Japan scientists create 3-D images you can touch

Imagine a light switch or a book that appears only when you need it -- Japanese scientists are one step closer to making the stuff of sci-fi films into reality after creating a hologram that can also be felt. "Up until now, holography has been for the eyes only, and if you'd try to touch it, your hand would go right through," Hiroyuki Shinoda, professor at Tokyo university and one of the developers of the technology said. "But now we have a technology that also adds the sensation of touch to holograms." Holograms -- three-dimensional images -- are commonly found on credit cards, DVDs and CDs to prevent forgery, and larger scale holograms have been used in entertainment. By using ultrasonic waves, the scientists have developed software that creates pressure when a user's hand "touches" a hologram that is projected.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  August 28, 2009--------

Artificial trees - Engineers say a forest of 100,000 "artificial trees" could be deployed within 10 to 20 years to help soak up the world's carbon emissions. The trees are among three geo-engineering ideas highlighted as practical in a new report. The authors say that without geo-engineering it will be impossible to avoid dangerous climate change. The report includes a 100-year roadmap to "decarbonise" the global economy. The authors of this report say that geo-engineering of the type they propose should be used on a short-term basis to buy the world time, but that in the long term it is vital to reduce emissions. Many climate scientists calculate that the world has only a few decades to reduce emissions before there is so much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that a dangerous rise in global temperature is inevitable. "Artificial trees are already at the prototype stage and are very advanced in their design in terms of their automation and in the components that would be used. They could, within a relatively short duration, be moved forward into mass production and deployment." The trees would work on the principle of capturing carbon dioxide from the air through a filter. The CO2 would then be removed from the filter and stored. The prototype artificial tree was about the same size as a shipping container and could remove thousands of times more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than an equivalent sized real tree. The authors stress that all the options will require more research and have called for the UK government to invest 10 million pounds.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  August 21, 2009--------

Are we on the brink of creating a computer with a human brain?

For while time machines, eternal life potions and Star Trek-style warp drives are as far away as ever, a team of scientists in Switzerland is claiming that a fully-functioning replica of a human brain could be built by 2020. This isn't just pie-in-the-sky. The Blue Brain project, led by computer genius Henry Markram - who is also the director of the Centre for Neuroscience & Technology and the Brain Mind Institute - has for the past five years been engineering the mammalian brain, the most complex object known in the Universe, using some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. And last month, Professor Markram claimed, at a conference in Oxford, that he plans to build an electronic human brain 'within ten years'.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  August 20, 2009--------

Doctors track wireless pacemaker recipient through internet connection

With the news that an American woman has received a pacemaker with a wireless connection to the Internet, the so-called “Internet of Things” has taken on a new dimension. Sources reported this week that a 61-year-old woman became the first American recipient of the pacemaker, which was approved by the FDA just last month and allows the doctor to monitor how her heart is doing. At least once a day, a server will communicate with the pacemaker over the Internet and get an update. If there is anything unusual, the server can contact the doctor and patient, literally calling the doc on the phone in the middle of the night, if necessary. The article quotes the doctor as saying that in the future, wireless devices could monitor high blood pressure, glucose levels or heart failure.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  August 18, 2009--------

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  August 12, 2009--------

Are we on the brink of creating a computer with a human brain?

There are only a handful of scientific revolutions that would really change the world. An immortality pill would be one. A time machine would be another. Faster-than-light travel, allowing the stars to be explored in a human lifetime, would be on the shortlist, too. However, the creation of an artificial mind would probably trump all of these - a development that would throw up an array of bewildering and complex moral and philosophical quandaries. Amazingly, it might also be within reach.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  August 5, 2009--------

Scientists grow new teeth from stem cell seeds planted in mice

Teeth have been grown from stem cell “seeds” and planted in the mouths of mice, scientists from Tokyo University reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They hope it could lead to replacing teeth in humans, or even to rebuilding whole organs. The Japanese scientists developed a bioengineered “tooth germ” - a seed-like package containing all the cells and instructions necessary to form a tooth. A number of these were implanted into the jaw bones of mice which had earlier had molar back teeth removed.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JULY 28, 2009--------

Chinese breakthrough with mice may mean cloning man is closer

News that Chinese researchers have succeeded in growing healthy living mice from mouse skin cells takes scientists a significant step closer to human cloning, experts say, and thus figures to reignite an ethics debate. The new feat — in which animals were grown from cells that had been reverted to embryos — is different from cloning. Cloning, in which the nucleus is removed from a cell and implanted in a fertilized egg, has never been achieved in humans. Nor has the new technique — using induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells — been tested in humans. Because that process works in mice, however, it should work in humans.

The implications of this research are both enormously important and troublesome. It revives many of the issues raised by reproductive cloning. We now have a working technology whereby anyone, young or old, fertile or infertile, straight or gay, can pass on their genes to a child from just a few skin cells. It also fast-forwards the era of designer babies to the present. Genetic modification of the resulting stem cells could be carried out by a scientist tomorrow. On the positive side, this technology could also be of great value in the area of conservation biology. My company has already filed patents on this, as well as for its use in agriculture. The genes from endangered animals that die could be reintroduced to maintain the survival and genetic diversity of the species. Even an extinct species such as the bucardo mountain goat could be resurrected using this technology if combined with an ordinary goat-breeding program.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JULY 27, 2009--------

SCIENTISTS WORRY MACHINES MAY OUTSMART MAN

A robot that can open doors and find electrical outlets to recharge itself. Computer viruses that no one can stop. Predator drones, which, though still controlled remotely by humans, come close to a machine that can kill autonomously.

Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a group of computer scientists is debating whether there should be limits on research that might lead to loss of human control over computer-based systems that carry a growing share of society’s workload, from waging war to chatting with customers on the phone.

Their concern is that further advances could create profound social disruptions and even have dangerous consequences.

As examples, the scientists pointed to a number of technologies as diverse as experimental medical systems that interact with patients to simulate empathy, and computer worms and viruses that defy extermination and could thus be said to have reached a ‘cockroach’ stage of machine intelligence.

While the computer scientists agreed that we are a long way from Hal, the computer that took over the spaceship in ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ they said there was legitimate concern that technological progress would transform the work force by destroying a widening range of jobs, as well as force humans to learn to live with machines that increasingly copy human behaviors.

The researchers — leading computer scientists, artificial intelligence researchers and roboticists who met at the Asilomar Conference Grounds on Monterey Bay in California — generally discounted the possibility of highly centralized superintelligences and the idea that intelligence might spring spontaneously from the Internet. But they agreed that robots that can kill autonomously are either already here or will be soon…”

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JULY 9, 2009--------

Ethical storm flares as British scientists create artificial sperm from human stem cells

In a world first, British scientists have grown human sperm in the laboratory. The breakthrough in stem cell science offers a potential cure for male infertility and could be used in IVF clinics in as little as five years. It would allow thousands of men to father children that are genetically their own, possibly from just a sliver of their skin. But the cutting-edge work is fraught with medical and ethical problems. It raises the possibility of babies being born entirely through artificial means, and even the macabre scenario of long-dead men 'fathering' children from beyond the grave. The Newcastle University work centers on stem cells - 'blank' cells with the ability to turn into other cell types. Biologist Karim Nayernia created a cocktail of chemicals and vitamins that turned human stem cells into sperm.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JULY 3, 2009--------

Europe builds largest quantum key network

European scientists say they have built the world's largest quantum key distribution network to transmit secure quantum encrypted information. Officials said 41 research and industrial organizations constructed the eight-node, mesh network consisting of an average 12-mile to 19-mile link, with the longest link being 51 miles. The scientists said their achievement is a huge step toward practical implementation of secure quantum-encrypted communication networks. The photons are used to distribute cryptographic keys to access encrypted information along existing communication lines made of fiber optics, this means the information cannot be accessed by a third party without corrupting it beyond recovery and therefore making the act of hacking futile, the official said.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 19, 2009--------

Fallopian tubes offer new stem cell source

Brazilian scientists say human tissues normally discarded after surgical procedures could be a rich source of stem cells for regenerative medicine. University of Sao Paulo researchers said they have demonstrated for the first time that human fallopian tubes are abundant in mesenchymal stem cells, which have the potential of becoming a variety of cell types. "In addition to providing an additional potential source for regenerative medicine, these findings might contribute to reproductive science as a whole," Jazedje said. "Moreover, the use of human tissue fragments that are usually discarded in surgical procedures does not pose ethical problems."

***WATCHMAN...It does to me IF THEY WERE MY CELLS as they could use them to CLONE another me - now would that not be a KICK :-)

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 16, 2009--------

Human ear inspires universal radio chip

A COMPUTER chip modeled on the human ear could be used in universal receivers for radio-frequency signals ranging from cell phone and wireless internet transmissions to radio and television broadcasts. The new device is inspired by the network of hairs in the inner ear, which can pick up a wide range of sound frequencies. We can hear because sound waves make the eardrum vibrate, which creates waves in the fluid-filled inner ear. Hairs on the membrane inside the inner ear are moved by these waves, and because different hairs respond to different frequencies, signals from the hair cells enable the brain to work out the frequency of the sound.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 5, 2009--------

Microwave Missiles: High-Energy Weapons in the Air Force

New research into high-power microwaves could make them a crucial tool of electronic warfare. The U.S. Air Force's newest directed-energy weapon program, the Counter-Electronics High-Powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP), would create a weapon that fires powerful bursts of high-power microwaves (HPM), frying the electronics of multiple targets without harming people or other infrastructure.

***WATCHMAN...OH BUT put your hand in a microwave and it WILL FRY... A LIE???>..

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 3, 2009--------

Giant jellyfish crop circle puzzles experts

A 600 ft jellyfish has washed up in a barley field miles from the sea - in the form of one of the biggest and most bizarre crop circles ever seen. Experts say the gigantic pattern in the field in Kingstone Coombes, Oxfordshire, is the first of its kind - and far larger than most crop patterns. Some argue that the patterns are the work of artists with access to computers and plenty of volunteers - but crop circle enthusiasts say summer nights are just too short to accomplish such complex work secretly.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 2, 2009--------

Genetically modified monkeys give birth to designer babies

Genetically modified monkeys that glow in ultraviolet light and pass the trait on to their young have been created by scientists in Japan in controversial research that "raises the stakes" over animals rights. Researchers hailed the feat as a major step towards understanding the development of inherited diseases, such as Parkinson's and motor neurone disease, from the cradle to the grave. But the work is likely to dismay animal rights groups as it could lead to a rise in the number of primates used in research labs. The work also raises the possibility of genetically modifying humans, although such work is outlawed in most countries, including Britain.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

NEW SUPER LASER BURNS LIKE THE SUN

The world's strongest laser - powerful enough to create conditions as hot as inside the Sun - was unveiled in the western U.S. state of California for an audience of politicians and scientists.

The stadium-sized National Ignition Facility actually houses 192 lasers that all point towards a tiny blob of hydrogen.

When the lasers shoot, scientists expect the hydrogen will fuse into helium, a chemical reaction like what makes stars burn and nuclear bombs explode.

The project began in 1997 and cost the federal government an estimated $3.5 billion. The government says it will allow scientists to study in a lab what happens in a nuclear explosion. They say it will help scientists assess the safety of the aging U.S. nuclear arsenal.

But critics say the laser is unnecessary and costly. Some also worry it could help develop new nuclear weapons.

Proponents of the giant laser say there is another possible benefit. They say they hope to create a fusion reaction called ‘fusion ignition.’ This reaction could create huge amounts of electricity.

Scientists suggest such reactions could lead to a new green energy source, and eliminate the current dependence on fossil fuels

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Solider of the Future

It's the year 2030. As a soldier enters a crowded marketplace, sensors mounted on his helmet automatically scan faces in the crowd, identifying a known insurgent; a cursor in the heads-up display highlights the target and cues the weapon, which can be set to stun or kill; a simple voice command unlocks the trigger. 

Aided by "smart drugs," enhanced with prosthetics, and protected by a lightweight suit of armor, this soldier of the future possesses near super-human capabilities and weapons that would make even Iron Man jealous. 

He's suited up in an "exoskeleton" - essentially a Storm Trooper-esque external shell - that allows him to carry heavy loads. 

Electronics integrated in his outfit allow for simultaneous language translation, automatic identification of potential foes, and video-game-like targeting. 

It's all part of the Army's starry-eyed vision of grunts 20 years from now, and it's just one aspect of the Pentagon's ambitious thinking about technologies that will transform the way the military fights. 

There are also plans for advanced robotic aircraft; missiles that travel seven times the speed of sound; and ship- and aircraft-based laser weapons that could blast missiles out of the sky

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MAY 29, 2009--------

CREATION OF 'GM' MONKEY HERALDS HEALTH REVOLUTION

Scientists yesterday announced a breakthrough that could transform research into a range of incurable diseases but spark a dramatic increase in the number of monkeys used in experiments. Researchers have developed a technique to create genetically modified monkeys that suffer from human illnesses.

***WATCHMAN...THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS and quite possibly will increase many times ove the crossover diseases from animals to HUMANS...

Experimenting on these monkeys, they believe, will advance our understanding and treatment of incurable conditions such as Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis. However, the scientific breakthrough has caused consternation among groups opposed to animal experiments because the development will almost certainly lead to a sudden increase in the number of primates used in medical research at a time when there are calls for fewer monkeys to be used in experiments.

The development also raises the prospect that we will be able to apply the technique to humans – another primate. This could help families affected by inherited disorders such Huntington's disease and cystic fibrosis by permanently eradicating their defective genes from future generations.

The breakthrough was achieved by a team of scientists in Japan led by Erika Sasaki of the Central Institute of Experimental Animals in Kawasaki and Professor Hideyuki Okano of Keio University School of Medicine. Their study, published in the journal Nature, used marmoset monkeys, the smallest member of the primate group.

The ‘transgenic’ monkeys were created by inserting a gene from a jellyfish into their embryos to make them glow under ultraviolet light – a standard test to see if the technique worked. When the monkeys became adults they passed on this transgenic trait to a subsequent generation of offspring. This ‘proof of principle’ suggests that other genes could also be manipulated to create animals that mimic human disorders. This is already possible in mice

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

ADHD treatment causes young boys to develop female breasts

A drug used to treat ADHD children is causing concern in the United States. It is called Risperdal and it is supposed to be used primarily for adults with sever psychological problems. But last year it was prescribed more than 6.5 million times. The side effects include young males developing female sex organs. It turns out Risperdal can increase production of a hormone called prolactin, which stimulates breast growth. It is called gynecomastia – and it is irreversible.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MAY 20, 2009--------

Doctors Discover Twins Have Two Different Dads

A Texas mother of twins got the shock of her life when doctors revealed that her 11-month-old boys do not have the same father. Mia Washington decided to get some expert advice when she and her partner noticed that twins Justin and Jordan had different facial features. Paternity tests then revealed what had happened — two eggs had been fertilized by two different sperm and there was a 99.99% chance the twins had different dads. The woman later admitted she had had an affair and got pregnant by two different men at the same time. Doctors at the DNA lab in Dallas, Texas had never seen such a result.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Lethal robot warriors to be programmed for “ethical killing”

Smart missiles, rolling robots, and flying drones currently controlled by humans, are being used on the battlefield more every day. But what happens when humans are taken out of the loop, and robots are left to make decisions, like who to kill or what to bomb, on their own? Ronald Arkin, a professor of computer science at Georgia Tech, is in the first stages of developing an "ethical governor," a package of software and hardware that tells robots when and what to fire. He argues not only can robots be programmed to behave more ethically on the battlefield, they may actually be able to respond better than human soldiers.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  May 6, 2009--------

Japanese scientist claims breakthrough with human organ grown in shee

Huddled at the back of her shed, bleating under a magnificent winter coat and tearing cheerfully at a bale of hay, she is possibly the answer to Japan’s chronic national shortage of organ donors: a sheep with a revolutionary secret.

Guided by one of the animal’s lab-coated creators, the visitor’s hand is led to the creature’s underbelly and towards a spot in the middle under eight inches of greasy wool. Lurking there is a spare pancreas.

If the science that put it there can be pushed further forward, Japan may be spared an ethical and practical crisis that has split medical and political opinion.

As the sheep-based chimera organ technology stands at the moment, says the man who is pioneering it, the only viable destination for the pancreas underneath his sheep would be a diabetic chimpanzee.

The organ growing on the sheep was generated from monkey stem cells but the man behind the science, Yutaka Hanazono, believes that the technology could be developed eventually to make sheep into walking organ banks for human livers, hearts, pancreases and skin.

It could happen within a decade, he guesses, perhaps two.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  APRIL 9, 2009--------

PORTABLE 'E-BOMBS' COULD TAKE DOWN JETLINERS

Weapons experts and techno-thriller fans are familiar with the concept of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) — a supermassive blast of electricity, usually from a nuclear blast high above ground, that fries electronic circuits for miles around, crippling computers, cars and most other modern gadgets.

Now comes word that a much smaller EMP device, or ‘e-bomb,’ could be carried in a car, or even on someone's person — and be used to take down an airliner.

‘Once it is known that aircraft are vulnerable to particular types of disruption, it isn't too much of a leap to build a device that can produce that sort of disruption,’ Israeli counter-terrorism expert Yael Shahar tells New Scientist magazine. ‘And much of this could be built from off-the-shelf components or dual-use technologies.’

