tv Click BBC News October 2, 2021 12:30pm-1:00pm BST
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hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: the home secretary says police must "raise the bar" by taking the harassment of women more seriously. her thoughts are echoed by health secretary, sajid javid. the metropolitan police have said about reforms that they will be looking at, that is absolutely right. we also need to look at what government can do to build that confidence. after days of queuing at the pumps, the army will begin delivering fuel to petrol stations across the uk from monday. the queen officially opens the sixth session of the scottish parliament at holyrood. provisional clinical trial results suggest an experimental drug for severe covid cuts the risk of hospitalisation or death by about half. and two new streams of lava pose a further threat of destruction as the la palma volcano forces thousands more to flee.
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now on bbc news, it's time for click. this week, we're all about genetics. should your dna decide your dinner? how does it shape your personality? and can it be used to track down a murderer? it's the most personal data that you own, it literally defines you — it is your dna. ever since the human genome was decoded, researchers
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have been peering deeper into what makes us...us. and more and more companies have been able to build services around what they've found so far. here's what lara has to say on the subject... excuse me! it's not disgusting, it's science. mm, i think it's both, actually. i look forward to finding out what's got lara spitting feathers, later, but first... here we go again. ..a story that will make your blood run cold. i'm in iceland, revisiting the freezers at decode genetics in reykjavik, where robots working in temperatures of minus 26 celsius look after the blood of iceland. over the last quarter of a century, icelanders have donated nearly two million samples, all in the name of genetic research. if you want to know what minus 26 celsius feels like, it's very
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painful on the ears, you really don't feel like breathing very hard at all. and weirdly, my nostril hairs are freezing up. every time i do that they are cracking. iceland has been scrupulously recording ancestry records for hundreds of years, so it kind of makes sense that it's also now at the forefront of research to try and identify the specific genes responsible for particular genetic diseases. and what's amazing is the foresight. they gathered a lot of these blood samples before the science became possible, to do the things they are now doing. so by gathering it and keeping it for 20 years, they can call back, they can go back to the older blood samples if they have new research techniques available. by doing this, they've been able to identify genetic variations associated with many kinds of cancers, and they are now even able to estimate how long you have left to live,
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based on levels of particular proteins in your blood. the other fun thing about coming out of this temperature into normal temperature... ..is what happens on cold glass. erm, condensation, lots and lots of condensation. and it doesn't stop forming. so that's it, the camera's written off for about an hour now. and a bit later, once we've dried off and warmed up, i am going to blow your mind with the discovery researchers here have made, that links your body shape to the way your mind works. in the meantime, in the us, james clayton has been uncovering a different way in which ancestry data and dna is now being combined to solve murders.
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the suburbs of fort worth in texas are quiet, sleepy... i'm here to visit the brother of carla walker, a teenager who was abducted and brutally murdered in 1974, over four decades ago. i have memories, especially of carla, sitting out here talking to girlfriends. she and my sister, cindy, shared this large room on the second floor. and that's where she lived when she was abducted? that is correct, yes. her younger brotherjim remembers the day clearly. carla had her pretty dress on and rodney was looking quite nice in a suit and we took pictures in front of the fireplace and off they went. we searched for the three days, we searched and searched.
