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This is the weblog of
Raymond Powers.
Here I will be sharing what I find of import, humor, concern, inspiration and on the transformational edge
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A Quote:
No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. --Abraham Lincoln
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Raymond lives in Ojai, where the time now is:
01:10AM
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Primarily Public
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| Saturday, March 6, 2004 |  |
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6 Mar 2004 @ 23:47
Biophotons And The Universal Light Code
By William F. Hamilton
3-6-4
I have been reading a book entitled The Field by Lynne McTaggert, a book that could revolutionize our view of the universe once again. One of the key notions in this book is the discovery of biophotons, a new study in the field of biophysics that could have a far-reaching impact on our ideas of life and consciousness in the universe.
What are biophotons and how were they discovered?
"Biophotons, or ultra weak photon emissions of biological systems, are weak electromagnetic waves in the optical range of the spectrum - in other words: light. All living cells of plants, animals and human beings emit biophotons which cannot be seen by the naked eye but can be measured by special equipment developed by German researchers.
This light emission is an expression of the functional state of the living organism and its measurement therefore can be used to assess this state. Cancer cells and healthy cells of the same type, for instance, can be discriminated by typical differences in biophoton emission. After an initial decade and a half of basic research on this discovery, biophysicists of various European and Asian countries are now exploring the many interesting applications which range across such diverse fields as cancer research, non-invasive early medical diagnosis, food and water quality testing, chemical and electromagnetic contamination testing, cell communication, and various applications in biotechnology.
According to the biophoton theory developed on the base of these discoveries the biophoton light is stored in the cells of the organism - more precisely, in the DNA molecules of their nuclei - and a dynamic web of light constantly released and absorbed by the DNA may connect cell organelles, cells, tissues, and organs within the body and serve as the organism's main communication network and as the principal regulating instance for all life processes. The processes of morphogenesis, growth, differentiation and regeneration are also explained by the structuring and regulating activity of the coherent biophoton field. The holographic biophoton field of the brain and the nervous system, and maybe even that of the whole organism, may also be basis of memory and other phenomena of consciousness, as postulated by neurophysiologist Karl Pribram and others. The consciousness-like coherence properties of the biophoton field are closely related to its base in the properties of the physical vacuum and indicate its possible role as an interface to the non-physical realms of mind, psyche and consciousness.
The discovery of biophoton emission also lends scientific support to some unconventional methods of healing based on concepts of homeostasis (self-regulation of the organism), such as various somatic therapies, homeopathy and acupuncture. The "ch'i" energy flowing in our bodies' energy channels (meridians) which according to Traditional Chinese Medicine regulates our body functions may be related to node lines of the organism's biophoton field. The "prana" of Indian Yoga physiology may be a similar regulating energy force that has a basis in weak, coherent electromagnetic biofields."
First discovered in 1923 by Russian medical scientist Professor Alexander G.Gurvich (who named them "mitogenetic rays") and in the 1930s widely researched in Europe and the USA, biophotons have been rediscovered and backed since the 1970s by ample experimental and theoretical evidence by European scientists. In 1974 German biophysicist Fritz-Albert Popp has proved their existence, their origin from the DNA and later their coherence (laser-like nature), and has developed biophoton theory to explain their possible biological role and the ways in which they may control biochemical processes, growth, differentiation etc. Popp's biophoton theory leads to many startling insights into the life processes and may well provide one of the major elements of a future theory of life and holistic medical practice based on such an approach. The importance of the discovery has been confirmed by eminent scientists such as Herbert Froehlich and Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine. Since 1992, the International Institute of Biophysics, a network of research laboratories in more than 10 countries, based in Germany, is coordinating research in this field which promises rapid development in the next decade. "(1)
There are so many ramifications to the study of biophotonic emissions that it is difficult to elucidate at this time. Biophoton studies seem to indicate that the emission is coherent and that biophotons may be modulated and communicate information not only throughout the body but into the extended environment. It may be the process by which DNA actually communicates its information to protein molecules in the process of morphogenesis. It may have relevance to extra-sensory modes of communication with other life forms and explain many mysteries of life.
Here is a list of some of the properties and characteristics of biophotons so far discovered (2):
"Some steps in revealing important properties of biophotons are (1) careful measurements of the spectrum, (2) the analysis of the photo count statistics, (3) connecting the spontaneous and delayed "luminescence", (4) investigations of the temperature dependence of biophotons and (5) correlating physical properties of biophoton emission and biological parameters such as growth, differentiation, DNA -content, and anomalies.
As far as results are available, a brief summary justifies at present the following statements:
· The spectral distribution of biophotons covers at least the range from 200 to 800 nm [1].
· The spectrum is not a line spectrum but rather flat, following approximately the rule f(w) = constant, where f describes the probability of occupying the phase space cells of energy . This is a significant difference from a closed system, where f(w) is the well-known Boltzmann distribution, where T is the absolute temperature [2].
· The probability of counting 0,1,2,...., n biophotons in a preset time interval Dt follows accurately a Poissonian distribution p(n,Dt) = exp (-) n/n! , where is the mean value of photon numbers n during the preset time interval Dt[2].
· This Poissonian probability distribution is fulfilled even in non-stationary biophoton emission. It holds to time intervals down to at least Dt of 10-5 s [2].
· Instead of following an exponential decay, delayed luminescence can be described rather accurately by a "hyperbolic relaxation" of the type A/(1+tz), where A and z are constant (including complex) values, while t is the time after external excitation [2].