Shahar says she's especially worried about two devices — one called a Marx generator, which beams an EMP at a target, and the other with the ‘Back to the Future’-like name of flux-compression generator.

The latter was developed by the Soviets during the 1950s when Marx generators proved too expensive. Basically, an explosive charge is set off at one end of a cylinder of charged copper coils, and the resulting shock wave sends out a powerful electric pulse as it travels down the tube.

It might take a big flux-compression generator to darken a city neighborhood. But a smaller one could take out the steering, navigation and communication systems of a jetliner, especially if pointed at the cockpit.

As for Marx generators, which are used by power companies, medical researchers and labs, you can buy the plans to build one online for $10, or a fully assembled commercial unit for several hundred dollars.

Shahar adds that as aircraft manufacturers switch to lighter, stronger composite materials in place of aluminum, they're actually making the planes more vulnerable

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  APRIL 1, 2009--------

TASER to begin selling remote controlled devices

TASER International, Inc., a provider of electronic control devices (ECDs), announced that it will begin selling the TASER Shockwave area denial system to tactical law enforcement, corrections, homeland security, critical infrastructure and military customers on March 31st.

The TASER Shockwave device has the ability to de-escalate/defuse violent crowd/riot situations with the only safer response to resistance Area Denial incapacitating device, by deploying multiple TASER cartridges.

The system can be activated with the push of a button on the Control Box at a safe stand-off distance of up to 100 meters.

***WATCHMAN...AND how may will this SAFE device KILL???...

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MARCH 31, 2009--------

SCIENTISTS FIND SAFER WAY TO MAKE HUMAN STEM CELLS

U.S. researchers said on Thursday they have found a safer way to coax human skin cells into becoming powerful embryonic-like stem cells, taking a step closer to their potential use as treatments for diseases.

A team at the University of Wisconsin said they made the so-called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, from human cells without using viruses or exotic genes, which leave behind genetic material that might pose risks if the cells were used as medical therapies.

James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin, whose study appears in the journal Science, said the finding represents the first time researchers have made human induced pluripotent stem cells without inserting potentially problematic new genes into their DNA.

Many teams are working on better ways to get ordinary skin cells to behave like embryonic stem cells, the body's master cells that give rise to all 220 cell types in the human body.

Scientists hope to harness the unique qualities of these cells to create new treatments for a variety of medical conditions.

Induced pluripotent stem cells promise many of the possible therapeutic benefits of embryonic stem cells without the ethics controversy because, unlike embryonic stem cells, they can be created without destroying a human embryo.

But earlier methods of making the iPS cells required the use of viruses as a vehicle, or ‘vector,’ to carry genes into the cells and trigger cell reprogramming.

Thomson said the new method uses a circle of DNA called a plasmid, which carries the genes needed to transform a skin cell into an iPS cell.

Over time, the plasmid disappears naturally from the cell population, avoiding the danger posed by using viruses, which can insert harmful genes into the cells' genetic material

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MARCH 26, 2009--------

STATES CONSIDER HARDER LINE ON STEM CELL RESEARCH

President Obama's executive order to lift restrictions on embryonic stem cell research is coming up against legislative blockades in states around the country.

Legislators in Georgia and Oklahoma are considering bills that would limit, if not outright prohibit, scientists from working with human embryonic stem cells in their research to cure or reverse medical conditions, including diabetes, paralysis and Parkinson's disease. In Texas and Mississippi, lawmakers are considering blocking state funding for that research, mirroring existing laws in other states.

‘I just think it's immoral to create life and destroy it in the name of science,’ said Georgia State Sen. Ralph Hudgens. ‘In Nazi Germany they did experiments with human beings. I don't want to see that done here.’

Were the bills to pass, they could face legal challenges, said John Robertson, a law and bioethics professor at the University of Texas School of Law.

‘It's unclear at this point. It will really depend on how the statutes are written,’ he said. ‘The courts have struck these laws down in some cases in terms of vagueness.’

Earlier this month Obama reversed restrictions ordered eight years ago by President Bush that limited federal funding for embryonic stem cell research to 21 specific stem cell lines created prior to August 2001.

The National Institutes of Health is currently working on new guidelines that could open up federal funding for research on close to 600 stem cell lines.

‘You've got a lot better lines to work with right now,’ said Sean Tipton, director of public affairs for the American Society of Reproductive Medicine. ‘It's not a quantity question as much as a quality issue. The Bush policy locked us into old technology.’

At their essence, stem cells are the construction workers of the human body. Embryonic stem cells, drawn from human embryos, can morph into varying tissue types, forming bones, organs and skin.

In a laboratory, an embryonic stem cell can be induced to form into every one of the more than 200 cell types found in the human body. Stem cells, in theory, might be triggered to rebuild a damaged spinal cord or form insulin-producing pancreatic tissue in a diabetic.

Scientists extract stem cells from the live human embryos that are discarded at fertility clinics. Pro-life activists oppose the process, because it is fatal to the embryo. Supporters say that the embryo will be discarded anyway, and harvesting its stem cells can provide medical benefits

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MARCH 13, 2009--------

ARTIFICIAL LIFE 'COULD BE CREATED WITHIN FIVE YEARS'

Artificial life could be created ‘within five years’, researchers from the USA have claimed.

Laboratories across the world are closing in on a ‘second genesis’ - an achievement that would be one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of all time.

Prof David Deamer, from California University, said although building a new life form from scratch is a daunting task he is confident it can happen in five to 10 years.

He said: ‘The momentum is building - we're knocking at the door.’

A synthetic, made-to-order living system could produce everything from new drugs to biofuels and greenhouse gas absorbers.

Opponents of the controversial research claim the technology could lead to machines becoming ‘almost human’.

But there would be no safety issues for a long time as any initial organisms would be very primitive and need large-scale life support in the lab, reports New Scientist.

The finishing line could be in sight after geneticists Professor George Church and Dr Michael Jewett, of Harvard Medical School, told a synthetic biology conference in Hong Kong that they had synthetically created part of a cell, called a ribosome.

The breakthrough offers hope that they could create an entire cell; something Prof Church believes would be a relatively minor challenge.

He said: ‘There's nothing you'd expect to go wrong - the way we expected things to go wrong with the assembly.’

However, according to Dr Anthony Forster, of Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, who is also creating a synthetic living cell in a test tube with Prof Church, ‘until you actually try this you won't know’

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MARCH 2, 2009--------

CANADIAN STEM CELL BREAKTHROUGH

The ethical debate over embryonic stem cell use may soon be moot, thanks to a Canadian team of researchers who, together with a team out of Scotland, has found a safe way to grow stem cells from a patient's own skin.

The revolutionary finding, described in a paper published yesterday by the international science journal Nature, means doctors may be one step closer to treating a multitude of diseases, including Alzheimer's, diabetes and Parkinson's.

Someday, the regenerative and adaptive qualities of these skin-based stem cells could be used to repair damaged organs, bones and muscles, replace brain neurons and insulin-producing pancreatic cells, and even farm new organs for transplant use.

The Canada-led discovery, headed by Dr. Andras Nagy of Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital, was more than a year in the making and advanced the headline-grabbing breakthroughs of U.S. and Japanese researchers in November, 2007.

While the Japanese and U.S. findings proved it was possible to create stem cells from a patient's skin - the Japanese used cells from a 36-year-old woman's face and the Americans used those from infant foreskins - both teams used viruses to insert the four necessary reprogramming genes into the genome of a mature skin cells. The use of viruses is associated with an increased risk of cancer and developmental disabilities and, according to the Nature paper, may also ‘cause unpredictable genetic dysfunction.’

Dr. Nagy's team of 10 researchers combined their separate knowledge with that of a University of Edinburgh team led by Dr. Keisuke Kaji, becoming the first to successfully grow human stem cells without the help of viruses.

Instead, the scientists at Mount Sinai's Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute used an electric shock to insert the reprogramming genes into a ‘jumping gene’ - a transformative piece of DNA found in moths, corn and other species. This jumping gene can move around to different positions within the genome of a single cell and, once a skin cell is persuaded back to its embryonic state, the jumping gene can be removed to prevent any damage.

Also, because human stem cells - also known as ‘induced pluripotent stems’ - are bred from the patient's own skin, they pose no threat of immune rejection, mitigating another medical drawback of embryonic stem cell use

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  February 23, 2009--------

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  February 18, 2009--------

Race for 'God particle' heats up

Europe's particle physics lab, Cern, is losing ground rapidly in the race to discover the elusive Higgs boson, or "God particle", its US rival claims.

The particle, whose existence has been predicted by theoreticians, would help to explain why matter has mass. Finding the Higgs is a major goal of Cern's Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

But the US Fermilab says the odds of its Tevatron accelerator detecting the famed particle first are now 50-50 at worst, and up to 96% at best.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  February 17, 2009--------

New Artificial DNA Points to Alien Life

A strange, new genetic code a lot like that found in all terrestrial life is sitting in a beaker full of oily water in a laboratory in Florida, a scientist said, calling it the first example of an artificial chemical system that is capable of Darwinian evolution.

The main difference between the synthetic molecules and those that make up conventional DNA is that Benner's molecules cannot make copies of themselves, although that is just "a couple of years" away, he said.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  February 13, 2009--------

UNSEEN DARK COMETS 'COULD POSE DEADLY THREAT TO EARTH'

Unseen ‘dark’ comets could pose a deadly threat to earth, astronomers have warned.

The comets, of which there could be thousands, are not currently monitored by observatories and space agencies.

Most comets and asteroids are monitored in case they start to travel towards earth.

But Bill Napier, from Cardiff University, said that many could be going by unnoticed.

‘There is a case to be made that dark, dormant comets are a significant but largely unseen hazard,’ he said.

Scientists estimate that there should be around 3,000 comets in the galaxy, but only 25 have so far been identified.

‘Dark’ comets happen when the water on their surface has evaporated, causing them to reflect less light.

Astronomers have previously spotted comets heading towards earth just days before they passed.

In 1983 a comet called IRAS-Araki-Alcock passed at a distance of just 5 million kilometres, the closest of any comet for 200 years, but it was noticed just a fortnight beforehand.

Tests on another comet, called Comet Borrelly, in 2001 revealed it to have large dark patches across much of its surface…”

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  January 30, 2009--------

Genetically Modified Pigs to be Bred for Organ Transplant Harvesting

A British lord and fertility researcher has announced plans to breed genetically engineered pigs, for the purpose of harvesting their organs for transplant into humans.

"Pigs' organs are the right size for human transplantation, and they work similarly to human organs," said Lord Winston, head of the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology at Hammersmith Hospital in London.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  January 27, 2009--------

Scientists try to build a synthetic brain

U.S. scientists say they are attempting to build neurons from carbon nanotubes to emulate human brain function.

"At this point we still don't know if building a synthetic brain is feasible," said University of Southern California Professor Alice Parker.

The research is funded by the National Science Foundation.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  January 23, 2009--------

Medical 'microbot' to swim human arteries

The "microbot" measures just a quarter of a millimeter, or "two or three human hairs wide," said lead scientist James Friend, from the Nanophysics Laboratory at Monash University, Australia.

The motorized robot is small enough to be injected into the human bloodstream, its inventors believe.

One day, the remote-controlled bot could carry sensor equipment for observation work, relaying images back to surgeons.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  December 24, 2008--------

3D TV revolution: Sky promises images that leap out of the screen

Sky is promising to 'blow away' viewers by introducing 3D television to millions of living rooms within the next year. The satellite broadcaster demonstrated the technology this week - showing images shot at rugby and football matches which made the action appear to leap out of the screen.

Viewers will need to wear special glasses which allow the brain to process images so that they appear to be in your living room. Gerry O'Sullivan, Sky's product development director, said the proposed service would be piped to the firm's existing high-definition (HD) set-top boxes.

'Lots of people have seen a 3D film - we want to bring that experience into the living room,' he said. 'Everyone who has seen the 3D service has been blown away by it.' Filming in 3D involves using two separate cameras which are placed close together as they mimic the behavior and alignment of the human eye focusing on the left and right angle of an image.

The images are then edited and converted into a 3D picture through a processor. Brian Lenz, the company's head of product design and innovation, added: 'We're just exploring right now but the next step is going to be to find out whether 3DTV is something people are going to be interested in.'

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  December 16, 2008--------

Scientists develop software that can map dreams

A team of Japanese scientists have created a device that enables the processing and imaging of thoughts and dreams as experienced in the brain to appear on a computer screen.

While researchers have so far only created technology that can reproduce simple images from the brain, the discovery paves the way for the ability to unlock people's dreams and other brain processes.

A spokesman at ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories said: "It was the first time in the world that it was possible to visualise what people see directly from the brain activity. "By applying this technology, it may become possible to record and replay subjective images that people perceive like dreams."

The scientists, lead by chief researcher Yukiyaso Kamitani, focused on the image recognition procedures in the retina of the human eye. It is while looking at an object that the eye's retina is able to recognise an image, which is subsequently converted into electrical signals se nt into the brain's visual cortex.

The research investigated how electrical signals are captured and reconstructed into images, according to the study, which will be published in the US journal Neuron. Dreams were the focus of a scientific survey conducted by the Telegraph last year in which it was concluded that dreams were more likely to be shaped by events of the past week than childhood traumas

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  December 12, 2008--------

Inventor builds female robot

She is the perfect wife, with the body of a pin-up and housekeeping skills. Her name is Aiko, she can even read a map. Aiko is a robot, a fantasy brought to life by inventor Le Trung.

She is always happy to clean the house for "husband" Le, help with his accounts or get him a drink.

The couple often goes for a drive in the countryside, and they always sit down for dinner together in the evening.

Le, 33, from Ontario, Canada, has spent two years and £14,000 building his dream girl. Originally he was going to make a robot to help the elderly, but strayed off course during his creation of the robot.

Le says his relationship with Aiko hasn't strayed into the bedroom, but a few "tweaks" could turn her into a sexual partner.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  December 4, 2008--------

BRITISH TEAM LEAD STEM CELL HEART SURGERY THAT COULD END NEED FOR TRANSPLANTS

The researchers at Imperial College London are perfecting a technique to rebuild a heart severely damaged and scarred by disease or cardiac arrest.

They have discovered a way to extract, grow in the laboratory and then graft on a patient's own muscle-building cells which then can be used to patch up the heart and increase its pumping power.

Eventually it could end the need for transplants, revolutionize heart surgery and reduce the 238,000 lives lost every year to heart disease, the UK's biggest killer.

What is more, it could increase the quality of life for the million or so people who suffer a heart attack every year.

The world-leading research, which is being led by the American Professor Michael Schneider, was last night awarded The Medical Futures Innovation Award, otherwise known as a medical Oscar.

Dr Nicholas Boon, President of the British Cardiovascular Society and one of the judges for the awards, said: ‘This could transform the care for patients who have had heart attacks or have heart disease.

‘Because the cell therapy uses a patient's own cells, it negates the risks or complications associated with other treatment options such as rejection linked to transplantation.’

Andy Goldberg, an orthopedic surgeon who founded the awards, said: ‘It is early stages but if this research does what it says on the tin it will be absolutely massive.

‘It will be the biggest breakthrough in heart disease treatment.’

In a cardiac arrest, heart muscle cells die but existing treatments do not repair the damage to the muscle and have a limited effect on heart function.

At the moment, there is no cure because the heart cannot heal itself, although medication can ease the symptoms. A last resort is a transplant which is incredibly risky and not always successful.

The team at the Cardiovascular Science at the National Heart and Lung Institute have discovered a way to rejuvenate hearts using a specialist versions of heart stem cells - known as ‘progenitor’ cells - found in small quantities in human hearts.

Professor Schneider was among the first to show that stem or ‘progenitor’ cells exist in heart muscle, and then developed techniques to purify progenitor cells from a patient's heart and grow them in the laboratory.

Naturally there are only around 300 of these special cells for every million normal heart cells. The team thinks they are just there to help the heart recover from normal wear and tear.

The research team has solved the problem, however, by isolating the special cells from human hearts and cloning them in the lab. Then, using a proprietary, non-toxic technique, they have multiplied them

***WATCHMAN... The DANGER here is in the keyword "CLONING"... receiver BEWARE as no one knows what "CLONED" cells will do in the human body... (I worked as a scientist in this area)

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  Dec--------

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  November 24, 2008--------

Genetically Modified Humans With "Immortal Cells"? Scientists Step Closer To Elixir Of Youth

A naturally occuring substance that can create "immortal cells" could be the key to finding a real elixir of youth, scientists claim. Researchers believe boosting the amount of a naturally forming enzyme in the body could prevent cells dying and so lead to extended, healthier, lifespans.

The protein telomerase helps maintain the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes which act like the ends of shoelaces and stop them unravelling.

As we age, and our cells divide, these caps become frayed and shorter and eventually are so damaged that the cell dies.

Scientists believe boosting our natural levels of telomerase could rejuvenate them.

A team at the Spanish National Cancer Centre in Madrid tested the theory on mice and found that those genetically engineered to produce 10 times the normal levels of telomerase lived 50 per cent longer than normal.

Maria Blasco, who led the research, told the New Scientist said that the enzyme was capable of turning "a norm al, mortal cell into an immortal cell".

