Heres what lara has to say on the subject. Excuse me. Its not disgusting, its science. Mmm i think its both, actually. I look forward to finding out whats got Lara Spitting Feathers later. But first, a story that will make your blood run cold. Im in iceland, revisiting the freezers at Decode Genetics in reykjavik, where robots working in temperatures of 26 celsius look after the blood of iceland. Over the last quarter of a century icelanders have donated nearly 2 million samples, all in the name of genetic research. If you want to know what 26 celsius feels like, its very painful on the ears, you really dont feel like breathing very hard at all, and weirdly my Nostril Hairs are freezing up. Every time i do that, theyre cracking. Iceland has been scrupulously recording Ancestry Records for hundreds of years, so it kind of makes sense that its also now at the forefront of research to try and identify the specific genes responsible for particular genetic diseases. And whats amazing is the foresight. They gathered a lot of these Blood Samples before the science became possible to do the things theyre now doing. So by gathering it and keeping it for 20 years they can call back, they can go back to be older Blood Samples, if they have new Research Techniques available. By doing this they have been able to identify genetic variations associated with many kinds of cancers, and theyre now even able to estimate how long you have left to live 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. Condensation lots and lots of condensation. And it doesnt stop forming. So thats it the camera is written off for about an hour now. And a bit later, once weve dried off and warmed up, i am going to blow your mind with a 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. The suburbs of fort worth in texas are quiet, sleepy. Im 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 thats where she lived when she was abducted. That is correct, yeah. 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. Hundreds and hundreds of Law Enforcement, probably near a thousand volunteers were searching everywhere. And i remember a News Reporter coming to the house and saying, mr walker, what are your feelings now that theyve 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 a0 years carlas 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 really got moving again. The breakthrough came not in carlas 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 didnt match to any dna profiles in the fbis 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 killers dna into the database, they might be able to find the murderer� s relatives a crucial clue. Most Ancestry Websites dont allow Law Enforcement checks, but a few do. The website the police chose to use was a Company Called gedmatch. So effectively what theyre doing is Building Family trees. So you have to build back far enough until you reach what they call a most recent common ancestor, and then figure out where the trees came together, and then build forward from there. So, by doing that, youre 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 carlas case . You want to find hits that are within third cousins to make the case tractable, so we definitely had some that were within third cousin range. 0thram was founded shortly after the Golden State Killer was identified, with a mission to solve unsolvable cases. The companys ceo, david mittelman, says the first step in the process is to clean up the dna, which is often degraded. In carlas case, it was more than a0 years old. The company then sequences that dna, looking at thousands of distinctive markers on the genome. And in the traditional forensic dna testing framework, like for coders, theres about 20 of these positions in the dna that youre measuring. And that information can be used to confirm that you were at a crime scene or that someone closely related to you as a sibling, parent or child was at a crime scene. Thats the extent of what you can do with 20 markers. What we do our 0thram is we look at Tens Of Thousands To Hundreds of thousands of markers, and with that information we can detect more distant relationships. Every time you test for dna, you lose a bit of the sample in the process. In carlas case, there was little of the killers dna left. It was likely this was 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 really feel confident that theres a good chance well have a positive outcome . Otherwise we dont want to do it, because when you test dna youre consuming it, and so youre destroying evidence. 0nce theyd sequenced to killers 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. They knew who it was, but they had to do their Due Diligence as Law Enforcement to confirm. And thats what they did, and about two weeks later i got a phone call we know exactly who it is, were going to be arresting him. Last month mccurley pleaded guilty to the murder of carla walker. Some people, however, simply dont believe that ethically this technique should be used worried that opening up peoples dna to Law Enforcement, people who are not known criminals, could have worrying consequences. Genetics isntjust any old tool for Law Enforcement. Its a particular and a potent tool, because its 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 takes yours. Its a technology thats in its infancy. We dont know yet what it will tell us, how well it will tell us 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 is the problem with that. I share dna with my relatives, and critics argue that once ive uploaded my dna and agreed 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 that people have to make their mind up 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. What amount of privacy are you willing to give up versus getting, you know, the increased safety in society . We hear about a serial rape, we hear about serial murders. But less prominent are going to be cases that there might be more controversy about, whether its using it in an Immigration Context or using it in a less serious crime context. We structure our society with suspicion based reasons to intrude on peoples privacy because we 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 dont mean to minimise or be dismissive of the claim. But we dont 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 apprehension and arrest was made, i started to feel Peace P E A C e. You know, i didnt realise for almost 4. 5 decades i had been geared up for a fight. Were not going to go away. Were going to find you, were not going away. And thank god that day came. Hello, its time for your weekly tech news round up. It was the week google claimed it is bings most popular search term, while appealing against Antitrust Fines from the european union. Youtube is now removing videos containing Vaccine Misinformation for all currently approved vaccines, not just covid i9. 