· The temperature dependence follows a Curie-Weiss law rather than the Arrhenius factor [3].
· It is evident that at least a significant part of biophoton emission originates from DNA [4].
· There are manifold non-linear dependencies of biophoton emission on cell densities [5]. One of the leading researchers in this new field of biophotons is Fritz-Albert Popp of the International Institute of Biophysics (Biophotonics). Popp was one of those brilliant scientist who risked his career when he became interested in biophotons and there potential for healing. Experiments have even revealed that persons with deceased cells may be healed remotely by those who transmit coherent states of information via biophoton transmission. Popp says, "Biophotons are photons emitted spontaneously by all living systems.1-3 In particular, this phenomenon is not confined to "thermal" radiation in the infrared range. It is well known at present that biophotons are emitted also in the range from visible up to UV. Actually, the intensity of "biophotons" can be registered from a few photons per second and square centimeter surface area on up to some hundred photons from every living system under investigation. The spectral distribution never does display small peaks around definite frequencies. Rather, the quite flat distribution within the range of at least 300 to 800 nm has to be assigned to a thermodynamical system "far away" from equilibrium, since the probability f(n)(see Footnote) of occupying the phase space is on average almost constant and exceeds the Boltzmann distribution in this spectral range by at least a factor of 1010(in the red) up to 1040 (in the UV-range). Fig. 1 displays a typical frequency distribution of a living system, where the spectral intensity of biophotons (at the outside of the living system) has been averaged over several measurements and then expressed in terms of the excitation temperatures (upper figures and lower, left figure) or the occupation probability f(n ) (lower right figure). The term "bio-" in biophotons has been introduced4 in the same way as it has been done in the term "bio-luminescence", pointing to the biological source of the emission, and the term "photons" in the word ,,biophotons" has been chosen to express the fact that the phenomenon is characterized by measuring single photons, indicating that this phenomenon has to be considered as a subject of quantum optics rather than of "classical" physics." (3)
Though biophoton emissions are weak and various instruments are needed to detect these biophotons, the possibility exists that it may give rise to methods of detecting extraterrestrial life forms and determining their vital signatures. "Whereas an incoherent source relaxes according to an exponential relationship between light intensity and time of measurement, a coherent emission decays according to a hyperbolic relationship. Popp et al. and others have done considerable research to measure the kinetics of the decay of biological light emission from many organisms, with the result that almost all of the decay curves show a hyperbolic relationship. Although hyperbolic decay might also be observed for systems with a large number of independent emitters, Popp and Li10 maintain that under the particular conditions in which they have measured hyperbolic decay for light from organisms, the long-lasting hyperbolic decay observed for induced light emission is a sufficient condition for coherence." (4)
It is possible that biophotons may even be carriers of psi information and that a coherent coupling can be established between two conscious life forms resulting in a transference of information from a higher potential field to a field at lower potential. Even though this is conjecture at this point, it suggests other means by which disparate life forms can communicate. We know there is a process by which trees communicate and even signal each other in the face of danger. We may be exchanging information with pets and other animals through biophotonic communication. This may be how some people who have a green thumb affect plants they care for. The possibilities have not been fully explored, but I suspect that biophotonics will be a growing science in the 21st century.
(1) [link] (2) [link] (3) [link] (4) [link] More >
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| Sunday, January 11, 2004 | |
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11 Jan 2004 @ 23:50
Proof that the 'force' really is with us
Ai Lin Choo
Vancouver Sun
The ideas behind Star Wars, The X-Files and an assortment of other psychic films and shows may not be so far-fetched after all.
According to a new study on visual perception, the "force" is possibly inherent in all of us, although we can't see it.
For the many who sometimes walk into a room and feel that something is not quite right, the answer may lie in a sub-system of our visual experience, says Ronald Rensink, University of B.C. associate professor in psychology and computer science.
"Basically visual perception then is two parts. It's got the sort of pictures we all know and love, and then we've got this other thing, this feeling, this using the force, this sensing stream, and they work in parallel, I think. They both operate at the same time," he said.
While you may not see anything, Rensink says the "sixth sense" or as he calls it, "mindsight," is basically another kind of vision where people can sense a change and have a visual experience of it.
He explains that "mindsight" differs from our usual concept of psychic phenomena because people have to keep their eyes open to employ this mode of visual perception.
Click Here For Entire Story
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| Tuesday, December 2, 2003 | |
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2 Dec 2003 @ 12:04
Love is the drug, scientists say
Being in love is physically similar to the buzz of taking drugs and also has withdrawal symptoms, an expert on addiction has said.
Dr John Marsden says dopamine - the drug released by the brain when it is aroused - has similar effects on the body and mind as cocaine or speed.
"Attraction and lust really is like a drug. It leaves you wanting more," the National Addiction Centre head said.
His findings will appear in a BBC programme to be broadcast next month.
Pounding heart
"Being attracted to someone sparks the same incredible feelings no matter who you are. Love really does know no boundaries," he said.
According to Dr Marsden - a chartered psychologist - the brain which processes emotions becomes "fired up" when talking to someone it finds attractive.
The heart pounds three times faster than normal and causes blood to be diverted to the cheeks and sexual organs, which causes the feeling of butterflies in the stomach, he says.
However, as with cocaine and speed, the "hit" is only temporary, though it can last between three and seven years, he added.
Perfect partner
Dr Marsden's research for the BBC's Body Hits series suggests people look for similar features to themselves in a partner as they are searching for characteristics in their mother and father, who have already successfully raised a child.
