[rael-science] [with Rael's comment] Reconstructing human appearance from DNA

 

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The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org  
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RAEL'S COMMENT: Slowly understanding how to recreate a human being through cloning to give him or her eternal life is another step in early Elohimization.

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Source: Cosmos Magazine
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/3748/reconstructing-human-appearance-dna

Reconstructing human appearance from DNA

Tuesday, 21 September 2010

by Andrew Letten

SYDNEY: Police sketch artists might soon be trading in the pencil and paper for a genetics lab. Forensic biologists say they may soon be able to reconstruct a criminal's profile from the DNA they leave at a crime scene.

This would potentially render DNA databases obsolete, said molecular biologist Manfred Kayser from Erasmus MC in Rotterdam in his keynote address at the 20th International Symposium of Forensic Science, in Sydney in September.

This kind of approach could revolutionise police work. Particularly in relation to so called 'cold-cases', where the DNA sample does not match a suspect's profile or that of any criminal in a DNA database, Kayser said.

Gender and pigmentation

"We don't yet know if it's possible to find accurate genetic markers for individual specific traits [such as facial dimensions] ... if we do, it could eventually mean that criminal databases won't be needed. For now that's of course science fiction," Kayser told the Sydney audience.

Most physical characteristics are complex traits, defined by several interacting genes and possibly environmental factors too. Yet, Kayser and others in the have already identified several DNA markers that determine various physical characteristics, including gender, hair colour, eye colour have already been discovered

The simplest characteristic to determine with a DNA sample of unknown human origin is gender. The gene for amelogenin (a protein involved in tooth development) can be used in sex determination of samples, because the length of the gene is different on the X chromosome to the Y chromosome. This is a relatively robust, but not foolproof, gender test, according to Kayser.

Hair colour prediction underway

Beyond gender, the human traits with highest predictive accuracy are those affected by pigmentation, simply because they are the least complex. Red hair colour, which is determined by a single gene, can be predicted with a certainty of around 93%.

For other hair types, accuracy is slightly lower, but still promising. Kayser reported confidence levels as high as 85, 81 and 80% for predicting black, brown and blond hair respectively.

Perhaps the most progress has been made in determining eye colour: Kayser and colleagues reported that using DNA they could predict with 90% confidence if a person of European origin had blue or brown eyes, based on an analysis of just six positions on the genome.

Eye colour, height and even age next

Although the predictive accuracy is less robust for intermediate eye colours, new genes, involved in the subtle variation of iris colour, are being discovered all the time, Kayser said.

Some traits, however, are inherently problematic. While height is a classic example of an inherited trait, it is notoriously difficult to predict. This is because there are more than 50 DNA markers associated with height.

Kayser also alluded to alluded to research, in press, detailing tools for predicting human age. Thus far, the most promising technique for separating the young from the old involves the analysis of ribonucleic acid (RNA) - a molecule chemically similar to DNA but principally involved in protein synthesis and gene expression.

There is also emerging data for a raft of other traits, such as skin colour, freckles, baldness and hair morphology, Kayser said.

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WARNING FROM RAEL: For those who don't use their intelligence at its full capacity, the label "selected by RAEL" on some articles does not mean that I agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL" means that I believe it is important for the people of this planet to know about what people think or do, even when what they think or do is completely stupid and against our philosophy. When I selected articles in the past about stupid Christian fundamentalists in America praying for rain, I am sure no Rael-Science reader was stupid enough to believe that I was supporting praying to change the weather. So, when I select articles which are in favor of drugs, anti-semitic, anti-Jewish, racist, revisionist, or inciting hatred against any group or religion, or any other stupid article, it does not mean that I support them. It just means that it is important for all human beings to know about them. Common sense, which is usually very good among our readers, is good enough to understand that. When, like in the recent articles on drug decriminalization, it is necessary to make it clearer, I add a comment, which in this case was very clear: I support decriminalizing all drugs, as it is stupid to throw depressed and sad people (as only depressed and sad people use drugs) in prison and ruin their life with a criminal record. That does not mean that there is any change to the Message which says clearly that we must not use any drug except for medical purposes. The same applies to the freedom of expression which must be absolute. That does not mean again of course that I agree with anti-Jews, antisemites, racists of any kind or anti-Raelians. But by knowing your enemies or the enemies of your values, you are better equipped to fight them. With love and respect of course, and with the wonderful sentence of the French philosopher Voltaire in mind: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
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"Ethics"  is simply a last-gasp attempt by deist conservatives and
orthodox dogmatics to keep humanity in ignorance and obscurantism,
through the well tried fermentation of fear, the fear of science and
new technologies.

There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history, 
it is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations.

On the contrary, let us embrace Science and the new technologies
unfettered, for it is these which will liberate mankind from the
myth of god, and free us from our age old fears, from disease,
death and the sweat of labour.

                                    Rael
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