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 ears for a long time. Now it has eyes. It is amazons new robot, astro. The family themed robot can be controlled remotely and features a periscope to see in high places. However, 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 13s already using instagram. And finally, as china announces a complete ban on cryptocurrency, one hamster is busy raking in profits from its cage. Mr goxx is currently outperforming the s p 500, with a portfolio up by nearly 24 sincejune. The german rodent� s crypto rigged office lets him perform exercises that execute trades. Gives a whole new meaning to wheeling and dealing. Weve 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 to know themselves better. Dnanudge assesses customers propensity for certain conditions, guiding them away from the foods that would also increase their risk. If youve got the genes for hypertension, then salt is something you should be careful of. If youve got the genes for type 2 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 ive been assured will be destroyed straight after its been analysed. And we load that into the cartridge, and then we load the cartridge into one of the nudge boxes. It looks like a coffee machine. An hour later, i have my results. It looks like i really shouldnt be having salt or much saturated fat. Dangerfrom salt medium, calories medium. These arent actually the results i expected. Chris, im glad youre to hand. Obviously you dont have the obesity risk, but saturated fat and salt are indicators much more of cardiovascular, so obviously these are things that you cant 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 foods to see if you can eat them. Ok, i shouldnt have that. I can also try it on here, which are also salted peanuts, but it says theyre fine to have. 0. 39 grams per serving there, 0. 6 grams per serving in that, so its almost double as much salt. I wouldnt have expected that. Here youve 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 a year although of course this does all depend on how much youre consuming. So obviously lifestyle does have a big effect on this. What is the percentage balance, then, do you think, between dna and lifestyle . I would say its 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 pushed 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. Its understandable for the general population, but maybe someone who doesnt really understand genetics may take the results as being having a greater effect than they actually do. 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 . Its 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. Ive 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 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 thats 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 inta ke, lifestyle, physical activities, Sleep Patterns and whatnot. If you just use genetics, its not going to work. But whilst our dna cant offer every answer, at least dr yiannis later confirmed that im free to drink coffee whilst i mull over my need for any diet change or not. Spencer i tell you, shed never have given it up anyway. Back at Decode Genetics 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 worlds Biggest Health problems. If there is one condition that predisposes to more diseases than anything else, it is obesity. 0besity Predisposes to heart failure, to liver diseases, to osteoarthritis, to type 2 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 theyrejust more likely to overeat. Not all of these people do become obese, its just more likely. And, of the people who dont 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 this 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 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. 0besity itself has no impact on cognitive function, so you dont 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, the more likely you are to have the genetic tendency for obesity and all those obesity related diseases. Youre 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, youll have less risk of obesity and related diseases. You are more likely to be curious and creative, but also youll have a greater risk of schizophrenia. And what fascinates me about this is that the way in which you are genetically hardwired to solve problems has an impact on the composition of your body. Just give me a minute. Im 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. Oh, my god. Wow amazing the secrets that our bodies can hold. And thats it for this weeks show. As ever, you can keep up with the team throughout the week on social media. Find us on youtube, instagram, facebook and twitter bbcclick, and of course well be back next week. Thanks for watching, bye bye. Hello there. Wednesday looks like its going to be a drier, brighter day for many parts of the uk. A vast improvement over what we saw on tuesday. The northeast of england was particularly badly affected by the rain. It was about a months worth of rain falling in 2a hours. Throughout the day, it was a pretty wet too across Eastern Parts of scotland. The low pressure that brought the rain and the strong winds is moving out of the way. Weve got the Next Atlantic Weather System coming in to the west and in between the two, a small window of drier weather and some sunshine. With clearer skies to start the day across large parts of scotland and Northern Ireland, pretty chilly out there. For Eastern Parts of england, theres more rain around still and its lighter by the morning, the rain should move away. Those northerly winds will gradually ease and the cloud eventually break up. Weve got this slice of dry weather and sunshine, but Western Areas are going to be clouding over steadily and weve got some rain in the afternoon particularly across Northern Ireland. Ahead of that, something a bit warmer than today across much of england and wales. It could be quite chilly in the evening with the clearer skies in Eastern England and out to the west though, the cloud is coming in, thickening up to bring some rain into Western Scotland and that will tend to lift the temperatures, as well. As we head into the end of the week, it is a complete turnaround really because there is much warmer weather on the way and that is because the winds are going to be coming in all the way around the tropics and bringing in those higher temperatures, bringing in the moisture in the form of cloud and weve still got the Weather Front just draped across the northwestern part of the uk to bring some rain. That is mainly affecting northern and Western Scotland during thursday, some heavier rain for argyle and highland. Some rain threatens Northern Ireland could be a bit of damp, drizzly weather across western parts of england and wales. Brighter skies further east. But despite a lot of cloud on thursday, look at these temperatures. 19 in belfast, could make 20 in newcastle, much, much warmer than it was on tuesday. The winds will be lighter for england and wales on friday, could be some fog in the morning through the midlands towards the southeast of england and lifting to bring some sunny spells, still a threat of rain in the Northwest Parts of the uk with some sunshine at times. And those temperatures again widely 18 to 21 c. The next question is how long will it last . Saturday looks quite warm for many. Some rain in scotland and Northern Ireland. As the weekend goes on, it will gradually cool down from the north. Welcome to bbc news. Im lewis vaughanjones. 0urtop welcome to bbc news. Im lewis vaughanjones. Our top stories vaughan jones. Our top stories a vaughanjones. Our top stories a former facebook employee tells the us congress to social media giant is harming children, stroking division, and weakening democracy. I saw facebook repeatedly and weakening democracy. I saw0 facebook repeatedly encounter conflicts between its own profits and our safety. Facebook consistently resolve these conflict in favour of its own profits. Victims demand action after a shocking enquiry finds at least 200,000 children in france were assaulted by priests and monks in the Catholic Church over the past 70 years. And ecological disaster in Southern California after a pipeline bursts, Spilling Thousands of barrels of oil into the ocean