"It might look like we are all after the perfect partner to wine and dine but underneath, our animal instincts are seeking out an ideal mate to share our genes with."
"We tend to go for the smell of somebody who has a very different immune system and that stops you fancying your family.
"Our biology drives us to find a perfect compromise between sameness and difference and we strike that balance all the time when it comes to choosing faces and smells," he said.
Sex trap
The research also suggests sex is booby-trapped to make partners bond.
"Your body has evolved over millions of years with one aim - to go forth and multiply, so while having kids may not be on the agenda just yet your body has a few tricks up its sleeve to drag you in that direction," he said.
According to the research the more two people have sex together, the more likely they are to bond.
"We all know you can have sex without falling in love but if you have enough sex with the same person there's a good chance you will hit the body's booby-trap which is there to tip you head over heels into love," said Dr Marsden.
"So your body goes all out to make you bond with your partner and that makes love highly addictive and the withdrawal sucks."
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| Wednesday, November 5, 2003 | |
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5 Nov 2003 @ 08:42
Largest iceberg splits in two
From correspondents in Auckland
November 4, 2003
THE world's largest iceberg has split in two after being pummelled by a powerful storm, the Antarctic Sun newspaper reported.
B15, an 11,000sq km monster the size of Jamaica, was one of the biggest icebergs seen until it broke up last month, the weekly paper said.
The title of world's largest iceberg now passes to C19A, near a French Antarctic base, which at 5659sq km is about the size of Brunei.
B15 has been blamed for the deaths of millions of penguins since it broke away from the Ross Ice Shelf in March 2000, blocking their access to the sea.
Last Friday US researchers planted a weather and global positioning tower on the newly formed B15A so that it could be more closely tracked, the Antarctic Sun said.
Penguin researcher Gerald Kooyman of Scripps Institution of Oceanography told the newspaper that nearly 75 per cent of the emperor penguins previously counted at Cape Crozier on Ross Island are no longer around.
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| Friday, October 31, 2003 | |
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31 Oct 2003 @ 09:54
FDA says cloned food safe for sale
Agency says ok to eat meat from animal clones
MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Oct. 31 — Milk and meat products from healthy cloned cattle, pigs and sheep pose no threat to people, the Food and Drug Administration claims in its first effort to address questions about the controversial technology. But that doesn’t mean Americans will be eating cloned meat anytime soon, agency officials say.
THE FDA wants to gauge public reaction to the prospect of food from cloned farm animals before it decides whether to require government approval of the products before they are sold.
That decision is expected to take another year.
In a 12-page executive summary released Friday, the FDA reported: “Edible products from normal, healthy clones or their progeny do not appear to pose increased food consumption risk.”
The entire report will be released at a later date.
Meanwhile, the industry has voluntarily agreed for the last several years not to allow any products from cloned animals into the food supply, a moratorium Sundlof said the FDA expects to be upheld until it settles the issue.
The agency last year asked the prestigious National Research Council to study foods made from cloned animals. The council, an independent group that advises the government on scientific issues, concluded that cloned meat and other products seem safe.
The FDA will look two issues: Are the animals themselves healthy, and are the products nutritionally indistinguishable from those produced by noncloned animals?
By its very definition, a successfully cloned animal should be no different from the original animal whose DNA was used to create it.
But the technology hasn’t been perfected, meaning many attempts end in birth defects. The FDA acknowledged concern about the animals’ welfare in an 11-page summary of its initial review, to be posted on the agency’s Web site .
“The frequency of live normal births appears to be low, although the situation appears to be improving as the technology matures,” the review says.
Still, cloning-related birth defects aren’t that different from problems seen in the early days of other assisted reproduction techniques in farming, the FDA says.
Click To Read On... More >
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| Wednesday, October 15, 2003 | |
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| Sunday, September 28, 2003 | |
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28 Sep 2003 @ 00:33
Of cats and rats -- a tale that's a brain-teaser
COMMENTARY: RAMSEY CAMPBELL
September 8, 2003
Cats are more interesting than dogs because felines have that dangerous edge to their behavior that canines can never match.
Dogs can run after balls, fetch a newspaper, play stupid games and follow a few spoken commands. Like television's Lassie, they have a reputation for selflessness and heroism.
Cats, however, have a much darker side.
Sometimes, though, it comes out as kind of cute.
Like the feline fur ball I had as a kid that delighted in shimmying backward down our chimney and out through the fireplace on snowy Indiana winter nights. Black soot covered our family room after her little adventures.
What got her into sliding down our chimney, like a kid on a Disney ride, is anyone's guess. But I can't imagine a dog doing anything as remotely interesting -- or as singularly bizarre.
Felines are forever stereotyped as evil by the two sinister Siamese cats in Lady and The Tramp.
And there is more truth in that ominous image than most cat lovers will admit.
My 20-pound black and white cat -- dubbed Kalibushka, a Russian name that can be loosely translated as Tub of Lard -- is normally good-natured.
She rarely moves except to chow down, making her home in the newspaper recycling bin I keep in the garage.
But at night she'll sneak out for a few minutes and come back with a prize. She has the habit of presenting these nightly trophies to me by the back porch.
Somehow, in spite of her obesity, she manages to out-waddle a surprising number of fast-running rodents in short order.
I don't mind her nightly hunting routine; I can't say I'm displeased she is keeping down the rat and mouse population in the neighborhood.
A few weeks ago, however, I started to notice the rats she had caught have been missing something -- their brains.
With the exception of a few teeth marks, the bodies of the rats are generally unmarked. But the skulls are split open and the brains appeared to have been neatly sucked out.
