Test Driving the Future: Honda's FCX Fuel-Cell Car
MSN - What's it like to drive the only
hydrogen car that's government-certified for everyday use on American
roads? It's very, very quiet. There are no engine or exhaust sounds from
the sleekly styled, 4-seat, 4-door latest-generation Honda FCX
prototype, which uses compressed hydrogen as its fuel. There's no need
for noise. In onboard, electrochemical reactions, the hydrogen is
directed to fuel cells and membranes therein where electricity is
quietly created, and the electricity then quietly powers the car.
There's no internal combustion engine under the hood or anywhere in the
FCX, so there's no volatile gasoline-and-air-mix under explosive
pressure of engine pistons. And so there's no need for a muffler. In
fact, at most, my passengers and I in the Honda FCX merely heard a bit
of wind noise and a high-pitch whine from an air pump that was working
to keep the fuel cell properly cool. There also was some
serenity-stealing tire squeal—honest—in this oh-so-environmentally
advanced car as the instantaneous torque from electric power got the FCX
wheels moving aggressively. But that was my fault. All too eager to get
going in this rare, million-dollar prototype, I learned quickly that
stepping hard on the accelerator brings a surge of electricity-supplied
torque faster and smoother than the torque from a gasoline engine.
more...
And Out of Zion Will Come the World's First Nano-Torah
Israel National News (December
31, 2007) - Out of Zion has come the world’s tiniest Bible,
engraved in gold on silicon, to illustrate the science of
nanotechnology. More than 300,000 words and 1,200,000 letters, including
vowels have been placed on less than half a square millimeter, allowing
the tiny Torah to fit inside the first dot of the first letter of a
traditional Torah scroll. “We took a piece of silicon and evaporated a
very small layer of gold over it, about twenty nanometers thick,”
explained Ohad Zohar, a Ph.D. student at the Technion, on Israel
National Radio’s Yishai Fleisher Show. A nanometer is about a billionth
of a meter.
Click here to hear the interview with Zohar on Arutz-7's
Israel National Radio “We then used a focused ion beam to
inscribe the Biblical text on it,” Zohar said. “What the focused ion
beam does is shoot gallium ions, focusing the charged particles on the
substrip [of gold]. It digs little holes and each hole is a pixel for
whatever picture you would like. In our case this is the Tanach [Five
Books of Moses, Prophets and Writings –ed.].” “What did you make this for?” asked Fleisher.
“It is not for ordinary use, of course,” Zohar said. “To read it you
need very expensive equipment. You cannot read it with a magnifying
glass or even the best optical microscope. You need an electron
microscope to read it. It is not intended to replace any storage devices
out there. We did this as part of a massive educational program aimed at
mostly high school students to explain different methods of storing
information and spark an interest in Nanotechnology.” The project was
sponsored and conducted at the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute
at Haifa's Technion Institute of Technology. more...
Mexico to use biochip to control illegal immigration
EarthTimes.org
(December 28, 2007) - Mexico's
National Migration Institute (INM) has said it will introduce electronic
registration for foreigners entering the country through the southern
border to curb illegal immigration. In a communique, the INM Thursday
said Biochip implants would be used to control the entry of workers and
visitors from Belize and Guatemala from March 2008, Spanish news agency
EFE reported Friday. The implant will replace the currently used local
pass, which can be easily modified. The biochip ID will allow total
electronic registration of entries and departures, officials said. The
INM said a migration form for local visitors will be issued to residents
of regions near the border with Guatemala, while the migration form for
border workers will benefit workers in the area bordering Belize and
Guatemala. In 2006, Mexico nabbed 200,000 people trying to enter
illegally through the southern border, according to INM figures.
RFID poised for the big time in 2008
Vnunet (December 24, 2007)
- Next year will witness the spread of RFID applications into familiar,
everyday settings, while consumer electronics, wireless technologies and
security requirements will continue to benefit from the integration of
RFID. These are just some of the predictions from AIM Global, the
worldwide industry trade association and self-proclaimed authority on
automatic identification and mobility solutions. Practical RFID
applications will find their way into familiar settings, including
sporting events, the latest toys and food safety, according to the trade
association. Next year's Beijing Olympics will see RFID applications
being used to track marathon runners to ensure race time accuracy,
watched by sports fans holding tickets authenticated by the same
technology. This year's highly publicised recalls of contaminated foods
and unsafe toys will push firms to use RFID to immediately track the
origins of compromised items, halting the production of potentially
harmful goods. 2008 will also witness the increasing integration of RFID
into mobile devices and consumer electronics, providing consumers and
business users with new and more convenient services. This technological
marriage will result in multi-functional mobile devices that allow users
to manage voice calls, email, text messages, multimedia, location-based
information, personal finance accounts and many other aspects of
everyday lives. According to AIM Global, the convergence of RFID and
other wireless technologies is now inevitable. As such the coming
together of RFID, real-time locating systems technology, GPS, sensor and
other wireless technologies will spur a "disappearance" of these
acronyms as businesses and individuals become more accustomed to the
benefits. 2008 will also see RFID addressing security vulnerabilities in
the global supply chain. From transportation worker ID cards and border
cards, to RFID-based electronic seals on cargo containers, RFID will
increasingly be deployed in a bid to improve security without hampering
international trade. more...
FBI prepares to build the world's largest database of peoples' physical
characteristics
The Washington Post (December 22, 2007)
- The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's
largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a
project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to
identify individuals in the United States and abroad. Digital images of
faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI
systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here. Next month, the
FBI intends to award a 10-year contract that would significantly expand
the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives. And in the
coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able
to rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the
unique ways people walk and talk, to solve crimes and identify criminals
and terrorists. The FBI will also retain, upon request by employers, the
fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks
so the employers can be notified if employees have brushes with the law.
"Bigger. Faster. Better. That's the bottom line," said Thomas E. Bush
III, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information
Services Division, which operates the database from its headquarters in
the Appalachian foothills. The increasing use of biometrics for
identification is raising questions about the ability of Americans to
avoid unwanted scrutiny. It is drawing criticism from those who worry
that people's bodies will become de facto national identification cards.
Critics say that such government initiatives should not proceed without
proof that the technology really can pick a criminal out of a crowd. The
use of biometric data is increasing throughout the government. For the
past two years, the Defense Department has been storing in a database
images of fingerprints, irises and faces of more than 1.5 million Iraqi
and Afghan detainees, Iraqi citizens and foreigners who need access to
U.S. military bases. The Pentagon also collects DNA samples from some
Iraqi detainees, which are stored separately. The Department of Homeland
Security has been using iris scans at some airports to verify the
identity of travelers who have passed background checks and who want to
move through lines quickly. The department is also looking to apply
iris- and face-recognition techniques to other programs. The DHS already
has a database of millions of sets of fingerprints, which includes
records collected from U.S. and foreign travelers stopped at borders for
criminal violations, from U.S. citizens adopting children overseas, and
from visa applicants abroad. There could be multiple records of one
person's prints. "It's going to be an essential component of tracking,"
said Barry Steinhardt, director of the Technology and Liberty Project of
the American Civil Liberties Union. "It's enabling the Always On
Surveillance Society." If successful, the system planned by the FBI,
called Next Generation Identification, will collect a wide variety of
biometric information in one place for identification and forensic
purposes. In an underground facility the size of two football fields, a
request reaches an FBI server every second from somewhere in the United
States or Canada, comparing a set of digital fingerprints against the
FBI's database of 55 million sets of electronic fingerprints. A possible
match is made -- or ruled out--as many as 100,000 times a day.
more...
Synthetic DNA on the Brink of Yielding New Life Forms
Washington Post (December
17, 2007) - 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. At the core of synthetic biology's new
ascendance are high-speed DNA synthesizers that can produce very long
strands of genetic material from basic chemical building blocks: sugars,
nitrogen-based compounds and phosphates. Today a scientist can write a
long genetic program on a computer just as a maestro might compose a
musical score, then use a synthesizer to convert that digital code into
actual DNA. Experiments with "natural" DNA indicate that when a faux
chromosome gets plopped into a cell, it will be able to direct the
destruction of the cell's old DNA and become its new "brain" -- telling
the cell to start making a valuable chemical, for example, or a medicine
or a toxin, or a bio-based gasoline substitute. Unlike conventional
biotechnology, in which scientists induce modest genetic changes in
cells to make them serve industrial purposes, synthetic biology involves
the large-scale rewriting of genetic codes to create metabolic machines
with singular purposes. "I see a cell as a chassis and power supply for
the artificial systems we are putting together," said Tom Knight of MIT,
who likes to compare the state of cell biology today to that of
mechanical engineering in 1864. That is when the United States began to
adopt standardized thread sizes for nuts and bolts, an advance that
allowed the construction of complex devices from simple, interchangeable
parts. more...
Prince Charles will appear at conference as a hologram
Daily Mail (December
15, 2007) - His detractors may argue that his green principles do
not stand up to close examination. But now Prince Charles is set to
confound his critics by addressing an energy conference - as a hologram.
Determined to keep his environmental damage to a minimum, Charles will
save the 15 tons of carbon that would have been generated by flying
himself and his staff 7,000 miles to the World Future Energy Summit in
Abu Dhabi. Instead, a three-dimensional image of the Prince will be seen
giving a five-minute talk. Charles recorded the message at Highgrove
last month. It will be transformed into a hologram-style image using
technology based on a Victorian music-hall technique called "ghosting".
A video projector will beam an image of the Prince on to the floor. It
is then reflected up on to a paper-thin sheet of foil to create an
optical illusion that makes him appear as a 3-D image on stage. Former
US Vice-President Al Gore used similar technology to appear as a
hologram at Wembley Stadium at the beginning of the Live Earth concerts
earlier this year. Charles was heavily criticised in January when he and
the Duchess of Cornwall flew to Philadelphia with 12 staff to pick up an
award from Mr Gore honouring him as an environmentalist. That trip
created 20 tons of carbon dioxide. The idea of the virtual Prince came
from the Abu Dhabi conference organisers, who asked British events firm
Revolution to produce special events for the three-day summit which
starts on January 21. Matt Sims said: "He will appear as a
three-dimensional holographic image. All credit to His Royal Highness
who was very keen to do it. more...
Honda Robots Pair Up to Lend a Hand Associated
Press (December 11, 2007) - As if
the idea of having one robot to serve you wasn't unusual enough, Honda
says its humanoids are now ready to work in pairs—and they can even
serve drinks. At a demonstration Tuesday at its Tokyo headquarters,
automaker Honda Motor Co. showed off two of the child-sized Asimo robots
serving tea and performing other tasks in coordination with one another.
The bubble-headed robots seemed to pick their steps carefully as they
made their way around the room, picking up and putting down drink trays
and pushing around a refreshments cart. Honda said it has developed a
system to link its robots together so they can share information about
where each one is and what each is doing. The 51-inch tall Asimo is
"smarter" now, thanks to upgrades that allow it to do more tasks without
human help, the company said. The robot can, for example, recognize
drink choices and carry a tray with the requested drink to the person
who placed the order. The Asimo, which looks like a child in a white
spacesuit, also does a better job of moving around people because of
technology that allows it to better predict people's movements so it
doesn't get in the way. The robot can even automatically head off to the
nearest charging station when its batteries fall below a certain level.
Honda has been working on robots since 1986. Rival Toyota Motor Corp.
has been aggressively beefing up its own robotics team, showing off last
week a robot that could play the violin. The Japanese government has
been pushing companies and researchers to make robotics a pillar of this
nation's business. Other companies, including Hitachi Ltd., Fujitsu Ltd.
and NEC Corp., are also developing robots. Asimo—which stands for
Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility and is play on the Japanese word
for "legs"—first became available for rental in 2000. It's considered
one of the world's most advanced humanoids. It can walk, even jog, wave,
avoid obstacles and carry on simple conversations. "By the end of 2010s,
we'd like to see these robots working at every street corner of the
city," said Tomohiko Kawanabe of Honda's Fundamental Technology Research
Center.
Leftover Turkey? Turn It Into Oil!
Associated
Press (November 21, 2007) -
In 1971 scientists learned how to turn sewage
into oil in just twenty minutes using heat and pressure. Now, a
lab in Texas shows that even the scraps from your Thanksgiving
turkey is a great way to make oil in just half an hour.
Evolutionists suggest that oil comes from organic material, such
as dinosaurs, that were buried and compressed for millions of
years under immense pressure. However, more laboratory research
continues to prove that it can be formed in much shorter amounts
of time. Creationists agree that oil came from organic material,
but it was during Noah's Flood that billions of plants and
animals were buried by mud and water squishing them into oil.
This happened just 4,400 years ago, not millions of years ago.
The presence of oil in the earth is just more proof that the
Bible is scientifically accurate, and that the evolution theory
is last century's "leftovers." For many more evidences check out
our DVD on
The Age of the Earth. Exoskeleton Turns Humans Into Terminators LiveLeak (November 21, 2007) - An experimental robotic exoskeleton turns grunts into super-soldiers. Video clip 02:53
Laid-Back Surfer Dude May Be Next Einstein
Fox News (November 16, 2007)
- A. Garrett Lisi, a physicist who divides his time between surfing in
Maui and teaching snowboarding in Lake Tahoe, has come up with what may
be the Grand Unified Theory. That's the "holy grail" of physics that
scientists have been searching for ever since Albert Einstein presented
his General Theory of Relativity nearly 100 years ago. Even more
remarkable is that Lisi, who has a Ph.D. but no permanent university
affiliation, solves the problem without resorting to exotic dimensions,
string theory or exceptionally complex mathematics. A successful Grand
Unified Theory would use a series of equations to show how the four
fundamental forces of nature — gravity, electromagnetism and the strong
and weak nuclear forces — relate to each other. Electromagnetism and the
weak nuclear force, which controls radioactivity, were linked more than
30 years ago, and some progress has been made with linking them to the
strong nuclear force, which binds protons together in the atomic
nucleus. But gravity has always been an outlier. Not only have all
attempts to link gravity to the other three forces failed, but
physicists still can't agree on what gravity actually is or how it
works. Lisi solves this by using the E8 lattice, an eight-dimensional
structure visualized earlier this year in a widely circulated paper. He
noticed that several of the equations used to describe the lattice
matched those he'd come up with trying to resolve the four fundamental
forces. "The moment this happened my brain exploded with the
implications and the beauty of the thing," Lisi tells New Scientist
magazine. "I thought: 'Holy crap, that's it!'" By mapping known
subatomic particles, plus 20 imaginary ones, onto the 248 points of the
E8 lattice, and then rotating the lattice in a computer model, Lisi
shows how the particles elegantly combine to form three of the four
forces. The imaginary ones combine to form gravity, for which subatomic
particles have only been theorized. "Some incredibly beautiful stuff
falls out of Lisi's theory," David Ritz Finkelstein of Georgia Tech
tells New Scientist. "I think that this must be more than coincidence
and he really is touching on something profound." But Professor Marcus
du Sautoy of Oxford tells Britain's Daily Telegraph that "there seem to
be a lot of things still to fill in." For his part, Lisi self-mockingly
calls his finding "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything," and
downplays the suggestion that it may be the Grand Unified Theory. "The
theory is very young, and still in development," he tells the Daily
Telegraph. "Right now, I'd assign a low (but not tiny) likelihood to
this prediction." He hopes the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, currently
being built on the Swiss-French border will find some of his 20
imaginary gravity-related particles. "This is an all-or-nothing kind of
theory — it's either going to be exactly right, or spectacularly wrong,"
Lisi tells New Scientist. "I'm the first to admit this is a long shot.
But it ain't over till the LHC sings." more... See video
here.
Say Goodbye To Privacy
Haaretz
(November 13, 2007) - Privacy doesn't mean
anonymity. Think about that for a bit - and get used to it. Or if you
don't like it, get a plan. But it had better be a good one. On Oct. 23,
Donald Kerr, deputy director of the Office of National Intelligence,
outlined the new order of things: "Too often, privacy has been equated
with anonymity; and it's an idea that is deeply rooted in American
culture." Well, yes, the Bill of Rights, for instance, includes
protections against "search," as well as "seizure." But that was then.
As Kerr put it, "In our interconnected and wireless world, anonymity -
or the appearance of anonymity - is quickly becoming a thing of the
past." Kerr's speech got little notice until The Drudge Report
highlighted an Associated Press write-up. No doubt, of course, the
Office of National Intelligence will soon issue a soothing statement
assuring us that the government indeed respects your privacy and your
anonymity. And we've all heard that line before: "Nothing to see here
folks, just move along." Then Uncle Sam will resume perfecting his
warrantless surveillance. In fact, the old equation - privacy equals
anonymity - is being buzz-sawed six ways. First and most obviously,
terrorism concerns. If you're walking through Times Square carrying a
backpack and acting strangely, inquiring minds will want to know why.
And Godspeed to cops brave enough to tap that shoulder. Second, and
closely related, the proliferation of cameras and Webcams. Nobody likes
to be spied on, but many people - including parents keeping tabs on
baby-sitters - like to spy. In the coming face-off, the spies have it.
Third, health insurance. We have decided, collectively, to be generous
with each other in terms of "human services." But though most Americans
are happy to operate a welfare state for Americans, they draw the line
at subsidizing the world. So as a matter of administrative necessity,
the Nurse State will have to know exactly who you are - and your legal
status. Fourth, the reality that medical treatment now depends on
medical information. If doctors are to help you, they need to know your
medical history - not just blood type and allergies, but everything
about you, including your genetic background. Such monitoring is fraught
with controversy - recent headline in The New York Times: "In DNA Era,
New Worries About Prejudice" - but this is the era of the instant Q-Tip
identity test. more...