She added that she was optimistic that a similar approach may eventually lead to extended human lifespans - though she urged caution

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  November 21, 2008--------

MAMMOTH'S GENOME PIECED TOGETHER

A US-Russian team of researchers has pieced together most of the genome of a woolly mammoth, Nature journal reports.

The experts extracted DNA from samples of mammoth hair to reconstruct the genetic sequence of this Ice Age beast.

Though some stretches are missing, the researchers estimate that the genome is roughly 80% complete.

The work could provide insights into the extinction of the mammoth and also resurrects questions about the viability of cloning long-dead species.

The scientists were aided in their task by the fact that several deep-frozen carcasses of woolly mammoths have been dug out of the permafrost in Siberia.

These conditions are ideal for the preservation of hair, which is a preferred source for the extraction of ancient DNA…

Enthusiasts have long dreamt of using ancient DNA to bring extinct species back from the dead. But most scientists are doubtful this could ever be achieved.

The changes that creep into an animal's genetic sequence after its death pose a significant challenge.

‘It's a bit like trying to build a car with only 80% of the parts and knowing that some of the parts are already broken,’ said Jeremy Austin, deputy director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide.

‘Even if we did have the genome in its entirety, we still have the problem of knowing what is a real mutation versus what is [a] sequencing error or DNA damage. At a genome scale, this in itself is an almost insurmountable problem.

‘After this we have the issues of how to construct artificial chromosomes.’

Hendrik Poinar, a geneticist from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, commented: ‘We have no idea - yet - how many chromosomes mammoths had.’

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  November 20, 2008--------

WINDPIPE TRANSPLANT BREAKTHROUGH

Surgeons in Spain have carried out the world's first tissue-engineered whole organ transplant - using a windpipe made with the patient's own stem cells.

The groundbreaking technology also means for the first time tissue transplants can be carried out without the need for anti-rejection drugs.

Five months on the patient, 30-year-old mother-of-two Claudia Castillo, is in perfect health, The Lancet reports.

She needed the transplant to save a lung after contracting tuberculosis.

The disease had damaged her airways.

Scientists from Bristol helped grow the cells for the transplant and the European team believes such tailor-made organs could become the norm.

To make the new airway, the doctors took a donor windpipe, or trachea, from a patient who had recently died.

Then they used strong chemicals and enzymes to wash away all of the cells from the donor trachea, leaving only a tissue scaffold made of the fibrous protein collagen.

This gave them a structure to repopulate with cells from Ms Castillo herself, which could then be used in an operation to repair her damaged left bronchus - a branch of the windpipe.

By using Ms Castillo's own cells the doctors were able to trick her body into thinking the donated trachea was part of it, thus avoiding rejection.

Two types of cell were taken from Ms Castillo: cells lining her windpipe, and adult stem cells - very immature cells from the bone marrow - which could be encouraged to grow into the cells that normally surround the windpipe…

Professor Martin Birchall, professor of surgery at the University of Bristol who helped grow the cells for the transplant, said: ‘This will represent a huge step change in surgery.

‘Surgeons can now start to see and understand the potential for adult stem cells and tissue engineering to radically improve their ability to treat patients with serious diseases.’

He said that in 20 years time, virtually any transplant organ could be made in this way

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  November 4, 2008--------

FROZEN MICE CLONED - ARE WOOLLY MAMMOTHS NEXT?

Japanese scientists have cloned mice whose bodies were frozen for as long 16 years and said on Monday it may be possible to use the technique to resurrect mammoths and other extinct species.

Mouse cloning expert Teruhiko Wakayama and colleagues at the Center for Developmental Biology, at Japan's RIKEN research institute in Yokohama, managed to clone the mice even though their cells had burst.

‘Thus, nuclear transfer techniques could be used to 'resurrect' animals or maintain valuable genomic stocks from tissues frozen for prolonged periods without any cryopreservation,’ they wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

***WATCHMAN... They may also RESSURECT DISEASES modern man has NO NATURAL IMMUNITY for...

Wakayama's team used the classic nuclear transfer technique to make their mouse clones. This involves taking the nucleus out of an egg cell and replacing it with the nucleus of an ordinary cell from the animal to be cloned.

When done with the right chemical or electric trigger, this starts the egg dividing as if it had been fertilized by a sperm.

‘Cloning animals by nuclear transfer provides an opportunity to preserve endangered mammalian species,’ they wrote.

‘However, it has been suggested that the 'resurrection' of frozen extinct species (such as the woolly mammoth) is impracticable, as no live cells are available, and the genomic material that remains is inevitably degraded,’ they said.

Wakayama's team dug out some mice that had been kept frozen for years and whose cells were indisputably damaged. Freezing causes cells to burst and can damage the DNA inside. Chemicals called cryoprotectants can prevent this but they must be used before the cells are frozen.

They tried using cells from several places and discovered that the brains worked best. This is a bit of a mystery, as no one has yet cloned any living mouse from a brain cell.

Many animals have been cloned, starting with sheep, and including pigs, cattle, mice and dogs. Livestock breeders want to use cloning to start elite herds of desirable animals, and doctors want to use cloning technology in human medicine.

‘There is hope in bringing Ted Williams back, after all,’ cloning and stem cell expert John Gearhart of the University of Pennsylvania said in an e-mail. The family of Williams, the Boston Red Sox hitter, had his body frozen by cryogenics firm Alcor after he died in 2002.

Gearhart was only half-joking and said the study ‘may now stimulate the small industry of freezing parts of us before we die to bring us back in the future.’

Mammoths may be the extinct animals that scientists would be most likely to try to clone, as many of the animals have been found preserved in ice

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

BRITISH LAWMAKERS BACK ANIMAL-HUMAN EMBRYO RESEARCH

The lower house of parliament approved legislation Wednesday allowing scientists to create animal-human embryos for medical research, in the biggest shake-up of embryology laws in two decades.

Despite opposition from religious and pro-life groups, MPs in the House of Commons backed the Human Embryology and Fertilization Bill by 355 votes to 129. It will now go to a vote in the House of Lords, and could be law by November.

The wide-ranging bill, which has been debated for months, would also allow ‘saviour siblings’ -- children created as a close genetic match for a sick brother or sister so their genetic material can help treat them.

In addition, it gives lesbians and single women easier access to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment by removing requirements for clinics to consider a child's need for a father.

Health Minister Dawn Primarolo told lawmakers the bill was about helping the one in seven couples who needed fertility assistance, and about research to deal with diseases such as Alzheimer's, which affects 350,000 Britons.

Hybrid embryos, created by inserting the nuclei of a human cell into an animal egg, can ensure a more plentiful supply of stem cells for use in research into treating conditions like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is a strong defendant of the measures, saying Britain owes it to future generations. His son, Fraser, has cystic fibrosis, a disease which could one day benefit from embryo research

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  October 17, 2008--------

HOPE FOR PARAPLEGICS AS SCIENTISTS RE-LINK BRAIN TO MUSCLES

Researchers are developing a technique that bypasses spinal injuries and nerve damage and allows patients to once again directly control movement through thought.

They believe the breakthrough could lead in 10 years to a dramatic improvement in the quality of life of paraplegics allowing them to carry out simple tasks like holding coffee cups and eventually even helping them to walk again.

The new ‘neuroprosthetic device’ involves placing implants in the brain which are connected to a computer which in turn is connected to limb muscles.

The results may have promising implications for millions of people around the world affected by spinal cord injuries and neurological diseases.

‘Potentially this could help people with spinal cord injuries to walk again, ‘ said Chet Moritz who carried out the research with Eberhard Fetz.

The team from the University of Washington have demonstrated that the new system works in monkeys whose arms were temporarily anaesthetised.

In the study, published in Nature, the researchers trained a monkey to play a simple video game using its hand to twist a button on a control panel.

Then they paralyzed the monkeys arm by chemically blocking the nerve controlling it and attached the device.

Soon the monkey was able to play the game again using the artificial link.

It will be at least a decade before the system could be used in human patients, according to Dr. Fetz

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  September 11, 2008 --------

'BIG BANG' EXPERIMENT STARTS WELL

Scientists have hailed a successful switch-on for an enormous experiment which will recreate the conditions a few moments after the Big Bang.

They have fired a beam of particles called protons around the 27km-long tunnel which houses the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The £5bn machine on the Swiss-French border is designed to smash particles together with cataclysmic force.

Scientists hope it will shed light on fundamental questions in physics.

The beam completed its first circuit of the underground tunnel at just before 0930 BST.

‘There it is,’ project leader Lyn Evans said when the beam completed its lap. There were cheers in the control room when engineers heard of the successful test.

He added later: ‘We had a very good start-up.’

The LHC is arguably the most complicated and ambitious experiment ever built; the project has been hit by cost overruns, equipment trouble and construction problems. The switch-on itself is two years late.

The collider is operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research - better known by its French acronym Cern.

The vast circular tunnel - the ‘ring’ - which runs under the French-Swiss border contains more than 1,000 cylindrical magnets arranged end-to-end.

The magnets are there to steer the beam - made up of particles called protons - around this 27km-long ring.

Eventually, two proton beams will be steered in opposite directions around the LHC at close to the speed of light, completing about 11,000 laps each second.

At allotted points around the tunnel, the beams will cross paths, smashing together near four massive ‘detectors’ that monitor the collisions for interesting events.

Scientists are hoping that new sub-atomic particles will emerge, revealing fundamental insights into the nature of the cosmos

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Reflex biometrics may replace eye and fingerprint scans

Electronic fingerprinting, iris scans, and signature recognition software are all becoming commonplace biometrics for user authentication and security. However, they all suffer from one major drawback - they can be spoofed by a sufficiently sophisticated intruder.

Japanese researchers describe a new approach based on a person's reflexes that could never be copied, forged, or spoofed.

Biometrics makes it possible to authenticate a person accurately, they say. The team has turned to one phenomenon that cannot be spoofed - a person's unique reflex responses.

They point out that even if a person's pattern of reflex characteristics were revealed to a malicious third-party, they would not be able to replicate them adequately to impersonate the authorized individual.

......................................

 The U.S. military is paying scientists to study ways to read people's thoughts.
The hope is that the research could someday lead to a gadget capable of translating the thoughts of soldiers who suffered brain injuries in combat or even stroke patients in hospitals. But the research also raises concerns that such mind-reading technology could be used to interrogate the enemy.

Armed with a $4 million grant from the Army, scientists are studying brain signals to try to decipher what a person is thinking and to whom the person wants to direct the message, known as electroencephalography, or EEG, which measures the brain's electrical activity through electrodes placed on the scalp.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  August 15, 2008--------

U.S. green lights 'anything into oil'

Defense Department OKs facilities turning natural produce into energy

Naturally occurring bacteria used to convert biomass into hydrocarbons.

A Georgia company looking to solve America's energy problem has finally teamed up with the federal government, hoping to make millions of barrels of oil every day from virtually anything that grows out of the Earth.

Bell Bio-Energy, Inc. says it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Defense Department to build seven test production plants, mostly on military bases, to quickly turn naturally grown material into fuel.

"What this means is that with the seven pilot plants – the military likes to refer to them as demonstrations – with those being built … it gives us the real-time engineering data that we need to finish the designs for a full-scale production facility," J.C. Bell, the man behind the project.

"In 18 months or so, we will start manufacturing oil directly from waste and we will build up to about 500,000 barrels a day within two years. In another six months, we'll reach a million barrels a day."

As the United States now imports about 13 million barrels of oil a day, the only obstacle then to total energy independence from foreign sources will be the money needed to develop the processing plants, he said.

"Working with the USDA we've identified enough waste material around the country, we truly believe we can make the United States totally energy independent of foreign countries in about five years," he said.

It was originally reported on the project in March as Bell, an agricultural researcher, confirmed he'd isolated and modified specific bacteria that will, on a very large scale, naturally and rapidly convert plant material – including the leftovers from food – into hydrocarbons to fuel cars and trucks.

That means trash like corn stalks and corn cobs – even the grass clippings from suburban lawns – can be turned into oil and gasoline to run trucks, buses and cars.

Wood pulp is among the many natural materials that can be converted into oil and gasoline, according to Bell Bio-Energy, Inc., of Tifton, Ga.

He said he made the discovery standing downwind from his cows at his food-production company, Bell Plantation, in Tifton, Ga.

"Cows are like people that eat lots of beans. They're really, really good at making natural gas," he said. "It dawned on me that that natural gas was methane."

It was also reported how the national news media more or less ignored his announcement of a potential solution to America's dependence on Middle East nations for its oil.

But the U.S. military was listening. And Bell now confirms his agreement with the Department of Defense, the Defense Energy Support Center and the Army will have seven demonstration facilities built at Fort Benning and Fort Stewart in Georgia, Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort AP Hill in Virginia, Fort Drum in New York and Fort Lewis in Washington, as well as one more installation in San Pedro, Calif.

"We should have all of the plants running within 60 days," he said. "This is a big step in our growth, from the engineering that we develop with these plants, we will be able to build our full-scale production facilities and be in full production in the next 12 to 18 months.

"Everyone now accepts the fact that we can make oil through bacterial action and now it is just a matter of time and money until we are turning out one million to two million barrels per day," he said.

He said the first full-scale facility probably will cost $100 million to $125 million to build, and that an investment of $2.5 billion likely will be needed to reach a production level of a million barrels per day.

But he said the return – even if the oil were sold for $70 a barrel, just half of what it was going for six weeks ago and still substantially lower than the current market rate of about $110 a barrel – would be significant.

"It will feel very, very good to be to the point where we finally turn off the spigot from overseas," he said.

The process previously had been verified, said Dr. Art Robinson, a research professor of chemistry at the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine who publishes the Access to Energy newsletter. "These other ways [of producing energy] work; the only question is if they're competitive in price. Any hydrocarbon under pressure and temperature can turn into oil."

How big does Bell believe the process eventually could be?

"With minor changes in the agricultural and forestry products, we could create two to two and a half billion tons of biomass a year, and you're looking at five billion barrels of oil per year," he said.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  August 7, 2008--------

Puppies mark birth of commercial pet cloning

A U.S. woman received five puppies that were cloned from her beloved late pitbull, becoming the inaugural customer of a South Korean company that says it is the world's first successful commercial canine cloning service.

Seoul-based RNL Bio said the clones of Bernann McKinney's dog Booger were born last week after being cloned in cooperation with a team of Seoul National University scientists who created the world's first cloned dog in 2005.

"It's a miracle!" McKinney repeatedly shouted Twhen she saw the cloned Boogers for which she paid $50,000. "Yes, I know you! You know me, too!" McKinney said joyfully, hugging the puppies

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JULY 24, 2008--------

Animal testing on the rise

Scientists carried out a record number of experiments on animals last year, with the rise fuelled by genetic modification research. More than a third involved genetically modified animals.

Latest figures show there were 3.2million 'procedures' on lab animals in 2007, a rise of 6% on the previous year and the sixth year in a row that the figure has gone up.

Scientists said animal experiments were essential for medical research into diseases. A procedure includes anything from cutting open an animal to breeding a mouse.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JULY 16, 2008--------

Scientists: Humans and machines will merge in future

In Britain, a group of experts from around the world are holding a first of its kind 4 day conference on global catastrophic risks, such as asteroid impact and nuclear terrorism.

Some anticipate a coming era where biotechnology, molecular nanotechnologies, artificial intelligence and other new types of cognitive tools will be used to amplify our intellectual capacity, improve our physical capabilities and even enhance our emotional well-being.

The end result would be a new form of "posthuman" life with beings that possess qualities and skills so exceedingly advanced they no longer can be classified simply as humans.

An entity which is a lot smarter than human beings would also be very powerful. It could take anywhere from 8 years or 200 years they predict.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JULY 9, 2008--------

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 18, 2008--------

TRIO OF 'SUPER-EARTHS' DISCOVERED ORBITING ONE STAR

European astronomers said Monday they have discovered five ‘super-Earths’ — including three orbiting a single star — which they say suggests Earth-like planets could be very common outside our solar system.

The discoveries, revealed at a conference in France, were made using a spectrograph at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, which is run by the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, or ESO.

Planet hunter Michel Mayor, best known for discovering the first confirmed planet outside our solar system, said in a statement the finds suggest the search for Earth-like planets has just begun.

‘Does every single star harbor planets and, if yes, how many? We may not yet know the answer but we are making huge progress towards it,’ said Mayor, the principal investigator at the ESO's Geneva Observatory.

The term Earth-like planet is a rather broad definition and includes planets with a mass below 30 Earth masses; in other words, planets smaller than gas giants like Jupiter or Saturn. But because they aren't as easy to spot as gas giants, even the largest of these planets evaded detection until recent years.

These planets are often discovered, but not seen directly, by monitoring the slight changes their gravitational pull have on the velocity of their stars. Occasionally a planet will actually pass in front of the Earth's view of the star and provide an even clearer signal of its presence. But in either case, the more frequently the planet orbits the star, the easier it is to spot.

The ESO said the recent discoveries bring to 45 the total number of Earth-like planets with an orbital period shorter than 50 days it has discovered, and suggests one in three stars similar to our sun may harbor such planets

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 3, 2008--------

TISSUE OF DEAD HUMANS TO BE CLONED

Scientists are to be permitted to use tissue from dead people to create cloned human stem cells for research, under a legal change put forward by the government.