Yucky.
Why would a perfectly normal -- although admittedly overfed -- cat suddenly develop a taste for rat brains?
I did a little research, and it turns out there may be a reason for her sudden hunting prowess and passion for rat brains.
I ran across a BBC science article about a week ago that shed some light on the situation.
Scientists have discovered a one-celled protozoan parasite called Toxoplasma gondii that frequently lives in the brains of wild brown rats. It is a normally harmless parasite commonly found in most mammals, including man.
But T. gondii can only reproduce in the guts of cats.
Researchers at the University of Oxford in the past couple of years have been studying the parasite and now have found it appears to be influencing the behavior of rats.
Scientists say it makes infected rats unafraid of cats, their natural enemy.
But the Oxford researchers found that when infected, normally super-cautious rats not only are significantly less fearful of cats, but they also are actually drawn to them.
No one knows how it happens, but they do know why.
The parasites need to be eaten by cats in order to get into their digestive system and reproduce. Somehow, they are changing the behavior of rats to make that more likely to happen.
It appears to be a rare case of microscopic parasites manipulating the behavior of a mammal host.
The question remains whether T. gondii can, in addition to rats, influence cat behavior or even our own. Researchers now are looking into that issue as well.
I've seen Alien -- no one needs to draw me a picture of what may be going on.
I can't really blame my overweight cat if rats in the neighborhood suddenly want to commit suicide in front of her.
And if she wants to wolf down rat brains like candy corn, that also is fine with me.
But I am disturbed by a change in Kalibushka's behavior in the past couple of days.
She is now eating just the rat bodies, leaving the heads and brains intact by the back porch.
And I'm very afraid she's leaving them for me.
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| Wednesday, September 17, 2003 | |
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17 Sep 2003 @ 12:38
Amazing
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae.
The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Amzanig huh?
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| Thursday, August 7, 2003 | |
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7 Aug 2003 @ 08:51
This is an update on a previous story I posted.
Trip to Earth Core: Myth or Reality?
The principle suggested by David Stevenson is an exact antithesis of volcano eruption
A New Zealand planetary scientist David Stevenson caused turmoil in the geological society as he offered to probe not the space but the core of the planet. According to Le Monde, the fantastic project is not yet thoroughly developed.
"At first the idea was declared ridiculous, now it is said to be unfeasible. This is quite a progress!" Planetary scientist David Stevenson, who is working in Pasadena, is satisfied with the effect the suggestion produced. On May 15 the Nature journal published the suggestion of the scientist to send a probe in a bubble of molten iron to the Earth core.
The modest proposal drew attention of the geological society that is seldom shocked with revolutionary ideas. In fact, geologists never had an idea how they could penetrate into the core of the planet. The planetary scientist says that geologists traditionally consider the action too expensive or too difficult. David Stevenson started working at the California Institute of Technology in 1980. He adds: "The mode of thinking is quite different with those people who deal with space exploration: thanks to the competition between the West and the East, the sphere was substantially invested. That is why scientists dealing with space exploration treat ideas of this kind differently."
The scientist studying formation of the Solar system planets got inspired with this experiment when he developed a scenario of his own. The Core, a recently shown film about a scientific expedition to the core of the planet inspired the scientist for formulating an idea that had been captivating him within several years. The scientist tells that an agent from the Paramount film studio contacted him and asked to answer several questions concerning the film. "I said it would be interesting; in December I wrote an article on the subject just within a day." Further the calculations were made more exact, but the main idea concerning the project was already outlined. The proposal said: first it is necessary to cleave the Earth crust and pour 100,000 tons of molten metal into it; the metal will then deepen the tunnel and draw a probe or probes down to the core. The probe, the scientist thinks, would allow to take temperature, pressure and compositions reading; the information would be conveyed with the help of acoustic waves. Such an underground capsule would be able to reach the core of the planet within a week, as 99.99 percent of the work would be done with the help of Earth's attraction.
The principle suggested by David Stevenson is an exact antithesis of volcano eruption that ejects lava streams to the surface. As lava is less thick than the environment, it goes up while Stevenson's metal bubble would submerge under the effect of an opposite phenomenon.
The now popular theory says that the metal core of the Earth was formed thanks to this mechanism, but the scientist doesn-t think the idea is credible. The proposition of Stevenson causes much enthusiasm with the laity than with specialists who "are not that critical, but at the same time are not jumping with joy about the new idea that must be immediately carried out."
Is the idea feasible? The scientist admits that the first stage of the experiment (drilling of a deep tunnel in the Earth crust) is still the phase that is not thoroughly studied. David Stevenson doesn't hope that his modest proposal will be carried out in the nearest years. He says that this is just an outline of a concept that can be studied thoroughly in about ten years. May it be so that the scientist wants to join the list of great dreamers?
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| Thursday, July 24, 2003 | |
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 24 Jul 2003 @ 06:48
"Thought Control" Technique Boosts Music Students
Ananova
July 23, 2003
Scientists have improved the performance of musicians by up to 17% by teaching them to control their thoughts.
The scale of improvement among Royal College of Music students taking part in the study was equivalent to one grade.
Researchers from Imperial College London used a technique called neurofeedback to help the students change their brain activity.
Sensors were attached to their heads that filtered out specific brainwaves.
These influenced a video game displayed on a screen, which the students learned to control by altering particular thought patterns.