New Transparent Plastic Strong as Steel
Spacemart
(October 8, 2007) -
By mimicking a brick-and-mortar molecular structure found in seashells,
University of Michigan researchers created a composite plastic that's as
strong as steel but lighter and transparent. It's made of layers of clay
nanosheets and a water-soluble polymer that shares chemistry with white
glue. Engineering professor Nicholas Kotov almost dubbed it "plastic
steel," but the new material isn't quite stretchy enough to earn that
name. Nevertheless, he says its further development could lead to
lighter, stronger armor for soldiers or police and their vehicles. It
could also be used in microelectromechanical devices, microfluidics,
biomedical sensors and valves and unmanned aircraft. Kotov and other U-M
faculty members are authors of a paper on this composite material, "Ultrastrong
and Stiff Layered Polymer Nanocomposites," published in the Oct. 5
edition of Science. The scientists solved a problem that has confounded
engineers and scientists for decades: Individual nano-size building
blocks such as nanotubes, nanosheets and nanorods are ultrastrong. But
larger materials made out of bonded nano-size building blocks were
comparatively weak. Until now. "When you tried to build something you
can hold in your arms, scientists had difficulties transferring the
strength of individual nanosheets or nanotubes to the entire material,"
Kotov said. "We've demonstrated that one can achieve almost ideal
transfer of stress between nanosheets and a polymer matrix." The
researchers created this new composite plastic with a machine they
developed that builds materials one nanoscale layer after another. The
robotic machine consists of an arm that hovers over a wheel of vials of
different liquids. In this case, the arm held a piece of glass about the
size of a stick of gum on which it built the new material. The arm
dipped the glass into the glue-like polymer solution and then into a
liquid that was a dispersion of clay nanosheets. After those layers
dried, the process repeated. It took 300 layers of each the glue-like
polymer and the clay nanosheets to create a piece of this material as
thick as a piece of plastic wrap. Mother of pearl, the iridescent lining
of mussel and oyster shells, is built layer-by-layer like this. It's one
of the toughest natural mineral-based materials. more...
I am creating artificial life, declares US gene pioneer
The Guardian
(October 6, 2007) -
Craig Venter, the controversial DNA researcher involved in the race to
decipher the human genetic code, has built a synthetic chromosome out of
laboratory chemicals and is poised to announce the creation of the first
new artificial life form on Earth. The announcement, which is expected
within weeks and could come as early as Monday at the annual meeting of
his scientific institute in San Diego, California, will herald a giant
leap forward in the development of designer genomes. It is certain to
provoke heated debate about the ethics of creating new species and could
unlock the door to new energy sources and techniques to combat global
warming. Mr Venter told the Guardian he thought this landmark would be
"a very important philosophical step in the history of our species. We
are going from reading our genetic code to the ability to write it. That
gives us the hypothetical ability to do things never contemplated
before". The Guardian can reveal that a team of 20 top scientists
assembled by Mr Venter, led by the Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith, has
already constructed a synthetic chromosome, a feat of virtuoso
bio-engineering never previously achieved. Using lab-made chemicals,
they have painstakingly stitched together a chromosome that is 381 genes
long and contains 580,000 base pairs of genetic code. The DNA sequence
is based on the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium which the team pared
down to the bare essentials needed to support life, removing a fifth of
its genetic make-up. The wholly synthetically reconstructed chromosome,
which the team have christened Mycoplasma laboratorium, has been
watermarked with inks for easy recognition. It is then transplanted into
a living bacterial cell and in the final stage of the process it is
expected to take control of the cell and in effect become a new life
form. The team of scientists has already successfully transplanted the
genome of one type of bacterium into the cell of another, effectively
changing the cell's species. Mr Venter said he was "100% confident" the
same technique would work for the artificially created chromosome. The
new life form will depend for its ability to replicate itself and
metabolise on the molecular machinery of the cell into which it has been
injected, and in that sense it will not be a wholly synthetic life form.
However, its DNA will be artificial, and it is the DNA that controls the
cell and is credited with being the building block of life. more...
Nigerian polio outbreak from vaccine Associated
Press (October 5, 2007) - A
polio outbreak in Nigeria was caused by the vaccine designed to stop
it, international health officials say, leaving at least 69 children
paralyzed. It is a frightening paradox in a part of the world that
already distrusts western vaccines, making it even tougher to stamp
out age-old diseases. The outbreak was caused by the live polio
virus that is used in vaccines given orally — the preferred method
in developing countries because it is cheaper and doesn't require
medical training to dispense. "This vaccine is the most effective
tool we have against the virus, but it's like fighting fire with
fire," said Olen Kew, a virologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. The CDC and the World Health Organization
announced the cause of the polio outbreak last week, even though
they knew about it last year. Outbreaks caused by the oral vaccine's
live virus have happened before. But the continuing Nigerian
outbreak is the biggest ever caused by the vaccine. It also follows
a nearly yearlong boycott of the vaccine in Africa's most populous
country because of unfounded fears the vaccine was a Western plot to
sterilize Muslims. Officials now worry that the latest
vaccine-caused Nigerian outbreak could trigger another vaccine
scare. Experts say such outbreaks only happen when too few children
are vaccinated. In northern Nigeria, only about 39 percent of
children are fully protected against polio. The oral polio vaccine
contains a weakened version of polio virus. Children who have been
vaccinated excrete the virus, and in unsanitary conditions it can
end up in the water supply, spreading to unvaccinated children. In
rare instances, as the virus passes through unimmunized children, it
can mutate into a form that is dangerous enough to spark new
outbreaks. In 2001, officials reported that 22 children were
paralyzed from polio in the Dominican Republic and Haiti in this
way. Subsequent vaccine-caused polio outbreaks have occurred in the
Philippines, Madagascar, China and Indonesia. In the West, the polio
vaccine is given as a shot and uses an inactivated virus, but that
method is more expensive and requires training. In Nigeria, the
outbreak comes "in the wake of all the other problems they've had
in," said Dr. Donald A. Henderson, who led WHO's smallpox
eradication campaign in the 1970s. In 2003, politicians in northern
Nigeria canceled vaccination campaigns for nearly a year, claiming
the vaccine was a Western plot to sterilize Muslims. That led to an
explosion of polio, and the virus jumped to about two dozen
countries. Now, health officials' decision to keep quiet about the
cause of the outbreak for so long may look suspicious. Dr. David
Heymann, WHO's top polio official, said that because the
organization considered the outbreak to be a problem for scientists
and not something that would change global vaccination practices,
they thought it was was unnecessary to immediately share publicly.
more... This is a good example of why I don't believe we should not participate in vaccinations. Dr. Len Horowitz, author of DNA: Pirates of the Sacred Spiral, has much to say about this topic from a knowlegable perspective, giving details about the production of vaccines and other realities kept from the public conciousness. Read about them here. The bottom line is that vaccines can do exactly what this story is about. This is why I won't get any more vaccines, rather I will trust in God. He knows what He's doing more than these pharmacies and vaccine creators. In the Bible, the word "witchcraft" is actually the Greek word pharmakeia found in Galatians 5:20. It is defined in Greek as, "the use or the administering of drugs | poisoning | sorcery, magical arts, often found in connection with idolatry and fostered by it | metaph. the deceptions and seductions of idolatry"Galatians 5:19-21
Robot Maker Builds Artificial Boy
my way
(September 13, 2007) - David Hanson has two little Zenos to care
for these days. There's his 18-month-old son Zeno, who prattles and
smiles as he bounds through his father's cramped office. Then there's
the robotic Zeno. It can't speak or walk yet, but has blinking eyes that
can track people and a face that captivates with a range of expressions.
At 17 inches tall and 6 pounds, the artificial Zeno is the culmination
of five years of work by Hanson and a small group of engineers,
designers and programmers at his company, Hanson Robotics. They believe
there's an emerging business in the design and sale of lifelike robotic
companions, or social robots. And they'll be showing off the robot boy
to students in grades 3-12 at the Wired NextFest technology conference
Thursday in Los Angeles. Unlike clearly artificial robotic toys, Hanson
says he envisions Zeno as an interactive learning companion, a synthetic
pal who can engage in conversation and convey human emotion through a
face made of a skin-like, patented material Hanson calls frubber. "It's
a representation of robotics as a character animation medium, one that
is intelligent," Hanson beams. "It sees you and recognizes your face. It
learns your name and can build a relationship with you." It's no
coincidence if the whole concept sounds like a science-fiction movie.
Hanson said he was inspired by, and is aiming for, the same sort of
realism found in the book "Supertoys Last All Summer Long," by Brian
Aldiss. Aldiss' story of troubled robot boy David and his quest for the
love of his flesh-and-blood parents was the source material for Steven
Spielberg's film "Artificial Intelligence: AI." He plans to make little
Zenos available to consumers within the next three years for $200 to
$300. Until then, Hanson, 37, makes a living selling and renting pricey,
lifelike robotic heads. His company offers models that look like Albert
Einstein, a pirate and a rocker, complete with spiky hair and
sunglasses. They cost tens of thousands of dollars and can be customized
to look like anyone, Hanson said. more...
0:01:23
How television controls and programs minds
L. Wolfe (September
10, 2007) - Read this powerful
indictment of uncontrolled TV viewing written in the early 1990s and
then take stock of how much the Boob Tube is on in your own home.
Its message is even more important today with TVs blaring in
airports, bars, even offices. It is time to try Mr. Wolfe's therapy:
"Do you want to stay stupid and let your country go to hell in a
basket? Why don't you just walk over to the set and turn it off.
That's right, completely off. Go on, you can do it. Now isn't that
better? Don't you feel a little better already? You've just taken
the first step in deprogramming yourself. It wasn't that hard, was
it? Until we speak again, try to keep it off. Now that will be a bit
harder." -Jim MarrsTurn Off Your
Television: The subconscious is powerful. It is aware of every
particle and detail around you. But it doesn't know the difference
between fact or fiction and acts on all information passing through
the conscious mind as fact, and responds to it. So what do you think
happens when you watch silly, moron, goofy commercials and
television programs? They are training your thought processes. -Hey
buddy, I'm talking to you. Yes, you, the guy sitting in front of the
television. Turn down the sound a bit, so that you can hear what I
am saying. Now, try to concentrate on what I am going to say. I want
to talk to you about your favorite pastime. No, it's not baseball or
football, although it does have something to do with your interest
in spectator sports. I'm talking about what you were just doing:
watching television. Do you have any idea about how much time you
spend in front of the television set? According to the latest
studies, the average American now spends between five and six hours
a day watching television. Let's put that in perspective: that is
more time than you spend doing anything else but sleeping or
working, if you are lucky enough to still have a job. That's more
time than you spend eating, more time than you spend with your wife
alone, more time than with the kids. It's even worse with your
children. According to these same studies, young children below
school age watch more than eight hours each day. School age children
watch a little under eight hours a day. In 1980, the average
20-year-old had watched the equivalent of 14 months of television in
his or her brief lifetime. That's 14 months, 24 hours a day. More
recent figures show that the numbers have climbed: the 20-year-old
has spent closer to two full years of his or her life in front of
the television set. At the same time, the researchers have noted a
disturbing phenomena. It seems that we Americans are getting
progressively more stupid. They note a decline in reading and
comprehension levels in all age groups tested. Americans read less
and understand what they read less than they did 10 years ago, less
than they have at any time since research began to study such
things. As for writing skills, Americans are, in general, unable to
write more than a few simple sentences. We are among the least
literate people on this planet, and we're getting worse. It's the
change--the constant trendline downward--that interests these
researchers. More than one study has correlated this increasing
stupidity of our population to the amount of television they watch.
Interestingly, the studies found that it doesn't matter what people
watch, whether it's ``The Simpsons'' or ``McNeil/Lehrer,'' or
``Murphy Brown'' or ``Nightline':' the more television you watch,
the less literate, the more stupid you are. The growth in television
watching had surprised some of the researchers. Back a decade ago,
they were predicting that television watching would level off and
might actually decline. It had reached an absolute saturation point.
They were right for so-called network television; figures show a
steady dropoff of viewership. But that drop is more than made up for
by the growth of cable television, with its smorgasbord of channels,
one for almost every perversion. Especially in urban and suburban
areas, Americans are hard-wired to more than 100 different channels
that provide them with all news, like CNN, all movies, all comedy,
all sports, all weather, all financial news and a liberal dose of
straight pornography. The researchers had also failed to predict the
market penetration of first beta and then VHS video recorders; they
made it possible to watch one thing and record another for later
viewing. They also offered access to movies not available on
networks or even cable channels as well as home videos, recorded on
your own little camcorder. The proliferation of home video equipment
has involved families in video-related activities which are not even
considered in the cumulative totals for time Americans spend
watching television. You might not actually realize how much you are
watching television. But think for a moment. When you come home, you
turn the television on, if it isn't on already. You read the paper
with it on, half glancing at what is on the screen, catching a bit
of the news, or the plot of a show. You eat with it on, maybe in the
background, listening for a score or something that happens to a
character in a show you follow. When something you are interested
in, a show or basketball game, is on, the set becomes the center of
attention. So your attention to what is on may vary in intensity,
but there is almost no point when you are home, and inside, and have
the set completely off. Isn't that right? The studies did not break
down the periods of time people watched television, according to the
intensity of their viewing. But the point is still made: you
compulsively turn the television on and spend a good portion of your
waking hours glued to the tube. And the studies also showed that
many people can't sleep without the television turned on!
Brainwashing Now, I'm sure you have heard that watching too much
television is bad for your health. They put stories like that on the
evening news. Bad for your eyes to stare at the screen, they say.
Especially bad if you sit too close. Well, I want to make another
point. We've already shown that you are addicted to the tube,
watching it between six and eight hour a day. But it is an addiction
that brainwashes you. There are two kinds of brainwashing. The one
that's called "hard" brainwashing is the type you're most familiar
with. You've got a pretty good image of it from some of those old
Korean war movies. They take some guy, an American patriot, drag him
into a room, torture him, pump him full of drugs, and after a
struggle, get him to renounce his country and his beliefs. He
usually undergoes a personality change, signified by an ever-present
smile and blank stare. This brainwashing is called hard because its
methods are overt. The controlled environment is obvious to the
victim; so is the terror. The victim is overwhelmed by a seemingly
omnipotent external force, and a feeling of intense isolation is
induced. The victim's moral strength is sapped, and slowly he
embraces his torturers. It is man's moral strength that informs and
orders his power of reason; without it, the mind becomes little more
than a recording machine waiting for imprints. No one is saying that
you have been a victim of hard brainwashing. But you have been
brainwashed, just as effectively as those people in the movies. The
blank stare? Did you ever look at what you look like while watching
television? If the angle is right, you might catch your own
reflection in the screen. Jaw slightly open, lips relaxed into a
smile. The blank stare of a television zombie. This is "soft"
brainwashing, even more effective because its victims go about their
lives unaware of what is being done to them. Television, with its
reach into nearly every American home, creates the basis for the
mass brainwashing of citizens, like you. Who's Doing It? read
more... While I can't verify some of the specific historic claims made, this is something that we as Christians should be aware of and guarding our minds against. The mind is very easily influenced, especially when dealing with spiritual wickedness in high places. If thought is the voice of the spirit realm, then the spirit realm can affect us through thoughts and words. I know I've "zoned out" on TV many-a-time. Knowing this tool is there, how much will the subtle serpent take advantage of it and try to control it? Watch how rock n' roll has been and is being used today. They Sold Their Souls For Rock N' Roll
Human-animal embryo study wins approval Guardian
Unlimited (September 4,
2007) - Plans to
allow British scientists to create human-animal embryos are expected to
be approved tomorrow by the government's fertility regulator. The Human
Fertilisation 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 organisations 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 licences. 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 neurone disease
with Professor Chris Shaw at the Institute of Psychiatry in London.
more...
Part-human embryos are a chilling step closer as watchdog gives go-ahead
for hybrid 'chimeras' This Is
London (September
4, 2007)
- The creation of part-human, part-animal embryos looks set to be
approved by the fertility regulator tomorrow. These "hybrid" embryos
would be used for research into incurable diseases such as Alzheimer's.
The news follows a surprise Government decision not to ban the
controversial research. A shortage of human eggs has led two groups of
scientists to appeal to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority
for permission to make hybrid embryos from human skin cells and animal
eggs. Cows' eggs are most likely to be used, because they are in
plentiful supply. Scientists say the creation of hybrid embryos has the
potential to revolutionise the treatment of debilitating diseases which
affect millions. But opponents believe mixing of human and animal
genetic material defies nature. They are also unhappy about the
destruction of embryos that such research inevitably entails. The
scientists' hopes to use hybrids were initially jeopardised by a
proposal to outlaw such research under a shake-up of outdated fertility
laws. But in May, Labour ministers dramatically changed their minds.
However, only scientists who are researching serious diseases - and are
licensed by the HFEA - will be allowed to carry out such procedures.
While the fertility watchdog has yet to rule on the issue, its ethical
and scientific experts are in favour of the creation of hybrids. It will
tomorrow rule on the creation of hybrids in principle. But the final
go-ahead on the applications submitted by scientists at King's College,
London, and the North East Stem Cell Institute in Newcastle will rest
with the authority's licence committee which is due to meet in November.
Although the embryos are sometimes called chimeras after the monstrous
creatures in Greek mythology, they are strictly speaking hybrids rather
than chimeras. Rather than containing two types of cells - one from each
"parent" creature - as chimeras do, hybrids have only one type of cell,
in which the genetic information from the different species mixes. This
summer the HFEA's Scientific and Clinical Advances Group concluded that
the creation of hybrids was justified by the lack of human eggs
available to researchers. However, the results of a public consultation
were mixed. Some 61 per cent backing the creation of hybrid embryos if
it would help research into diseases such as Parkinson's and
Alzheimer's. At the same time, almost half of those polled felt the
research was "meddling with nature". more...