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hundreds and hundreds of law enforcement, probably near 1,000 volunteers were searching everywhere, and, erm... ..i remember a news reporter coming to the house, saying, "mr walker, what are your feelings now that they've found your daughter dead?" that was the first we heard about it. carla was severely beaten in the face, brutally raped, and she was choked to death. for over 40 years, carla's case remained unsolved, one of an estimated 200,000 cold case murders in the us. murders that up until now we thought would never be solved. we had a lot of really wonderful detectives working on it, trying to move it forward, but, you know, four decades, 44 years before it
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really got moving again. the breakthrough came, not in carla's case, but in a case in 2018 on the west coast of america, a stunning investigation that threatens to revolutionise cold case murders across america, using ancestry websites. the golden state killer wore a ski mask... - the golden state killer was a serial murderer and rapist that terrorised california in the late '70s and early '80s. the police had plenty of dna of the killer, however, it didn't match to any dna profiles in the fbi's database. 0ne enterprising officer decided to run the dna found at the murder scenes against dna collected by an ancestry website. these sites are usually designed for people to find genetic relatives through dna links but the police realised that if they put the killer's dna into the database they might be able to find the murderer's relatives,
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a crucial clue. most ancestry websites don't allow law enforcement checks but a few do. the website the police chose to use was a company called gedmatch. so effectively what they're doing is building family trees, - so you have to build back far enough till you reach what they call- a most—recent common ancestor, i and then figure out where the trees came together and then. build forward from there. so by doing that, - you are able to zero—in on who the potential suspect is. the capture of the golden state killer was a proof of concept moment, the technique worked, so could it be used to solve carla's case? you wanna find hits that are within third cousins, to make the case tractable, so we definitely had some within the third—cousin range. 0thram was founded shortly after the golden state killer
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was identified, with a mission to solve unsolvable cases. the company ceo david mittelman says the first step in the process is to clean up the dna, which is often degraded. in carla's case, it was more than 40 years old. the company then sequences that dna, looking at thousands of distinctive markers on the genome. in the traditional forensic dna testing framework, like for codas, there's about 20 of these positons in the dna that you're measuring, and that information can be used to confirm that you were at a crime scene or that someone closely related to you — a sibling, parent or child, was at a crime scene. and that's the extent of what you can do with 20 markers. what we do at 0thram is we look at tens of thousands, to hundreds of thousands of markers, and with that information, we can detect more—dista nt relationships. every time you test for dna, you lose a bit of the sample in the process. in carla's case there was little of the killer's dna left. it was likely this was
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the last roll of the dice. we had to ask ourselves, "have we seen enough dna that is of this kind of quality and property, to where we feel confident that there's a good chance we'll have a positive outcome?" otherwise, we don't want to do it, cos when you test dna, you're consuming it, so you're destroying evidence. once they'd sequenced the killer's dna, they ran it through several genealogy websites. from there, they created a family tree of the killer. and then began to look for possible suspects — the right age, male, who lived in texas at the time of the murder. they developed a theory, that the dna found at the scene belonged to a man called glen mccurley, a man who lived close to carla, a man who had previously been a suspect. i know that he had had to drive up and down the road in front of this house thousands of times, probably had even stopped here.
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they knew who it was, but they had to do their due diligence as law enforcement, to confirm... ..and that's what they did, and about two weeks later, i got a phone call — "we know exactly who it is, we're gonna be "arresting him." last month, mccurley pleaded guilty to the murder of carla walker. some people, however, simply don't believe that ethically this technique should be used, worried that opening up people's dna to law enforcement, people who aren't known criminals, could have worrying consequences. genetics isn'tjust any old tool for law enforcement, it's a particular and a potent tool. because it's not like a phone number that you just change when you get too many spam calls, or even a social security number, that you might have reissued if somebody, you know, takes yours. it's a technology that's in its infancy, we don't know yet what it will tell us, how well it will tell us
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things about people. the big criticism of this technology is around consent. so, after i get my dna tested, i can go on to gedmatch and i can upload my raw dna files to the website. but here's the problem with that — i share dna with my relatives, and critics argue that once i've uploaded my dna, and agree to law enforcement checks, i am, by association, also opting in my entire extended family. and using my dna, the police can link hundreds, perhaps even thousands of my genetic relatives to a crime, potentially none of whom have consented to be on a database used by the police. i think the thing about it. that people have to make their mind up is you have two competing priorities here. - the first priority is you have | an absolute right to privacy, but on the same token, - you have a competing priority which is we have a right to not get murdered and raped. -
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what amount of privacy. are you willing to give up versus getting, you know, - the increased safety in society? we hear about serial rape, we hear about serial murders, but less prominent are going to be cases that there might be more controversy about, whether it's using it in an immigration context or using it in a less serious crime context. we've structured our society with suspicion—based reasons to intrude on people's privacy because we've felt as a community that that was the right thing to do, even when it means that occasionally some crimes go unsolved. i think it is incredibly hard to say this. i don't mean to minimise or be dismissive of the claim, but we don't make policies about the civil liberties of our whole society based on the personal feelings of single victims or the needs of single victims. after the arrest... the apprehension and arrest - was made, i started to feel peace. p-e-a-c-e.