The training led to improvement in a number of areas, including musical understanding, imagination, and communication with the audience. Two experiments were conducted, involving a total of 97 students. In both, students were assessed on two pieces of music before and after the neurofeedback sessions by a panel of expert judges.
Different types of neurofeedback focusing on enhanced attention and deep relaxation were used.
A number of students were also put through more orthodox physical exercise and mental skills programmes. Neurofeedback was in all cases found to improve performances to a greater degree than other forms of training.
But students given the "deep relaxation" neurofeedback protocol improved the most. Their improvement ranged between 13.5% and 17%.
Researcher Dr Tobias Egner, from Imperial College London at Charing Cross Hospital, said: "This is a unique use of neurofeedback. It has been used for helping with a number of conditions such as attention deficit disorder and epilepsy, but this is the first time it has been used to improve a complex set of skills such as musical performance in healthy students."
The findings have been published in the journal Neuroreport.
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| Wednesday, July 23, 2003 | |
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 23 Jul 2003 @ 21:53
The question I would have for someone looking at the possibility of living for centuries is, "What would you do with your time? What would you create that you're not able to accomplish in the short time we have available now?"
120 or 180 yrs old? Experts debate limit of aging
Reuters
Sunday July 20 2003 10:00 IST
SAN FRANCISCO: Fancy living another 100 years or more? Some experts said on Saturday that scientific advances will one day enable humans to last decades beyond what is now seen as the natural limit of the human life span.
"I think we are knocking at the door of immortality," said Michael Zey, a Montclair State University business professor and author of two books on the future. "I think by 2075 we will see it and that's a conservative estimate."
Zey spoke on the sidelines of the annual conference of the World Future Society, a group that ponders how the future will look across many different aspects of society.
In a presentation at the meeting in San Francisco, Donald Louria, a professor at New Jersey Medical School in Newark said advances in manipulating cells and genes as well as nanotechnology make it likely humans will live in the future beyond what has been possible in the past.
"What was science fiction a decade ago is no longer science fiction," he said.
500 YEARS?
"There is a dramatic and intensive push so that people can live from 120 to 180 years," he said. "Some have suggested that there is no limit and that people could live to 200 or 300 or 500 years."
Outside the conference, many scientists who specialize in aging are skeptical of such claims and say the human body is just not designed to last past about 120 years. Even with healthier lifestyles and less disease, they say failure of the brain and other organs will eventually condemn all humans.
"These people spout off as though a large part of the population is going to be able to do something like this. It's just way beyond reality," said Thomas Perls, who leads the New England Centenarian Study, the largest such analysis of the oldest of the old. "It's just pure science fiction."
"We are fast approaching what our bodies are capable of achieving," he said in a telephone interview. "To get even the average person to be 100 or to get them to 180 is like trying to get a space shuttle to Pluto."
STAMPING OUT DISABILITIES
Any dramatic extension of the human life span would depend on altering the onset of disabilities that accompany the aging process by changing one's genetic make up, said Harvey Cohen, director of the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development at Duke University Medical Center.
"It's certainly unlikely any time in the near future," he said in an interview. "Sure there is a possibility but there is no data currently available to suggest ways that would happen."
Scientists also differ on what kind of life the super aged might live.
"It remains to be seen if you pass the threshold of say 120, you know; could you be healthy enough to have good quality of life?" said Leonard Poon, director of the University of Georgia Gerontology Center. "Currently people who could get to that point are not in good health at all."
Poon, who leads a study of more than 150 centenarians in Georgia, cited the case of Jeanne Louise Calment of France, the oldest person on record who died at age 122 in 1997.
"At 122 she was fairly debilitated. I visited her when she was 119 in France and at that time she was pretty much blind and having very much difficulty hearing," he said.
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 23 Jul 2003 @ 21:43
Dinosaur Fossil Found At Scotland's Loch Ness
Reuters
Thursday July 17 2003 11:23 IST
LONDON: Traces of a 150-million-year-old dinosaur have been found on the banks of Scotland's Loch Ness -- but they are definitely not those of the lake's legendary monster, scientists said on Wednesday.
A Jurassic-era fossil of four perfectly preserved vertebrae from what is believed to have been a 35-foot long plesiosaur was found by a man who plucked it from shallow water on the bank of the loch.
Gerald McSorley, 67, turned it over to the National Museum of Scotland, who are conducting tests on the rare find, the first of its kind in Scotland for more than a century.
"Chances that the fossil originated where it was found are very slim... it was deposited there either by natural or artificial means," said museum spokesperson Hannah Dolby.
"Borings on the fossil show it comes from a marine environment rather than a fresh water environment like the loch," she said.
Tales of a "horrible great beastie" have swirled around the 200-meter deep Scottish loch for centuries, often describing the creature as black with a fat body and serpentine neck.
Cameras beam 24-hour footage of the loch to webcams and diving teams regularly scour the chilly waters for the elusive creature.
Any hopes among Nessie enthusiasts that the fossil find might prove the existence of the monster would be groundless.
While the fossil is about 150 million years old, Loch Ness was formed only 10,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age. More >
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 23 Jul 2003 @ 21:36
First Tongue Transplant Done In Austria
AFP
Wednesday July 23 2003 00:00 IST
VIENNA: The world's first tongue transplant has been carried out successfully by a team of Austrian surgeons on a 42-year-old patient suffering from tongue cancer, a spokesman for Vienna's general hospital announced.
The operation, carried out Saturday, lasted 14 hours and the patient was "in a good general state of health" on Monday, the spokesman said.
No unexpected problems occurred and the operating team did not expect any ill-effects from the operation.