Why so many Americans today are 'mentally ill' WorldNet
Daily (August 14, 2007) - "When I
was lying in my bed that night, I couldn’t sleep because my voice in my
head kept echoing through my mind telling me to kill them." You're
reading the words of 12-year-old Christopher Pittman, struggling to
explain why he murdered his grandparents, who had provided the only love
and stability in his turbulent life. He was angry with his grandfather,
who had disciplined him earlier that day for hurting another student
during a fight on the school bus. So later that night, he shot both of
his grandparents in the head with a .410 shotgun as they slept and then
burned down their South Carolina home, where he had lived with them. "I
got up, got the gun, and I went upstairs and I pulled the trigger," he
recalled. "Through the whole thing, it was like watching your favorite
TV show. You know what is going to happen, but
you can’t do anything to stop it." His lawyers would later argue the
boy had been a victim of "involuntary intoxication," since Pittman's
doctors had him taking the antidepressants Paxil and Zoloft just prior
to the murders. Paxil's known "adverse drug reactions" – according to
the drug's 2001 FDA-approved label – include "mania," "insomnia,"
"anxiety," "agitation," "confusion," "amnesia," "depression," "paranoid
reaction," "psychosis," "hostility," "delirium," "hallucinations,"
"abnormal thinking," "depersonalization" and "lack of emotion," among
others. Andrea Yates, in one of the most horrifying and heartbreaking
crimes in modern history, drowned all five of her children – aged 7
years down to 6 months – in a bathtub. Insisting inner voices commanded
her to kill her kids, she had become increasingly psychotic over the
course of several years. At her 2006 murder re-trial, Yates' longtime
friend Debbie Holmes testified: "She asked me if I thought Satan could
read her mind and if I believed in demon possession." And Dr. George
Ringholz, after evaluating Yates for two days, recounted an experience
she had after the birth of her first child: "What she described was
feeling a presence ... Satan ... telling her to take a knife and stab
her son Noah," Ringholz said, adding that Yates' delusion at the time of
the bathtub murders was not only that she had to kill her children to
save them, but that Satan had entered her and that
she had to be executed in order to kill
Satan. Yates had been taking the antidepressant Effexor. In November
2005, more than four years after Yates drowned her children, Effexor
manufacturer Wyeth Pharmaceuticals quietly added "homicidal ideation" to
the drug's list of "rare adverse events." The Medical Accountability
Network, a private nonprofit focused on medical ethics issues, publicly
criticized Wyeth, saying Effexor's "homicidal ideation" risk wasn't
well-publicized and that Wyeth failed to send letters to doctors or
issue warning labels announcing the change. And what exactly does "rare"
mean in the phrase "rare adverse events"? The FDA defines it as
occurring in less than one in 1,000 people. But since, according to an
Associated Press report, about 19.2 million prescriptions for Effexor
were filled in the U.S. alone in 2005, statistically that means
thousands of Americans could experience "homicidal ideation" – murderous
thoughts – as a result of taking just this one brand of antidepressant
drug. Effexor is Wyeth's best-selling drug, by the way, bringing in
$3.46 billion – with a "b" – in sales worldwide in 2005, almost
one-fifth of the company's total revenues. Columbine mass-killer Eric
Harris was taking Luvox – like Paxil and Zoloft (and trendsetter
Prozac), a modern and widely prescribed type of antidepressant called
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs. Harris and fellow
student Dylan Klebold went on a hellish school shooting rampage in 1999
during which they killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 24 others
before turning their guns on themselves. Luvox manufacturer Solvay
Pharmaceuticals concedes that during short-term controlled clinical
trials 4 percent of children and youth taking Luvox – that's 1 in 25 –
developed mania, a dangerous and
violence-prone mental derangement characterized by extreme excitement
and delusion. The inescapable truth is, perpetrators of many of the
nation's most horrendous murder rampages in recent years were taking, or
just coming off of, prescribed psychiatric drugs. more... Is it any wonder God is against Pharmacia, translated witchcraft in the Bible? Putting foreign chemicals made by men tinkering with variations alone is not advisable as they have no clue of the full effects that may not be seen. What people need is the foundation of YAHWEH in their lives, not drugs. Thought is the voice of the spirit realm and it is very advisable for us to begin to recognize that and capture our thoughts, compare them to scripture and reject what is not of God. Then we will live lives of selfless love and the enemy will have no foothold. Do you want to trust the God who created you to heal you or men tinkering with chemical concoctions to test their theories on you? There's another more sinister element to this coming from big pharma in the desire of the New World Order to control the populations. This is made easier the more of the population is zoned out on medications and dependent upon them. I believe if the mind can be dulled, possession and/or influence is much easier. How could this happen? Our higher education system is full of false theories and ideas expressed as truth while rejecting the spiritual. Are they in any place to understand the spiritual connection of the physical body and the spirit within it or what chemicals do to that connection? God said not to be involved in Pharmacia, I think we're seeing the reasons why.
National ID? How about a global ID?
Info World
(August
10, 2007) - A little-known
federation quietly lays the infrastructure for a universal identity
system that could eventually be implemented nationally or
internationally. The Federation for Identity and
Cross-Credentialing Systems (FiXs)
-- a little-known group of non-profits, government contractors,
commercial entities, and government agencies -- has just unveiled a
first-of-its-kind global infrastructure to support distributed,
integrated identity management and cross-credentialing across
organizations. The implementation combines several existing security
technologies along with a set of trusted models, policies, and
operating rules to insure the accurate identity of personnel
accessing physical sites or logical systems. Already in a pilot mode
at a handful of government agencies and defense contractors, the
FiXs identity management initiative does not have a hard date for
broad deployment, although the impediments do not appear to be
technical. “The cultural gap with the public in general is still too
wide,” said Dr. Mike Mestrovich, President of FiXs. “I think there
would have to be a public consensus to move us in that direction and
I don’t see that happening until at least 2009 or beyond.” Founded
in 2004 and based in Fairfax, Va., FiXs counts among its members the
Department of Defense (DoD), Wells Fargo, Lockheed Martin, EDS, and
several others. Modeled after secure electronic payment systems and
initially implemented by the DoD’s Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC),
the FiXs initiative meets the objectives set forth in the October
2006 Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD-12). “Until now,
cross-bordering policies between government and industry had not
been established,” said Mary Dixon, director at the DMDC. The FiXs
implementation does not assign roles, grant or deny access, or
otherwise act as a gatekeeper. Rather, the mission of FiXs is simply
to authenticate the identity of participants within its member
organizations. Once verified by FiXs, individual site managers and
systems administrators assign or designate access controls based on
the role of the individual and the policies of a given organization.
FiXs’ capabilities allow it to cross between both public and private
sector organizations using a federated trust model. The
implementation is available worldwide in local or remote settings
via both wireless and wired environments. Access is available in
real time. An individual’s specific identity data remains within
their vetted source organization. “By its very nature, the federated
solution aids in privacy because there is no central database and
individual data can be stored in only one [vetted] place,” Dr.
Mestrovich said. Yet the distributed design and cross-organizational
model found in the FiXs implementation does offer the possibility of
a future national or international identity management system that
might cross borders and organizational boundaries. “The federated
approach can actually take the place of a mandated National ID
system,” Dr. Mestrovich stated.
Scientists reveal secret of levitation Breitbart.com (August 6, 2007) - Scientists have discovered a ground-breaking way of levitating ultra small objects, which may revolutionise the design of micro-machines, a new report says. Physicists said they can create "incredible levitation effects" by manipulating so-called Casimir force, which normally causes objects to stick together by quantum force. The phenomenon could be used to improve the performances of everyday devices ranging from car airbags to computer chips, say Professor Ulf Leonhardt and Dr Thomas Philbin from Saint Andrews University. Casimir force -- discovered in 1948 and first measured in 1997 -- can be seen in a gecko's ability to stick to a surface with just one toe. Now the British scientists say they can reverse the Casimir force to cause an object to repel rather than attract another in a vacuum. "The Casimir force is the ultimate cause of friction in the nano world, in particular in some micro-electromechanical systems," said Leonhardt, writing in the August issue of New Journal of Physics. "Micro or nano machines could run smoother and with less or no friction at all if one can manipulate the force," he added. And he added: "In order to reduce friction in the nanoworld, turning nature's stickiness into repulsion could be the ultimate remedy. Instead of sticking together, parts of micromachinery would levitate." Leonhardt stressed that the practise is possible only for micro-objects. But he underlined that, although in principle it may one day be possible to levitate humans, that day is a long way off. "At the moment, in practice it is only going to be possible for micro-objects with the current technology, since this quantum force is small and acts only at short ranges," he said. "For now, human levitation remains the subject of cartoons, fairytales and tales of the paranormal." Their research was to be published in the New Journal of Physics. | Technology |
Microsoft Patent: Biometric Recognition Used To Personalize Ads
Haaretz (August
1, 2007) - In the film version of
Minority Report, a personalized ad that
knows about past purchases greets a
character as he enters the Gap. Meanwhile,
American Express ads tell Tom Cruise's own
character that he looks like he needs an
escape as he's chased by authorities. Now
Thanks for the article Vera! While this may be quite handy, the Bible speaks to its end and that is not good. I believe that this kind of software running on the hardware of ink RFID could make it so that one could not buy or sell anymore because nobody would take worthless papers, especially if the banks stopped honoring them with the new RFID system in place. And even further than that, what if there was some kind of technology as part of this system that would kill those who don't worship the image of the beast. Revelation 13:15-17, "And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." Notice the "image of the beast should both 1) speak 2) Cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed." The false prophet causes the image to kill those who refuse to worship it. On top of that, anyone without the mark will be unable to buy or sell anything. How much are you investing for your future? Would you give it up if the banks suddenly required you to get their new RFID tattoo? The governmental backbone for just the system to do that is being implemented right now in America as the RealID Act. Governments and banks are not lost on the power and control this gives them. Neither has it got past Lucifer, who began all this centuries ago with subtle doctrine slowly introduced to the population. See the History of the Mystery of Iniquity.
Israeli Researchers Take First Step toward Live
Computer Chip
Israel21c
(July 29, 2007) - Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein might have been unprecedented in its time, but since
then, popular culture has been clogged with a fascination for the
concept of artificial intelligence, from the eerily humanoid robots
of The Twilight Zone to films like AI and Robocop. People can't seem
to get enough of the idea that advanced technology may one day
create sentient life, but at the same time seem to dread the
consequences of an apparent transgression against the laws of
nature. It may therefore come as a surprise to find that advances in
the field of nano biotechnology are now taking place that have
nothing to do with creating monsters. Instead, for Professor Eshel
Ben-Jacob and his graduate student, Itay Baruchi of Tel Aviv
University's Department of Exact Sciences, the goal is to find
treatments for neurological disorders such as epilepsy, Alzheimer's,
and Parkinson's disease. With the use of chemical stimulation,
Ben-Jacob and Baruchi discovered that they could trigger a man-made
network of neurons to imprint patterns—the same process by which the
brain creates memories. This discovery marks an early but crucial
step toward the invention of a computer chip with the capability to
create and store information the same way our own brains do. By
linking the network of neurons to software which reads the neural
activity, the network and the computer can work together to carry
out tasks of which computers are currently incapable. "Computers
don't have cognitive function because they lack plasticity—they are
fixed," Ben-Jacob told ISRAEL21c. "We're therefore thinking of
adding features to computers to make them more flexible and
adaptable, like human brains." It's the connection between the
computer and the neural network, which would communicate with one
another, that creates a new kind of machine. Ben-Jacob elaborates:
"The network won't replace the computer, but it will do the softer
cognitive functions of decision-making, interaction with the
environment, and sound recognition." According to Baruchi,
biological computing might also lead to technology that Microsoft
has been working to achieve, without success: handwriting
recognition, made possible by virtue of the biological system's
ability to detect patterns. "The ability of the regular
silicon-based computer to detect patterns is very low, and it needs
a very sophisticated algorithm. With the biological system it's very
easy, because humans and animals can easily detect patterns," said
Baruchi, who has been working with Ben-Jacob for seven years.
more... Who Needs Israel Anyway? WorldNet Daily (July 21, 2007) - The above question, either in word or implication, is being voiced by way too many these days, as people and governments cast about desperately for lasting solutions in the Middle East. Many Western and European political leaders – having heard the deprecations and the determination to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, from the likes of Palestinian Yasser Arafat, Saudi Arabian Osama bin Laden, Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and so many other power brokers in the region – have come dangerously close to deciding that little Israel is the "thorn in the side" of world order. The next logical thought is: "Who needs Israel? Let her be erased, her people dispersed (or whatever), and the Middle East can settle comfortably into a harmonious Islamic community of states. Problem solved!" What folly. What suicidal blindness. I just returned from a momentous event in our nation's capital. An organization called Christians United for Israel, or CUFI, convened 4,000 people from all 50 states in several days of briefings and strategy sessions, culminating in an exhilarating, rousing rally in the D.C. Convention Center featuring Jewish leaders and top Christian ministers celebrating the things we hold in common and the spiritual bonds that unite us. The next day, several thousand of the participants fanned out over Washington and Capitol Hill, lobbying virtually every representative and senator on behalf of Israel and its sovereignty. Why? Couldn't we all see this is an exercise in futility, an unnecessary bother … that we'd all be better off if Israel didn't exist? No, we all see clearly that the world needs Israel. The whole world. What do I mean? Consider:
It goes on and on. The Weizmann Institute of Science has been voted "the best university in the world for life scientists to conduct research." Israeli researchers have:
These are only a few of Israel's recent contributions to the welfare
of the world. There are just too many to list here. Water shortage,
global warming, space travel, anti-virus, anti-smallpox, blood pressure,
solar power, paralysis, diabetes, data storage – these and hundreds more
– are being addressed by Israel's scientists. They're pioneering in DNA
research, using tiny strands to create human transistors that can
literally build themselves – and playing an important role in
identifying a defective gene that causes a rare and usually fatal
disease in Arab infants! more... The New World Order Tracking Device: RFID RINF Alternative News (July 1, 2007) - The Bermuda Government are issuing vehicle owners with credit card sized stickers containing a RFID chip and it is expected that every vehicle in Bermuda will carry one within a year or two. The scheme is mandatory and a $10,000 penalty applies if owners remove the chips. The first country to back the system was Singapore, well known for its lack of human rights. RFID readers are being placed in telephone poles and buildings throughout Bermuda, which enable authorities to monitor the past and present location of vehicles and record the speed at which they are travelling. The information is being sent to high speed computers that calculate everything you could possibly imagine about a travellers journey, even the route taken. It is planned that the computer will compile a list of driving offences within the past 24 hours and will automatically pass this information on to the police. Roger Crombie, a Bermuda resident and victim of RFID vehicle tracking said: “It should be stated that Dr. Brown, the Transport Minister who introduced this system, has said that he does not intend the chip to be used for any purpose other than tracking down drivers whose vehicles are not registered. I believe he means it, but it is not Dr. Brown’s intentions we have to worry about. It will take time to put the system in place, and Dr. Brown has said that he does not intend to stay in power forever. “The person to worry about is the Premier who succeeds Dr. Brown, or the one who succeeds that one. The chip system is the perfect method for keeping close track of citizens, a dictator’s dream,” said concerned citizen Mr. Crombie. Similar RFID systems are being used in New York and London, which has reduced traffic and cut business profits by 40%. The use of RFID chips are increasing around the world at an astonishing rate, with continuous promotion from New World Order heavyweights including the Bush Administration and also from the VeriChip Corp, who manufacture human implantable chips and have been pushing for RFID chips to be tested on the U.S. military. more...| NewWorldOrder | Light Fantastic: Flirting With Invisibility The New York Times (June 12, 2007) - Increasingly, physicists are constructing materials that bend light the “wrong” way, an optical trick that could lead to sharper-than-ever lenses or maybe even make objects disappear. Last October, scientists at Duke demonstrated a working cloaking device, hiding whatever was placed inside, although it worked only for microwaves. In the experiment, a beam of microwave light split in two as it flowed around a specially designed cylinder and then almost seamlessly merged back together on the other side. That meant that an object placed inside the cylinder was effectively invisible. No light waves bounced off the object, and someone looking at it would have seen only what was behind it. The cloak was not perfect. An alien with microwave vision would not have seen the object, but might have noticed something odd. “You’d see a darkened spot,” said David R. Smith, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke. “You’d see some distortion, and you’d see some shadowing, and you would see some reflection.” A much greater limitation was that this particular cloak worked for just one particular “color,” or wavelength, of microwave light, limiting its usefulness as a hiding place. Making a cloak that works at the much shorter wavelengths of visible light or one that works over a wide range of colors is an even harder, perhaps impossible, task. Nonetheless, the demonstration showed the newfound ability of scientists to manipulate light through structures they call “metamaterials.” Obviously the military would be interested in any material that could be used to hide vehicles or other equipment. But such materials could also be useful in new types of microscopes and antennae. So far, scientists have written down the underlying equations, performed computer simulations and conducted some proof-of-principle experiments like the one at Duke. They still need to determine the practical limitations of how far they can bend light to their will. more... The end of the plug? Scientists invent wireless device that beams electricity through your home Daily Mail (June 8, 2007) - Scientists have sounded the death knell for the plug and power lead. In a breakthrough that sounds like something out of Star Trek, they have discovered a way of 'beaming' power across a room into a light bulb, mobile phone or laptop computer without wires or cables. In the first successful trial of its kind, the team was able to illuminate a 60-watt light bulb 7ft away. The team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who call their invention 'WiTricity', believe it could change the way we use electricity and do away with the tangle of cables, plugs and chargers that clutter modern homes. It could also allow the use of laptops and mobile phones without batteries. The inspiration came when the lead researcher, Dr Marin Soljacic, was standing in his kitchen at night staring at his mobile phone. "It was probably the sixth time that month that I was awakened by my cell phone beeping to let me know that I had forgotten to charge it. It occurred to me that it would be so great if the thing took care of its own charging," he said. To turn this dream into reality, Dr Soljacic needed a way of transmitting power wirelessly. Scientists have known for nearly two centuries that it is possible to transfer an electrical current from one coil of wire to another without them touching. The phenomenon, called electromagnetic induction, is used in power transformers and electric motors around the world. However, the coils in motors and transformers have to be close for power to pass from one to another. Attempting to transfer power over distances is impossible. The breakthrough came when Dr Soljacic realised there was another way of transferring energy through the air. Rather than sending power from a transmitter to a receiver as a conventional electromagnetic wave - the same form of radiation as light, radio waves and microwaves - he could use the transmitter to fill a room with a 'non-radiative' electromagnetic field. Most objects in the room - such as people, desks and carpets - would be unaffected by the electromagnetic field. But any objects designed to resonate with the electromagnetic field would absorb the energy. It sounds complicated, but the result demonstrated by the American team this month was a dramatic success. Using two coils of copper, the team transmitted power 7ft through the air to a light bulb, which lit up instantly. The scientists say the technique works only over distances of up to 9ft. However, they believe it could be used to charge up a battery within a few yards of the power source connected to a receiving coil. more... Talking paper made by scientists BBC News (June 5, 2007) - Digital paper that can speak to you has been created by scientists. Researchers from Mid Sweden University have constructed an interactive paper billboard that emits recorded sound in response to a user's touch. The prototype display uses conductive inks, which are sensitive to pressure, and printed speakers. The team envisages that the technology could be used by advertisers, and in the future, it might even be employed for product packaging. The researcher's display model shows its possible use for marketing holiday destinations. Mikael Gulliksson, who led the research project, told the BBC News website: "When you approach the billboard and put your hand on a postcard that shows a picture of a beach, you can hear a very brief description of that beach." The key to the billboard's capabilities is a layer of digital paper that is embedded with electronics. This is printed with conductive inks, which, when applied with pressure, relay information to a micro-computer that contains recorded audio files. Sound then streams out from printed speakers, which are formed from more layers of conductive inks that sit over an empty cavity to form a diaphragm. This functional layer is sandwiched between a thick sheet of extra-strong cardboard and another sheet of paper that is printed with the billboard's design. more... A Battery Beyond Belief? Technology Review (March 12, 2007) - Is EEStor of Cedar Park, TX, for real? The secretive company announced earlier this year that it plans to begin shipping a 15-kilowatt-hour electrical-energy storage system that can propel a small electric car 322 kilometers and takes just minutes to charge. The first customer: Toronto-based Zenn Motor, which makes electric vehicles. EEStor says its technology is a cross between a battery and an ultracapacitor (which quickly stores and releases energy) and is based on mysterious barium titanate powders. Company documents claim that the new storage system has better energy density than lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride batteries, that it charges more quickly, and that it's cheaper and safer. The implications are enormous and, for many, unbelievable, but the company says it's all true. "We're well on our way to doing everything we said," says Richard Weir, EEStor's cofounder and chief executive. Israeli therapy kills brain cancer cells with electrical fields Israel21c (June 10, 2007) - An Israeli-developed treatment that specifically targets rapidly growing cancer cells with electrical fields shows great promise in treating patients with brain cancer. The Novo-TTF (Tumor-Treating Fields) device, invented by Technion Professor emeritus Yoram Palti, uses electrical fields to disrupt tumor growth by interfering with cell division of cancerous cells, causing them to stop proliferating and die off instead of dividing and growing. Healthy brain cells rarely divide and have different electrical properties than cancerous brain cells. This allows the device to target cancer cells without affecting the healthy cells. Early results of cell culture, animal and early phase human trials showed that compared to historical data, the device more than doubled the median overall survival rates in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and aggressive type of malignant brain tumor. The findings were reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal article. Palti, MD, Ph.D, founded a company NovoCure in 2000 to develop his research in treating cancer with electrical fields. According to Palti, this is the first time that electrical fields are being used to kill cancer cells, and it opens the door for other forms of cancer to be treated as well. "This is a new general modality for treating cancer. In a way it's similar to radiation, it's physical in the same sense, but the major difference is that there are no side effects," he told ISRAEL21c from his office at Novocure's headquarters in Haifa. more...| Israel |
Israeli portal plans to connect the world, family by
family
Israel21c.com (June
6, 2007) - The goal of
Famillion's web site, which allows users to create their own
personal family trees, is to map the entire world through these trees.