Health ministers have proposed that laboratories should be allowed to use stored human tissue to create cloned embryonic stem cells without the explicit consent of the tissue donor. This would allow research to be done on tissue donated for medical research as long as 30 years ago. Scientists would also be able to use cells from people who have died since they donated their tissue or who cannot be contacted.

Many laboratories have banks of stored tissue which act as DNA libraries that can play a vital role in finding cures for serious disorders such as diabetes and motor neurone disease.

Ministers have until now insisted that scientists contact tissue donors to gain explicit consent before DNA can be used to create cloned embryonic stem cells.

Leading scientists, including three Nobel prize winners, say gaining such consent is sometimes impossible because the donors have died, donated anonymously or cannot be contacted. They say the ban on using DNA without consent could hold up vital research

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 2, 2008--------

Computer trained to 'read' mind

A computer has been trained to "read" people's minds by looking at scans of their brains as they thought about specific words, researchers said on Thursday.

They hope their study, published in the journal Science, might lead to better understanding of how and where the brain stores information.

"The question we are trying to get at is one people have been thinking about for centuries, which is: How does the brain organize knowledge?" Mitchell said in a telephone interview.

"It is only in the last 10 or 15 years that we have this way that we can study this question."

Mitchell's team used functional magnetic resonance imaging, a type of brain scan that can see real-time brain activity.

They calibrated the computer by having nine student volunteers think of 58 different words, while imaging their brain activity.

"We gave instructions to people where we would tell them, 'We are going to show you words and we would like you, when you see this word, to think about its properties,"' Mitchell said.

They imaged each of the nine people thinking about the 58 different words, to create a kind of "average" image of a word.

"If I show you the brain images for two words, the main thing you notice is that they look pretty much alike.

If you look at them for a while you might see subtle differences," Mitchell said.

"We have the program calculate the mean brain activity over all of the words that somebody has looked at.

That gives us the average when somebody thinks about a word, and then we subtract that average out from all those images,"

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MAY 30, 2008 MAY --------

MONKEYS USE BRAIN SIGNALS TO OPERATE ROBOTIC ARM

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have done what until now has only been on the drawing board. They have made it possible for a monkey to move a robotic arm with brain signals.

Experts say the technology could help individuals who are paralyzed due to spinal cord injuries or who are unable to move to due conditions such as Lou Gehrig's disease.

In a study published this week in the journal Nature, researchers report they have made it possible for two monkeys to feed themselves marshmallows and chunks of fruit with human-like precision using a robotic arm activated by signals from a region of the brain known as the cerebral cortex.

During the experiments, the monkeys' arms were tied to their sides and the robotic arm was placed at the shoulder.

Senior study author Andrew Schwartz of the University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine says thin wires placed in the animals' brains detected movement signals given off by about one hundred neurons or nerve cells in the motor cortex.

Schwartz says the signals were then fed into a computer, which generates movement in the robot arm that is extremely life-like.

‘Using this in a really natural way, the movement is smooth,’ said Andrew Schwartz. ‘It has the same kind of velocity profile and movement characteristics as a real movement would.’

Schwartz says researchers can only speculate how the primates learn to use the robotic arm.

‘It's hard to ask the monkeys what they are feeling,’ he said. ‘But it seems to me that it would be like the kind of skill that you have when you work a mouse and look at the cursor on your computer screen.

It doesn't take very long before you are just thinking about the cursor and you are not considering about what your hand is doing at all.’

In fact, your hand is moving on the table top and your cursor is moving on the screen, which is perpendicular, but you don't make that transformation consciously

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MAY 23, 2008 MAY --------

Extinct animal's DNA reactivated

In a breakthrough Jurassic Park-like experiment, scientists have resurrected genes from the Tasmanian tiger - a meat-eating marsupial that became extinct more than 70 years ago - by injecting them into mouse embryos.

The Tasmanian tiger, the largest of the carnivorous marsupials, was wiped out in the wild by intensive hunting in the early 1900s. The stripy, wolf-like creatures grew up to six feet in length and had long, stiff tails and bulky heads.

Researchers at the University of Melbourne and Texas University in Houston extracted DNA from four 100-year-old museum specimens, including three preserved in alcohol, the journal PLoS One reported.

They isolated a string of genes from each and injected it into early-stage mouse embryos.

Tests on the growing mice revealed that a gene from the Tasmanian tiger called Col2a1 had switched on and was driving the growth of bone and cartilage in the young animals.

"This is the first time DNA from an extinct species has been used to induce a functional response in another living organism," said Andrew Pask, who led the study. Scientists now hope to use the technique to understand the role of other genes found in extinct animals.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MAY 19, 2008--------

Designer babies

News that scientists have for the first time genetically altered a human embryo is drawing fire from some watchdog groups that say it's a step toward creating "designer babies."

But an author of the study says the work was focused on stem cells. He notes that the researchers used an abnormal embryo that could never have developed into a baby anyway.

The idea of designer babies is that someday, scientists may insert particular genes into embryos to produce babies with desired traits like intelligence or athletic ability.

Some people find that notion repugnant, saying it turns children into designed objects, and would create an unequal society where some people are genetically enriched while others would be considered inferior.

The study appears to be the first report of genetically modifying a human embryo. It was done with an embryo that had extra chromosomes, making it nonviable.

The goal was to see if a gene introduced into an abnormal embryo could be traced in stem cells that are harvested from the embryo, he said. Such work could help shed light on why abnormal embryos fail to develop

But Kathy Hudson, director of the Genetics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., said she's not troubled by the research.

She said the idea of successfully modifying babies by inserting genes remains a technically daunting challenge. "We're not even close to having that technology in hand to be able to do it right," she said, and it would be ethically unacceptable to try it when it's unsafe.

..................................................

Star stumps astronomers

Astronomers are baffled after finding an exotic type of star called a pulsar apparently locked in an elongated orbit around a star much like the sun -- an arrangement defying what had been known about such objects.

The rapidly spinning pulsar -- an extraordinarily dense object created when a massive star exploded as a supernova -- is called J1903+0327 and is located about 21,000 light years from Earth, the astronomers said.

A light year is about 6 trillion miles, the distance light travels in a year.

"The big question is -- how in the heck did this thing form, because it doesn't follow our standard models of how these things form…If you were to ask any astronomer if we would have found a system like this, they would have said no. So this is a very big surprise” astronomer Scott Ransom of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia.

This object is known as a millisecond pulsar because of its speedy whirl -- it spins on its axis 465 times per second.

Until now, all of the ones found orbiting with another star have been doing so with a white dwarf, another type of dying star. In each case, they shared a perfectly circular orbit. But this one has a very elongated orbit around a star similar in size and composition to our sun.

"What we have found is a millisecond pulsar that is in the wrong kind of orbit around what appears to be the wrong kind of star," astronomer David Champion of the Australia Telescope National Facility said in a statement. "Now we have to figure out how this strange system was produced."

It was detected using a radio telescope in Puerto Rico.

**Watchman helper comment** By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

.........................................

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  APRIL 29, 2008--------

Mercury, Mars can destroy Earth

No one knows exactly how life on Earth will end.

But scientists claim that a collision with Mercury or Mars could destroy our planet long before the Sun bakes it to a crisp in five billion years` time.

Two separate studies suggest that the solar system's planets will continue to orbit the Sun stably for at least 40 million years.

But after that, there's a chance that Mercury's orbit will get out of whack in the next five billion years.

This would tend to destabilize the whole inner solar system and could lead to a catastrophic collision between Earth and either Mercury or Mars, wiping out any life still present at that time, the studies claim.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  APRIL 25, 2008 APRIL --------

Web pages have 'come alive and started breeding'

Living web sites that grow, develop and evolve to suit the taste of the people that read them are now finding their way on to the internet.

For two decades, computer scientists have played around with evolutionary software that can gradually evolve and mutate to carry out a task efficiently, or hone the design of a wing, robot or whatever, without the need for a programmer to get involved.

Now these techniques are being used to allow web sites to keep themselves up to date and to adapt to the latest fads and fashion, reports New Scientist.

Not only are they quicker to evolve than possible with human intervention, they offer the chance to come up with new ways to organise material in the web that work best for users.

Matthew Hockenberry and Ernesto Arroyo of Creative Synthesis, a non-profit organisation in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have created evolutionary software that alters colours, fonts and hyperlinks of pages in response to what seems to grab the attention of the people who click on the site.

To start, he used mouse-tracking software developed by Arroyo while at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on 24 people who were asked to use a basic web site template for a blog.

Once the blog went live, control of the design was out of their hands. The software treated each feature as a “gene” that was randomly changed as a page was refreshed.

After evaluating what seemed to work, it killed the genes associated with lower scoring features – say the link in an Arial font that was being ignored - and replaced them with those from higher scoring ones say, Helvetica

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  APRIL 15, 2008--------

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  APRIL 7, 2008 -------------

Earth's axis displacement to result in monstrous global changes

As the core nears the mantle of Earth, the number of earthquakes, tsunamis and volcano eruptions increases

The core of our planet is directly connected with the Earth's magnetic field.

Scientists noticed back in the 17th century that the field was constantly changing.

The Earth's magnetic intensity has reduced by almost five percent over the recent hundred of years.

The geomagnetic field is a peculiar screen, which protects the planet from space radiation.

If the screen is removed, the planet will be attacked with a strong radiation current, which will either kill all living beings on Earth or cause various mutations in the biosphere.

There is another danger too. It was noticed in 1829 that the Earth's inner core was displaced by 252 kilometers against the axis towards the Pacific Ocean.

The displacement had increased to 451 kilometers by 1965.

If the core continues moving towards the Earth's surface, the planet will simply turn over itself in space someday.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  APRIL 2, 2008 -------------

'BIG BANG' MACHINE COULD DESTROY THE PLANET, SAYS LAWSUIT

A giant particle accelerator that mimics the effects of the ‘Big Bang’ could destroy all life on Earth by sucking it into a black hole, a lawsuit claims.

Walter Wagner, who runs a botanical garden on Hawaii's Big Island, and Luis Sancho, a Spaniard, have asked for an injunction to prevent the European Center for Nuclear Research, or Cern, starting up the Large Hadron Collider.

The accelerator, which will be the world's most powerful particle smasher, is due to begin hurling protons at each other at its base outside Geneva this summer.

Physicists hope that the device, which has taken 14 years and £4 billion to build, will provide clues to the universe's origins by mimicking its condition a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang.

Although Cern scientists have already ruled out the possibility in a safety review, Mr. Wagner and Mr. Sancho say there is at least a small chance of total annihilation of the planet and maybe the universe.

They claim Cern has under-played the chances that the collider could produce a tiny black hole or a particle called a ‘killer strangelet’ that would turn the Earth into a shrunken lump of ‘strange matter’

Their lawsuit, filed in the Federal District Court in Honolulu, seeks a temporary restraining order banning Cern from finishing the accelerator until it has produced a safety report and an environmental assessment…

Cern is not bound by an American court's jurisdiction, but Mr. Wagner said a restraining order on Fermilab and the Energy Department, which helped to supply the accelerator's crucial super-conduction magnets, would be enough to stop the program.

A spokesman for Cern said the lawsuit's claims were ‘complete nonsense’. ‘Much higher energy collisions than those at the LHC occur in nature, because cosmic ray particles zip around our galaxy at close to the speed of light,’ he said.

‘The moon has undergone such collisions for five billion years without being devoured by a ravenous black hole or killer strangelet.’…

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  March 17, 2008 -------------

104 products on shelves already contain toxic 'grey goo' by stealth, say Friends of the Earth

Some skin creams use nano particles but many are now concerned about the use of the technology in foods

Potentially toxic chemicals are being incorporated into food, packaging, health supplements and other products by stealth, it is claimed.

Manufacturers boast that nanoparticles can deliver drugs or vitamins more effectively, kill harmful bugs in food or create self-cleaning windows.

But scientists, consumer groups and green campaigners fear the technology is being introduced into the diet, body and environment without proper safety checks.

Nanoparticles are 80,000 times thinner than a human hair - so small they can cross membranes protecting the brain or a baby in the womb.

Critics say it is not known how such tiny particles will interact with the body and organs in the long term, whether they are toxic or how long they will persist in the body.

Doom-mongers have warned that nanoparticles could mutate and reproduce out of control, consuming all life on earth, a scenario often referred to as "grey goo".

Yesterday a report by Friends of the Earth said current regulations are "ill-equipped" to deal with the unique properties of nanoparticles.

It said: "Despite concerns about the toxicity risks of nanomaterials, consumers are unknowingly ingesting them because regulators are struggling to keep pace with their rapidly expanding use."

The study found at least 104 food and agricultural products available in Europe, including the UK, which use nanotech particles or technology.

This includes some nutritional supplements under the Solgar brand, cling wrap and containers, antibacterial kitchenware, processed meats, chocolate drinks, baby food and chemicals used in agriculture.

Friends of the Earth's food and farming spokesman, Helen Holder, said: "Europeans should not be exposed to potentially toxic materials in their food and food packaging until proper regulations are in place to ensure their safety.

"In the absence of proper safety regulations or mandatory labelling, consumers are being left in the dark about the products they consume and are unknowingly putting their health and the environment at risk."

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  February 25, 2008 -------------

Futurist: Computer power will match the intelligence of human beings by 2030

Artificial intelligence portrayed in Hollywood movies like ‘The Terminator’ and ‘Blade Runner’ could be a reality in the next two decades.

A leading scientific “futurologist” has predicted that computer power will match the intelligence of human beings by 2030 because of the accelerating speed at which technology is advancing worldwide, ‘The Independent’ reported today.

According to computer guru Dr Ray Kurzweil, there will be 32 times more technical progress during the next half century than there was in the entire 20th century, and one of the outcomes is that artificial intelligence could be on a par with human intellect in the next 20 years.

He said that machines will rapidly overtake humans in their intellectual abilities and will soon be able to solve some of the most intractable problems of the 21st century.

Computers have so far been based on two-dimensional chips made from silicon, but there are developments already well advanced to make three-dimensional chips with vastly improved performances, and even to construct them out of biological molecules.

Three-dimensional, molecular computing will provide the hardware for human-level ‘strong artificial intelligence’ by the 2020s.

The more important software insights will be gained in part from the reverse engineering of the human brain, a process well under way.

“Already, two dozen regions of the human brain have been modelled and simulated,” the British newspaper quoted Dr Kurzweil as saying.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page February 7, 2007 --------

SCIENTISTS CREATE THREE PARENT EMBRYOS

British scientists have created human embryos with three parents in a development they hope could lead to effective treatments for a range of serious hereditary diseases within five years.

Researchers from Newcastle University, in northern England, presented their findings at a medical conference at the weekend, a university spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

The IVF, or test-tube, embryos were created using DNA from one man and two women.

The idea is to prevent women with faults in their mitochondrial DNA passing diseases on to their children. Around one in 5,000 children suffer from mitochondrial diseases, which can include fatal liver, heart and brain disorders, deafness, muscular problems and forms of epilepsy.

If all goes well, researchers believe they may be able to start offering the technique as a treatment in three to five years.

Mitochondria are tiny power packs inside cells that provide their energy. Faulty genetics can mean mitochondria do not completely burn food and oxygen, leading to the build-up of poisons responsible for more than 40 different diseases

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page January 29, 2007 --------

PLAYING GOD

Who wants to live for ever?

A scientific breakthrough could mean humans live for hundreds of years

By tweaking our DNA, we could soon survive for hundreds of years – if we want to. Steve Connor reports on a breakthrough that has the science world divided

A genetically engineered organism that lives 10 times longer than normal has been created by scientists in California. It is the greatest extension of longevity yet achieved by researchers investigating the scientific nature of ageing.

If this work could ever be translated into humans, it would mean that we might one day see people living for 800 years. But is this ever going to be a realistic possibility?

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page January 22, 2007 --------

Big Step Toward Human Clone Farms

LOS ANGELES - There is news out of California, which, if proven to be true, shows that one more moral line in the sand has been crossed.

Dr. Samuel Wood of Stemagen Corp. in La Jolla, California claims to have cloned himself.

“it was an amazing experience to look at that blastocyst and realize that it came from one

of my cells. It’s a bit like looking at yourself from a long time ago” he said.

Dorinda C. Bordlee, BDF senior counsel, added that this announcement, “puts young women’s reproductive health at risk because it will increase the demand for labs to treat women as egg farms by paying them to undergo dangerous hormone treatments so that the lab can harvest 10-20

human eggs per cycle for their cloning experiments.”

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page January 21, 2007 --------

US FIRM SAYS IT USED CLONING TO CREATE HUMAN EMBRYOS

Scientists at a U.S.-based private research firm say they have developed five human embryos using cloning technology.

Researchers from the California-based company Stemagen announced their findings Thursday in the journal Stem Cells. The scientists say they took the skin cells from two adult males and implanted the nuclei of those cells in human egg cells.

The scientists say they determined through genetic testing that at least three of the embryos were true clones. They say the genetic material in the other two embryos did not develop enough to draw conclusive tests.

Other scientists have greeted the news cautiously. South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk claimed in 2004 that he had used cloning technology to make human embryos, but he was later found to have faked parts of his research.