The hospital's management said the patient had decided himself on the transplant after being told of all the alternatives.
It did not say where the tongue had come from.
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 23 Jul 2003 @ 21:30
Your Body May Be Worth More Than $45 Million
Reuters
Thursday, July 3, 2003
NEW YORK - It may be illegal, immoral and certainly ill-advised, but selling every usable part of your body could fetch upward of $45 million, according to a survey in the August issue of Wired magazine.
Even an overweight, out-of-shape body could bring millions when broken down to its valuable fluids, tissues and germ-fighting antibodies.
There is, of course, a major catch: Many of the valuable human body parts are those a person could not live without.
But it does lay to rest the old concept that the human body, when broken down to its basic elements, is only worth pocket change.
Wired Editor-In-Chief Chris Anderson said the price tag gives an idea of the progress of medicine and biology, and shows how much more sophisticated we have become at understanding the complexity of the human body.
"We tried to find some number through which you can quantify the magnitude of the change in technology that we are all experiencing," Anderson said.
The prices, Wired warned, are based on maximum dollar values for some of the most marketable substances, and makes the unlikely assumption that every trace of those substances could be extracted from living tissue for sale.
To avoid issues such as illegal black market trade in organs, the survey was based on projected prices in the United States and did not take into account potential differences in poverty stricken Third World countries.
Due to advances in science and biotechnology, vital organs are no longer the most valuable body parts, the survey demonstrated. That distinction now belongs to bone marrow at $23 million, based on 1,000 grams at $23,000 per gram.
DNA, found in every cell, could fetch $9.7 million at $1.3 million per gram, while extracting antibodies could bring $7.3 million. The accompanying article did point out that the cost of living in a sterile plastic bubble could eat up a lot of the profit from immune system sales.
By comparison, a lung was priced at $116,400, a kidney at $91,400 and a heart was worth a mere $57,000, based on research of cost estimates from hospitals and insurance companies.
On the reproductive front, the survey found a fertile woman could sell 32 egg cells over eight years for a grand total of $224,000. To approach that amount, a man would have to make 12 sperm donations a month for 20 years.
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 23 Jul 2003 @ 21:30
NORWEGIAN SCIENTISTS IN THE DESERT:
Scientists Explain The Burning Bushes In The Bible
Norwegian researchers have found the explanation for the burning bushes in the Bible. «Scientific phenomena make no difference», according to bishop.
Last year the experts were sent to the southern parts of Sahara too look at some bushes that were reported to be setting themselves alight. Stinking smoke came from burning red holes in the ground, according to VG.
700 degrees
The problems increased and the authorities in Mali considered evacuating whole villages in the area.
Physician Dag Kristian Dysthe and three geologies, all Norwegian, expected to find lava underneath the smoking soil. Instead they found a burning layer of turf and the explanation for one of the mystery of the burning bushes in the Bible; the self-alighting bushes.
"We measured 700 degrees celsius (1292 Fahrenheit) in some of the holes. It was actually a little scary seeing the burning bushes in the desert, almost like in the Bible", said Dysthe.
"We discovered that a burning layer of turf under the soil caused the smoke and the heat that set the bushes on fire", Dysthe added.
The extraordinary findings were described in the science magazines Nature and Science.
Dag Kristian Dysthe and geologist Henrik Svensen are convinced that the phenomenon may have taken place in biblical time. According to the Bible, God spoke to Moses in the form of a burning bush.
"This is not a one-off, this phenomenon has not happened only once", said the experts.
Bishop not impressed
Bishop Knut Andresen in Trondheim, however, is not impressed by the scientists' explanation.
"The stories in the bible are symbolic and are meant to bring a message to the reader. Scientific phenomena make no difference in this connection", said the bishop. More >
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| Thursday, July 17, 2003 | |
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 17 Jul 2003 @ 11:49
SCIENTISTS BRING NEW TWIST TO ŒDEATH BY CHOCOLATE¹ WITH CHOCOLATE FLAVOURED MOUSETRAP
University of Warwick
July 17, 2003
A mousetrap made out of chocolate developed by scientists at the University of Warwick is set to bring a new meaning to 'Death by Chocolate'. The novel invention leads mice into temptation with the irresistible, alluring scent of chocolate essence without the use of bait.
A collaboration of the University of Warwick's Innovation Direct service, a free consultancy service for SMEs (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) and Sorex Ltd, a leading manufacturer of rodent control products, from Cheshire, has developed the mousetrap made out of chocolate scented plastic.
A key part of the venture was to test what foods mice are most drawn to. Various essences were put into a cage to attract the rodents, including cheese, vanilla essence and chocolate. In contrast to the popular view that cheese is the mouse's favourite nibble, trials of the mousetrap carried out by Innovation-Direct showed that most mice prefer chocolate.
University of Warwick researchers helped Sorex Ltd with design and technology to develop a chocolate essence enhanced plastic material and to conduct injection-moulding trials. Unlike other traps, chocolate essence is added to the plastic that makes up the mousetrap during production, so is an integral part of the product.
Martina Flynn, Rodent Control Product Manager with Sorex Ltd, said: "The partnership has led to the development of a unique product that is baitless, making it very easy to use in just one step. Innovation-Direct helped us develop this new material and process that could be applied to other rodent control devices. New developments are key to the future of rodent control both in the UK and overseas, and the project shows the importance of research in rodenticide technology to provide forward thinking solutions."
Having just completed trials, the product is now being sold in the hardware and agricultural sectors and there is already interest in the product from other industries.