This sounds preposterous, until Danny Rolls explains that by the end of
this year the site will have mapped the entire Jewish population of the
world - some 12-13 million people, and within about two years will have
mapped the Western world. "Our vision is to connect all the people in
the world through family trees," Rolls tells ISRAEL21c. "We are all
connected, wherever we come from, and once people realize that, it will
change the way they think. People are always afraid of someone who is
different from us, someone who is a stranger - it's a basic trait of
human nature. When people understand that we are all connected to one
another, this sense of difference will disappear." Famillion's strength
compared to other genealogy or family network sites is that once a user
has posted their family tree, the Famillion technology can recognize
genealogical matches between individuals and families, enabling it to be
merged with other related trees. As a result family trees begin to
connect automatically, allowing users to discover new family members
they might otherwise have been unaware of. According to company
information, as the trees connect, "the global family grows and
relationships can be found between any two people in the world." Some
members may find new family members, while others might be pleased to
discover they have familial connections to Bill Gates say, or maybe
Albert Einstein, or any other famous personality. more...
Israeli printing technology could deliver 1,000 pages a
minute
Israel21c.com
(June 3, 2007) - Imagine a bookstore that
prints your purchases while you settle the bill or a personalized
newspaper that contains only the news you want to read. Such expedient
printing may soon become a reality using a new Israeli technology that
will enable printing 1,000 pages a minute at affordable prices. Two
researchers from The College of Judea and Samaria - Moshe and Nissim
Einat - have developed a revolutionary printing technique called Jetrix,
which enables simultaneous high- speed printing of an entire page of
text. The technology combines printing and Liquid Crystal Technology
(LCD) methods to make a page-sized printing array that emits ink instead
of light. "We are reducing the limitations of printing heads," explains
Moshe Einat, senior lecturer at the college's Department of Electrical
and Electronic Engineering. Einat's inspiration for rethinking print
methods came from flat-screen display technologies. In the past display
screens used a cathode ray tube to 'scan' the picture across the screen
similar to the way a printer fills a page with text. With LCDs a
screen-sized array of light emitting diodes creates the displayed
picture and simultaneously changes to display each new image. Einat
posed the question whether the same concept could not be applied to a
printed page? "If you can do it with light, why not with ink?" he asked.
Early printers used a continuous jet of ink to print on pages but were
later replaced by modern Drop On Demand (DOD) printers in which a
traveling head of tiny nozzles squirts ink at the page. The dots combine
to produce the desired print. Current printers use a single print head
that scans across the page but mechanical and physical limitations
present a range of barriers that cap print speeds. more...
Making Water From Thin Air
Newswise
(June 1, 2007) - An architect pursuing a
PhD at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and his colleague
have devised a low-tech way to collect dew from the air and turn it into
fresh water. Their invention recently won an international competition
seeking to make clean, safe water available to millions around the
world. The brainchild of Technion Architecture and Building Planning
grad student Joseph Cory and his colleague Eyal Malka, “WatAir,” is an
inverted pyramid array of panels that collects dew from the air and
turns it into fresh water in almost any climate. Inspired by the
dew-collecting properties of leaves, one 315 sq ft unit can extract a
minimum of 48 liters of fresh water from the air each day. Depending on
the number of collectors used, an unlimited daily supply of water could
be produced even in remote and polluted places. According to Cory,
WatAir can be easily incorporated into both rural and urban landscapes
because it has a relatively small base. Its vertical and diagonal design
utilizes gravity to increase the collection areas. The panels are
flexible and easy to collapse when not in use, and provide shelter from
rain and heat and play areas for children. “WatAir is a wonderfully
simple concept which draws its inspiration from nature,” said
competition judge Jo da Silva. “This is a simple and effective idea
using tried and tested technology.” The project was selected from 100
entries from North America, Europe, Africa and Asia as the winner of the
“drawing water challenge” sponsored by Arup – a global firm of
designers, engineers, planners and business consultants specializing in
innovative and sustainable design. Geotectura and Malka Architects, the
respective architectural studios of Cory and Malka, are located in
Haifa, Israel. The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is Israel's
leading science and technology university. Home to the country’s winners
of the Nobel Prize in science, it commands a worldwide reputation for
its pioneering work in nanotechnology, computer science, biotechnology,
water-resource management, materials engineering, aerospace and
medicine. The majority of the founders and managers of Israel's
high-tech companies are alumni. Based in New York City, the American
Technion Society is the leading American organization supporting higher
education in Israel, with 17 offices around the country. You can see pictures of the concept in this second article. No Organic Bee Losses (May 10, 2007) - "Sharon Labchuk is a longtime environmental activist and part-time organic beekeeper from Prince Edward Island. She has twice run for a seat in Ottawa's House of Commons, making strong showings around 5% for Canada's fledgling Green Party. She is also leader of the provincial wing of her party. In a widely circulated email, she wrote: I'm on an organic beekeeping list of about 1,000 people, mostly Americans, and no one in the organic beekeeping world, including commercial beekeepers, is reporting colony collapse on this list. The problem with the big commercial guys is that they put pesticides in their hives to fumigate for varroa mites, and they feed antibiotics to the bees. They also haul the hives by truck all over the place to make more money with pollination services, which stresses the colonies. Her email recommends a visit to the Bush Bees Web site at Here, Michael Bush felt compelled to put a message to the beekeeping world right on the top page: Most of us beekeepers are fighting with the Varroa mites. I'm happy to say my biggest problems are things like trying to get nucs through the winter and coming up with hives that won't hurt my back from lifting or better ways to feed the bees. This change from fighting the mites is mostly because I've gone to natural sized cells. In case you weren't aware, and I wasn't for a long time, the foundation in common usage results in much larger bees than what you would find in a natural hive. I've measured sections of natural worker brood comb that are 4.6mm in diameter. What most people use for worker brood is foundation that is 5.4mm in diameter. If you translate that into three dimensions instead of one, it produces a bee that is about half as large again as is natural. By letting the bees build natural sized cells, I have virtually eliminated my Varroa and Tracheal mite problems. One cause of this is shorter capping times by one day, and shorter post-capping times by one day. This means less Varroa get into the cells, and less Varroa reproduce in the cells. Who should be surprised that the major media reports forget to tell us that the dying bees are actually hyper-bred varieties that we coax into a larger than normal body size? It sounds just like the beef industry. And, have we here a solution to the vanishing bee problem? Is it one that the CCD Working Group, or indeed, the scientific world at large, will support? Will media coverage affect government action in dealing with this issue? These are important questions to ask. It is not an uncommonly held opinion that, although this new pattern of bee colony collapse seems to have struck from out of the blue (which suggests a triggering agent), it is likely that some biological limit in the bees has been crossed. There is no shortage of evidence that we have been fast approaching this limit for some time. We've been pushing them too hard, Dr. Peter Kevan, an associate professor of environmental biology at the University of Guelph in Ontario, told the CBC. And we're starving them out by feeding them artificially and moving them great distances. Given the stress commercial bees are under, Kevan suggests CCD might be caused by parasitic mites, or long cold winters, or long wet springs, or pesticides, or genetically modified crops. Maybe it's all of the above...
The marketers have your ear: Beam of sound aims its messages (April 24, 2007) - Advertisers have a new way to get into your head. Marketers around the world are using innovative audio technology that sends sound in a narrow beam, just like light, making it possible to direct messages right into consumers' ears while they shop or sit in waiting rooms. The audio spotlight device, created by Watertown firm Holosonic Research Labs Inc., has been used to hawk everything from cereals in supermarket aisles to glasses at doctor's offices. The messages are often quick and targeted -- and a little creepy to the uninitiated. Court TV recently installed the audio spotlight in ceilings of bookstores to promote the network's new murder-mystery show. A voice, whispering, "Hey, you, can you hear me? Do you ever think about murder?" was beamed toward customers as they browsed the mystery section in several independent bookstores in New York. Unlike traditional speakers, which broadcast sound in every direction, sound from an audio spotlight speaker can be focused directly at one spot, so no one else can hear it, or projected against a surface so that sound appears to come from the surface itself. For example, a box of Fruity Pebbles can advertise its nutritional content, heard by shoppers only as they walk by boxes in the cereal aisle. The audio spotlight uses ultrasound to stimulate the air into making sound, which is emitted in focused, laser-like beams. more... E-paper comes of age (March 28, 2007) - The newest, cutting-edge displays are more papyrus than plasma screen. Electronic paper, long hyped as the technology that would make newspapers and books obsolete, is finally making its way into consumer products, powered by E Ink Corp. The decade-old Cambridge company has grown 200 to 300 percent each year, and over the past few months, its retro-looking black-and-white displays have appeared in high-profile products such as the Sony Reader tablet, a Motorola cellphone highlighted at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, and a foldable, pocket-sized screen that won the Most Innovative Technology Award at the GSM Association's 2007 Global Mobile Awards last month. "They have the incredible screen technology, and they have patents that make what they're doing pretty unique and unassailable," said James McQuivey , analyst at Forrester Research. "There are other ways to provide this kind of low-power flexible display, but their technology is really the one to beat." While the concept of a digital screen that looks, bends, and folds like paper has been around for decades, E Ink has been a leader in bringing the technology to the marketplace. The company holds more than 100 patents on its "electrophoretic" ink technology -- which literally means "the movement of particles by an electrical field." Electric charges sent along a grid embedded in the paper cause tiny black and white particles to move up and down, creating text and images. It may take a cosmic cultural shift to make e-books mainstream, but the screens also use so little power that they may herald the birth of a whole new generation of displays, from e-newsprint to digital shelf labels. Unlike traditional digital screens, which form images using light that shines out of the display, e-paper reflects ambient light, adding up to big power savings. A typical 12-inch tablet display requires the equivalent of 36 AA batteries to stay on for 20 hours -- an equivalent electronic paper display would use only one AA battery, according to E Ink marketing director David Jackson. PHOTO GALLERY: The future of electonic displays: E-Paper more... New IBM Chip Moves Data at Light Speed (March 26, 2007) - IBM researchers are touting a new, tiny optical transceiver chipset that can move data at speeds up to 160 GB per second, which is eight times faster than previous optical components. The new chipset generates fast data transfer rates because it uses light pulses to move data instead of sending electrons over wires. If the infrastructure is in place to do it, the new technology can enable one to download a typical feature-length high definition film in a single second, according to IBM. For most consumers, however, this new chipset is only a glimpse of the future. The first use of this technology will most likely show up in business computing solutions well before consumers get a chance to move movies at the speed of light. "The achievement here is to pack an incredible amount of aggregate bandwidth into a very small optical transceiver chipset," Marc Taubenblatt, senior manager of IBM's optical communications group at IBM's TJ Watson Research Center, told TechNewsWorld. The chipset is only 3.25 by 5.25 millimeters. "From an IBM perspective, we're interested in making ever more powerful computer systems, and to do that you've got to connect up the microprocessors in the system with ever-increasing bandwidth," Taubenblatt explained. "As the microprocessors increase in performance, you've got to connect them with bandwidth to match that -- and that starts getting increasingly difficult. What we're looking at is an era where we're going to have to hook up microprocessors almost entirely with optics," he added. Instead of connecting high-powered computer systems with optical cables, IBM is shooting to connect at the microprocessor level -- essentially on the same card. The new chipset would appear first in IBM's supercomputing solutions, but it will take a few years. "There's a big industry out there to make electrical printed circuit boards, and we need that industry infrastructure to make optical printed circuit boards," Taubenblatt noted. Even though the chipset would support downloading a movie in a single second, there are many hurdles to overcome before anyone will see household use. "An interconnect such as this wouldn't really have much, if anything, to do with movie download times," Gordon Haff, an analyst for Illuminata, told TechNewsWorld. "Those are limited by the bandwidth of the pipes in the telco or cable company infrastructure -- especially the 'last mile' to home or business. The connections within a server, optical or copper, serial or parallel, really have nothing to do with the speed of these networks." While IBM doesn't intend to do any consumer-related development, the company says the low-cost, small-size nature of the chipset would allow others to build on it. more... Israeli system turns contaminated water into drinking water - instantly (March 18, 2007) - Sulis was a Greek goddess connected with water and healing, therefore it's also become an appropriate moniker for an innovative new Israeli device which instantly purifies contaminated water. The Sulis Personal Purification System (PPS) takes all the ingredients needed to transform dirty water into clean water - whether it be for stranded hikers, soldiers in the field, or victims of disasters - and has miniaturized the technology to fit into the top of a cork that can be plugged into virtually any size bottle, container or tap. "Above everything else, the product we've developed is going to save lives," explained Yossi Sandak, the CEO of Watersheer, the Israeli company which has developed the Sulis PPS. "Over 1.6 million children under the age of five die each year in the undeveloped world from drinking untreated water. What we have is a solution to reduce death in the world that is not a medical solution, but simply providing people with clean drinking water." The Sulis unit is lightweight and small (10 grams, 2.7 Inches / 7 cm) and is designed to fit onto most universal bottles. According to Sandak's partner, Ron Shani, the founder, chairman and vice president of Watersheer's R&D division, the Sulis system treats water from upper sources containing organic, biological and chemical contaminates. "The problem is that there aren't enough products in the humanitarian field that are inexpensive enough and efficient enough to solve the problems of contaminated water - from a biological and chemical standpoint," Shani told ISRAEL21c. The 39-year-old engineer spent 12 years in public organizations and international companies in the field of business development, and building marketing and sales systems, but five years ago decided to leave the high tech world behind in order to "look for the next big thing." He says it was only natural that he gravitated towards the subject of water. "I was raised around water and water technology. For 40 years my father developed water technologies and infrastructure so I'm no stranger to the field," he said. more... Scientists say nerves use sound, not electricity (March 11, 2007) - The common view that nerves transmit impulses through electricity is wrong and they really transmit sound, according to a team of Danish scientists. The Copenhagen University researchers argue that biology and medical textbooks that say nerves relay electrical impulses from the brain to the rest of the body are incorrect. "For us as physicists, this cannot be the explanation," said Thomas Heimburg, an associate professor at the university's Niels Bohr Institute. "The physical laws of thermodynamics tell us that electrical impulses must produce heat as they travel along the nerve, but experiments find that no such heat is produced." Heimburg, an expert in biophysics who received his PhD from the Max Planck Institute in Goettingen, Germany — where biologists and physicists often work together in a rare arrangement — developed the theory with Copenhagen University's Andrew Jackson, an expert in theoretical physics. According to the traditional explanation of molecular biology, an electrical pulse is sent from one end of the nerve to the other with the help of electrically charged salts that pass through ion channels and a membrane that sheathes the nerves. That membrane is made of lipids and proteins. Heimburg and Jackson theorize that sound propagation is a much more likely explanation. Although sound waves usually weaken as they spread out, a medium with the right physical properties could create a special kind of sound pulse or "soliton" that can propagate without spreading or losing strength. The physicists say because the nerve membrane is made of a material similar to olive oil that can change from liquid to solid through temperature variations, they can freeze and propagate the solitons. The scientists, whose work is in the Biophysical Society's Biophysical Journal, suggested that anesthetics change the melting point of the membrane and make it impossible for their theorized sound pulses to propagate. The researchers could not immediately be reached for comment. brought to light in his ministry, that God spoke the universe into existence. Genesis 1:3, "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." Sure we all know that, but have you thought about what it means? Everything that exists is because of the electromagnetic spectrum. Different frequencies represent different parts of that spectrum and our senses pick up and translate those different spectrums. Some is visible light, some is auditory. God is continually keeping the creation in existence with His voice, which covers more than our ears can perceive or our eyes can see. In fact, there's a verse for that too. 1 Corinthians 2:9-11, "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." This also ties into my study I'm working on called Thought: Voice of the Spirit Realm. Man Invents Machine To Cure Cancer (February 27, 2007) - A Florida man with no medical training has invented a machine that he believes may lead to a cure for cancer. John Kanzius, who turns 63 on March 1, is a former broadcasting executive from Pennsylvania who wondered if his background in physics and radio could come in handy in treating the disease from which he suffers himself. Inside his Sanibel Island garage, Kanzius invented a machine he believes sits on the brink of a major medical breakthrough. The machine began to take shape four years ago, when his dreams of retirement were put on hold after he was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia, he told West Palm Beach television station WPBF. Kanzius' invention is not flashy, and it looks like a piece of 20th-century hardware. It doesn't even have a name. "It's a kick-ass cancer cell generator," Kanzius said. After 24 rounds of chemotherapy, the former broadcaster decided that he did not want to see others suffer trying to cure the disease. Kanzius said it was watching kids being treated that affected him the most. "Particularly young children walk in with smiles, and then you'd see them three weeks later and their smiles had disappeared. I said to myself, 'We're in a barbaric type of medicine,'" Kanzius told WPBF. He began tinkering with pie plates and hot dogs, trying to use his broadcasting background to kill the cancerous cells. Kanzius said his machine basically makes cells act like antennae to pick up a signal and self-destruct. Unlike current cancer treatment, Kanzius' machine does not use radiation. Unlike today's radio-frequency treatments, it's noninvasive. Now, some of the nation's most prominent doctors and scientists are using Kanzius' machines in their research. In January, researchers said they performed a breakthrough at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. "The complete killing of pancreatic cells in laboratory conditions is encouraging," Dr. Steve Curley said. Curley is currently testing whether cancerous tumors can be wiped out in animals. "We've got a lot more work to do, but this is very interesting preliminary work," Curley told WPBF. Kanzius explained that his machine uses a solution filled with nanoparticles, which measure no more than one-billionth of a meter. A test subject would be injected with either gold or carbon nanoparticles, which would make their way through the body and attach to the cancerous cells. The test subject would then enter the machine and receive a dose of radio frequency waves, theoretically heating and killing the cancerous cells in moments and leaving nearby cells untouched. "That is the holy grail ... Research has shown that they're able to kill them once they attach to the cancer cells," Kanzius said. Kanzius said he hopes to begin human testing with his machine within the next two years. "The results look too phenomenal for anyone to stop at this point in time. I don't think the largest research center in the world would put time and effort and their name on a project if they did not think it would work," Kanzius told WPBF. Kanzius told WPBF he does not want to try and build up false hope, but he mentioned that there could be some major announcements coming from researchers in the next coming months. more... Steorn announces plans for widespread deployment of its free energy technology post-validation (January 11, 2007) - Steorn, the Irish technology development company, has today announced that its free energy technology will be made widely available to the development community immediately after the independent scientific validation process that is currently underway. Under the terms of a modified general public licence and for a nominal fee, Steorn's intellectual property will be made available concurrently to all interested parties, from individual enthusiasts to larger research organisations. Steorn is taking this bold move to accelerate the deployment and acceptance of its technology for both humanitarian and commercial products. Steorn's technology is based on the interaction of magnetic fields and allows the production of clean, free and constant energy. The technology can be applied to virtually all devices requiring energy, from cellular phones to cars. Steorn placed an advertisement in The Economist in August 2006 to attract the attention of the world's leading scientists working in the field of experimental physics. It has now completed the selection of its jury of scientists who have embarked on the testing of the technology prior to publishing their results worldwide. Sean McCarthy, CEO of Steorn, commented: "We have experienced enormous levels of interest in our free energy technology from the product development community. "Experience tells us that opening up access to technology to all interested parties via the internet allows for rapid third party development. We believe that our technology can have a profound impact on people's lives and are confident that the delivery of our intellectual property via this type of online development and engineering support environment will lead to the rapid deployment of all kinds of different products."