Human embryos are a source of stem cells that can be used to develop a number of different kinds of tissues. Doctors hope they could be used to treat diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

But opponents to the research, including President Bush, argue that destroying an embryo is tantamount to taking a human life

***WATCHMAN... IT TAKING A HUMAN LIFE -- I thought it was ILLEGAL in the USA???...

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page January 15, 2007 --------

SCIENTISTS REVIVE DEAD HEART

Researchers have brought a dead animal heart back to life in the lab by repopulating it with healthy cells, a feat they believe may someday allow them to grow new hearts and other organs for people desperate for transplants.

In a paper published online yesterday in Nature Medicine, researchers at the University of Minnesota describe the process of revitalizing the heart of a euthanized lab rat, which begins with washing out the interior cells to leave just the outer shell of the organ.

The scientists then injected the empty sac with heart cells from newborn rats. Within days, the cells had multiplied to flesh out the heart, which began beating on its own.

‘We've taken organs from cadavers, removed all the cells, put cells back in and been able to reanimate what was previously a dead organ,’ said molecular biologist Doris Taylor, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Repair at the University of Minnesota.

‘What that means, we hope, is that one day if you need a new organ, we'll be able to take your cells, transplant them into this framework or scaffold and build you an organ that works for you,’ she said.

‘We're not there yet, but we hope this opens a new door.’

Taylor's team has created these ‘bioartificial’ organs with hearts from dozens of rats and close to a dozen pigs, using a special detergent to destroy and clear out the dead cells, while leaving the outer structure intact.

What surprised and delighted the researchers was what happened once they injected the baby rat cells into the empty sac of the heart.

‘The cells began to reorganize in the wall of that heart,’ she said. ‘The ones that were going to make blood vessels moved to the spot where the blood vessels had been and relined the blood vessels, and the ones that were going to make muscle lined up in the wall and started to make new muscle.

‘And what it says is a couple of things. It says that this scaffold has a lot more information than we thought and that the cells know how to respond to that in some way.’

Co-investigator Dr. Harald Ott, a former research associate at the Minnesota cardiovascular repair center, who is now at Massachusetts General Hospital, said the research team used ‘nature's own building blocks to build a new organ.

‘When we saw the first contractions, we were speechless.’

The researchers believe new hearts could be built for people waiting for a transplant, either using the shell of a human cadaver heart or pig heart injected with the person's own stem cells. Their hope is that those stem cells would also grow to replace the outer sac, thereby preventing rejection by the body

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page January 14, 2007 --------

New Risk to Earth Found in Supernova Explosions

An explosive star within our galaxy is showing signs of an impending eruption, at least in a cosmic time frame, and has for quite some time. From 1838 to 1858, the star called Eta Carinae brightened to rival the light of Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, and then faded to a dim

star. Since 1940 it has been brightening again, and scientists think Eta Carinae will detonate in 10,000 to 20,000 years.

Fortunately, Eta Carinae is far away, at least 7,500 light-years from Earth. If it explodes, most of its energy will be scattered or absorbed in the vast emptiness of space. It also happens to be tilted about 45 degrees from the line of sight to Earth, so any type of gamma-ray burst, a high-energy outburst expected with this star's eventual eruption, would miss the Earth. Cosmic rays would be diffused by magnetic fields, and most of the damaging light would not affect life on Earth.

In general, threats to life on Earth from supernovae are extremely small, for all except the nearest explosions — those 30 light-years away or closer.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page January 7, 2007 --------

Alert over nanotechnology Frankenfoods

Some skin creams use nano particles but many are now concerned about the use of the technology in foods.

A breed of Frankenfood is being introduced into human diet and cosmetics with potentially disastrous consequences, experts say.

Academics, consumer groups and Government officials are warning that the arrival of nanotechnology threatens dangerous changes to the body and the environment.

The particles it uses are so small - 80,000 times thinner than a human hair - that they can pass through membranes protecting the brain or babies in the womb.

Nano health supplements, such as antioxidants, are already on the market while the first of hundreds of new foods are expected to arrive in the next 12 months.

However, the products are being introdeduced without any regulation or independent assessment to ensure they are safe - mirroring the controversy over the launch of GM foods ten years ago.

Some critics have talked of the threat of the creation of a "grey goo" of tiny particles with hidden harmful properties.

Prince Charles has said it would be "surprising" if the technology did not "offer similar upsets" to thalidomide - the morning sickness drug that caused children to be born with deformed limbs.

Professor Vicki Stone, Professor of Toxicology at Napier University in Edinburgh, is concerned about unforeseen side effects.

"We know very little about the ability of nanoparticles to move around the body, to accumulate or to be excreted, or their potential to cause toxic effects in organs," she said.

However, nanotech advocates have remarkable claims for the technology. For example, foods are in development that are said to stave off the aging process.

On a more trivial level, they suggest it would be possible to create a fizzy drink that changes flavour according to the number of times the can is shaken.

One of the first group of nanoparticles being utilized are fullerenes - tiny hollow carbon balls and tubes.

They are very heat resistant, strong and conduct electricity.

The football-shaped C60 fullerene is being used in some anti-ageing products.

The creams are said to reduce fine lines and firm the skin.

C60 has some antioxidant properties in that it kills the rogue chemicals which damage cells.

***However, a high dose can itself damage cells.

Some nano particles are known to mimic the harmful effects of asbestos on the lungs.

***Consequently, they have the potential to trigger lung cancer if inhaled.

***WATCHMAN... Does this at least PARTIALLY explain the increase of CANCER IN WOMEN who use these creams more than men???...

..............................

Seeds of Destruction, The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation

Today, we're all lab rats in an uncontrolled, unregulated mass human experiment the results of which are unknown.

Once GM seeds are introduced to an area, the genie is out of the bottle for keeps.

In 2003, Jeffrey Smith's "Seeds of Deception" was published. It exposed the dangers of untested and unregulated genetically engineered foods most people eat every day with no knowledge of the potential health risks.

Efforts to inform the public have been quashed, reliable science has been buried, and consider what happened to two distinguished scientists.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page January 3, 2007 --------

Chance of Asteroid Hit on Mars Increases

The chance of a football field-sized asteroid plowing into Mars next month has been increased to 4 percent, scientists said Friday after analyzing archival data. Though still a long shot, some researchers are hoping for a cosmic smash.

There is a 1 in 75 chance that an asteroid will slam into Mars on Jan. 30, NASA said. "I think it'll be cool," said Don Yeomans, who heads the Near-Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"Usually when an asteroid is headed toward Earth, I'm not rooting for an impact." The space rock, known as the nondescript 2007 WD5, was discovered in late November by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona.

Based on the latest information available, scientists said last week there was a 1-in-75 chance the asteroid could hit Mars on Jan. 30.

The odds were increased to 1-in-25 this week after a Ph.D. student pored through the archives and plotted the asteroid's motions before its official discovery.

The new information allowed scientists to improve their calculations of the asteroid's orbit and flight path. Even when the odds were set at 1-in-75 last week, scientists appeared to be shocked. "These odds are extremely unusual.

We frequently work with really long odds when we track ... threatening asteroids," said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Scientists will continue to monitor the asteroid to better predict the possibility of a Martian impact. Yeomans said he expects the odds to decrease with new observations gathered early next year.

The likelihood of an asteroid hit usually "peaks before plummeting to zero with additional data," he said.

The asteroid poses no threat to Earth and is closing in on the Red Planet at 27,900 mph.

Should a collision occur, it would likely blast a half-mile-wide crater north of where the rover Opportunity has been exploring since 2004.

The impact could release energy similar to the 1908 Tunguska object that exploded over remote central Siberia and wiped out 60 million trees.

In 1994, fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smacked into Jupiter, creating a series of overlapping fireballs in space.

Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page December 26, 2007 --------

I HAD NO OTHER PLACE TO ARCHIVE THIS...BroJ

Full Abortions Shown On Spanish Television

For what is probably the first time in history, a television network in Spain has shown an abortion on national television.

The video, shot during a hidden-camera exposé on Spain's abortion industry, shows a nurse injecting deadly poison into the fetus through the vagina of a pregnant woman, who then expels her dead child, about five months old.

The doctor immediately covers the body. "The baby is born dead. His cradle: a trash can," says the commentator in voice-over on the tape.

An abortion of the baby of a second woman is also shown. After showing the second abortion, the commentator remarks. "As soon as the baby is born, the doctor must cover it up. No one looks at it. No one examines it."

Later, the undercover reporter examines one of the dead children. "Hands, feet, a face. The cadaver of a human being," the commentator notes.

The doctor, a woman, remarks that the baby is 21 weeks old, but says she "never" looks at the bodies of the fetuses. "Never?" asks the undercover reporter, who is posing as a doctor looking for work at the clinic. "Never," the woman repeats "Never, never, never again!"

When asked why, the doctor says "Because I don't like it." "Of course, you are a mother, I assume, right?" the reporter asks. No answer is given.

All of the patients preparing for abortions were over five months pregnant, "a period in which the fetus is completely formed and in possession of all of its senses," notes the voice-over.

One of the patients is only 15 years old. The doctor explicitly acknowledges in the video that many of the patients have no valid reason for their abortions.

However, she assures the reporter that the clinic has a psychiatrist who will automatically sign the necessary forms to authorize it because of "psychological" need as required under Spanish law.

The report, "Asi se aborta en España" (This is How Abortions are Done in Spain) was made by Intereconomia TV, a national network in Spain, in which the reporter posed as a doctor seeking a job doing abortions at El Bosque.

As soon as he tells the receptionist why he's there, she rushes him in to see the owner. The clinic is in desperate need of personnel, explains the commentator.

In the video, the owner explains that they used to have the nurses do the abortions, although the law will no longer allow this.

He blithely describes the procedure as it was done by nurses, telling the undercover reporter (who is posing as a job applicant) that it is only necessary to "wait until the woman expels it (the fetus), and to take it out by its rear end.

If the placenta doesn't come out they call me." He assures the undercover reporter that if if that happens "you grab the pincers...and 'pin pin pin' and that's it," waving his hands around with a casual look on his face.

Following the broadcast of the report, an anonymous source brought the remains of a twenty-two week old fetus chopped into several large pieces to the offices of Inteconomia.

Upon receiving the remains, one station employee told the Spanish media that they thought the remains were a "joke". "We thought it was made of plastic.

"The workers at Intereconomia, shocked at what they were seeing, tried to hide it from a fellow employee who had recently lost a child.

They filmed the remains, which have been displayed widely in the Spanish media. They then called the courthouse to ask what they should do with them. They were told to call the police.

Horcajo stated that he was told by police that "on many occasions, an abortion practice is to cut up the child inside of the mother so he can come out more easily."

Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue, noted the importance of the event. "I believe that if we have a straight up debate on abortion, on exactly what abortion is, exactly what it does to the baby, the detrimental effects on the mother, the pro-life movement wins hands down one hundred percent of the time," he told.

"The debate in Europe is phenomenally important. It's pivotal in the crusade to end abortion worldwide, and I would hope that this would begin to spill over into American politics."

***Asked why the American media has never shown such images to the public, Newman said that "there is an active coverup within the media to deny the actual truth about what goes on during an abortion," attributing the situation to liberal, pro-abortion bias.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page December 19, 2007 --------

SYNTHETIC DNA ON THE BRINK OF YIELDING NEW LIFE FORMS

It has been 50 years since scientists first created DNA in a test tube, stitching ordinary chemical ingredients together to make life's most extraordinary molecule.

Until recently, however, even the most sophisticated laboratories could make only small snippets of DNA -- an extra gene or two to be inserted into corn plants, for example, to help the plants ward off insects or tolerate drought.

Now researchers are poised to cross a dramatic barrier: the creation of life forms driven by completely artificial DNA.

Scientists in Maryland have already built the world's first entirely handcrafted chromosome -- a large looping strand of DNA made from scratch in a laboratory, containing all the instructions a microbe needs to live and reproduce.

In the coming year, they hope to transplant it into a cell, where it is expected to boot itself up, like software downloaded from the Internet, and cajole the waiting cell to do its bidding.

And while the first synthetic chromosome is a plagiarized version of a natural one, others that code for life forms that have never existed before are already under construction.

The cobbling together of life from synthetic DNA, scientists and philosophers agree, will be a watershed event, blurring the line between biological and artificial -- and forcing a rethinking of what it means for a thing to be alive.

This raises a range of big questions about what nature is and what it could be, said Paul Rabinow, an anthropologist at the University of California at Berkeley who studies science's effects on society.

Evolutionary processes are no longer seen as sacred or inviolable. People in labs are figuring them out so they can improve upon them for different purposes.

That unprecedented degree of control over creation raises more than philosophical questions, however. What kinds of organisms will scientists, terrorists and other creative individuals make?

How will these self-replicating entities be contained? And who might end up owning the patent rights to the basic tools for synthesizing life?

Some experts are worried that a few maverick companies are already gaining monopoly control over the core operating system for artificial life and are poised to become the Microsofts of synthetic biology.

That could stifle competition, they say, and place enormous power in a few people's hands.

We're heading into an era where people will be writing DNA programs like the early days of computer programming, but who will own these programs? asked Drew Endy, a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page December 18, 2007 --------

South Korean Scientists Clone Cats That Glow

South Korean scientists have cloned cats that glow red when exposed to ultraviolet rays, an achievement that could help develop cures for human genetic diseases, the Science and Technology Ministry said.

Three Turkish Angora cats were born in January and February through cloning with a gene that produces a red fluorescent protein that makes them glow in dark. One died at birth, but the two others survived, the ministry said.

Scientists from Gyeongsang National University and Sunchon National University took skin cells from a cat and inserted the fluorescent gene into them before transplanting the genetically modified cells into eggs.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page December 12, 2007 --------

Voyager 2 Finds Solar System Is Uneven

New observations from NASA's long-running Voyager 2 spacecraft show the solar system is asymmetrical, likely from disturbances in the interstellar magnetic field, scientists reported Monday.

The discovery came after the 30-year-old unmanned probe sailed near the edge of the solar system this past summer following its twin, Voyager 1, which reached that part of space in 2004.

Researchers have long suspected the solar system was bent, but never had direct evidence until now, said Voyager mission scientist Edward Stone of the California Institute of Technology.

Voyager 2 crossed a barrier in the solar system known as the termination shock in August, some 10 billion miles from where Voyager 1 passed through. The termination shock is the region where charged particles from the sun abruptly slow down as they collide with other particles and a magnetic field in interstellar gas.

Scientists believe the unevenness is caused by the interstellar magnetic field that is pitched at an angle to the plane of the Milky Way.

"The magnetic field is disturbing an otherwise spherical surface," Stone said at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page November 19, 2007 --------

DOLLY CREATOR PROF IAN WILMUT SHUNS CLONING

The scientist who created Dolly the sheep, a breakthrough that provoked headlines around the world a decade ago, is to abandon the cloning technique he pioneered to create her.

Prof Ian Wilmut's decision to turn his back on ‘therapeutic cloning’, just days after US researchers announced a breakthrough in the cloning of primates, will send shockwaves through the scientific establishment.

He and his team made headlines around the world in 1997 when they unveiled Dolly, born July of the year before.

But now he has decided not to pursue a licence to clone human embryos, which he was awarded just two years ago, as part of a drive to find new treatments for the devastating degenerative condition, Motor Neuron disease.

Prof Wilmut, who works at Edinburgh University, believes a rival method pioneered in Japan has better potential for making human embryonic cells which can be used to grow a patient's own cells and tissues for a vast range of treatments, from treating strokes to heart attacks and Parkinson's, and will be less controversial than the Dolly method, known as ‘nuclear transfer.’

His announcement could mark the beginning of the end for therapeutic cloning, on which tens of millions of pounds have been spent worldwide over the past decade. ‘I decided a few weeks ago not to pursue nuclear transfer,’ Prof Wilmut said.

Most of his motivation is practical but he admits the Japanese approach is also ‘easier to accept socially.’

His inspiration comes from the research by Prof Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University, which suggests a way to create human embryo stem cells without the need for human eggs, which are in extremely short supply, and without the need to create and destroy human cloned embryos, which is bitterly opposed by the pro life movement.

Prof Yamanaka has shown in mice how to turn skin cells into what look like versatile stem cells potentially capable of overcoming the effects of disease.

This pioneering work to revert adult cells to an embryonic state has been reproduced by a team in America and Prof Yamanaka is, according to one British stem cell scientist, thought to have achieved the same feat in human cells.

This work has profound significance because it suggests that after a heart attack, for example, skin cells from a patient might one day be manipulated by adding a cocktail of small molecules to form muscle cells to repair damage to the heart, or brain cells to repair the effects of Parkinson's. Because they are the patient's own cells, they would not be rejected.

In theory, these reprogrammed cells could be converted into any of the 200 other type in the body, even the collections of different cell types that make up tissues and, in the very long term, organs too. Prof Wilmut said it was ‘extremely exciting and astonishing’ and that he now plans to do research in this area.

This approach, he says, represents, the future for stem cell research, rather than the nuclear transfer method that his large team used more than a decade ago at the Roslin Institute, near Edinburgh, to create Dolly

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Scientists have been astounded by the creation of a genetically modified "super mouse" with extraordinary physical abilities – comparable to the performance of the very best athletes – raising the prospect that the discovery may one day be used to transform people's capacities.

