone samples."

The fossilized DNA is placed into a small opening on a custom-made ring, watch, or pendant. The opening is then sealed and capped with a 0.02 carat diamond. 

A similar product from a company called Life Gem claims that it can use the carbon from cremated remains to create diamonds. Of course, neither of these are as weird as the blood vials that Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton wore around their necks (#neverforget).

To learn more about the possibilities for Identity Inside, check out the Kickstarter. The project is a little more than halfway funded, with eight days to go. 

All images courtesy Robert Grass, Kickstarter