One Small Chip for a PC, One Giant Leap for Computing (February 11, 2007) - Researchers at Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) unveiled an experimental 80-core microchip Monday at the International Solid States Circuit Conference in San Francisco. Known as a "Teraflop research chip," it is the first programmable microprocessor capable of delivering performance formerly associated only with supercomputers, according to Intel. If successful, Intel's research into "tera-scale computing" -- in which a chip modeled on Teraflop chips can perform trillions of calculations per second and move terabytes of data -- has the potential to transform computers, software and the way people use their computers. "Basically, it creates a processor that can reconfigure itself on the fly to do a variety of tasks like graphics and physics that required specialized parts in the past," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld. Previously, Intel concentrated on making microprocessors that ran faster and faster, Martin Reynolds, a Gartner (NYSE: IT) Research fellow, told TechNewsWorld. This strategy more or less followed Moore's Law, which states that the number of transistors on a chip will double every 18 to 24 months with each subsequent generation. Intel, however, "ran into a wall where faster and faster became too hot, consuming too much power," Reynolds said. "So [the question is], how do you use Moore's Law even if you can't make things faster," he explained. "The answer is you put more [microprocessors] on instead." Intel found that by making two slower -- but not much slower -- processors, they consume much less power but do almost twice as much work as a single faster chip, according to Reynolds. Intel's two-core Core Duo and Core 2 Duo chips and Core 2 Quad four-core chips take advantage of that technology. "We have a natural progression coming," Reynolds said. "We've got two-core and four-core, now. And we've got eight- and sixteen-core coming." Intel is attempting to demonstrate that it can take this technology to far greater numbers than was previously thought possible, Reynolds continued. "They are trying to figure out what they have to do to build an 80-core chip, one with 80 processors on it." Intel's answer with the Teraflop research chips is a "tile design" using smaller cores replicated as tiles. According to the company, the new design makes it easier to create a chip with many cores and lays a path to manufacture multi-core processors with billions of transistors more efficiently in the future. more... Humble vegetable that could revolutionize everything from fishing-rods to battleships (February 8, 2007) - FROM dangling to angling. The humble carrot is set to be used in ways never imagined before, thanks to a discovery by two Scottish scientists who have found a way to convert the vegetable into an advanced material to make products from fishing rods to warships. The development is the brain-child of Dr David Hepworth and Dr Eric Whale, who have created the material, named Curran, at their company CelluComp in Burntisland, Fife. Their first product - a rod for fly fishing - goes on sale next month. But they are not stopping there. The pair now plan to move on to make snowboards and car parts and say the material could also be used to make engineering components and even battleships. The material is also more environmentally friendly than current methods using glass and carbon fibres. Dr Hepworth said they believed Curran would be one of the major material innovations since the introduction of carbon fibre over 30 years ago. "It is incredibly versatile and we believe that we are launching at a time when companies are looking for that combination of quality and performance, but achieved in a way that is environmentally friendly," he said. At the moment, the company can make materials which are around 80 per cent carrot, with carbon fibre making up the remainder. The new "Just Cast" rods are around 50 per cent carrot - each made with around 2kg of the vegetables. But it is hoped that as the technique is developed, they will eventually be able to make products which are made from 100 per cent biological matter - carrots and other plants. Dr Hepworth said they were already looking at using other vegetables such as turnips, swede and parsnips. Dr Hepworth said: "We can buy in the carrots very cheaply - around 10p a kilo - so most of the cost in making the material is from the process we use. more... Cool clouds turn light to matter (February 8, 2007) - The quantum sleight of hand exploits the properties of super-cooled matter known as a Bose-Einstein condensate. The emerging pulse was slightly weaker than the high-speed beam that entered the experimental setup, but was identical in all other respects. The work, published in the journal Nature, could one day lead to advances in computing and optical communication. "Instead of light shining through optical fibres into boxes full of wires and semiconductor chips, intact data, messages, and images will be read directly from the light," said Professor Lene Vestergaard Hau of Harvard University and one of the authors of the Nature paper. The Harvard team rose to prominence in the late 1990s when it slowed light from its constant 299,792km/s (186,282mps) to a leisurely 61km/h (38mph). It applied the brakes by shining light into a cloud of sodium atoms trapped in a vacuum and cooled to just above absolute zero (-273C), the theoretical state of zero heat. At this temperature the atoms coalesce to form a Bose-Einstein condensate, an exotic quantum entity first predicted by Albert Einstein and created in the lab in 1995. A second laser tuned the tiny atomic cloud to slow the pulse of light. In 2001, working with a team from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the same group brought light to a halt, by slowly turning off the second control laser. Switching the laser back on set the light free. The new experiment builds on this work. more...
Military shows off new ray gun (January
25, 2007) - The military calls its new weapon an "active denial
system," but that's an understatement. It's a ray gun that shoots a beam
that makes people feel as if they are about to catch fire. Apart from
causing that terrifying sensation, the technology is supposed to be
harmless _ a non-lethal way to get enemies to drop their weapons.
Military officials say it could save the lives of innocent civilians and
service members in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. The weapon is not
expected to go into production until at least 2010, but all branches of
the military have expressed interest in it, officials said. During the
first media demonstration of the weapon Wednesday, airmen fired beams
from a large dish antenna mounted atop a Humvee at people pretending to
be rioters and acting out other scenarios that U.S. troops might
encounter in war zones. The device's two-man crew located their targets
through powerful lenses and fired beams from more than 500 yards away.
That is nearly 17 times the range of existing non-lethal weapons, such
as rubber bullets. Anyone hit by the beam immediately jumped out of its
path because of the sudden blast of heat throughout the body. While the
130-degree heat was not painful, it was intense enough to make the
participants think their clothes were about to ignite. "This is one of
the key technologies for the future," said Marine Col. Kirk Hymes,
director of the non-lethal weapons program at Quantico, Va., which
helped develop the new weapon. "Non-lethal weapons are important for the
escalation of force, especially in the environments our forces are
operating in." The system uses electromagnetic millimeter waves, which
can penetrate only 1/64th of an inch of skin, just enough to cause
discomfort. By comparison, microwaves used in the common kitchen
appliance penetrate several inches of flesh. The millimeter waves cannot
go through walls, but they can penetrate most clothing, officials said.
They refused to comment on whether the waves can go through glass.
more... RFID Ink Product Could Track Humans (January 11, 2007) - A US company has launched a chip-less RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) ink that can be used to track both animals and people. Visible or invisible ink "tattoos" can be applied to the skin and tracked by RFID readers positioned a few feet away. The company, Somark, said it had successfully tested its Biocompatable Chipless RFID ink product on cattle and laboratory rats and proved the "efficacy of injecting and reading a 'tattoo' within the skin of animals." The technology will be used initially in the livestock industry to help identify and track cattle, and help mitigate export trade loss from BSE scares. Secondary target markets include laboratory animals, dogs and cats, prime cuts of meat, and military personnel, according to the company. Ramos Mays, Somark chief scientist, said, "This proves the ability to create a synthetic biometric or fake fingerprint with Biocompatable Chipless RFID Ink and read it through hair."
Molecule Offers Hope Against Cancer (January 10, 2007) - DCA is an odourless, colourless, inexpensive, relatively non-toxic, small molecule. And researchers at the University of Alberta believe it may soon be used as an effective treatment for many forms of cancer. Dr. Evangelos Michelakis, a professor at the U of A Department of Medicine, has shown that dichloroacetate (DCA) causes regression in several cancers, including lung, breast, and brain tumors. Michelakis and his colleagues, including post-doctoral fellow Dr. Sebastian Bonnet, have published the results of their research in the journal Cancer Cell. Scientists and doctors have used DCA for decades to treat children with inborn errors of metabolism due to mitochondrial diseases. Mitochondria, the energy producing units in cells, have been connected with cancer since the 1930s, when researchers first noticed that these organelles dysfunction when cancer is present. Until recently, researchers believed that cancer-affected mitochondria are permanently damaged and that this damage is the result, not the cause, of the cancer. But Michelakis questioned this belief and began testing DCA, which activates a critical mitochondrial enzyme, as a way to "revive" cancer-affected mitochondria. The results astounded him. Michelakis and his colleagues found that DCA normalized the mitochondrial function in many cancers, showing that their function was actively suppressed by the cancer but was not permanently damaged by it. More importantly, they found that the normalization of mitochondrial function resulted in a significant decrease in tumor growth both in test tubes and in animal models. Also, they noted that DCA, unlike most currently used chemotherapies, did not have any effects on normal, non-cancerous tissues. "I think DCA can be selective for cancer because it attacks a fundamental process in cancer development that is unique to cancer cells," Michelakis said. "Cancer cells actively suppress their mitochondria, which alters their metabolism, and this appears to offer cancer cells a significant advantage in growth compared to normal cells, as well as protection from many standard chemotherapies. Because mitochondria regulate cell death--or apoptosis--cancer cells can thus achieve resistance to apoptosis, and this appears to be reversed by DCA." "One of the really exciting things about this compound is that it might be able to treat many different forms of cancer, because all forms of cancer suppress mitochondrial function; in fact, this is why most cancers can be detected by tests like PET (positron emission tomography), which detects the unique metabolic profile of cancer compared to normal cells," added Michelakis, the Canada Research Chair in Pulmonary Hypertension. Another encouraging thing about DCA is that, being so small, it is easily absorbed in the body, and, after oral intake, it can reach areas in the body that other drugs cannot, making it possible to treat brain cancers, for example. more... Asthma Sufferers Saved by Salt Rooms (January 2, 2007) - With only seven in Israel, rooms built of salt blocks are proving very effective in treating life-threatening asthma conditions. The Chaviv family of Mevo Choron struggled for years as they searched for a cure for their children's debilitating asthma. The children were hospitalized innumerable times, and were forced to ingest large amounts of potent drugs. After repeated failed efforts, the Chavivs finally found a breakthrough - in the form of "salt room" treatments. It was so effective that the Chaviv family decided to build a salt room in their home - currently the seventh in Israel. more... Firm cools computer with corona discharge (January 4, 2007) - A FIRM has developed technology which can cool computer chips with an Ionic wind. Kronos uses an ionic wind pump to create a corona discharge which draws air across the chip. The outfit, which develops high efficiency corona-based air filters, attempted to adapt the technology to microprocessor cooling. With a bit of cash from the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington and Intel, it created several working prototypes of a corona discharge CPU cooler, which can silently but effectively cool a modern CPU. Corona-based coolers have no moving parts and are more reliable. They could cool down the most demanding processors without making a sound. They also do not need much power to do the job either, Kronos claims. In an interview with TFOT.com, the inventors say they are looking for financing. If they manage to get it, Kronos can have a commercial product in the shops in two years.
Stroke rehab in a glove
(December 3,
2006)
- Every year, over 700,000 people in the US suffer strokes -
that's one person every 45 seconds. It is the single most common cause
of severe disability, with 25 percent of stroke victims recovering with
minor impairments and 40 percent experiencing moderate to severe
impairments requiring special care. An Israeli company has developed an
innovative new exercise device that can help rehabilitate stroke
patients suffering from impaired hand functions, and for children born
with motor or developmental disorders that impact hand functionality.
The HandTutor, created by MediTouch, actively involves the patient in
the rehabilitation process. It is made up of two components - a
specially designed glove that includes embedded sensors that monitor the
location and movement of the fingers, and proprietary software. In the
first step, the HandTutor gathers a precise picture of the patient's
current hand performance, and in the second, uses this information to
create a personal training program specially tailored to improve his
sensory-motor performance. Unlike existing products on the market,
MediTouch's glove, which is expected to go on sale in the US in the
first quarter of next year, is designed for home use enabling patients
to carry out vital rehabilitation work every day, rather than just on
visits to their physiotherapist.
more... "Backscatter" X-Ray Screening Technology (December 1, 2006) - Post-September 11, airline travel security has invoked the increased use of technology and better training of security personnel as a means of improving travel security. Some of these proposals, such as improved training for airport screeners, checking all bags for bombs, strengthening cockpit doors, and placing air marshals on flights, do not implicate privacy interests and are sound security measures. Others, however, present privacy and security risks to air travelers because they might create data files directly linked to the identity of air travelers. These files if retained could provide the basis for a database of air traveler profiles. Recently plans were announced by the Transportation Security Administration to propose the trial use of backscatter x-ray for passenger screening at several U.S. airports. EPIC will make available on this page aviation security and privacy —related documents it obtains from the government under the Freedom of Information Act law about the adoption of "backscatter" x-ray technology intended for use in screening air travelers. The stated goal of these new proposals is to rely on technology to reduce the "hassle factor" in airports and to reduce security threats. The core idea is to focus security resources on suspicious travelers, while ensuring that most people are not inconvenienced by heightened security. Terrorists, however, have been known to go to great lengths to look like most people. Will a technology that will capture detailed images of potentially all airline travel passengers lead to greater safety? Current technology can successfully detect dangerous substances, firearms and other weapons without backscatter x-ray imaging of passengers. Can the goal of safe air travel be reached without reproducing a digital image of a passenger's body? It has long been recognized by security experts that it is impossible to eliminate all threats to airline travel. Is the application of "backscatter" x-ray technology a deterrent and not a solution to perfect airline travel safety? If this is true, then is the trade off in passenger privacy worth the effort to deter terrorists? The application of security technology and increased passenger screening has also resulted in an increased detection of non-violent criminal offenses. Is the application of "backscatter" x-ray technology to screen airline passengers more than just a means of detecting terrorists? To see examples of this technology, go here. For the pictures showing why this is considered an invasion of privacy, click here.