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you know, i didn't realise - for almost four and a half decades, i had been geared up for a fight. we're not going to go away, we're going to find you, - we're not going away. and thank god that day came. we've seen the power dna can have in solving crime and the ethical youtube is now removing videos containing vaccine misinformation for all currently approved vaccines, not just covert 19. for all currently approved vaccines, notjust covert 19. and california has passed a new law to stop workers being fired if they are not meeting productivity targets set by algorithms. it has had is for a long time coming out has eyes. it is amazon's new robot, astro. it can be controlled remotely and features a
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periscope to see in high places. but some critics have raised privacy concerns. facebook has delayed releasing a version of instagram for children after parents and experts raised safety concerns. this comes as recent research has increasingly shown how use of social media can affect the mental health of young people, with many under 13 is already using instagram. and finally, as china announces a complete ban on crypto currency, one hamster is busy raking in profits from its cage. he is currently out competing the 500, with a portfolio up competing the 500, with a portfolio up sincejune. the german rodent�*s cage let's perform exercises to make trades. wheeling and dealing! we've seen the power dna can have in solving crime and the ethical dilemmas around that, yet many are willing to give up a little saliva to get
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to know themselves better. dnanudge assesses customers' propensity for certain conditions, guiding them away from the foods that would also increase their risk. if you've got the genes for hypertension, then salt is something you should be careful of. if you've got the genes for type ii diabetes, saturated fat and sugar are your problem, so what we do is we relate those conditions or those genetic risks to those macronutrients in food. time to hand over my dna, which i've been assured will be destroyed straight after it's been analysed. then we load that into the cartridge and then we load the cartridge - into one of the nudge boxes. it looks a coffee machine. an hour later, i have my results. it looks like i really shouldn't be having salt or much saturated fat. dangerfrom fat — medium. calories — medium. these aren't actually
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the results that i expected. chris, i'm glad you're to hand. obviously, you don't have the obesity risk, but saturated fat and salt are indicators much more of cardiovascular, so obviously, these are things that you can't see on the surface. my data is then loaded onto a pod that can be worn to help track my exercise and shape my shopping habits. you can scan the food to see if you could eat them. ok, i shouldn't have that. i can also try it on here, which are also salted peanuts, but it says that it's fine to have. 0.39g per serving there. 0.6g per serving in that, so it's almost double as much salt. well, i wouldn't have expected that. here, you've got the same brand of peanut butter and just changing from one to the other could apparently save you this much saturated fat over the course of the year, although, of course, this does all depend on how much you're consuming. so, obviously, lifestyle does have a big effect on this.
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what's the percentage balance, then, do you think between dna and lifestyle? i would say it's roughly 30—70. dna is around 30, lifestyle is around 70. dnanudge is not the only company in the dna nutrition and fitness space and many post kits home. neda gharani tried one after reacting to dairy and bread. once i did the test, _ i saw that i am actually lactose intolerant, which made sense, - and also i am at a slight increased risk for coeliac disease. just that knowledge that there . is an increased risk for me really helped me push me to that step of reducing the amount - of wheat that i eat. but neda, who is also a research scientist, raised red flags about simplified genetic reports. it's understandable for the general population, but maybe someone . who doesn't really understand genetics may take _
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the results as being... having a greater effect than they actually do. i i took the test myself as well, but the diet recommendations contradicted those of dnanudge, so, a little confused, i took a trip to a nutrition genetics lab. what do you keep in the fridge? it's full of saliva. it is full of saliva? dr yiannis mavrommatis specialises in nutrition genomics here and instead of offering me a coffee, decided to test my genes as to whether i should have one or not. you can deposit your sample and just return it back to me. it takes longer than you would think to fill a container with saliva. i've only got to get it up to there. done! the problem is not this part. we can do this part quite well. the challenge is to find an area that is meaningful, and we have a lot of science behind it, so there is no consensus as to which dna areas we need
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to analyse, so company a may have their own genes that they believe are the most important ones and company b may have a different set of genes. we need to be able to communicate possibilities and probabilities to the public and that's not always an easy thing to do. even when scientists do agree on genes and their impact, more data is needed for a full picture. genetics can actually be quite meaningful if you combine it with other parameters of the person — their individual dietary intake, lifestyle, physical activity, sleep patterns and whatnot. if you just use genetics, it's not going to work. but whilst our dna can't offer every answer, at least dr yiannis later confirmed that i'm free to drink coffee whilst i mull over my need for any diet change or not. i tell you, she'd never have given it up anyway. now, back at decode genetics
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in iceland, founder kari stefansson has been looking at a similar and possibly controversial topic — how our genes shape our bodies, our minds and our personalities. i can tell you how we can use genetics to explore in a way the nature of man. his most recent scientific paper has been looking at how that relates to one of the developed world's biggest health problems. if there is one condition that predisposes to more diseases than anything else, it is obesity. obesity predisposes to heart failure, to liver diseases, to osteoarthritis, to type ii diabetes — it predisposes to an incredible number of all cancer diseases. now, some people are genetically predisposed to become obese. their genetic make—up means that they're just more likely to overeat. not all of these people do become obese.