Innovation-Direct at the University of Warwick is funded by the European Regional Development Fund to support qualifying companies (SMEs in West Midlands Objective 2 area) by providing, free of charge support and advice on the technological and market place challenges those companies face in developing innovative products.
In the first two and a half years of its operation Innovation-Direct helped over 240 West Midlands SMEs in the identification of new markets, development of new products, improvement of existing products and use of new materials and processes. It has funding to support another 375 companies over the next 3 years. The service can be contacted on 02476 573 169.
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| Monday, July 14, 2003 | |
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 14 Jul 2003 @ 00:06
Mysterious "Wet Patch" Appears on Jerusalem's Western Wall
One of the world's most revered sacred sites - the Western Wall in Jerusalem - is the focus of fevered speculation after apparently springing a leak.
"Perhaps God is opening up a path for peace and people will feel this and move towards it," Rabbi Menachem Fromann
For five days now people have been gathering to wonder at a small damp patch that has appeared on one of the giant stone slabs that mark the last remnants of the temple built by Herod the Great and destroyed by the Romans more than 1,900 years ago.
The Wall - known for centuries as the Wailing Wall because it was there that Jews bewailed the loss of their Temple - is part of the most sensitive religious complex in the world.
Above it lies the area sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount, and to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif.
It was Ariel Sharon's visit there as Israeli opposition leader in September 2000 that marked the start of the latest wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
The phenomenon is undeniably unnatural - it is now the height of summer in Jerusalem and there has not been a drop of rain since May.
The rabbi responsible for the Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitch, told the Jerusalem Post newspaper that perhaps it was weeping at the current situation in the country.
Apocalyptic
Some mystics take a more apocalyptic view of the damp patch -saying it could herald the arrival of the Jewish Messiah.
"There is a prophecy that everybody knows, that states that when water comes through the stones of the wall it presages the advent of the Messiah," Rabbi Menachem Fromann told the newspaper.
"Perhaps God is opening up a path for peace and people will feel this and move towards it."
But the mystics may be disappointed - more pragmatic observers say the water probably comes from a leaking hose in the enclosure above the Wall.
Rabbi Levi Lau of the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem suggested contacting the Israeli water authority. More >
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| Monday, June 23, 2003 | |
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 23 Jun 2003 @ 04:16
My friend found these fossils on the the shores of Lake Casitas near our home in Ojai,CA.
This is a letter he wrote to the Water District whose property they are on. He There has been a lot of political red tape inhibiting the excavation and preservations of this find.
"California's first fossilized, 25 million year old, toothed baleen whales, " Louie & Wendell Plunkettsaurus", which I discovered on your property on Jan. 19, 2000.I would like to share a synopsis of the whale fossils and the last three and a half years that has past since the initial discovery."
Please visit: http://www.ojaivalleywhalesociety.org
Section I:http://www.ojaivalleywhalesociety.org/updates.htm
Section II: http://www.ojaivalleywhalesociety.org/updates2.htm
Section III: (Press Release) http://www.ojaivalleywhalesociety.org/updates3.htm
Respectfully,
Aaron Plunkett Founder/Discoverer
Ojai Valley Whale Society
P.o.b. 282
Ojai, CA 93024
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| Saturday, June 21, 2003 | |
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 21 Jun 2003 @ 23:53
Bubbles Oust Viruses in Therapy
Researchers in the Netherlands say they've demonstrated a way to use sound waves to manipulate microscopic bubbles so that they can deliver DNA and other molecules, such as drugs, into cells.
The goal is to reduce geneticists' reliance on viruses to deliver genes into cells, a method that has led to cancers in some patients, said University of Twente physicist Claus-Dieter Ohl.
While innovative drug and gene therapies have been developed in recent years, researchers are still looking for efficient and safe ways to deliver the therapeutic molecules into cells.
Experiments haven't been performed in human bodies yet. But using Ohl's method, a solution of DNA and microscopic bubbles would be injected into a patient's bloodstream. Ultrasonic waves would then cause the bubbles to compress. The pressure also forces tiny bits of water and DNA to leak into those bubbles. The compressed bubbles then act like tiny syringes that shoot jets of DNA or drugs through the patient's cell membranes.
Ohl said the process would be much like clapping your hands while they are partly below the water's surface. Strong jets shoot in the direction of the channel made by your hands.
Injecting microbubbles into the bloodstream is nothing new --it's a common technique in ultrasound imaging now, where the microbubbles are used to create contrast. In the new process, the bubbles would function as carriers to deliver molecules into the cell.
In Ohl's experiments, the jets move at 200 meters per second, enough to blast through a cell membrane. That speed should increase with perfection of the technique, which will be described in a coming issue of Physical Review Letters, Ohl said. The ultrasound levels needed to compress the bubbles are no greater than those already in use today.
In a separate project, Ohl's colleagues at Twente, fluid physicists Philippe Marmottant and Sascha Hilgenfeldt, use sound waves to oscillate bubbles on the surface of cell membranes. That motion, like the vibration of a ringing bell, rapidly swirls the liquid around the bubbles until the tug of the strong current tenses the cell membrane and finally tears it open. The study was published in the May 8 edition of Nature.
A related technique has been tried on laboratory animals. In an experiment performed by Professor Katsuro Tachibana of the Fukuoka University School of Medicine in Japan, a gene for extra fingers was injected into a chicken embryo, which later developed an additional digit.
Ohl's approach is one of the latest scientists have used in an attempt to replace viruses as a delivery mechanism. Just last week, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory announced a way to ferry genes into cells using carbon nanofibers.