The Coming Era of Magical Physics
(November 30, 2006)
- In the past year several scientific claims that apparently
contradict "known" physical laws have been making headline
news. Some are so contradictory to personal experience that
their application would seem like "magic" if we were not
already in an age of remarkable discoveries. In 1907 Lord
Haldane, Britain's Minister of War, stated that "The
aeroplane will never fly." Of course what he didn't know was
that Orville Wright had already proven him wrong on Dec. 17,
1903 by becoming the first man to fly (the Wright Brothers
didn't hold official public demonstrations until 1908). We
hold Lord Haldane's comment up to ridicule now because we
know how wrong he was. But even Wilbur Wright said, "I
confess that in 1901, I said to my brother Orville that man
would not fly for fifty years... Ever since, I have
distrusted myself and avoided all predictions." Scientific
history is full of such botched predictions, though when a
scientist of rank and experience says, "it will never work",
they are frequently right. When new scientific claims seem
to contradict "known" physical laws objectivity is difficult
to maintain, even for the best trained scientists. In 2007
three of these breakthrough discoveries and claims could
either make it into demonstrable prototypes or be confirmed
by other research labs. Some of the claims are already
experimentally confirmed, some are unconfirmed but from
credible sources, and some are scientifically
unsubstantiated but just too bold to ignore. If confirmed
they would be a "hat trick" of remarkable advances that
seemingly contradict everyday physical laws. In colloquial
terms they are: invisibility, anti-gravity and
perpetual motion. more...
E-passports with RFID chips cracked (November 30, 2006) - The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) is not concerned about reports from the U.K. that say RFID (radio frequency ID) chips in passports can be cracked in as little as 48 hours. British newspaper The Guardian reports it was able to access the data stored on RFID cards in Britain’s newly launched smart passports. However, the DIA says there isn’t enough information contained within the New Zealand passports’ chips to create counterfeit travel documents. DIA passport manager David Philp confirms that it is possible to access the information stored on the RFID chips and use it to make a clone. However, the RFID chip in the e-passports currently issued in New Zealand is just one security feature out of more than 50 contained in the passport. Having just a cloned chip isn’t sufficient to create a counterfeit passport, Philp says, and adds that such an endeavour is quite involved. While New Zealand passports are "highly desirable," the DIA has seen very few credible counterfeited ones, he says. While the general design goal of the e-passport is to lock the holder’s identity to the document in a secure manner, Philp says that there has to be a balance between risk management and customer service. The passport has to be readable around the world in a reasonable amount of time and ideally in more situations than just immigration. Philp gives airport check-ins as one example of where RFID-equipped passports should be readable. Making the e-passport harder to read is possible, Philp says, but it would make immigration processing take longer and inconvenience people. Researcher Peter Gutmann at the University of Auckland’s department of Computer Science is sceptical that the RFID chip provides any real security benefit. In fact, Gutmann goes further and says in his technical background paper, Why biometrics is not a panacea, that RFIDs in passports "are a disaster waiting to happen." German and Dutch passports have already been compromised, according to Gutmann, and this can be done remotely as well. He points to successful attacks by Dutch RFID security specialist Harko Robroch, who has intercepted passport and reader device communications from five meters away. Gutmann says eavesdropping on the reader was possible up to 25 meters. In comparison, the Guardian article says U.K. passports are readable 7.5cm away, a far shorter distance than Robroch’s interception, but enough in situations such as public transport, where people are close together, to siphon off the data stored in the RFID chip. However, Gutmann’s worst-case scenario for RFIDs in passports occurs not when they’re being compromised for counterfeiting purposes, but are used to identify the holder. The RFID chip could be used to trigger explosive charges and Gutmann points to a study that shows the current U.S. passport design caused a small, non-lethal explosive charge concealed in a rubbish tin to detonate. Terrorists could then target specific nationalities automatically, says Gutmann.
World's most deadly bugs... in the hands of terrorists (November
14, 2006) - New technology that would give terrorists the power
to create deadly bacteria and viruses from scratch is only years away
from completion and threatens to make existing controls on biological
weapons obsolete, experts warned yesterday. Synthetic biology is an
emerging field that allows scientists to build micro-organisms from
simple genetic material, in theory enabling the creation of deadly
pathogens such as ebola or anthrax without access to existing stockpiles
of the bugs. The technology could also allow terrorists or scientists in
rogue states to jumble the genetic signature of the bugs in order to
render them unrecognisable to health experts dealing with an outbreak,
potentially delaying treatment and preventing authorities from tracing
the origin of an attack. The concerns were raised at a biosecurity
conference at Edinburgh University yesterday in the run-up to a major
review of the Biological Weapons Convention in Geneva later this month.
Dr Ronald Atlas, a biosecurity expert, from the University of Louisville
in the United States, said there was a "loophole" in current oversight
measures. "The looming threat right now is what synthetic biologists can
do. "There is significant oversight over who can acquire ebola or
Marburg. But with synthetic biology, you can potentially synthesise de
novo [from scratch] so you don't have to get the viruses from someone.
If you can synthesise without the organism, by just taking chemicals,
mixing them together and making Marburg; if I can just go out and make
it from a chemistry set, that is a looming threat and in the near future
that technical barrier is going to be falling." Scientists have already
shown how easy it can be to create synthetic viruses.
more...
I tend to agree with Chuck Missler that this may refer to biological weapons. (venomous beasts of the soil) I think it's interesting that this article itself uses the term "deadly bugs," which are very small organisms that are like poison to our bodies (they kill us). If you read my collection of evidence, I believe that Islam is the green horse. If this is the case, then this story seems to be touching on the partial fulfillment of it.
Israel Develops Laser to Destroy Roadside Bombs
(November 8, 2006) -
Rafael and American defense contractor General Dynamics have produced
and deployed the system called Thor. It uses the concentrated energy of
a high-powered laser to clear unexploded bombs and improvised explosive
devices. “The directed energy from the laser may also be used to ignite
combustible materials, as a standoff cutting torch, and for other combat
purposes,” General Dynamics said in a statement about the project ahead
of US moves to purchase and deploy the system in its army. Thor combines
the Israeli-produced high-energy laser with the Browning M2 12.7-mm
machine gun, made by General Dynamics, to destroy explosive devices. The
weapon is used with a remote operator control station or mounted on a
vehicle or bomb-squad robot. The Thor system includes sensors that work
either in day or nighttime conditions to detect the hidden explosive
charge. The developers report that the Thor system has already been
deployed in combat operations. “Thor has demonstrated combat
effectiveness in operational engagements, bringing an additional
precision fire gun platform to the fight, while at the same time filling
a unique tactical mission role,” Rafael announced. The developers
explain that the directed energy from the laser is capable of rapidly
clearing unexploded devices by inducing a low-order burning or
deflagration reaction in the explosive material from a safe distance.
“The kinetic energy from the 12.7mm bullet fired by the M2 functions as
a standoff disrupter, destroying fusing, thick-cased munitions, and
booby traps, [and] also enabling distancing explosive hazards away from
the force route. The M2 machine gun ultimately provides accurate, direct
fire upon enemy forces and targets in either an offensive or defensive
role.” The Armament Development Authority is supported by Israel’s
Ministry of Defense and designs, develops, manufactures, and supplies a
wide range of advanced defense systems.
more... Supercow and Pigs That Glow at Night - an Average Day on the GM Farm (November 3, 2006) - Channel 4 is to unveil a shocking menagerie of genetically modified animals in a new show revealing the frightening leaps technology has taken. Among the bizarre engineered creatures from around the world is a giant cow, three times the size of ordinary cattle, reared without fat to produce gallons of milk. But the so-called Belgian Blue - pictured here - is perhaps the least disturbing of the creatures to be shown in the three-part series Channel 4 Farm this winter. There are also glow-inthedark pigs and goats which produce spider's silk. TV scientist Olivia Judson and journalist Giles Coren travel the world to visit the places where these animals are now being reared. There is even a genuine "allotment" of growing human noses. Channel 4 director of television Kevin Lygo said: "This is an exciting science series about genetic modification. Everything on the Channel 4 Farm is real. You may think these creatures are the future but they are the reality, living right now. "We've discussed how to do science endlessly and how to make it accessible and I think this does just that. It's looking at what is going on, what it means and asking what the implications are for our world. It's high time someone did this on telly." more... British scientists grow human liver in a laboratory (October 31, 2006) - British scientists have grown the world's first artificial liver from stem cells in a breakthrough that will one day provide entire organs for transplant. The technique that created the 'mini-liver', currently the size of a one pence piece, will be developed to create a full-size functioning liver. Described as a 'Eureka moment' by the Newcastle University researchers, the tissue was created from blood taken from babies' umbilical cords just a few minutes after birth. As it stands, the mini organ can be used to test new drugs, preventing disasters such as the recent 'Elephant Man' drug trial. Using lab-grown liver tissue would also reduce the number of animal experiments. Within five years, pieces of artificial tissue could be used to repair livers damaged by injury, disease, alcohol abuse and paracetamol overdose. And then, in just 15 years' time, entire liver transplants could take place using organs grown in a lab. The development provides fresh hope for the hundreds of Britons in dire need of a new liver each year. There are currently 336 patients waiting for a liver transplant - the type of operation performed on George Best. However, in 2004, 72 people died waiting for a suitable donor. The liver tissue is created from stem cells - blank cells capable of developing into different types of tissue - found in blood from the umbilical cord. more... Experts crack cancer 'gene codes' (October 28, 2006) - US scientists have cracked the entire genetic code of breast and colon cancers, offering new treatment hopes. The genetic map shows that nearly 200 mutated genes, most previously unknown, help tumors emerge, grow and spread. The discovery could also lead to better ways to diagnose cancer in its early, most treatable stages, and personalized treatments, Science magazine reports. The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center says the findings suggest cancer is more complex than experts had believed. The mutated genes in breast and colon cancers were almost completely distinct, suggesting very different pathways for the development of each of these cancer types. Each individual tumor appeared to have a different genetic blueprint, which could explain why cancers can behave very differently from person to person, the scientists said. "No two patients are identical," co-author Dr Victor Velculescu explained. more... Brand New Substance Created From Water (October 27, 2006) - If you think we know all there is to know about water, think again. Scientists claim they have created a totally new alloy of hydrogen and oxygen molecules by splitting water. It takes high-energy X-rays and an extremely high pressure, but the end result is a solid mixture of H2 and 02 that has never been identified before, they say. The discovery could change our understanding of the complex chemistry of water. The new alloy is "a highly energetic material", says Wendy Mao at Los Alamos National Laboratory, US, who led the research. "It may help us find a way of storing energy." Mao’s team subjected water to a pressure 170,000 times greater than atmospheric pressure at sea level. Then they bombarded it with X-rays, causing the water molecules to split and reform into a previously unknown crystalline solid made of H2 molecules and 02 molecules. The phenomenon has been missed by hundreds of previous experiments, researchers say, because it only happens after several hours of exposure to 10-kiloelectronvolt-X-rays. "We managed to hit on just the right level of X-ray energy input," says team member Russell Hemley, at the Carnegie Institution’s geophysical laboratory in Washington DC, US. "Any higher, and the radiation tends to pass right through the sample. Any lower, and the radiation is largely absorbed by the diamonds in our pressure apparatus," he explains. After making several nanograms (10-9 of a gram) of the new alloy, researchers tested its properties by subjecting it to a range of temperatures and pressures, and further bombardment by X-rays and laser radiation. As long as it remained under a pressure 10,000 times greater than at sea level, it was "surprisingly stable", they say. more... 'Tower Of Babel' Translator Made (October 27, 2006) - A "Tower of Babel" device that gives the illusion of being bilingual is being developed by US scientists. Users simply have to silently mouth a word in their own language for it to be translated and read out in another. The researchers said the effect was like watching a television programme that had been dubbed. The system, detailed in New Scientist, is not yet fully accurate, but experts said it showed the technology was "within reach". The translation systems that are currently in use work by using voice recognition software. But this requires people to speak out loud and then wait for the translation to be read out, making conversations difficult. But the new device, being created by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, is different. Electrodes are attached to the neck and face to detect the movements that occur as the person silently mouths words and phrases. Using this data, a computer can work out the sounds being formed and then build these sounds up into words. The system is then able to translate the words into another language which is read out by a synthetic voice. more... As Scientists Feared — Embryonic Stem Cells May Cause Tumors in Patients (October 25, 2006) - Injecting human embryonic stem cells into the brains of Parkinson's disease patients may cause tumors to form, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday. Steven Goldman and colleagues at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York said human stem cells injected into rat brains turned into cells that looked like early tumors. Writing in the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers said the transplants clearly helped the rats, but some of the cells started growing in a way that could eventually lead to a tumor. Various types of cell transplants are being tried to treat Parkinson's disease, caused when dopamine-releasing cells die in the brain. This key neurotransmitter, or message-carrying chemical, is involved in movement and Parkinson's patients suffer muscle dysfunction that can often lead to paralysis. Drugs can slow the process for a while but there is no cure. more... New Super Ultrasound Technique "Zaps" Tumors, Fibroids — May Eliminate Need for Hysterectomies (October 21, 2006) - Doctors are using a pioneering new technique which destroys tumours using nothing more than loud noise. Using a powerful beam of ultrasound they are able to zap diseased tissue without leaving a scar, writes Sky News Health Correspondent Thomas Moore. It is being tested on women suffering from fibroids, who would once have had to have a hysterectomy. The sound is too high pitched for the human ear to hear, and there is no radiation, no toxic chemotherapy, and no scar. Shirley Coombs Shirley Coombs had been lined up for a hysterectomy. She has fibroids - benign tumours that grow in the womb and affect one in three women. But with high powered ultrasound doctors will zap the growths and leave her womb intact. She will be able to have children. "I like the idea of leaving everything intact. I can carry on with my life rather than be laid up for 4 to 6 weeks with a hysterectomy." The new zap-while-you-scan technique allows doctors to blast tumours with unprecedented precision. How machine works Patients lie, face down, in an MRI scanner. Doctors outline the tumour on high-resolution images of the body. Then they zap the target, using a dish of water as a lens to focus a beam of ultrasound down to a tiny point. In just one second they heat cells to 55 degrees, and watch the scan as the tissue is destroyed. more... Your DNA is a Song: Scientists Use Music to Code Proteins (October 21, 2006) - What are proteins? How are they structured? What's the difference between a protein in a human and the same protein in a lizard? Ask Mary Anne Clark these questions and she is likely to respond with an earful of music. Clark is a biologist at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, and she's part of a growing field of science educators who use so-called protein music to help illustrate the basic structure of the building blocks of life. All living things are made up of proteins. Each protein is a string of amino acids. There are 20 different amino acids, and each protein can consist of dozens to thousands of them. Scientists write down these amino acid sequences as series of text letters. Clark and her colleagues assign musical notes to the different values of the amino acids in each sequence. The result is music in the form of "protein songs." By listening to the songs, scientists and students alike can hear the structure of a protein. And when the songs of the same protein from different species are played together, their similarities and differences are apparent to the ear. "It's an illustration transferred into a medium people will find more accessible than just [text] sequences," Clark said. "If you look at protein sequences, if you just read those as they are written down, recorded in a database, it's hard to get a sense for the pattern." more... 