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it's just more likely. and of the people who don't have those genes, well, some of those will also become obese for other reasons. so, decode set about trying to answer the question which is it that makes these diseases more likely? is it obesity itself or is it the genetic tendency for obesity? and it turns out that you are not simply cursed by your genes to get ill. and that genetic tendency has no impact on these diseases, so it is purely the obesity itself that predisposes to the disease and then we asked the question, what is it, then, that the genetic tendency has an impact on? which part of our biology, which part of our being is being influenced by this genetic score for obesity? and, indeed, we showed that the greater your genetic tendency to become obese is, the worse you perform on all kinds
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of tests of cognitive function. your verbal iq is less, your performance iq is less, your trail making test is worse, your education is less. obesity itself has no impact on cognitive function, so you don't become stupid by becoming obese, but the genetic aberration that makes you lose control of eating behaviour has an impact on many other functions of your brain. so, obesity makes you susceptible to other diseases regardless of your genes, but the gene which makes obesity more likely does affect your intelligence. the researchers then looked at the data from the other direction and asked, does your personality and, specifically, your ability to solve problems tell you anything about how your physical body might develop? and here, they found that the better your visual and spatial ability,
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the more likely you are to have the genetic tendency for obesity and all those obesity—related diseases. you're also less likely to be curious and creative, but also less likely to suffer from psychiatric conditions like schizophrenia. however, if you score higher on verbal ability, you'll have less risk of obesity and related diseases. you are more likely to be curious and creative, but also you'll have a greater risk of schizophrenia. and what fascinates me about this is that the way in which we're genetically hard—wired to solve problems has an impact on the composition of your body. just give me a minute. pow! i'm working it out for myself at the moment. i hope we all are. i know where i am on that, or at least i think i...
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oh, my god. wow, amazing, the secrets that our bodies can hold. and that's it for this week's show. as ever, you can keep up with the teams throughout the week on social media. find us on youtube, instagram, facebook and twitter @bbcclick and, of course, we'll be back next week. thanks for watching, bye—bye. hello. certainly will not be a wash—out of a weekend, but a fairly 5°99y wash—out of a weekend, but a fairly soggy afternoon for the vast majority. rain at times, heaviest across southern areas, but we will see the stockist of the winds confined to parts of south and east, gale is expected here. tomorrow
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brighter, sunshine and showers, and the strongest of the winds in the far north of scotland. the stockist winds are on the edge of this weather system, winds are on the edge of this weathersystem, moving winds are on the edge of this weather system, moving up to be a northern scotland by tomorrow. underneath it, various weather fronts combining, with plenty of rain to take us through the afternoon. dry across eastern england and a good part of scotland. a scattering of showers. some parts of north—east england, south—east scotland will see the rain until late in the afternoon. the driest in the far north of scotland. 11 to 15, some lively showers. winds lighter than this morning, but the stockist of the winds this afternoon along the southern coastal counties of england, through into east anglia, up england, through into east anglia, up to 60mph gusts and some heavy rain, unpleasant driving conditions. overnight, heavy rain in eastern areas to begin with. an area of low pressure moves northwards. we will
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see some clear skies and a scattering of showers in the west, and a fresh start to sunday morning, temperatures down into single figures for the vast majority. the chart for sunday shows that our low pressure will be centred and around that we will see the stockist of the winds. we will have a cool air mass coming in from the north and west with a mixture of sunshine and showers for the vast majority. driest conditions in eastern areas, some staying dry all day, though some staying dry all day, though some showers possible into the afternoon as the breeze picks up. the song is winds in shetland, up to 60mph. cool in the breeze, offset by the longer sunny spells. some sunshine in london for the marathon. almost perfect running conditions, i think, for many. some showers later in the day as the breeze picks up. showery for the belfast marathon which is also taking place. as we go through the rest of the week, some wet and windy weather, turning dry
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turning on the style now. it is in. classic david _ turning on the style now. it is in. classic david beckham! - turning on the style now. it is in. classic david beckham! sterling! | classic david beckham! sterling! mcmanaman! — classic david beckham! sterling! mcmanaman! absolutely - classic david beckham! sterling! -
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