Archived from News & Views page October Archived from News & Views page October , 2007 ------

Protecting Earth Against Killer Asteroids

Anatoly Perminov, the Russian Space Agency chief, announced at a recent news conference that there were plans to develop a space system that could protect the Earth from a potential asteroid impact by 2040.

Members of the scientific community are unanimous in that the asteroid danger is real and that some measures should be taken to prevent it. The discovery of Apophis three years ago made them and the general public even more aware of that threat.

Apophis will pass exceptionally close to the Earth in 2029, only 40,000 kilometers away, which is where we have most of our communications satellites. Terrestrial gravity might cause this asteroid to leave its trajectory and collide with the Earth in 2036.

The consequences of such an impact would be much more dramatic than the fallout of the Tunguska event, the meteoroid-caused explosion near the Tunguska River in Siberia, just under a hundred years ago.

Yet, the scale of the potential damage would be local rather than global, with Apophis measuring only 350 meters in diameter. A global disaster can only be caused by an asteroid as large as one kilometer across or more.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from News & Views page October 16, 2007 ------

Scientists Create New Life Form in Lab

A scientist who built a synthetic chromosome from laboratory chemicals is expected to announce the creation of a new species, the first new artificial life form on Earth.

The new species is a form of bacteria, and the announcement, which could come as early as Monday, is expected to provoke a substantial ethical debate about the manufacturing of life forms in a test tube, as well the dangers posed by introducing a new species.

Craig Venter, the genetics specialist who spearheaded the landmark breakthrough and heads the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Md., where the research was conducted, said the new species could lead to new energy sources and new methods for combating global warming. "

We are going from reading our genetic code to the ability to write it," Venter told. "That gives us the hypothetical ability to do things never contemplated before," he said.

For example, the bacteria could be capable of absorbing carbon monoxide, a possible solution to global warming, Venter said.

According to The Guardian, a team of 20 elite scientists assembled by Venter at his institute has already constructed a synthetic chromosome from lab chemicals—also a landmark achievement.

The man-made chromosome will be transplanted into an existing bacterial cell and is expected to take control of the cell. W

hen the synthetic DNA takes over, the cell will be a new species.

While critics acknowledge that artificially manufactured life forms could lead to such positive developments as new drugs or treatments for disease, the potential dangers could be equally unlimited.

"It could be a contribution to humanity such as new drugs or a huge threat to humanity such as bio-weapons," Pat Mooney, director of ETC Group, a Canadian bioethics organization, told.

Venter has provoked additional controversy by applying for a patent for the synthetic bacterium

......................

Door may open to experiments involving every known kind of human-animal hybrid

A radical Government re-think on the law governing hybrid embryos will allow scientists to carry out virtually any work they like - if it is approved by regulators.

The move opens the door to experiments involving every known kind of human-animal hybrid. These could include both "cytoplasmic" embryos, which are 99.9% human, and "true hybrids" carrying both human and animal genes.

In addition "chimeras" made of a mosaic-like mix of cells from different species, and "human transgenic embryos" - human embryos modified with animal DNA - will also be allowed under license.

Provision has also been made for the regulation of hybrid embryo research to incorporate any unforeseen developments that might arise in the future.

Ministers have moved a long way from original White Paper proposals for an outright ban on all human-animal embryos, prompting outrage from scientists. The revised Bill does more than even the committee asked for.

It effectively removes the barriers completely, permitting the creation of all four currently envisaged types of hybrid embryo, subject to a license being granted by the relevant regulatory authority.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from News & Views page Archived from News & Views page September 19, 2007 ------

Special report: the ethics of genetics

A biotech company has taken out a Europe-wide patent on a process which campaigners claim would allow 'chimeric' animals to be developed with body parts originating from humans.

An Australian company, Amrad, was granted the patent last year, which covers embryos containing cells both from humans and from 'mice, sheep, pigs, cattle, goats or fish'.

Church groups have already reacted with outrage, denouncing the patent as 'morally offensive'.

Details in the patent do not make it clear what use these mixed-species embryos would be put to, but experts are in no doubt that the potential is there to create a hybrid creature.

Archived from News & Views page September 4, 2007 ------

HUMAN-ANIMAL EMBRYO STUDY WINS APPROVAL

Plans to allow British scientists to create human-animal embryos are expected to be approved tomorrow by the government's fertility regulator. The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority published its long-awaited public consultation on the controversial research yesterday, revealing that a majority of people were ‘at ease’ with scientists creating the hybrid embryos.

Researchers want to create hybrid embryos by merging human cells with animal eggs, in the hope they will be able to extract valuable embryonic stem cells from them. The cells form the basic building blocks of the body and are expected to pave the way for revolutionary therapies for diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and even spinal cord injuries.

The consultation papers were released ahead of the authority's final decision on the matter, which will mark the end of almost a year of intense lobbying by scientists and a fervent campaign by organizations opposed to research involving embryonic stem cells.

Using animal eggs will allow researchers to push ahead unhindered by the shortage of human eggs. Under existing laws, the embryos must be destroyed after 14 days when they are no bigger than a pinhead, and cannot be implanted into the womb.

Opponents of the research and some religious groups say the work blurs the distinction between humans and animals, and creates embryos that are destined to be destroyed when stem cells are extracted from them.

Two research groups based at King's College London and Newcastle University have already applied to the HFEA to create animal-human embryos, but their applications have been on hold since November last year amid confusion over whether the authority was legally able to issue licenses.

If the authority approves the research, the applications will go forward to a committee, with a decision on both due within three months.

Professor Ian Wilmut, whose team cloned Dolly the sheep, is waiting for the HFEA's decision before applying to create hybrid embryos to study motor neuron disease with Professor Chris Shaw at the Institute of Psychiatry in London

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Archived from News & Views page August 2Archived from News & Views page August 2

Scientists hail ‘frozen smoke’ as material that will change world

A miracle material for the 21st century could protect your home against bomb blasts, mop up oil spillages and even help man to fly to Mars.

Aerogel, one of the world’s lightest solids, can withstand a direct blast of 1kg of dynamite and protect against heat from a blowtorch at more than 1,300C.

Scientists are working to discover new applications for the substance, ranging from the next generation of tennis rackets to super-insulated space suits for a manned mission to Mars.

It is expected to rank alongside wonder products from previous generations such as Bakelite in the 1930s, carbon fibre in the 1980s and silicone in the 1990s.

Mercouri Kanatzidis, a chemistry professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said: “It is an amazing material.

It has the lowest density of any product known to man, yet at the same time it can do so much. I can see aerogel being used for everything from filtering polluted water to insulating against extreme temperatures and even for jewellery.”

Aerogel is nicknamed “frozen smoke” and is made by extracting water from a silica gel, then replacing it with gas such as carbon dioxide.

The result is a substance that is capable of insulating against extreme temperatures and of absorbing pollutants such as crude oil.

It was invented by an American chemist for a bet in 1931, but early versions were so brittle and costly that it was largely consigned to laboratories.

It was not until a decade ago that Nasa started taking an interest in the substance and putting it to a more practical use.

In 1999 the space agency fitted its Stardust space probe with a mitt packed full of aerogel to catch the dust from a comet’s tail. It returned with a rich collection of samples last year.

In 2002 Aspen Aerogel, a company created by Nasa, produced a stronger and more flexible version of the gel.

It is now being used to develop an insulated lining in space suits for the first manned mission to Mars, scheduled for 2018. Mark Krajewski, a senior scientist at the company, believes that an 18mm layer of aerogel will be sufficient to protect astronauts from temperatures as low as -130C. “It is the greatest insulator we’ve ever seen,” he said.

Aerogel is also being tested for future bombproof housing and armour for military vehicles. In the laboratory, a metal plate coated in 6mm of aerogel was left almost unscathed by a direct dynamite blast.

Archived from News & Views page August Archived from News & Views page August

Artificial Life Likely in 3 to 10 Years

Around the world, a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch and they're getting closer.

Experts expect an announcement within three to 10 years from someone in the now little-known field of "wet artificial life."

"It's going to be a big deal and everybody's going to know about it," said Mark Bedau, chief operating officer of ProtoLife of Venice, Italy, one of those in the race. "We're talking about a technology that could change our world in pretty fundamental ways - in fact, in ways that are impossible to predict."

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Archived from News & Views page August 1Archived from News & Views page August 1

Genetic Doping: Scientists Seek To Prevent Athletes From Mutating

Faster, bigger, better, stronger—in theory, the single most effective way to radically alter your physical capacities is to manipulate your genes. Athletes are beginning to take notice.

Now that we’ve mapped out the human genome and identified exactly which genes make you buff, tough and rough—experts are concerned about the future of genetic doping.

Gene doping could spawn athletes capable of out-running, out-jumping and out-cycling even the world’s greatest champions.

However, researchers at the University of Florida are attempting to prevent that from happening by detecting the first cases of gene doping in professional athletes before the practice becomes mainstream.

It may sound strange and futuristic, but experts say the trend is emerging.

Unscrupulous athletes began showing an interest in gene doping a few years ago after the first reports of muscle-boosting therapies in mice were published by University of Pennsylvania researchers.

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Archived from News & Views page August 1Archived from News & Views page August 1

Scientists test country's infrastructure in worst-case scenario with "virtual U.S."

Archived from News & Views page August 10, 2007 ---------

Scientists Discover Largest-Known Planet

Scientists have discovered the universe's largest known planet, a giant ball made of mostly hydrogen that is 20 times larger than Earth and circling a star 1,400 light-years away.

Scientists believe the planet is 1.7 times the diameter of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, and has a temperature of 2,300-degrees.

"There is probably not a really firm surface anywhere on the planet. You would sink into it," said Georgi Mandushev, a research scientist at Lowell Observatory

.........................

Fourth-Generation Pig Cloned in Japan

A Japanese geneticist said Wednesday his research team created the world's first fourth-generation cloned pig, an achievement that could help scientists in medical and other research.

The male pig was born at Tokyo's Meiji University in July, said Hiroshi Nagashima, the geneticist at the university who led the project.

Earlier attempts to clone animals for several generations were problematic. Scientists had thought that was because the genetic material in the nucleus of the donor cell degraded with each successive generation, Nagashima said.

But the team's findings show that a large mammal can be cloned for multiple generations _ in this case, the clone of a clone of a clone of a clone _ without degradation, he said, while acknowledging that mice have already been successively cloned for multiple generations.

Archived from News & Views page Archived from News & Views page

Galaxies clash in four-way merger

The merger may form one of the biggest galaxies in the Universe

Four gigantic galaxies have been seen crashing into one another in one of the biggest cosmic collisions ever seen.

A US team of astronomers observed the four-way cosmic smash-up using Nasa's Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes along with ground-based observatories.

The clashing galaxies are expected to eventually merge into a single, behemoth galaxy up to 10 times as massive as our own Milky Way.

The rare observation offers an unprecedented look at how the most massive galaxies in the Universe are formed.

When this merger finishes, the giant galaxy left at the end will be one of the biggest ones in the Universe

Kenneth Rines, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Collisions, or mergers, between galaxies are common in the Universe. Mergers between one large galaxy and several small ones, called "minor mergers", have been well documented.

Astronomers have also observed "major" mergers among pairs of galaxies that are similar in size. But, until now, no major mergers between multiple large galaxies have been seen.

"It's the first one that I know about. So far, nobody has written to me to say they've found another four-way merger," said co-author Kenneth Rines, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in Cambridge, US.

Dr Rines likened the collision to "four sand trucks smashing together, flinging sand everywhere". The new quadruple merger was discovered serendipitously during a survey of massive galaxy clusters consisting of tens to hundreds of galaxies.

The Spitzer Space Telescope spotted an unusually large fan-shaped plume of light emerging from a gathering of four elliptical galaxies in the cluster CL0958+4702, which is located nearly five billion light-years from Earth.

"The galaxies that live in the middle of clusters like this are the biggest galaxies anywhere in the Universe," Dr Rines told.

"When this merger finishes, the giant galaxy left at the end will be one of the biggest ones in the Universe. This shows how these giant galaxies get assembled."

All the galaxies in the merger are categorized as large; three are about the size of our own Milky Way, while the biggest one is about three times the size.

Analysis of the plume coming from the merger revealed it was made up of billions of stars flung out and abandoned in the ongoing clash. About half of the stars in the plume will later fall back into the galaxies.

"It seems as if there are several galaxies-worth of stars being thrown out by this collision," said the Cambridge-based astronomer.

"There are more stars in that plume than there are in the Milky Way. So an incredible amount of material is being tossed out."

The stars studied so far from the merger all appear to have formed within the first three billion years after the Big Bang. The quadruple merger itself is taking place some nine billion years after the Big Bang.

The observation that large galaxies contained many old stars used to be problematic for a popular theory of galaxy assembly - the hierarchical model.

This proposed that smaller structures underwent successive mergers to form larger ones. Under this model, the largest galaxies should be sites of star formation and therefore contain young stars.

One way to resolve the problem is through the idea of gas-rich and gas-poor mergers. In gas-rich mergers, the galaxies are soaked with gas that ignites to form new stars. But in gas-poor mergers, no new stars are formed.

Gas-poor mergers, then, were one way that large galaxies might merge without accompanying star formation.

Indeed, the Spitzer observations demonstrate that gas is a missing component in the new quadruple merger, perhaps explaining why only old stars have been found.

In addition to Spitzer, the team used Nasa's Chandra X-ray Observatory to weigh the mass of the giant cluster of galaxies in which the merger was discovered. Two ground-based observatories were also used in the study: the MMT and WIYN observatories, both of which are based in Tucson, Arizona.

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Archived from News & Views page JULY Archived from News & Views page JULY

General Relativity Expert Believes Humans Could Master Time Travel This Century

Time travel Recently we’ve posted articles on the ideas and upcoming experiments of John Cramer, a particle physicist who says he believes that time can move in reverse. Cramer is a pioneer of sorts, but he is certainly not the first physicist to experiment with time. In fact, one particular man has spent the better part of his life pondering the mystery and his ideas are even “weirder” than Cramer’s.

Physicist Ronald Mallett is known for his expertise in general relativity, gravitation, black holes, relativistic astrophysics, and quantum cosmology. He has been working with Einstein’s equations for years in an attempt to design a sort of time machine. He may be crazy, but he’s also a respected physics professor who probably knows as much about the relationship between space and time as anyone on the planet.

Physicists on both sides of the camp are adamant in their views. Individuals on both sides of the debate have ridiculed the other for being either narrow-minded or unrealistic. However, few will argue that time travel is not theoretically possible. What many physicists do firmly believe is that for all practical purposes, we could never pull it off—at least not with any technology we have today. They say creating time travel would require the energy of an exploding star. Of course, not everyone agrees.

Black holes, wormholes, and cosmic strings have all been proposed as methods for time travel, but none of them seem very plausible. Although theoretically they could distort space-time—it would require an inconceivable amount of mass.

Mallett, a U Conn Physics Professor for over 30 years, has devised an alternative to these time travel methods based on Einstein’s famous relativity equation: E=mc2.

“Einstein showed that mass and energy are the same thing,” said Mallett, who published his first research on time travel back in 2000, which appeared in the journal Physics Letters. “The time machine we’ve designed uses light in the form of circulating lasers to warp or loop time instead of using massive objects.”

In attempting to create a “time loop”, Mallett is tinkering with a device to test his time-warping theory. Using mirrors, Mallett hopes to create a circulating light beam that can warp surrounding space, which is part of his work called The Space-time Twisting by Light (STL) project.

According to Einstein, whenever you do something to space, you also affect time. Twisting space causes time to be twisted, meaning you could theoretically walk through time as you walk through space.

“As physicists, our experiments deal with subatomic particles,” said Mallett. “How soon humans will be able to time travel depends largely on the success of these experiments, which will take the better part of a decade. And depending on breakthroughs, technology, and funding, I believe that human time travel could happen this century.”

Even if time travel is possible, sci-fi writers and scientists alike have expressed concern over the possible implications. After all, if we go back in time, won’t we be tampering with the future? Mallett doesn’t believe that is relevant. He is an advocate of the Parallel Universes

theory. He believes that time machines will not present any danger, at least not in this universe.

“The Grandfather Paradox [where you go back in time and kill your grandfather] is not an issue,” said Mallett. “In a sense, time travel means that you’re traveling both in time and into other universes. If you go back into the past, you’ll go into another universe. As soon as you arrive at the past, you’re making a choice and there’ll be a split. Our universe will not be affected by what you do in your visit to the past.”

Although the debate continues, one thing is certain. If anyone can find a way to demonstrate any form of time travel—it may not effect the past, but it will certainly have an impact on the future.

In either case, this kind of “Weird Science” reminds me of this random quote I read on the website for a company that just came out with flying cars.

“New technology goes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed by those ignorant of its potential.

Next, it is subverted by those threatened by its potential.

Finally, it is considered self-evident.” –unknown

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Archived from News & Views page JULY 2Archived from News & Views page JULY 2

Lab Grown Meat Soon To Be on Your Dinner Plate

Who needs animals? It's only a matter of time before lab-grown meat turns into the oink-less BLT.