'We're Near on a 'Cloak of Invisibility,' Scientists (October 19, 2006) - Harry Potter and Captain Kirk would be proud. A team of American and British researchers has made a Cloak of Invisibility. Well, OK, it’s not perfect. Yet. But it’s a start, and it did a pretty good job of hiding a copper cylinder. In this experiment the scientists used microwaves to try and detect the cylinder. Like light and radar waves, microwaves bounce off objects making them visible and creating a shadow, though it has to be detected with instruments. If you can hide something from microwaves, you can hide it from radar — a possibility that will fascinate the military. Cloaking differs from stealth technology, which doesn’t make an aircraft invisible but reduces the cross-section available to radar, making it hard to track. Cloaking simply passes the radar or other waves around the object as if it weren’t there, like water flowing around a smooth rock in a stream. The new work points the way for an improved version that could hide people and objects from visible light. Conceptually, the chance of adapting the concept to visible light is good, cloak designer David Schurig said in a telephone interview. But Schurig, a research associate in Duke University’s electrical and computer engineering department, added, “From an engineering point of view it is very challenging.” Nonetheless, the cloaking of a cylinder from microwaves comes just five months after Schurig and colleagues published their theory that it should be possible. Their first success is reported in a paper in Friday’s issue of the journal Science. “We did this work very quickly ... and that led to a cloak that is not optimal,” said co-author David R. Smith, also of Duke. “We know how to make a much better one.” more... Stem Cell Experts Seek Licence to Create Human-Rabbit Embryo (October 6, 2006) - British scientists are seeking approval to create embryos by fusing human cells with animal eggs in controversial research which will boost stem cell science and tackle some of the most debilitating and untreatable neurological diseases. Three teams in London, Edinburgh and Newcastle are to submit simultaneous applications to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority this month, requesting licences to create early-stage "chimeric" embryos that will be 99.9% human and 0.1% rabbit or cow. The HFEA has sought legal advice and encouraged the applications. The licences will allow scientists to remove the nuclei from animal eggs and replace them with human cells, leading to embryos containing the complete set of human genes, plus dozens of animal genes that sit inside tiny energy-making structures called mitochondria. Two of the groups, led by Stephen Minger at King's College, London, and Ian Wilmut, the Edinburgh University scientist whose team created Dolly the Sheep, plan to use the embryos to create stem cells that carry the genetic defects responsible for neurological conditions such as motor neurone disease. By converting the stem cells into neurons, the scientists will be able to unravel how the disease destroys nerves and identify drugs to stop or reverse the damage. more... It was inevitable that genetic testing would come to this. I believe it's actually been happening all around the world in secret and here's a couple pictures I've come across that seem to agree. This mixing of genetic material is an abomination against God's creation. We shouldn't be playing with what we don't know about when it pertains to life like this. I believe it happened before the flood and was part of the reason for the flood. Study more on this in the Nephilim Bible study. Scientists teleport two different objects (October 5, 2006) - Beaming people in "Star Trek" fashion is still in the realms of science fiction, but physicists in Denmark have teleported information from light to matter bringing quantum communication and computing closer to reality. Until now scientists have teleported similar objects such as light or single atoms over short distances from one spot to another in a split second. But Professor Eugene Polzik and his team at the Niels Bohr Institute at Copenhagen University in Denmark have made a breakthrough by using both light and matter. "It is one step further because for the first time it involves teleportation between light and matter, two different objects. One is the carrier of information and the other one is the storage medium," Polzik explained in an interview on Wednesday. The experiment involved for the first time a macroscopic atomic object containing thousands of billions of atoms. They also teleported the information a distance of half a meter but believe it can be extended further. "Teleportation between two single atoms had been done two years ago by two teams, but this was done at a distance of a fraction of a millimeter," Polzik, of the Danish National Research Foundation Center for Quantum Optics, explained. more... Giant Electromagnetic 'Launch Ring' Possible: U.S. Air Force (October 3, 2006) - A large circular metal track could accelerate objects to supersonic speed using electromagnets and spit them out into space, says a report from the U.S. air force's Office of Scientific research. Tagged as the Launch Ring by its inventing company, Launch Point Technologies, the track would be several kilometers in diameter. Similar to trains that hover on electromagnetic tracks, a sled would hover over the ring and be propelled forward using powerful magnets. According to the company, a satellite protected by an eggshell-like capsule could sit atop the sled and slowly accelerate over a matter of hours to a supersonic 10 km/sec. Then a small explosion could detach the capsule from the sled and it would hurtle into a side tunnel. From there, it would shoot up a ramp and through the atmosphere into outer space. Traveling at a 23 times the speed of sound, the capsule would experience forces 2,000 times that of normal gravity on Earth. more... Water Out of Thick Air (October 1, 2006) - In a country like the United States, the human body's most urgent need is taken for granted. It comes easily out of our faucets, and gallon jugs of it cost less than a dollar. Until something like a hurricane makes clean drinking water hard to find. But the Southeast's climate provides something besides hurricanes in summer. Humidity. As emergency officials ponder how to better help their residents after disasters, some companies are pushing machines that pull the humidity from the air and turn it into drinking water. A few are also touting the machines as a potential solution to the clean water shortages that plague the Third World, pushing aside concerns that the machines are inefficient and require fuel that also might be scarce. The biggest machines can make up to 5,000 liters of water a day, enough to provide about a gallon to 1,250 people. Small units cost several hundred dollars, while the biggest, most elaborate cost half a million. Anyone who's ever looked at an air conditioner or put a cold bottle of water in the sun and watched water bead up on it knows air can be condensed into water when it's cooled. The only questions are how efficient it is on a large scale, and whether it's clean enough to drink. A few companies are marketing portable condensers they say can make clean, drinkable water out of nothing but the air outside. At least one is marketing it as a tool for emergency responders. more... Antimatter Discovery Could Alter Physics (September 27, 2006) - The discovery that a bizarre particle travels between the real world of matter and the spooky realm of antimatter 3 trillion times a second may open the door to a new era of physics, Fermilab researchers announced Monday. The incredibly rapid commuting rate of the B sub s meson particle had been predicted by the Standard Model, the successful but incomplete theory aimed at explaining how matter and energy interact to form the visible universe. After 20 years of trying, scientists have now confirmed the rate, providing strong evidence for the theory. The monumentally precise technology developed to measure the meson's back and forth dashes also may open the way to discovering a new family of fundamental particles and possibly a set of new forces that could be harnessed for technological applications, physicists suggested. The discovery comes at a time when the future of Fermilab, located near Batavia, Ill., is in doubt. Its huge 4-mile circular Tevatron particle accelerator may be forced to close by 2010 if Congress does not approve construction at Fermilab of a multibillion-dollar, 18-mile-long International Linear Collider. Without the collider, the United States would lose its lead position in high-energy physics discoveries to Europe, where a new accelerator seven times more powerful than the Tevatron is to start up within two years at a site on the Swiss-French border. The meson finding shows that Fermilab, which began operations in 1967, is still capable of making breakthrough discoveries. Scientists there discovered two of the most fundamental particles, the bottom quark in 1977 and in 1995 the top quark, one of the constituent particles of protons, which form the nuclei of atoms. Raymond Orbach, undersecretary for science with the U.S. Department of Energy, called the breakthrough "a triumph for Fermilab." "This remarkable tour de force details with exquisite precision how the antiworld is tied to our everyday realm," he wrote in a statement. "It is a beautiful example of how, using increasingly sophisticated analysis, one can extract discovery from data from which much less was expected." more... A Chip That Transfers Data Using Laser Light (September 19, 2006) - Researchers plan to announce on Monday that they have created a silicon-based chip that can produce laser beams. The advance will make it possible to use laser light rather than wires to send data between chips, removing the most significant bottleneck in computer design. As a result, chipmakers may be able to put the high-speed data communications industry on the same curve of increased processing speed and diminishing costs--the phenomenon known as Moore's law--that has driven the computer industry for the last four decades. The development is a result of research at Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. Commercializing the new technology may not happen before the end of the decade, but the prospect of being able to place hundreds or thousands of data-carrying light beams on standard industry chips is certain to shake up both the communications and computer industries. Lasers are already used to transmit high volumes of computer data over longer distances--for example, between offices, cities and across oceans--using fiber optic cables. But in computer chips, data moves at great speed over the wires inside, then slows to a snail's pace when it is sent chip-to-chip inside a computer. With the barrier removed, computer designers will be able to rethink computers, packing chips more densely both in home systems and in giant data centers. Moreover, the laser-silicon chips--composed of a spider's web of laser light in addition to metal wires--portend a vastly more powerful and less expensive national computing infrastructure. For a few dollars apiece, such chips could transmit data at 100 times the speed of laser-based communications equipment, called optical transceivers, that typically cost several thousand dollars. more... Israeli researcher: Forget gas, fill your tanks with water (September 16, 2006) - With fears for the environment growing and the price of fossil fuels rising, a team of Israeli researchers working in Israel and the US is working on a new emission-free method to run your car - with water. Water may seem like an unlikely source of fuel, but in fact it is full of hydrogen - a gas that many experts believe can be used in future to power internal combustion engines and generate electricity. The only problem with hydrogen, however, is that production of the flammable gas is inefficient, expensive and environmentally unfriendly, as well as being extremely difficult to store and transport. The scientists use the element boron, a lightweight semi-metallic element, to react with water to produce hydrogen that can be burnt in an internal combustion engine or fed to a fuel cell to generate electricity. The goal is to create hydrogen on demand - enough hydrogen to match the needs of the car's engine. "Boron and water can be stored separately in two containers. Mixing them in a controlled fashion will release hydrogen as demanded by the engine," says Abu-Hamed. more... Trophy Anti-RPG Defensive System (September 14, 2006) - This video demonstrates this new technology in advanced development that creates a field around the armored vehicle which detonates RPGs and other projectile weapons before they can strike the armor. Medicine Trees (August 29, 2006) - With more than 300 plant-made pharmaceuticals (PMPs) under various stages of discovery, plants are now gaining widespread acceptance as a platform for protein production. There is no doubt that PMPs are soon going to be the new buzzword in the biotech industry, Sushmi Dey discovers. Advances in biotechnology aided in the production of therapeutic proteins essential in a wide range of pharmaceuticals like monoclonal antibodies, enzymes and blood proteins. Since the demand for these biopharmaceuticals is expected to increase, researchers all over the world are looking at ways to ensure that they will be available at significantly larger amounts and on a cost-effective basis. One such solution comes in the form of plant-made pharmaceuticals (PMPs), which are cheap to produce and store, easy to scale up for mass production and safer than those derived from animals. The use of plants for medicinal purpose dates back to thousands of years, but genetic engineering of plants to produce desired biopharmaceuticals is a much more recent phenomenon. In normal circumstances, drugs are synthesized through strong chemical reactions or taken from natural sources such as texol or curcumin. The conventional system in place for the production of commercial protein has relied on microbial fermentation and mammalian cell lines. But according to studies, these systems have disadvantages in terms of cost, scalability, and safety that have promoted research into alternatives. more... Israeli researchers get a charge out of safe nano-battery (August 27, 2006) - A team of scientists at Tel Aviv University have developed and patented a nano-battery technology for fast charge/discharge batteries that eliminates fire hazards associated with current lithium-based batteries and can provide an alternative source of power for mobile devices. As semiconductor technology has advanced over recent years, batteries have become the weakest link in the operability of electronic devices according to TAU Prof. Menachem Nathan, head of the university's Fleischmann Faculty of Engineering, and the head of the nano-battery project. The growth in power-hungry mobile devices in the marketplace, however, means that manufacturers must substantially increase battery running time by packing more and more power into tighter packages. Moreover, end-users are becoming impatient with the amount of time needed to charge these high power batteries, resulting in a need to design quicker charging devices. more... Irish company challenges scientists to test 'free energy' technology (August 19, 2006) - An Irish company has thrown down the gauntlet to the worldwide scientific community to test a technology it has developed that it claims produces free energy. The company, Steorn, says its discovery is based on the interaction of magnetic fields and allows the production of clean, free and constant energy -- a concept that challenges one of the basic rules of physics. It claims the technology can be used to supply energy for virtually all devices, from mobile phones to cars. Steorn issued its challenge through an advertisement in the Economist magazine this week quoting Ireland's Nobel prize-winning author George Bernard Shaw who said that "all great truths begin as blasphemies". Sean McCarthy, Steorn's chief executive officer, said they had issued the challenge for 12 physicists to rigorously test the technology so it can be developed. "What we have developed is a way to construct magnetic fields so that when you travel round the magnetic fields, starting and stopping at the same position, you have gained energy," McCarthy said. more... This is kind of the same idea that I had been mulling about for free energy. The principle being that magnetism is a force that is never degraded in rare earth magnets. It is a limitless source of energy because magnetism manifests itself in the physical world. If you can harness that energy in such a way that it creates perpetual motion, you could have a rotating source that produces electricity as long as the power from the magnetism is over the friction, etc. At any rate, magnetism is a force that never goes and has the power to expound more energy than it takes. See an example here. IDF Tests "Life-Saving" Bandage (August 6, 2006) - The Israel Defense Forces [IDF] is currently trying out–but not yet using in the field–a US $100-bandage that has been found to stop hemorrhages in about a minute. United States Army experience has shown that the HemCon Bandage, battle-tested on U.S. soldiers in Iraq, can save the lives of many wounded soldiers–a large number of whom die from uncontrolled hemorrhaging before they can be evacuated. The IDF Spokesman's Office said it viewed medical treatment of soldiers in the field as very important and that the bandage was now being tested by its Medical Corps. If it were to be found suitable to the IDF's needs, the purchase of large numbers of them would be considered, it said. The HemCon Bandage, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration three years ago, contains positively-charged molecules of chitosan–a natural polymer derived from the exoskeletons of crab, shrimp and other crustaceans–that attract negatively-charged red blood cells. While an ordinary gauze or tourniquet often has little effect in halting spurting wounds, the HemCon bandage triggers an adherent clot that halts the bleeding. "You can have a hole in your heart, and 60 seconds later it's sealed," says Kenton Gregory, who invented it five years ago at the Oregon Medical Laser Center with a research grant from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. The crystalline structure of the chitosan is key to its ability to halt the hemorrhaging, said Gregory. "Test results on the bandage have conclusively demonstrated excellent results in stopping bleeding for trauma injuries like those experienced in battlefield conditions. With advanced hemorrhage control methods and devices, we estimate that 20% to 30% of all combat deaths can be prevented," he said. A study of the bandage's successful use by U.S. Army medics in Iraq and Afghanistan was subsequently published in the Journal of Trauma. In 2004, the U.S. Army named the HemCon Bandage as one of that year's "Top 10 Greatest Inventions." Its guidelines indicate the use of HemCon for rapid control of severe, life-threatening bleeding. The bandage allows the wound to quickly form a strong clot, enabling a patient to be transported and offers rapid, strong adhesion to the injury site to seal the wound. It is durable enough to withstand blunt force as well as extreme field conditions, including inclement weather, temperature and rugged terrain. It comes in a variety of sizes and configurations (the four-by-four-inch version costs US $100 apiece). Packaged with a two-year shelf life, the bandages are stable at room temperature, simple to use, and conform to curved or irregular wound surfaces. They are also easily removed with saline solution or water. Cars That Won't Crash - The Technology is "Doable Right Now" (August 6, 2006) - LiveScience reports that scientists are looking toward an automobile "crash-free future" with vehicle-to-vehicle communication, or V2V, and some advances that would make V2V possible are already on the way. According to reporter Preston Lerner, to encourage the development of V2V, the Federal Communications Commission has reportedly cleared the 5.9-gigahertz band for dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) among cars, other cars, and roadside transceivers. "The technology is doable right now," says Carsten Bergmann, a VW lab manager. For example, Lerner notes, "General Motors has demonstrated a DSRC-equipped Cadillac CTS that stops itself to avoid accidents. Its enhanced stability-control system predicts where it's headed-like, into the rear end of another DSRC car stopped in the middle of the road-and prompts the onboard computer to apply the brakes without any input from the driver. The effect is very cool. It's also a little spooky..." more... An Important Clue is Found in the Cure for Muscular Dystrophy (July 31, 2006) - "US scientists have found a way to reverse muscular dystrophy (MD) in mice, offering hope of a cure for humans with muscle-wasting diseases." In new studies involving mice the University of Virginia may have discovered a new clue to the reversal of myotonic dystrophy, which is the most common form of muscular dystrophy (MD) in adults. MD is caused when DNA abnormalities carry over into RNA, and cause toxic build-up. The build-up breaks down the muscle, causing weakness. In the study, scientists used an antibiotic, pouring it into their water source, effectively making an "on" and "off switch to control MD in mice. Their study wasn't entirely effective, but it "provided the proof scientists have been waiting for, to demonstrate that it might be possible to reverse muscular dystrophy." To read the full BBC News report, follow the link below. more... Scientists Say They’ve Found a Code Beyond Genetics in DNA (July 25, 2006) - Researchers believe they have found a second code in DNA in addition to the genetic code. The genetic code specifies all the proteins that a cell makes. The second code, superimposed on the first, sets the placement of the nucleosomes, miniature protein spools around which the DNA is looped. The spools both protect and control access to the DNA itself. The discovery, if confirmed, could open new insights into the higher order control of the genes, like the critical but still mysterious process by which each type of human cell is allowed to activate the genes it needs but cannot access the genes used by other types of cell. The new code is described in the current issue of Nature by Eran Segal of the Weizmann Institute in Israel and Jonathan Widom of Northwestern University in Illinois and their colleagues. There are about 30 million nucleosomes in each human cell. So many are needed because the DNA strand wraps around each one only 1.65 times, in a twist containing 147 of its units, and the DNA molecule in a single chromosome can be up to 225 million units in length. more... News Corp., DirecTV take broadband to the Max (July 18, 2006) - News Corp.'s zealous embrace of interactivity soon will reach way beyond the runaway success of the social networking Web site MySpace when its majority-owned DirecTV decides on a path and partners for creating a national WiMax network. Approval is imminent for the project that could take at least two years and $2 billion, providing News Corp. and DirecTV a valuable wireless interactive broadband loop with consumers to directly sell content, advertising, goods and services. WiMax is a wireless a broadband technology often referred to as "WiFi on steroids" with a much wider 30-mile range than the more limited access offered by WiFi services. WiMax, which is short for World Interoperability for Microwave Access, also promises to provide more security and speed than traditional wireless connections. "If we can pull something off ... there is no reason why that shouldn't link in with everything," News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch said in a recent interview. "I would expect to have wireless broadband advanced in at least two or three cities before the end of this year, and then it might take two or three years to build it out across the entire country," Murdoch said. more... Do you suppose this technology could be used in the near future in conjuction with RFID to track people and property across the globe? There is already RFID WiFi integration such that when you pass by a reader over WiFi, any location in the world connected to the network can track that ID to that specific place on the globe where it was accessed. Revelation 13:16-18 Non-Addictive Painkiller Derived from Pacific Snail, 1,000 Times More Potent than Morphine - Now Available in Great Britain (July 11, 2006) - Baldomera Olivera, a scientist and professor at the University of Utah, has been working over 20 years to find a new painkiller and the fruits of his labor are now coming to pass. Available this week in Great Britain, Prialt -- or ziconotide -- is a non-addictive painkiller derived from the venom of Conus magus, a two-inch snail found in Pacific coral reefs, and it is reportedly 1,000 times more potent than morphine. According to a report in the Times UK, it is the first non-opioid painkiller using this method of administration to be approved in Europe.(Photo- Magicians's Cone snail - Times UK) Professor Olivera, who was born in the Philippines is said to have collected the shells of the snails as a boy, then went on to study them. The venom itself was discovered by a teenager, Michael McIntosh, who started to help with the research soon after leaving school. Now, says reporter Nigel Hawkes, 25 years later, he is a research psychiatrist at the University of Utah and still works with Professor Olivera. more...
