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[Grim Portent]

Reuters article that popped up when I googled it

Apparently by examining 'four age-associated DNA methylation markers' you can tell someone's rough age (+/- 4 years) from a blood sample, with a lower error rate for younger people (+/- 2 years) and higher for older. (+/- 5-6 years)



I do wonder if there is a way to make a reasonably foolproof age verification system for the internet that also doesn't risk compromising someone's data. It certainly seems like an insurmountable hurdle given how much all our data ties together and how easy it is to piece it together from multiple places, but I still wonder if it could be done.

[Il Palazzo]

conversation moved to the science thread: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=164048.msg8573179#msg8573179

[Naturegirl1999]

It's a joke, but blood can tell age as well. Our DNA strings end in so called telomeres (a repeating sequence of DNA). Each time a our cells divide, their DNA gets a bit shorter; some of the telomeres are lost. So by looking at the lenght of the telomeres (for instance in blood cells) a pretty accurate estimate of age can be made.

What is a Susie measurement? Google doesn't know.

EDIT: I say blood cells but those might be a bad sample since they are produced by stem cells which do not lose telomers. Perhaps a biopt of sedentary tissue is needed for it.

meant to type size