But lessening gene therapy's reliance on viral vectors won't be easy, said Dr. Mark Kay, a professor of pediatrics and genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
"A lot (of) ideas show promise in tissue culture cells, but cause problems in vivo (in living beings)," Kay said. "But anything that can work and get rid some of the disadvantages of current vectors is good."
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| Wednesday, June 18, 2003 | |
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 18 Jun 2003 @ 17:06
Gene Therapy Grows New Auditory Hair Cells In Mammals
ANN ARBOR, MI – University of Michigan scientists have used gene therapy to grow new auditory hair cells in adult guinea pigs – a discovery that could lead to new treatments for human deafness and age-related hearing loss. Healthy hair cells are vital to the ability to hear, but aging, infection, certain medications and exposure to loud noises can damage or destroy hair cells causing sensorineural hearing loss – a condition affecting over 30 million Americans. Since the discovery, in the late 1980s, that birds can spontaneously regenerate damaged hair cells, scientists have been trying to find a way to induce the replacement of lost hair cells in mammals.
U-M scientists have now accomplished this goal by inserting a gene called Math1 into non-sensory epithelial cells lining the inner ear. Results from the study will be published in the June 1 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
"We found that non-sensory epithelial cells in adult guinea pig cochlea can generate new sensory hair cells following the expression of Math1," says Yehoash Raphael, Ph.D., an associate professor of otolaryngology in the U-M Medical School, who directed the study. "We also found that some of these hair cells can attract the growth of new fibers from auditory neurons."
In a normal ear, vibrations from sound waves striking the eardrum are transferred to fluid inside a snail-shaped bony organ called the cochlea, which is the auditory component of the inner ear. When cochlear fluid moves, it stimulates movement in thousands of tiny projections on hair cells lining the inside of the cochlea. Moving hair cells initiate electrical signals, which are picked up by auditory nerve fibers and carried to an area of the brain called the auditory cortex. If hair cells are damaged or missing, electrical signals are not generated and hearing is impaired.
"During the embryonic stage of an animal's development, hair cells and supporting cells have a common origin. Cells that express Math1 are fated to become hair cells, while Math1 expression is inhibited in the remaining non-sensory cells," Raphael says.
"After embryonic development, hair cell production ceases. Unlike other epithelial cells in the skin or gut, epithelia in the inner ear contain no stem cells, so there is no source for renewal," Raphael explains. "That's the main reason why hair cell loss is permanent. When we over-expressed Math1 in non-sensory cells of the mature cochlea, however, we found that it causes them to transdifferentiate or change their personality to become hair cells."
"We knew that transdifferentiation of supporting cells was a major source of new hair cell development in birds," Raphael says. "But there was no proof it would work in mammals. We started gene therapy experiments in 1994 and it took us seven years to develop a successful method of introducing the gene into the non-sensory cochlear epithelium."
Dr. Kohei Kawamoto, Ph.D., a former U-M research fellow who performed the laboratory experiments, used an adenovirus as a vector to deliver the Math1 gene to inner ear epithelial cells. Kawamoto injected the Math1 vector into inner ear fluid of 14 adult guinea pigs. The same procedure, but without the transfer of the Math1 gene, was performed on 12 matched control animals.
Thirty to 60 days after inoculation, U-M scientists used scanning electron microscopes to examine inner ears from both sets of animals. In experimental guinea pigs that received the Math1 gene, scientists found new hair cells growing in areas where hair cells are typically absent. No new hair cells were found in the control animals.
"The inner ear is an ideal target for gene therapy, because it is closed – not sealed, but nicely isolated," Raphael says. "As long as the amount you inoculate is small, the spread to other organs is minimal, and the risk of systemic toxicity is almost zero."
Because the total amount of fluid in the inner ear of a guinea pig is so small, the mechanical impact of injecting the viral vector fluid into the cochlear fluid damaged some of the hair cells in experimental animals. "While this is a concern, we believe the micro-injection technology can be improved to prevent this mechanical trauma," Raphael says. "The human cochlea is larger than a guinea pig cochlea and may better tolerate the inoculation. Also, profoundly deaf human candidates for this gene transfer approach would likely have severe pre-existing hair cell loss to begin with, so the risk of mechanically-induced side effects would be somewhat less troubling."
One of the most surprising results of the study was the discovery of long, slender nerve fibers growing toward some of the newly formed hair cells. "This suggests that these hair cells can provide signals to attract axons and that neurons can respond to these signals," Raphael says.
In the next stage of research, Raphael will determine whether the guinea pig hair cells are functional and able to transmit sound signals to auditory neurons. He also plans to test the procedure in aging animals and in animals that are completely deaf.
"This is just the beginning," Raphael says. "It is really just a proof of the principle to show that, with proper gene therapy, these non-sensory cells have the competence to become hair cells."
The research was funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of Health and supported by GenVec, Inc. GenVec provided its proprietary adenovector technology to deliver the atonal gene, Math1. Raphael was an occasional consultant to GenVec, but has no significant financial interest in the company.
First author on the paper was Kohei Kawamoto, Ph.D., a former U-M research fellow who is now at Kansai Medical University in Osaka, Japan. Co-authors on the paper include Douglas E. Brough, Ph.D., director of vector sciences at GenVec, Inc.; Shin-Ichi Ishimoto, Ph.D., a former U-M research fellow; and Ryosei Minoda, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow in the U-M Medical School.
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Sounding Circle - Category: Science