A small batch of stem cells can be used to grow large sheets of pork. Scientists can add vitamins, fatty acids and flavors to the meat, which could one day be processed into food products.

Early attempts produced less-than-enticing results.

Then, in 2001, scientists at New York's Touro College won funding from NASA to improve in vitro farming.

Hoping to serve something, well, beefier than kelp on moon bases and Mars colonies, the scientists successfully grew goldfish muscle in a nutrient broth.

And, in 2003, a group of hungry artists from the University of Western Australia grew kidney bean-size steaks from biopsied frogs and prenatal sheep cells. Cooked in herbs and flambéed

for eight brave dinner guests, the slimy frog steaks came attached to small strips of fabric — the growth scaffolding. Half the tasters spit out their historic dinner. (Perhaps more significant, half didn't.)

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Archived from News & Views page JULY Archived from News & Views page JULY

Voracious Jumbo Squid Invade California

Jumbo squid that can grow up to 7 feet long and weigh more than 110 pounds is invading central California waters and preying on local anchovy, hake and other commercial fish populations, according to a study published.

An aggressive predator, the Humboldt squid - or Dosidicus gigas - can change its eating habits to consume the food supply favored by tuna and sharks, its closest competitors, according to an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

The jumbo squid used to be found only in the Pacific Ocean's warmest stretches near the equator. In the last 16 years, it has expanded its territory throughout California waters, and squid have even been found in the icy waters off Alaska, Zeidberg said.

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Archived from News & Views page JU

FIRST GENOME TRANSPLANT TURNS ONE SPECIES INTO ANOTHER

Scientists have converted an organism into an entirely different species by performing the world's first genome transplant, a breakthrough that paves the way for the creation of synthetic forms of life.

The team, led by Craig Venter, the man who raced to sequence the human genome, wants to build new microbes to produce environmentally friendly fuels.

The group's study, details of which were revealed in the US journal Science yesterday, proves it is possible to transplant a complete set of genetic instructions into an organism, in effect turning it into the same species the DNA was taken from.

The proof of principle experiment solves the first of two big difficulties which have hindered the creation of artificial life. The team, based at Dr Venter's not-for-profit institute in Rockville, Maryland, now hopes to overcome the second hurdle, by designing new genetic codes on computers and transplanting them into organisms to produce new life forms.

The team is focusing on creating micro-organisms which produce green fuels as natural waste products. ‘One of the goals we have is trying to see if we could design cells to manufacture new types of fuel to break our dependency on oil and coal and try to do something about carbon dioxide,’ Dr Venter said. ‘We look forward to trying to have the first fuels from genetically modified and even synthetic organisms, certainly within the decade.’

The work is at the cutting edge of synthetic biology, which is rapidly becoming one of the most contentious fields in science. Researchers have developed the tools to recreate the devastating 1918 flu virus, and are working on ways to genetically modify human cells and understand the most fundamental mechanisms of life.

But critics fear the field is progressing too fast for society to grasp. Some are concerned that artificial organisms could escape and damage the environment, or that maverick scientists or terrorist groups could create powerful new bioweapons

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted April 2, 2007 ---------------------------

Korean team unveils first cloned wolves

The first cloned wolves were announced by a former collaborator of the disgraced South Korean scientist Dr Hwang Woo-Suk, as part of an effort to restock endangered populations.

Both are healthy and now weigh about 45lb. They have been moved to a zoological garden, for public viewing

Although the clones were born on Oct 2005, Prof Lee said it took the team a while to publish its findings in a journal because of the extra scrutiny after being implicated in a scientific fraud. Among other tests, they underwent DNA checks involving the surrogate parents.

===================

Today's Special: Clone Burgers , Clone Milkshakes & GM Fries

Mark Walton, head of the world's largest animal cloning company, sees his biotechnology lab in Austin, Texas, as the next frontier in food production.

Nine months ago, scientists at Walton's closely held ViaGen Inc. extracted genetic information from customers' prized cattle and transferred the DNA into bovine eggs to make embryos. Now, 75 miles away at the 300-acre Hillman Ranch in the town of Cameron, surrogate mother cows, carrying the embryos, are giving birth to calves that are clones of the clients' finest cattle.

This generation of test-tube bulls and cows may be the first whose elite genes end up in America's meat and milk. U.S. regulators are set to approve the cloning of animals for the food supply as early as this year.

This action will open the way for food producers to use copies of genetically superior animals to make bigger, stronger herds and, perhaps, tastier products.

***WATCHMAN... and perhaps very dangerous for human consumption...

Wary consumers and organic food suppliers have indicated they may spurn products from cloned animals no matter what regulators decide.

ViaGen and competitors such as Cyagra Inc. of Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, are working to gain public support.

Dean Foods Co. of Dallas, the biggest U.S. dairy distributor, has said the company won't use milk from cloned cows even if the technology is approved because of concerns of consumer backlash.

Other major food companies, including Kraft Foods Inc. of Northfield, Illinois, say they will decide after regulators act.

We'll evaluate the consumer benefits and acceptance in considering whether or not to use ingredients from cloned animals,' said Claire Regan, a spokeswoman for Kraft, the world's second-largest food company, after Nestle SA.

The public attaches ``horrific connotations' to cloning even though it's just fine-tuning what people have done for thousands of years in breeding livestock,' said Gregory Pence, a professor who teaches medical ethics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Artificial insemination is already used routinely on ranches, he said.

***WATCHMAN... AS a former scientist let me tell you "ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION" is a far cry form CLONING that GENETICALLY ALTERS GENES!!!...

A tan-and-white three-week-old longhorn calf -- a cloned offspring -- gamboling around the Cameron ranch, brings a smile to Brian Bruner, ViaGen's director of animal operations. The calf and all 12 of its identical ``sisters' share an uncommon trait: their tails curl when they

run or become excited, Bruner says.

***WATCHMAN... Sounds like PIG GENES were included in this calf...

ViaGen's several hundred clients count on consistency, and they pay top dollar for it. One cattle clone costs $15,000, about 10 times the price of a typical two-year-old cow. ViaGen lowers the price by more than half for bulk orders.

***WATCHMAN... NORMAN and NATURAL is cheaper and SAFER...

About 80 percent of the animals will go into the entertainment business as rodeo horses, bucking bulls and show cows. Cloning allows ranchers to replicate a prize-winning animal or replace one that is injured or aging.

Some of the livestock will go to ranchers betting that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will soon lift a five-year voluntary moratorium on the sale of food from clones and their offspring.

The FDA announced Dec. 28 that a four-year review of data showed milk and meat from cloned cows, pigs and goats posed no increased safety risks. Regulators have said they may make a decision to approve sales of cloned food later this year after reviewing public comments submitted by an April 2 deadline.

***WATCHMAN... THINK! Does the FDA have a good track record approving drugs that are now proven DANGEROUS KILLERS???...

Surveys show that many American consumers are reluctant to eat animals derived from biotechnology. A third of adults said they would never buy milk or meat from cloned animals even if the FDA determined it was safe, according to a poll released Dec. 14 by the Center for Food, Nutrition and Agriculture Policy at the University of Maryland in College Park.

***WATCHMAN... HOW will you know - they have already said it will NOT BE LABELED!!!...

Conventionally bred cows produce top-grade products so ``there's no need for cloning,' he said.

More than 3,000 people have written to the FDA on the issue, with some saying that cloning is ``messing with God's hands' and forcing animals to ``live painful, short lives.'

The Center for Food Safety, a consumer advocacy group in Washington, submitted a 32-page critique of the FDA's report that said the agency relied on incomplete evidence and misrepresented its findings.

ViaGen's work is so controversial that the company considered using some word other than ``clones' to describe its animals until it found that hiding the term only sparked more suspicion among consumers, Walton said. The company decided to concentrate on educating the public, largely on the Internet.

***WATCHMAN... HIDING TRUTH is an end times SIGN...

``If you choose to believe that this is not a good technology for anybody to be using, that's great, that's your choice,' Walton said. ``I just want you to be able to make that based on fact and science, not on science fiction.'

***WATCHMAN... SCIENCE FICTION is changing the name to HIDE THE TRUTH...

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted March 30 - April 1, 2007 ---------------------------

Now scientists create a sheep that's 15% human

(Goal is to produce organs for human transplant)

Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs.

The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells - and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer.

Professor Esmail Zanjani, of the University of Nevada, has spent seven years and £5million perfecting the technique, which involves injecting adult human cells into a sheep's fetus.

He has already created a sheep liver which has a large proportion of human cells and eventually hopes to precisely match a sheep to a transplant patient, using their own stem cells to create their own flock of sheep.

The process would involve extracting stem cells from the donor's bone marrow and injecting them into the peritoneum of a sheep's fetus. When the lamb is born, two months later, it would have a liver, heart, lungs and brain that are partly human and available for transplant.

"We would take a couple of ounces of bone marrow cells from the patient,' said Prof Zanjani.

"We would isolate the stem cells from them, inject them into the peritoneum of these animals and then these cells would get distributed throughout the metabolic system into the circulatory system of all the organs in the body.

The two ounces of stem cell or bone marrow cell we get would provide enough stem cells to do about ten fetuses. So you don't just have one organ for transplant purposes, you have many

available in case the first one fails."

Dr Patrick Dixon, an international lecturer on biological trends, warned: "Many silent viruses could create a biological nightmare in humans. Mutant animal viruses are a real threat, as we have seen with HIV."

Animal rights activists fear that if the cells get mixed together, they could end up with cellular fusion, creating a hybrid which would have the features and characteristics of both man and sheep. But Prof Zanjani said: "Transplanting the cells into fetal sheep at this early stage does not result in fusion at all."

***WATCHMAN... Just a LIE -OR- it just has not happened YET!!!...

=====================

Scientists Prepare for Interspecies Cloning

It was nearly a decade ago that Jose Cibelli plugged his own DNA into a cow's egg in a novel cloning attempt that was condemned as unethical by President Clinton and landed the Michigan

State University researcher in a mess of controversy.

Even though Cibelli and his colleagues patented the so-called interspecies cloning technique, they soon abandoned the research as a failure and the uproar subsided.

Now the tempest is brewing all over again.

At least three respected teams of British scientists have reignited the moral debate over inserting human genes into animal eggs by proposing experiments similar to Cibelli's.

Currently, the few scientists actively pursuing human cloning are hobbled by a nearly nonexistent human egg supply. And each researcher will need thousands of them.

***WATCHMAN... ADMITTED KILLERS OF THOUSANDS!!!...

All three U.K. teams aim to get around that bottleneck by taking DNA from patients sick with a disease like Alzheimer's and fuse it with cow eggs that have had all their genetic material removed. The hope is that the human DNA will trick the eggs into thinking they're pregnant,

beginning development.

After about five days of growth, the cloned embryos would be destroyed and the stem cells extracted. The stem cells would be grown in their labs and the researchers could look for the onset of diseases, study their development and test experimental drugs on the cells.

***WATCHMAN... NOTE "DESTROYED" - ADMITTED KILLERS OF THOUSANDS!!!...

"It is treating a human being at his or her earliest stages as a mere tool," said Georgetown University philosophy professor Alfonso Gomez-Lobo, a member of the President's Council on Bioethics.

"The destruction of such an organism does not change the moral wrongness of the initial action," said Gomez-Lobo, who called the research "a violation of human dignity."

"You cannot in good faith justify women undergoing this procedure for no medical benefit," Minger said. "These eggs for the most part are going to be wasted."

***WATCHMAN... NOTE "NO MEDICAL BENEFIT" - ADMITTED KILLERS OF THOUSANDS!!!...

"It could be that we are doing something wrong," Cibelli said. "But it looks like the farther apart the species are on the evolutionary tree, the harder it will be to clone."

***WATCHMAN... You ARE doing something WRONG and you KNOW IT because you just ADMITTED IT!!!...

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted March 29, 2007 -------------------------------

Pyramid's Secret Doors Will Finally Be Opened To Reveal What's Behind

Dr. Zahi Hawass, one of the world's leading Egyptologists, said he will show what lies behind secret doors inside the 4,500-year-old pharaonic mausoleum by the end of this year.

"Finally, people all over the world will know what is behind the second door in the southern shaft and the third door in the northern shaft," Hawass said.

Built in 2550 B.C. for the pharaoh Cheops, also known as Khufu, the Great Pyramid is the largest of a family of three pyramids on the Giza plateau, on the outskirts of Cairo.

The last remaining wonder of the ancient world has lost little of its original height of 481 feet, and contains 3.4 million cubic yards of material. Its base covers an area of 13.1 acres, which could accommodate the cathedrals of Florence, Milan, London's St. Paul's and Rome's St. Peter's and still have plenty of space.

The monument has long been rumored to have hidden passageways leading to secret chambers, and archaeologists have puzzled over the meaning of four narrow shafts deep inside the pyramid since they were first discovered in 1872.

Two shafts, extend from the upper, or "Kings Chamber" exit into open air. But the lower two, one on the south side and one on the north side in the so-called "Queen's Chamber" disappear within, deepening the pyramid mystery.

Widely believed to be ritual passageways for the dead pharaoh's soul to reach the afterlife, these 8-inch square shafts remained unexplored until 1993, when German engineer Rudolf Gantenbrink sent a robot through the southern shaft.

After a steady climb of 213 feet from the heart of the pyramid, the robot had to stop in front of a mysterious limestone slab adorned with two copper handles.

Nine years later, Hawass performed an investigation of the southern shaft on live television. As the world held its breath, a tomb-raiding robot pushed a camera through a hole drilled in the copper handled door — only to reveal another door.

The following day, Hawass sent the robot through the northern shaft. After crawling for 213 feet and several sharp bends, the robot came to an abrupt halt in front of another limestone slab.

As with the Gantenbrink door, the stone was adorned with two copper handles.

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted March 19, 2007 -------------------------------

Mouse embryos cloned from unfertilized eggs

JAPANESE scientists have succeeded in cloning mouse embryos from unfertilized eggs, a breakthrough that could help resolve the passionate ethical debate about stem cell research.

Advocates say research involving embryonic stem cells - cells that can develop into various organs or nerves - can save lives by finding cures for diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

But the research has provoked a furor among religious conservatives, who argue that it destroys a human life - albeit one at its earliest stage of development.

President George W. Bush has banned all federal funding for stem cell studies in the United States, the world's biggest research hub.

One proposed alternative has been to use unfertilized human eggs, but this presents the major obstacle of trying to persuade healthy women to undergo the painful process of donating eggs.

A Japanese team said it has found a potential future solution - it performed invitrofertilization with mice and found that egg cells that failed to be fertilized could be used to make cloned embryonic stem cells.

The process could be put to use among human eggs that would have gone to waste during in vitro fertilization.

"If we can use egg cells that would have been dumped, then the problem of finding donors will be solved,'' said Teruhiko Wakayama, who led the study at the Japanese government-backed Riken research foundation.

"Before our findings, it was believed that only fresh eggs could be used. But if incompetent eggs can be cloned, then scientists could be given eggs that failed to be fertilised and would have been abandoned in fertility clinics,'' Mr Wakayama said.

The study appeared in the February 20 issue of US scientific journal Current Biology.

Experts believe the use of unfertilized, cloned eggs, if replicated in humans, could ease ethical concerns, although it would be unlikely to eradicate all opposition.

***WATCHMAN... BUT are these eggs really unfertilized or are they REALLY FERTILIZED but did not grow or divide some some reason... is this a LIE??? - I think it is!!!...

"Fertilized eggs in particular are regarded as the beginning of human life in certain religions, namely Catholicism, so destroying them for the sake of medicine can be controversial,'' said Ryuichi Ida, a professor of international law and biology at Kyoto University in

western Japan.

"But if unfertilized eggs can be used without ethical problems such as physically hurting donor women, that's probably less sinful than using fertilized eggs,'' he said.

***WATCHMAN... SIN IS SIN...

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted March 9-11, 2007 -------------------------------

Expanding Earth may reach Sun’s temperatures and turn into gigantic H bomb

Earth is a living object. And every living thing is bound to die. There are many theories regarding the origins of Earth. Scientists are also trying to find an answer to another important question: How much longer will the planet be fit to live? Some scientists believe that the fate of Earth has been predetermined i.e. life on Earth will be burned out and destroyed even if each member of the human race should join the “green movement” one of these days.

A recent piece of scientific news came in as a nice surprise for the Russian public. Experts in geodynamics gathered irrefutable evidence about the ongoing movement of the Crimea, which is said to be drifting slowly but surely toward Russia at a speed of 2-3 cm per year. However, those who show lots of enthusiasm at the news may as well wake up in a house on fire. The point is that Earth’s tectonic and geologic processes portend the end of the planet and its subsequent transformation into a star. By and large, the prospects do not look so bright for the species.

Contrary to a popular misconception about Earth, the planet is going through constant changes. The radius of Earth expands by one mm per year; the water level in the ocean is on the increase. Lake Baikal grows wider by two cm every year. The volume of Earth is increasing at an annual rate of 515 cubic kilometers. The rate seems to defy imagination.

In other words, the planet is growing bigger at an appalling pace. It is getting increasingly harder for Earth to revolve around the Sun.