Israeli Research Paves the Way to Grow Crops in Saline Land (July
10, 2006) - Israeli researchers from Haifa
University's Institute of Evolution have isolated a gene that
withstands salinity - meaning a great increase in the amount of
worldwide land available for agriculture. Prof. Evyatar Nevo,
director of the Institute, told David Brinn of
Israel 21c.org
that the new research "will contribute to a significant increase in
the amount of arable land available for agriculture." Of the earth's
57 million square miles of land, only about 12 million (21%) can be
used for growing crops - and that amount is diminishing by 1% every
three years. The new research will make it possible to grow plants
and crops in saline earth - land that has been affected by too much
salt in soil or in irrigation water. Brinn reports that modern
methods of irrigation and fertilization of crops have caused much of
the arable lands around the world to become saline. Prof. Nevo's
team studied fungi in the Dead Sea, which is ten times more salty
than the oceans. "We became interested in the fungi's genetic
resources," Nevo said, "[asking] what made them thrive in the salty
Dead Sea." more...
| Israel |
Volkswagen Unveils "Astonishing" Self-Driving Car - Soon to Make Its Way to a Showroom Near You (July 7, 2006) - The folks at Volkswagen in Germany have unveiled the car of the now-not-so-distant-future -- a car which can drive itself. The "astonishing prototype", called the VW Golf GTi '53 was developed initially to help Volkswagen engineers test their vehicles. It was so successful, that many of the elements which make up its engine will reportedly be making their way into showroom cars within just a few years. A Volkswagen spokesman is quoted as saying, 'It really is a self-driving Golf. It steers, brakes and accelerates. And it races through handling courses independently. It can accomplish this at full performance and at the limits of its capabilities...We called it '53' because it is reminiscent of the cinematic Volkswagen bug "Herbie," which made history as the first self-driving Volkswagen. This time we've done it for real.' more... Scientists Develop Tool to Re-grow Teeth (June 30, 2006) - "Right now, we plan to use it to fix fractured or diseased teeth, as well as asymmetric jawbones, but it may also help hockey players or children who had their tooth knocked out." Canadian scientists at the University of Alberta in Edmonton filed patents in June in the United States for a smaller-than-pea sized tool that can supposedly re-grow teeth and bones. Said to be the first device to do so, it works by using low-intensity pulsed ultrasound technology to gently massage gums, stimulating tooth growth from the roots. "Right now, we plan to use it to fix fractured or diseased teeth, as well as asymmetric jawbones, but it may also help hockey players or children who had their tooth knocked out," said Jie Chen, an engineering professor and nano-circuit design expert, adding that it can "also stimulate jawbone growth to fix a person's crooked smile and may eventually allow people to grow taller by stimulating bone growth." According to the AFP report, the device is expected to be commercialized within two years. more... Weapon of Mass Diffraction (June 30, 2006) - Sure, it looks like the giant death ray from Goldeneye. And sure, the same technology could someday help blast satellites out of orbit. But for now, the US Air Force's Starfire Optical Range, perched on a hill in the New Mexico desert, is just trying to take some good pictures. Really. Hot and cold pockets of air change the speed of light as it moves through the atmosphere. That makes stars appear to twinkle and creates a major challenge for researchers trying to get a clear view of objects in space. Starfire's answer: Shoot a laser 56 miles into the mesosphere and measure the distortion. Then adjust the laser's mirrors until the beam is back in focus. Whatever optical tweaks correct the beam will also focus a telescope. The images from Starfire are 40 times sharper than uncorrected pics. Today, that aids astronomers; tomorrow, maybe generals. "We don't hide the fact that it could help build an anti-satellite weapon," says Colonel Gregory Vansuch, chief of the installation, "if you choose to do it." Not that there are any plans for one - both the technology and the politics of space weapons are tricky. But if the military constructs Starfire II inside an extinct volcano, we'll let you know. more... Stealth Radar System Sees Through Trees and Walls Undetected (June 27, 2006) - Ohio State engineers have invented a radar system that is virtually undetectable because its signal resembles random noise. The radar could have applications in law enforcement, the military and disaster rescue. Eric Walton, senior research scientist in Ohio State's ElectroScience laboratory, said that with further development the technology could even be used for medical imaging. He explained why using random noise makes the radar system invisible. "Almost all radio receivers in the world are designed to eliminate random noise so that they can clearly receive the signal they're looking for," Walton said. "Radio receivers could search for this radar signal and they wouldn't find it. It also won't interfere with TV, radio or other communication signals." The radar scatters a very low-intensity signal across a wide range of frequencies, so a TV or radio tuned to any one frequency would interpret the radar signal as a very weak form of static. "It doesn't interfere because it has a bandwidth that is thousands of times broader than the signals it might otherwise interfere with," Walton said. more... Migraines "Zapped" Away with New Device (June 23, 2006) - Painless device produces significant improvements in migraine sufferers. An experimental, handheld device called the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) device, that "zaps" migraine headaches, is reported to have produced "significant" improvements in patients involved in a study using the technique. A report in the Times UK states: "The pulse has been found to trigger an electric current in neurons in the brain, preventing the initial 'electrical storm' from developing into a full-blown migraine." Reporter Sam Lister adds that a team of American scientists, based at Ohio State University Medical Centre, will present findings from their research at the annual meeting of the American Headache Society in Los Angeles. Yousef Mohammad, a neurologist at Ohio, is quoted as saying the device's pulses are "painless" and that after treatment the patients studied reported a significant reduction in nausea, noise and light sensitivity. more... Researchers Say New Chip Breaks Speed Record (June 20, 2006) - Researchers at I.B.M. and the Georgia Institute of Technology are set to announce today that they have broken the speed record for silicon-based chips with a semiconductor that operates 250 times faster than chips commonly used today. The achievement is a major step in the evolution of computer semiconductor technology that could eventually lead to faster networks and more powerful electronics at lower prices, said Bernard Meyerson, vice president and chief technologist in I.B.M.'s systems and technology group. He said developments like this one typically found their way into commercial products in 12 to 24 months. The researchers, using a cryogenic test station, achieved the speed milestone by "freezing" the chip to 451 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, using liquid helium. That temperature, normally found only in outer space, is just nine degrees above absolute zero, or the temperature at which all movement is thought to cease. At 500 gigahertz, the technology is 250 times faster than chips in today's cellphones, which operate at 2 gigahertz. At room temperature, the chips operate at 350 gigahertz, far faster than other chips in commercial use today. more... Mixing Animal, Human Cells Gets Exotic (June 19, 2006) - On the sun-splashed Caribbean island of St. Kitts, Yale University researchers are injecting millions of human brain cells into the heads of monkeys afflicted with Parkinson's disease. In China, there are 29 goats running around on a farm with human cells coursing through their organs, a result of scientists dropping human blood cells into goat embryos. The mixing of humans and animals in the name of medicine has been going on for decades. People are walking around with pig valves in their hearts and scientists have routinely injected human cells into lab mice to mimic diseases. But the research is becoming increasingly exotic as scientists work with the brains of mice, monkeys and other mammals and begin fiddling with the hot-button issue of cloning. Harvard University researchers are attempting to clone human embryonic cells in rabbit eggs. Such work has triggered protests from social conservatives and others who fear the blurring of species lines, invoking the image of the chimera of Greek mythology, a monstrous mix of lion, goat and serpent. During his State of the Union speech in January, President Bush called for a ban on "human cloning in all its forms" and "human-animal hybrids," labeling it one of the "most egregious abuses of medical research." He didn't elaborate, but scientists working in the field believe that by "hybrids," the president meant creating living animals with human traits - something they say they aren't doing. more... Robot device mimics human touch (June 9, 2006) - US scientists have created a sensor that can "feel" the texture of objects to the same degree of sensitivity as a human fingertip. The team says the tactile sensor could, in the future, aid minimally invasive surgical techniques by giving surgeons a "touch-sensation". The research is reported in the journal Science. "If you look at the current status of these tactile sensors, the frustration has been that the resolution of all these devices is in the range of millimetres," explained Professor Ravi Saraf, an engineer from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, US, and a co-author of the paper. "Whereas the resolution of a human fingertip is about 40 microns, about half the diameter of a human hair, and this has affected the performance of these devices." more... Harvard defies Bush with therapeutic cloning program (June 7, 2006) - The richest university in the US has thrown its reputation and financial resources behind efforts to clone human embryos for medical science. Scientists at Harvard University were yesterday awarded ethical approval and private funds to pursue therapeutic cloning experiments that are strongly opposed by the Bush administration and the US's religious Right. The researchers hope their work could lead to cures for conditions such as diabetes and motor neurone disease. The Harvard team will seek to clone embryos using cells from patients with these disorders and then create "disease-specific" colonies of embryonic stem cells that can be used to develop new treatments. The work is contentious in the US, where experiments on embryonic stem cells created since 2001 cannot receive federal funding and attempts to outlaw the use of cloning for medical research have narrowly failed to pass in Congress. The Bush administration has campaigned for a global ban on all forms of human cloning. The approval at Harvard is particularly significant because of the university's vast reputation and wealth. The university, the richest in the world, took more than two years to vet the ethical and scientific credentials of the project. Harvard president Larry Summers said: "While we respect the beliefs of those who oppose this research, we are equally sincere in our belief that the life-and-death medical needs of suffering children and adults justify moving forward with this research." more... Water Fuel Experimenter and Team Threatened (June 2, 2006) - On May 16, a technician who was one of a team of garage experimenters investigating a hydrogen-on-demand technology was run off the road near a rural intersection and accosted by four white, middle-aged males in black suits, carrying Glocks and Mac tens. The assailants were driving a late model, black Lincoln Town Car. This comes just one month after Bill Williams was similarly threatened because of his alleged experimentation with running a vehicle on a Joe cell. The victim in this latest incident is an associate of New Energy Congress member, Ken Rasmussen, who had been working together with him on the project. Rasmussen also runs an alternative energy news service at http://www.commutefaster.com/Energy.html A week before the incident, Rasmussen learned of the work being done by Professor Kanarev in Russia. Both use a pulsed signal, and both were seeing similar performance rates. Kanarev holds multiple patents, and is widely published. A day before the incident, a person who was interested in funding the project of Rasmussen et al., and who had been trying to reach him since November, had finally made contact. Rasmussen reported the incident for the first time publicly in his news today. He said, "As editor of this page, my life has now been threatened by 2 loaded guns pointed in the face of a good friend." more... Video: Water Car Inventor Murdered 16 min. 23 sec. Video (May 25, 2006) - Here's another inventor who was just murdered (I wonder by who?) He has the same thing, water producing hydrogen, but not with the energy drain of electrolysis. Watch the video for the explanation. Lone Lantern Website Scientists Say They Have Cleared Technical Hurdle in Fusion Research (May 22, 2006) - Physicists working in the United States believe they have cracked an important problem facing man-made nuclear fusion, touted as the cheap, safe, clean and almost limitless energy source of the future. In fusion, atomic nuclei are fused together to release energy, as opposed to fission -- the technique used for nuclear power and atomic bombs -- where nuclei are split. In a fusion reactor, particles are rammed together to form a charged gas called a plasma, contained inside a doughnut-shaped chamber called a tokamak by powerful magnetic coils. A consortium of countries signed a deal last year to build the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in southern France as a testbed for an eventual commercial design. But many experts have been shaking their heads at the many challenges facing the ITER designers. One of them is a phenomenon called edge localised modes, or ELMs. These are sudden fluxes or eddies in the outer edge of the plasma that erode the tokamak's inner wall -- a highly expensive metal skin that absorbs neutrons emitted from the plasma. Erosion means that the wall has to be replaced more often, which thus adds hugely to costs. Eroded particles also have a big impact on the plasma performance, diminishing the amount of energy it can deliver. Writing on Sunday in the British journal Nature physics, a team led by Todd Evans of General Atomics, California, believes that the problematic ELMs can be cleverly controlled. They found that a small resonant magnetic field, derived from special coils located inside a reactor vessel, creates "chaotic" magnetic interference on the plasma edge, which stops the fluxes from forming. more... Final Chromosome in Human Genome Sequenced (May 19, 2006) - Scientists have reached a landmark point in one of the world's most important scientific projects by sequencing the last chromosome in the human genome, the so-called "book of life". Chromosome 1 contains nearly twice as many genes as the average chromosome and makes up eight percent of the human genetic code. It is packed with 3,141 genes and linked to 350 illnesses including cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. "This achievement effectively closes the book on an important volume of the Human Genome Project," said Simon Gregory, who headed the sequencing project at the Sanger Institute in England. The project was started in 1990 to identify the genes and DNA sequences that provide a blueprint for human beings. Chromosome 1 is the biggest and contains, per chromosome, the greatest number of genes. "Therefore it is the region of the genome to which the greatest number of diseases have been localized," added Gregory, from Duke University in the United States. The sequence of chromosome 1, which is published online by the journal Nature, took a team of 150 British and American scientists 10 years to complete. Milestone Achieved in the Development of Biological Fuel Cells (April 26, 2006) - A team of researchers at the University of Oxford have developed an enzyme based biological fuel cell that takes oxygen and hydrogen from an atmosphere to power electrical devices. The enzymes used are isolated from naturally occurring bacteria that have evolved to use hydrogen in their metabolic process. The unique features of these enzymes are that they are highly selective and tolerant of gases that poison traditional fuel cell catalysts, such as carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulphide. Since the enzymes can be grown they represent a cheap and renewable alternative to the expensive platinum based catalysts used by others in hydrogen fuel cells. more... US to deploy RPG-busting 'force field' (April 15, 2006) - Classified Israeli tech bound for Iraq - The US is to field test an innovative Israeli set-up designed to act as a "force field" around armoured vehicles, protecting them from rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and anti-tank missiles, according to a Fox News report. The system, dubbed "Trophy", uses radar to track incoming threats and then destroys them when they're in range by attacking the warheads with an "invisible force", according to Fox. Quite how it does this is, unsurprisingly, classified, but Defense Update understands Trophy is "designed to form a 'beam' of fragments, which will intercept any incoming HEAT threat, including RPG rockets at a range of 10 metres to 30 meters from the protected platform". The countermeasure is, then, actually physical - a fact confirmed by Defense Update, which explains the system has "an automatic reload mechanism to handle multiple attacks", although that's about as specific as it gets. The sceptical among you should note that Trophy has allegedly completed "hundreds of live tests with the Israel Defense Forces and demonstrated effective neutralisation of anti-tank rockets and guided missiles, high safety levels, insignificant residual penetration, and minimal collateral damage". more... Israel 21c Lockheed X-22A Anti-Gravity Fighter Disc AboveTopSecret (April 15, 2006) - Information has come into the public's attention which suggests that Lockheed has been working in the "black" on a discoid-shaped aircraft. Not only does this aircraft utilise anti-gravitic propulsion, but the discs are believed to be equipped with highly advanced particle beam weaponry. Lockheed does hold the patents on disc-shaped passenger aicraft, so it is not unreasonable to assume they have also (successfully) investigated the possibility of creating such craft as military platforms. Evidence for the existence of the X-22A first came to light during Operation Desert Storm when American soldiers (and most likely Iraqi soldiers as well) made sightings of disc-shaped craft in the desert hovering near to U.S. officers. People also made claims of seeing these craft fire intense beams of light that removed any trace of what previously sat at the location, apart from a circular charcoal-like burn mark on the ground. A Desert Storm soldier stated the following: "In the first days film footage and especially Video-cams which a large number of G.I.s had were impounded so they wouldn`t capture any sensitive material." more... Researchers Regenerate Tendons, Ligaments with Stem Cells By Arutz Sheva (April 5, 2006) - Adult stem cells are being used by an Israeli research team to create a new orthopedic solution to a difficult and common problem: how to heal torn ligaments and tendons. The research team, led by Professor Dan Gazit, is working to change this by using stem cells taken from bone marrow and genetically engineering them to become different cells altogether. “With this in mind, we can genetically engineer new skeletal tissue–ligaments, cartilage, and tendons,” explained Dr. Gadi Peled, a senior scientist at the lab. The stem cells were injected with two proteins, called Smad8 and BMP2, and were then injected into the torn Achilles tendons of rats at the Skeletal Biotechnology Laboratory at Hebrew University’s Faculty of Dental Medicine. The cells were drawn to the site of the injury and were able to repair the tendon, said Peled. “There was complete healing in seven weeks, which is very quick,” he told Israel21c. Is Cloaking Technology for U.S. Infantry Warfighters Finally Possible? (March 31, 2006) - It's possible that a company out of Fullerton, California called Advanced American Enterprises (AAE) has achieved the holy grail--tactical invisibility. That's what they're claiming, anyway. It's called the Stealth Technology System (STS), and AAE claims that the technology really works and is ready for prime time. According to the company, STS is more effective, less expensive, and lighter-weight than any known active camouflage/cloaking tech that's previously been under development in the past. AAE states that STS can be applied to ground vehicles, boats, infantry warfighters, and UGVs/ground robots. Any object to which STS is applied will, according to AAE, become virtually invisible, even from as little as 20-25 feet away. Wow. The STS adaptive camouflage technology is apparently still undergoing T&E for application to manned and unmanned aircraft. The actual inventor of the Stealth Technology System is Dr. Rashid Zeineh, who already reportedly has a number of previous inventions under his belt, including the first laser scanner ever (1968) and its software that "also reads DNA identity", and anti-hijacking tech, a.k.a. a "Counter-Terrorism Device for Airplanes". BTW, Zeineh's laser scanner also reportedly reads bar codes. more... Brain Cells Fused with Computer Chip (March 28, 2006) - The line between living organisms and machines has just become a whole lot blurrier. European researchers have developed "neuro-chips" in which living brain cells and silicon circuits are coupled together. The achievement could one day enable the creation of sophisticated neural prostheses to treat neurological disorders or the development of organic computers that crunch numbers using living neurons. To create the neuro-chip, researchers squeezed more than 16,000 electronic transistors and hundreds of capacitors onto a silicon chip just 1 millimeter square in size. They used special proteins found in the brain to glue brain cells, called neurons, onto the chip. However, the proteins acted as more than just a simple adhesive. "They also provided the link between ionic channels of the neurons and semiconductor material in a way that neural electrical signals could be passed to the silicon chip," said study team member Stefano Vassanelli from the University of Padua in Italy. more... |
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