October 10, 2018

Good Morning,

Did you know that your height can tell a lot about you? Predicting one's height, along with a new DNA tool, you can assess your risk for diseases and other serious illnesses.

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

P.S. Did you miss an issue? You can read every issue from the Gophercentral library of newsletters on our exhaustive archives page. Thousands of issues, all of your favorite publications in chronological order. You can read AND comment. Just click GopherArchives

*-- DNA tool can assess disease risk by predicting person's height --*

By creating a DNA tool to accurately predict people's height, researchers see hope for assessing risk for serious illnesses.

Michigan State University scientists developed an algorithm based on one genome that includes predictors for human traits such as height, bone density and even the level of education. The findings were published this week in the journal Genetics.

"While we have validated this tool for these three outcomes, we can now apply this method to predict other complex traits related to health risks such as heart disease, diabetes and breast cancer," lead investigator Dr. Stephen Hsu, vice president for research and graduate studies at MSU, said in a press release.

With precision medicine, physicians can more quickly and accurately provide patient care, including preventing or delaying illness, the researchers said.

Utilizing machine learning, they analyzed the complete genetic makeup of nearly 500,000 adults in the United Kingdom from the UK Biobank.

The computer accurately predicted everyone's height within roughly an inch. Bone density and educational attainment were not as precise, but they were accurate enough to identify outlying individuals at risk of low bone density associated with osteoporosis or struggling in school, the researchers said.

With traditional genetic testing, specific changes in a person's genes or chromosomes can indicate a higher risk for diseases such as breast cancer. The MSU researcher's method considers numerous genomic differences and builds a predictor based on the tens of thousands of variations.

"The algorithm looks at the genetic makeup and height of each person," Hsu said. "The computer learns from each person and ultimately produces a predictor that can determine how tall they are from their genome alone."

The researchers plan to improve the algorithms and tap into larger, more diverse data sets.

Their work has benefited from additional computing power and decreasing DNA sequencing costs over the past few years.

"Our team believes this is the future of medicine," he said. "For the patient, a genomic test can be as simple as a cheek swab, with a cost of about $50. Once we calculate the predictors for genetically based diseases, early intervention can save billions of dollars in treatment costs, and more importantly, save lives."

*-- Saturn's inner rings are raining chemicals on its atmosphere --*

New analysis of observations made during the Cassini's "Grand Finale" plunge suggests Saturn's rings are surprisingly complex in their chemical composition.

The data also suggests chemical-coated dust grains from Saturn's innermost D ring are raining down on the gas giant's upper atmosphere. Over time, scientists predict, the flow of chemicals could alter the composition of Saturn's atmosphere.

During its final pass through Saturn's rings and into the planet's atmosphere, Cassini's spectrometer sampled and analyzed a variety of chemicals. The instrument's data revealed the surprising presence of water, methane, ammonia, carbon monoxide, molecular nitrogen and carbon dioxide.

Researchers shared their survey of the Cassini data this week in the journal Science.

"What the paper is describing is the environment in the gap between the inner ring and upper atmosphere, and some of the things found were expected, such as water," Thomas Cravens, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas, said in a news release. "What was a surprise was the mass spectrometer saw methane -- no one expected that. Also, it saw some carbon dioxide, which was unexpected."

Until now, scientists assumed Saturn's rings were mostly composed of water molecules.

"But the innermost rings are fairly contaminated, as it turns out, with organic material caught up in ice," said Cravens.

Because the rings are spinning faster than Saturn's atmosphere, many of these contaminants are flung inward toward the atmosphere's upper layers. The discovery revealed a new type of interaction between satellite materials and planetary atmospheres.

"This could help us understand: How does a planet get rings? Some do, some don't," Cravens said. "What's the lifetime of a ring? And what's replenishing the rings? Was there a time when Saturn didn't have rings?"

According to the Cassini data, so much material is being shed by the D ring, it's likely the ring's lifespan will be shorter than previously estimated.

And because the chemical-coated grains are traveling at high speeds, scientists think their impacts on the upper atmosphere are considerable.

"These dust grains moving at satellite speed, depositing energy that can dissociate the atmosphere," Cravens said. "Per atom, it's pretty energetic stuff because of the speed differentiation between the rings and the atmosphere. We think it may be heating the upper atmosphere, changing its composition."

This is the ONLY pillow you'll need for just $19.99...CLICK HERE to order