According to estimates by Prof. Sergei Novikov, the day grows longer by 0.0023 seconds every one hundred years. As a result, the distance between Earth and Sun grows by 22.6 m per year. The estimates are based on data provided by high-precision lasers used for monitoring space satellites.

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted March 8, 2007 -------------------------------

Human genes in your food?

The first GM food crop containing human genes is set to be approved for commercial production.

The laboratory-created rice produces some of the human proteins found in breast milk and saliva.

Its U.S. developers say they could be used to treat children with diarrhea, a major killer in the Third World.

The rice is a major step in so-called Frankenstein Foods, the first mingling of human-origin genes and those from plants. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture has already signaled it plans to allow commercial cultivation.

The rice's producers, California-based Ventria Bioscience, have been given preliminary approval to grow it on more than 3,000 acres in Kansas. The company plans to harvest the proteins and use them in drinks, desserts, yoghurts and muesli bars.

The news provoked horror among GM critics and consumer groups on both sides of the Atlantic.

GeneWatch UK, which monitors new GM foods, described it as "very disturbing". Researcher Becky Price warned: "There are huge, huge health risks and people should rightly be concerned about this."

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted March 6, 2007 -------------------------------

Scientists Tell God To Step Aside: Behold The Dawn Of GM Babies

Scientists will be able to carry out genetic experiments on human embryos for the first time under controversial Government plans.

Ministers have given the green light to research that some doctors warn raises the disturbing prospect of "genetically modified babies".

Proposed legislation says researchers would be allowed to alter the genetic blueprint of an embryo up to two weeks old. Ethical campaigners fear this could herald an era of eugenics in which couples would engineer their children to be as perfect as possible.

Critics predicted the public would be "horrified" by any steps towards creating GM babies.

The Government has said it will not allow genetic modification of embryos for reproductive purposes.

However, it wants to let scientists alter the genetic structure of the cells of live embryos for research projects. In practice this would mean scientists could take an embryo while it is only a few days old and manipulate its genes to learn more about inherited disorders such as motor neuron disease.

After 14 days the embryo would have to be destroyed so it could never grow into a GM baby.

But Dr David King, director of the campaign group Human Genetics Alert, said that to allow such research suggests that one day the Government hopes to overturn this current ban.

"If this were not the plan, why allow scientists to begin research?" he asked. "We must not start down the path to a future of GM "designer babies".

"Once scientists can dangle before the public realistic rather than theoretical possibilities of curing genetic diseases, it will be difficult to counter well-meaning support for human genetic modification."

He said current techniques are unsafe and would be likely to create mutations in the embryos.

Genetic modification could ultimately be used to improve a potential child's character or appearance, he added. "Then we could end up in eugenics that would make anything else we have seen in the past look like a picnic in the park."

Josephine Quintavalle, of the lobby group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: "This is very clearly a step in a direction that no one should be going down.

"There was enough concern about genetically-modified food so what will people think of the genetic modification of human beings?"

Dr Michael Antoniou, an expert in gene therapy from Guy's Hospital in London, said other techniques already exist to help couples carrying defective genes.

"If we really had the good of the patient at heart we would be investing our limited resources in this area to advancing gene therapy in combination with adult stem cell technology which is already showing great promise in clinical trials," he said.

But others disputed the idea that research on 14-day-old embryos would lead to GM babies.

Professor Chris Higgins, director of the Medical Research Council's Clinical Sciences Center and an expert in genetics, said scientists want to understand more about the early stages of human development and disease.

Such embryos could be used to create banks of stem cells, which scientists could then use to study ways in which diseases form and even try out new treatments.

"We need to learn how to do this perfectly and to be able to do that there are fundamental questions that have to be answered about how cells work in the embryo," he said.

He said that at the stage when the embryo is destroyed it is a bundle of 100 cells. It is not yet a baby because it has not been implanted in the womb - and that would be banned under current laws.

"It is completely illegal to use these techniques to create a designer baby," he said. "There are very clear safeguards in this country and I don't know of anyone who would even think of doing that as it would be unsafe and immoral."

Professor John Burn, medical director of the International Center for Life, Newcastle, said: "I can't imagine anyone wanting to use genetic modification in reproduction in the foreseeable future."

Dr Kieran Breen, director of research and development for the Parkinson's Disease Society, urged the Government "not to cut off a research channel that offers the 120,000 people with Parkinson's in the UK significant - but as yet not fully explored - hope for the future."

The Department of Health said: "The law will clearly continue to ban genetic modification of embryos for reproductive purposes and we will extend that prohibition to explicitly cover sperm and eggs.

"Any research using human embryos requires authorization from the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority and must meet the rigorous criteria set out in the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act 1990."

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted March 2-4, 2007 -------------------------------

Britain sanctions the genetic alteration of human embryos

Britain could become the first country to sanction the genetic alteration of human embryos, a step that a pressure group claims could pave the way to designer babies.

A decade after the cloning of Dolly the sheep, the Government is opening the door to GM human embryos for research, according to Human Genetics Alert.

David King, its director, said: "In a world first, the Government has said it will allow scientists to begin developing the technology for genetic modification of human beings, although creation of actual GM babies will be prohibited for the moment. We believe the public will be

horrified."

There is a need for a public debate on genetic alteration of embryos said HGA. It said that it could eventually lead to "germ-line" gene therapy, where DNA changes are passed down generations, and to genetic enhancement, where embryos are altered to boost intelligence or for cosmetic purposes.

A draft Bill for legislation to replace the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act 1990 is being prepared with the intention of including a full Bill in the Queen's Speech next November. But Mr. King called on the Government to "draw the line" at GM embryos.

Although the White Paper says genetic alterations of eggs, sperm and embryos "should not be permitted for reproductive purposes" it adds that this is only "for the foreseeable future, and until such time as safety and efficacy are assured".

The paper says the Government "is not, however, convinced of the need to preclude research activities that would involve altering the genetic structure of the embryo".

==================

Chimps Use Spears to Hunt

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Researchers have witnessed a chimpanzee skewering a lemur-like creature for supper, but it's unclear whether the spectacle was a bit of luck or an indication that chimps have a more advanced ability to hunt than was thought.

A team led by Iowa State University anthropology professor Jill Pruetz witnessed the spearing of a bush baby in Fongoli, Senegal, during an observation of chimpanzees from March 2005 to July 2006. In a study being released Thursday in the online version of the journal Current Biology, Pruetz documents 22 cases of chimps using spear-like tools to hunt bush babies - a small primate that lives in hollow branches or tree trunks.

"It's not uncommon to have chimps use tools. But to use them in the context of hunting" is nearly unheard of, she said.

Pruetz said the practice is most common among adolescent females, ages 10 to 13, which must compete against physically superior males.

"It's a way of accessing protein or meat that is a creative solution to this problem," she said.

Pruetz said the chimpanzees stripped leaves from tree branches and modified the tip with their incisors, "effectively making a point." Then the chimpanzees jabbed the tool into a cavity to snag a bush baby.

Only once did researchers observe a chimpanzee extracting a bush baby by using a spear, and that has some scientists questioning whether the chimp was actually hunting. Chimpanzees commonly use sticks to fish for food, such as termites, said Ian Gilby, a postdoctoral fellow who studies chimpanzee hunting at Harvard University.

"You frequently see chimps sticking sticks into holes or trees, so they can make the hole bigger so they can put their arm in," said Gilby, who hadn't read the study.

Gilby said he's seen this tactic used to get honey and small birds from holes in his work in Gombe, Tanzania.

"If it's clear they're making a point" on a branch tip, he said, then that "does appear to be slightly different from what we see at other sites."

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted February 22, 2007 -------------------------------

Scientists Clone Mice from Adult Skin Stem Cells

Using a technique called nuclear transfer, mice were cloned using adult skin stem cells and a more differentiated type of skin cell.

For cells that hold so much promise, stem cells' potential has so far gone largely untapped. But new research from Rockefeller University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientists now shows that adult stem cells taken from skin can be used to clone mice using a procedure called nuclear transfer. The findings are reported in the Feb. 12 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Embryonic stem cells have received the most press for their potential to generate healthy cells and tissues that could replace damaged or diseased organs.

"Scientists are well-aware that tissue derived from someone else's embryonic stem cells would be recognized as foreign and rejected by the patient," says senior co-author Elaine Fuchs, the Rebecca Lancefield Professor at Rockefeller and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

"This is one of the reasons why scientists have focused so much attention toward using nuclear transfer, which would allow us to use adult stem cells from the same patient rather than those harvested from an unrelated embryo."

Fuchs and her colleagues tested the method in adult stem cells taken from the skin of mice.

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted February 19, 2007 -------------------------------

Brain creates NEW nerve cells

Researchers have discovered a type of brain cell that continuously regenerates in humans.

A pool of ‘resting cells’ migrate to create new nerve cells in the part of the brain which deals with smell.

The system has been shown in mice and rats but it was believed it did not exist in the human brain.

Experts said the findings, published in Science, opened up the potential for research into repairing brains in conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.

The researchers from the University of Auckland, New Zealand and the Sahlgrenska Academy in Sweden showed stem cells rest in certain areas of the brain, just beneath large fluid-filled chambers called ventricles.

But then they needed to work out how they got to the right part of the brain.

In many species, it was known that a tube filled with brain fluid enabled these cells to travel to the olfactory bulb - the region of the brain that registers smells - turning into nerve cells as they went.

But until now, this system had not been shown in humans.

Using several techniques, including a powerful electron microscope, the team identified the tube, and showed it contained stem cells as well as cells which were gradually turning into nerve cells as they traveled along.

The researchers said the addition of new nerve cells in the olfactory bulb in humans helped the system respond to different stimuli throughout a person's life.

Experts said the findings could be important for future research into brain cell repair in patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and, importantly, that studies in mice would be applicable to humans.

Dr Mark Baxter, Wellcome Trust senior research fellow at Oxford University, said: ‘This study is exciting because it reveals a group of brain cells in the adult human brain that are continuously regenerating

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted February 5, 2007 -------------------------------

Transgenic chickens lay drugs in eggs

BRITISH scientists have succeeded in producing multiple generations of genetically modified hens that produce pharmaceutical proteins in the whites of their eggs.

To transfer drug-making genes into chickens, Dr Helen M. Sang, from the Roslin Institute in Midlothian, UK, and her associates used a lentivirus carrier from which all viral coding sequences were deleted.

The genetic material was replaced with the gene-regulating ovalbumin production combined with genes for making human interferon or an antibody targeting malignant melanoma.

"This construct is used to incorporate new protein genes into the chicken chromosome," Dr Sang said.

This was accomplished by injecting the lentiviral vector containing the coding sequences for the desired pharmaceutical protein into the fertilized embryo of a newly laid egg.

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted February , 2007 -------------------------------

Doctors back licensing opium trade

BRITISH doctors said today that opium grown in Afghanistan could be used legally to deal with a chronic shortage of pain killers.

The British Medical Association, which represents Britain's doctors, added its voice to those of critics of Western anti-narcotics policy in Afghanistan, which produces 90 per cent of the world's illegal opium despite efforts to stamp it out.

The BMA said the opiate-based drug diamorphine could be produced legally from Afghan poppies, helping to solve a supply crisis in Britain, where it is used to relieve pain.

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted January 30, 2007 -------------------------------

Earth's moon destined to disintegrate

The sun is midway through its stable hydrogen burning phase known as the main sequence. But when the sun enters the red giant phase in around 5 billion years things are going to get a lot rougher in the Earth-moon system.

During the red giant phase the Sun will swell until its distended atmosphere reaches out to envelop the Earth and moon, which will both begin to be affected by gas drag -- the space through which they orbit will contain more molecules.

The moon is now moving away from Earth and by then will be in an orbit that's about 40 percent larger than today. It will be the first to warp under the Sun's influence.

"The moon's actual path is a wiggly line around the sun, with it moving faster when it is slightly farther out (at full moon) and more slowly when it is slightly closer (at new moon)," said Lee Anne Willson of Iowa State University.

"So the gas drag is more effective at the farther part of the orbit and this will put the moon into an orbit where the new moon is closer to Earth than the full moon."

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted January 17, 2007 -------------------------------

Creating animal/human crossbreeds

Door left open for creation of hybrid human-animal embryos Scientists will be allowed to make a case for the creation of human-animal embryos to seek treatments for nervous system disorders it

was announced .

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) said it would launch a scientific and public consultation on the contentious issue.

Two teams of British scientists have applied for licenses to create "hybrid" embryos that would be about 99.9 per cent human and 0.1 per cent animal to produce embryonic stem cells — the body's building blocks that can grow into all other types of cells.

They want to use stem cells to understand and develop therapies for diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, cystic fibrosis, motor neuron disease and Huntington's.

The hybrid embryos would be destroyed within 14 days when they were no bigger than a pinhead.

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted January 5-7, 2007 -------------------------------

FDA Approves Food From Clones Without Warning Labels

A long-awaited study by federal scientists concludes that meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring is safe to eat and should be allowed to enter the food supply without any special labeling.

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... WITHOUT LABELING! I do not know about you but I do NOT want cloned food on my plate! No one really knows the dangers of eating cloned food -AND- many people DISTRUST that eating CLONED FOOD IS SAFE!...

The finding is a strong signal that the Food and Drug Administration will endorse the use of cloning technology for cattle, goats and pigs when it publishes a key safety assessment intended to clear the way for formal approval of the products. That assessment is expected next week.

"All of the studies indicate that the composition of meat and milk from clones is within the compositional ranges of meat and milk consumed in the U.S.," the FDA scientists concluded in a report published in the Jan. 1 issue of the journal Theriogenology, which focuses on animal reproduction.

The study prompted a sharp reaction from some food safety advocates.

The FDA "has been trying to foist this bad science on us for several years," said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Food Safety in Washington. "When there is so much concern among so many Americans, this is really a rush to judgment."

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... Just WHAT are they up to? AND WHY would they want us to eat something that could very possibly hurt us???...

JEREMIAH 5:30,31 "A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?"

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted January 4, 2007 -------------------------------

Scientists Busy Combining Human And Animal Cells To Create Hybrid Creatures

What happens when you cross a human and a mouse? Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke but, in fact, it's a serious high tech experiment recently carried out by a research team headed by a

distinguished molecular biologist, Irving Weissman, at Stanford University's Institute of Cancer/Stem Cell Biology and Medicine.

Scientists injected human brain cells into mouse fetuses, creating a strain of mice that were approximately 1 percent human. Dr. Weissman is actively considering a follow-up experiment that would produce mice whose brains are 100 percent human.

What if the mice escaped the laboratory and began to proliferate in the outside environment? What might be the ecological consequences of mice who think like human beings, let loose in nature?

Dr. Weissman says he would keep a tight rein on the mice and if they showed any signs of

humanness he would kill them. Hardly reassuring.

In a world where the bizarre has become all too commonplace, few things any longer shock the human psyche.

But, experiments like the one that produced a partially humanized mouse at Stanford University stretches the limits of human tinkering with nature to the realm of the pathological.

2 CORINTHIANS 6:17,18 "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted January 3, 2007 -------------------------------

UK Government Proposals Approve Human/Animal Embryo Hybrids

Screening embryos for genetic conditions allowed; sex selection not permitted

British researchers would be permitted to create human/animal embryo hybrids using test tube technology, under sweeping new proposals to be introduced by government health officials.

Known as "chimeras", the embryos would be produced by combining human and animal genetic material within a laboratory setting--the North East England Stem Cell Institute has already requested permission to create an embryo that is part human and part cow.

"The overarching aim is to pursue the common good through a system broadly acceptable to society," British Health Minister Caroline Flint said in a report on the policy changes obtained by the Sunday Telegraph.

***Other changes include removing the current requirement that a child's need for a father must be considered when a woman seeks fertility treatment. Single women and lesbian couples would have the same access to fertility treatments as heterosexual couples.

Screening embryos for genetic conditions which have the potential to lead to "serious medical conditions, disabilities or miscarriage" would be allowed, as would screening embryos in order to select a child that would be a tissue match for a sibling suffering from a "life-threatening

illness."

***However, screening for sex selection would not be permitted under any circumstances. The new proposals would also forbid the creation of a human embryo by using the genetic material from two women, bypassing the need for a male.

The new measures are intended to upgrade the 1990 Human Fertilization and Embryology Act, paralleling advances in science and ensuring the law is "fit for purpose in the early 21st century.

Under the new proposals, the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority and the Human Tissue Authority would be replaced with a Regulatory Authority for Tissue and Embryos.

Additional changes would regulate the passage of information between sperm donors and potential children. Sperm donors would be granted "access [to] limited, non-identifying information about children conceived as a result of their donations."

As well, "in some circumstances" donors would have the right to be informed when their identifying details were provided to their children once they reached age 18. Also at age 18, the children would be able to find out if they have siblings from the same donor.

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... What an ABOMINAL MESS this is going to be!!!!!!!!...

The coming proposals have been anticipated for some time, after urging by prominent leaders in the UK scientific community. A report introduced by members of the British Parliament's Science and Technology Select Committee in 2005 recommended relaxing current research restrictions to

permit experimentation on human/animal hybrids, along with other proposals to permit screening of embryos for identifying genetic malformations and sex selection purposes.

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

  verifier 10/14/04     

      THIS COUNTER IS WORKING: