| April 19, 2009
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Just as it happened in the days of Noah |
Luke 17:26-30
"And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. "It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. "It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.
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Genesis 6:12
God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.
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2 Peter 3:3-7
Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation." For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
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Genesis 6:4
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
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Leviticus 19:19
`You are to keep My statutes. You shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear a garment upon you of two kinds of material mixed together.
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| Shalom in Christ Jesus, |
Just as in the days of
Noah
Ed Note: The top left
picture is a supposed US Patented number for particular genetically modified
umbilical cord blood cells. Although I could not verify this particular
patented there are many others like it in process, which can be viewed here.
Thus, the point and warning which I am trying to put forth stands. That is,
that a time is coming where part of, or a whole human being may be "patented"
by some company because of the genetic engineering that went into their
physical being. The full implications of this I do not fully know, but as we
see other companies such as Monsanto (see below) own patents on much of the
seeds in the world. The only one who should own these things is The LORD
Himself as far as I can see. These are very perilous times indeed.
There are numerous
comparisons between our days and the days of Noah. From the statements of The
Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel's the most direct understanding would be
"business as usual" so to speak. This is further warned in many of the parables
spoken by Yeshua such as the 'faithful and sensible' slave in Matthew 24
and Luke 12.
Another interesting
observation is the specific references Christ speaks of, marrying and giving in
marriage, eating and drinking. As I have mentioned previously, it may not be
just "business as usual" per se, but also the undo significance that has been
added onto these things by the last day societies. It does not take very long
for a discerning person to realize how relationships and eating along with
housing have become the biggest concern of most people and therefore a huge
industry involving media, marketing and service related businesses among
others.
However, what we are looking
at in our regular series of alerts on the Days of Noah is the corruption of
God's creation that is taking place today at a staggering pace.
Genesis 6:12 tells us that
"all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth" and this obviously refers to
moral corruption, however, many students of the scripture would see a duel
meaning here in that when the 'Sons of God' (fallen angels) took the daughters
of men, the gene pool of man was corrupted. There is other evidence to suggest
this went further to effect animals and even some plant life.
Today we see the very same
thing happening as man "experiments" with things he knows not the end results
and at the same time there is a demonic and in some cases government deceptions
involving UFO's, aliens and the paranormal.
This alert and others like
it will help to keep you informed on a trend often overlooked, over-hyped or
misunderstood in the church.
May the Lord bless you and
keep you,
BE/\LERT!
Scott
Brisk |
British scientists to create 'synthetic' blood
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Human embryos will be used to make an unlimited supply for infection-free transfusions
THE INDEPENDENT, UK [APN / INM / O'Reilly] - By Steve Connor, Science Editor - March 23, 2009
Scientists in Britain plan to become the first in the world to produce unlimited amounts of synthetic human blood from embryonic stem cells for emergency infection-free transfusions.
A major research project is to be announced this week that will culminate in three years with the first transfusions into human volunteers of "synthetic" blood made from the stem cells of spare IVF embryos. It could help to save the lives of anyone from victims of traffic accidents to soldiers on a battlefield by revolutionising the vital blood transfusion services, which have to rely on a network of human donors to provide a constant supply of fresh blood.
The multimillion-pound deal involving NHS Blood and Transplant, the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service and the Wellcome Trust, the world's biggest medical research charity, means Britain will take centre stage in the global race to develop blood made from embryonic stem cells. The researchers will test human embryos left over from IVF treatment to find those that are genetically programmed to develop into the "O-negative" blood group, which is the universal donor group whose blood can be transfused into anyone without fear of tissue rejection.
This blood group is relatively rare, applicable to about 7 per cent of the population, but it could be produced in unlimited quantities from embryonic stem cells because of their ability to multiply indefinitely in the laboratory.
The aim is to stimulate embryonic stem cells to develop into mature, oxygen-carrying red blood cells for emergency transfusions. Such blood would have the benefit of not being at risk of being infected with viruses such as HIV and hepatitis, or the human form of "mad cow" disease. The military in particular needs a constant supply of fresh, universal donor blood for battlefield situations when normal supplies from donors can quickly run out.
But developing blood made from the cells of spare IVF embryos will raise difficult ethical issues for people not happy with the idea of destroying embryos to create stem cells. It also raises the intriguing philosophical question of whether the synthetic blood will have come from someone who never existed. In theory, just one embryo could meet the nation's needs. ...
Scientists in other countries, notably Sweden, France and Australia, are also known to be working on the development of synthetic blood from embryonic stem cells. And last year, a team from a US biotechnology company, Advanced Cell Technology, announced that it has been able to produce billions of functioning red blood cells from embryonic stem cells. But the US work had been held up because of funding problems dating back to the ban on embryonic stem cell work under the Bush administration. President Barack Obama has since reversed that policy. ...
Read Full Report
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FDA OKs 1st drug from genetically altered animals
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FDA OKs blood thinner made with milk from bioengineered goats, approval is a first for US
ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Matthew Perrone - February 6, 2009
WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration made history Friday as it approved the first drug made with materials from genetically engineered animals, clearing the way for a new class of medical therapies.
GTC Biotherapeutics said regulators cleared its drug ATryn, which is manufactured using milk from goats that have been scientifically altered to produce extra antithrombin, a protein that acts as a natural blood thinner.
The drug's approval may be the first step toward new kinds of medications made not from chemicals, but from animals altered by scientists. ...
To make the drug, scientists from GTC put modified DNA, or rDNA, for the human antithrombin protein into single-cell embryos of goats. Goat embryos with the gene were then inserted into the wombs of surrogate mothers who gave birth to baby goats that produce the protein-charged milk. ...
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Related:
Patient's DNA May Be Signal to Tailor Medication
NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Andrew Pollack - December 29, 2008
For more than two years, Jody Uslan had been taking the drug tamoxifen in hopes of preventing a recurrence of breast cancer. Then a new test suggested that because of her genetic makeup, the drug was not doing her any good. ...
Ms. Uslan's situation is all too common - and not just among the hundreds of thousands of women in this country taking tamoxifen.
Experts say that most drugs, whatever the disease, work for only about half the people who take them. Not only is much of the nation's approximately $300 billion annual drug spending wasted, but countless patients are being exposed unnecessarily to side effects. ...
Many policy experts are calling for more studies to compare the effectiveness of different treatments. One drawback is that such studies tend to be "one size fits all," with the winning treatment recommended for everybody. Personalized medicine would go beyond that by determining which drug is best for which patient, rather than continuing to treat everyone the same in hopes of benefiting the fortunate few. ...
Read Full Report
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Live Teaching Engagements
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| Hybrid stem cells - A step too far |
CHRISTIAN TODAY - By Mal Fletcher - January 17, 2009
A group of researchers in the UK have been denied further funding for their stem cell research which involves the creation of human-animal "hybrid" clones. Funding bodies are refusing to underwrite the research, though they have not explicitly outlined the reasons for doing so.
The stem cell researchers believe that certain factions within the decision-making bodies, which include fellow scientists, are refusing support on moral grounds.
It is not the response of researchers that I find baffling here, but that of a mainstream newspaper. At least one British newspaper, The Independent, expresses incredulity, pointing out that refusing funding may cause Britain to lose her place as a world leader in stem cell research. I say, fine, let's lose our place if staying number one means crossing the line between expediency and wisdom.
The attitude expressed by this particular newspaper - an attitude shared no doubt by quite a few in the scientific community - seems to imply that achieving first place in any field of scientific endeavour justifies whatever means are required to get there.
Why bother with ethics and morality, it seems to say, when we are talking about Britain occupying first place in an area of scientific discovery - albeit one which in which some civilised countries are reluctant to participate?
The whole idea of human-animal hybrids, even at the level of embryos and eggs, boggles the mind. I suppose, in the year that we celebrate the birth of Charles Darwin, we ought not to be too surprised if some of his disciples seek to carry his theories to a logical conclusion. ...
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* Emphasis Added
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Biologists on the Verge of Creating New Form of Life
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WIRED [Condé Nast/Advance/Newhouse] - By Alexis Madrigal - September 8, 2008
A team of biologists and chemists is closing in on bringing non-living matter to life.
It's not as Frankensteinian as it sounds. Instead, a lab led by Jack Szostak, a molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School, is building simple cell models that can almost be called life.
Szostak's protocells are built from fatty molecules that can trap bits of nucleic acids that contain the source code for replication. Combined with a process that harnesses external energy from the sun or chemical reactions, they could form a self-replicating, evolving system that satisfies the conditions of life, but isn't anything like life on earth now, but might represent life as it began or could exist elsewhere in the universe.
While his latest work remains unpublished, Szostak described preliminary new success in getting protocells with genetic information inside them to replicate at the XV International Conference on the Origin of Life in Florence, Italy, last week. The replication isn't wholly autonomous, so it's not quite artificial life yet, but it is as close as anyone has ever come to turning chemicals into biological organisms. ...
Protocellular work is even more radical than the other field trying to create artifical life: synthetic biology. Even J. Craig Venter's work to build an artificial bacterium with the smallest number of genes necessary to live takes current life forms as a template. Protocell researchers are trying to design a completely novel form of life that humans have never seen and that may never have existed. ...
Read Full Report
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Brain Researchers Open Door to Editing Memory
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NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Benedict Carey - April 5, 2009
Suppose scientists could erase certain memories by tinkering with a single substance in the brain. Could make you forget a chronic fear, a traumatic loss, even a bad habit.
Researchers in Brooklyn have recently accomplished comparable feats, with a single dose of an experimental drug delivered to areas of the brain critical for holding specific types of memory, like emotional associations, spatial knowledge or motor skills.
The drug blocks the activity of a substance that the brain apparently needs to retain much of its learned information. And if enhanced, the substance could help ward off dementias and other memory problems.
So far, the research has been done only on animals. But scientists say this memory system is likely to work almost identically in people. ...
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Pill to erase bad memories: Ethical furore over drugs 'that threaten human identity'
LONDON DAILY MAIL [Associated Newspapers/DMGT] - By David Derbyshire - February 16, 2009
A drug which appears to erase painful memories has been developed by scientists.
The astonishing treatment could help sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder and those whose lives are plagued by hurtful recurrent memories.
But British experts said the breakthrough raises disturbing ethical questions about what makes us human.
They also warned it could have damaging psychological consequences, preventing those who take it from learning from their mistakes.
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Study takes step toward erasing bad memories
REUTERS [Thomson-Reuters] - Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Maggie Fox and Elizabeth Piper - February 15, 2009
LONDON - A widely available blood pressure pill could one day help people erase bad memories, perhaps treating some anxiety disorders and phobias, according to a Dutch study published on Sunday.
The generic beta-blocker propranolol significantly weakened people's fearful memories of spiders among a group of healthy volunteers who took it, said Merel Kindt, a psychologist at the University of Amsterdam, who led the study.
"We could show that the fear response went away, which suggests the memory was weakened," Kindt said in a telephone interview.
The findings published in the journal Nature Neuroscience are important because the drug may offer another way to help people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other problems related to bad memories. ...
Read Full Report
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Dawn of Low-Price Mapping Could Broaden DNA Uses
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NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Andrew Pollack - October 6, 2008
The cost of determining a person's complete genetic blueprint is about to plummet again - to $5,000.
That is the price that a start-up company called Complete Genomics says it will start charging next year for determining the sequence of the genetic code that makes up the DNA in one set of human chromosomes. The company is set to announce its plans on Monday.
Such a price would represent another step toward the long-sought goal of the "$1,000 genome." At that price point it might become commonplace for people to obtain their entire DNA sequences, giving them information on what diseases they might be predisposed to or what drugs would work best for them.
"It's a shockingly low price," said George M. Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard who is an adviser to Complete Genomics and to several other sequencing companies.
Then again, the cost of DNA sequencing has dropped by a factor of 10 every year for the last four years, a faster rate of decline than even for computers, Dr. Church said. ...
The first human genome sequence, completed by the federally financed Human Genome Project in 2003, is estimated to have cost a few hundred million dollars. Last year, the genome sequence of James D. Watson, a discoverer of the structure of DNA, was completed at a cost of about $1 million. ...
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Obama Signs Order Lifting Restrictions on Stem Cell Research Funding
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 FOX NEWS [News Corporation/Murdoch] - March 9, 2009
President Obama on Monday signed an order to lift restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, a move he said rejects the "false choice" between science and morality.
The order would not fund the creation of new stem cell lines, but would allow federally funded scientists to conduct research on existing embryonic stem cells that under the Bush administration were off limits.
Obama said the full promise of such research "remains unknown" but that it should be explored because of the potential for scientists to find better treatments for ailments ranging from diabetes to Parkinson's disease to cancer.
"That potential will not reveal itself on its own. Medical miracles do not happen simply by accident. They result from painstaking and costly research," Obama said.
He warned of the risks of falling behind other countries in scientific research by keeping in place government restrictions on funding. ...
The executive order fulfills a campaign promise, and supporters say it will open up a broad front of research.
But the issue remains controversial since days-old embryos must be destroyed to obtain the cells.
Opponents argue that research using embryonic cells is morally wrong. ...
Obama plans to use the executive order and accompanying memo to signal his commitment to shift government's priorities. But he said Monday that the government will not open the door for human cloning, calling such action "dangerous" and "profoundly wrong." ...
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Read Full Report
Also: A very good article on this issue
'FrankenStem's Cell': Obama to OK embryonic stem cell research
WORLDNETDAILY - By Jerome Corsi - February 10, 2009
NEW YORK - In a closed-door meeting with House Democrats at their retreat at the posh Kingsmill Golf Resort in Williamsburg, Va., President Obama gave his "guarantee" he will sign an executive order overturning President Bush's executive order restricting federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
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Obama Signs Law Banning Federal Embryo Research Two Days After Signing Executive Order to OK It
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CYBERCAST NEWS SERVICE (CNSN.com) [Media Research Center] - By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief - March 13, 2009
On Wednesday, only two days after he lifted President Bush's executive order banning federal funding of stem cell research that requires the destruction of human embryos, President Barack Obama signed a law that explicilty bans federal funding of any "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death."
The provision was buried in the 465-page omnibus appropriations bill that Obama signed Wednesday. Known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, it has been included in the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services every fiscal year since 1996.
The amendment says, in part: "None of the funds made available in this Act may be used for-(1) the creation of a human embryo or embryos for research purposes; or (2) research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death."
Found in Section 509 of Title V of the omnibus bill (at page 280 of the 465-page document), the federal funding ban not only prohibits the government from providing tax dollars to support research that kills or risks injury to a human embryo, it also mandates that the government use an all-inclusive definition of "human embryo" that encompasses any nascent human life from the moment that life comes into being, even if created in a laboratory through cloning, in vitro fertilization or any other means. ...
Read Full Report
Also:
Obama administration on stem cells: Not so fast
Original Report Here
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| FDA allows first test of human stem cell therapy |
REUTERS [Thomson-Reuters] - By Maggie Fox - January 23, 2009
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared the way for the first trial to see if human embryonic stem cells can treat people safely, a company involved in the controversial research on Friday.
Geron Corp, a California biotechnology company, said it plans a clinical trial to try to use the stem cells to regrow nerve tissue in patients with crushed, but not severed, spinal cords. ...
"For us, it marks the dawn of a new era in medical therapeutics. This approach is one that reaches beyond pills and scalpels to achieve a new level of healing," Geron Chief Executive Dr. Thomas Okarma said in a telephone briefing.
Shares of Geron rose more than 53 percent to $8 in mid-morning trading on Nasdaq after touching $8.38.
Geron will recruit eight to 10 recently injured patients and inject them with small numbers of human embryonic stem cells manipulated to become the oligodendrocyte cells that insulate nerves, and that produce compounds to stimulate the growth of nerve cells. ...
CHEAP AND EASY
Okarma said the treatment should eventually become cheap and easy to mass produce because the cells can be grown in vats. He believes the cells may be useful for other diseases such as multiple sclerosis, in which nerve cells are stripped of their insulating sheaths, and perhaps strokes.
Financial analysts celebrated. Stephen Brozak and Daniel Mallin of WBB Securities LLC said it could "as important to drug therapy as the discovery of ... penicillin." ...
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Also:
Did Obama's election trigger new stem cell experiments?
FDA's approval of embryonic trials comes day after president change
WORLDNETDAILY - By Jerome Corsi and Drew Zahn - January 24, 2009
In a move the Food and Drug Administration denies has anything to do with the new presidency, the federal agency granted permission this week to begin the country's first embryonic stem cell treatments on human subjects.
The FDA approved an application from Geron Corporation, based in Menlo Park, Calif., to inject stem cells derived from human embryos into 10 people paralyzed from the chest down by spinal cord injuries. ...
According to New Scientist, the FDA has withheld permission for experimentation on humans for years over concerns that the stem cell injections could trigger immunity rejection, cause nerve damage or form cancerous tumors, but that Geron's 20,000-page application was able to finally break through and alleviate those worries. ...
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| Adult Stem Cell Therapies Trump Embryonic Ones |
KOINONIA HOUSE - from the March 10, 2009 eNews issue
First he rescinded the Mexico City Policy, which prevented US tax dollars from paying for abortions overseas. Now, as promised, President Obama has declared that the federal government will allow funding for embryonic stem-cell research. This reverses the Bush Administration's policy of protecting human embryos from being created and then destroyed in the name of science. In the meanwhile, scientists have had increasing success in developing cures that use adult stem-cells, with much less ethical controversy.
Embryonic stem-cell(ESC) research never completely went away; private companies have been laboring away with funding from investors. Government agencies were unable to continue research due to lack of federal funding, but that did not stop private biotech companies from pursuing ESC Days after President Obama was sworn into office, the FDA gave a go-ahead for the first clinical trial of a drug made with embryonic stem-cells. On January 23, the California biotechnology company Geron was cleared to start a clinical trial to re-grow damaged spinal cord tissue using stem-cells from human embryos. Now that federal funding is available, this type of research promises to take off. The stock in several stem-cell research companies shot up at Obama's announcement on Monday, many jumping between 20 and 48 percent.
In the past absence of federal funding, though, many stem-cell companies began to focus on developing therapies using adult stem-cells. Researchers at Lindner Research Center at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati will start a trial treatment on a diabetic patient using stem-cells from adult bone marrow. Physicians sponsored by Osirus Therapeutics will determine whether the patient's pancreas is healed through use of Prochymal, a medication made of adult mesenchymal stem-cells.
People have been treated overseas with adult stem-cell therapies for years. One Dr. Howard Lindeman had adult stem-cell therapy to repair his heart after a heart attack. "I had the procedure done and since then, I've just been getting better and better and better. I'm going to be 58-years-old in May and I'm on my way to being 35 again," he said at a stem-cell seminar in Naples, Florida.
Embryonic stem-cell research, on the other hand, has some serious problems. A purely practical concern is that embryonic stem-cell therapy can have serious side effects. The potential for tumors with fast-growing embryonic stem-cells is well known. Adult stem-cells may be more difficult to coax into becoming heart or pancreas cells, but they also have a much lower chance of causing tumors in already-ill patients.
"The use of ASC requires a different thinking, but they can be as effective as ESC, if not more," argues stem-cell scientist Christian Drapeau. "ASC do not grow easily in vitro and they are not easy to re-program. But there are ways of using ASC that can be just as effective as methods using ESC, without the risk of tumor formation."
Another problem with embryonic stem-cell therapy is immune rejection. Whereas adult stem-cells can come from a patient's own body, and therefore be accepted easily, embryonic stem-cells are somebody else's body and run the risk of being rejected by the immune system.
The most serious difficulty with ESC research and therapy, however, is that it destroys human embryos for their stem-cells. Even if the treatment could eventually cure terrible diseases, it would always have a serious ethical and moral price-tag attached.
The fact that US taxpayers will now be funding the research has upset a large number of Americans:
"President Obama's executive order to federally fund experimentation on embryonic human lives certainly represents change: For the first time in our nation's history, citizens will now be required to participate in killing embryonic human lives for research," said Michael Janocik, assistant director of the Right to Life Educational Foundation of Kentucky. ...
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Also:
Stanford Researchers Announce Immune Problems With Embryonic Stem Cells
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN [Holtzbrinck] - August 22, 2008
Following experiments with mice, Stanford University scientists have announced that stem cell therapies which use human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have a high probability of failing because of immune rejection. In these studies, mice that were injected with hESCs exhibited an immune response which is at least as severe as that triggered by organ transplantation. Consequently, all the transplanted stem cells were killed by the immune system within a week. ...
Read Full Report
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Canadian stem cell breakthrough
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NATIONAL POST [Asper-CanWest Global] - By Kathryn Blaze Carlson - March 1, 2009
The ethical debate over embryonic stem cell use may soon be moot, thanks to a Canadian team of researchers who, together with a team out of Scotland, has found a safe way to grow stem cells from a patient's own skin.
The revolutionary finding, described in a paper published yesterday by the international science journal Nature, means doctors may be one step closer to treating a multitude of diseases, including Alzheimer's, diabetes and Parkinson's.
Someday, the regenerative and adaptive qualities of these skin-based stem cells could be used to repair damaged organs, bones and muscles, replace brain neurons and insulin-producing pancreatic cells, and even farm new organs for transplant use. ...
Also, because human stem cells - also known as "induced pluripotent stems" - are bred from the patient's own skin, they pose no threat of immune rejection, mitigating another medical drawback of embryonic stem cell use. ...
That the previously crucial ingredients - embryos or women's eggs - are no longer essential to growing embryonic stem cells may quash the medical and ethical pushback of those who perceive stem-cell use to be dangerous or immoral. ...
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Stem Cell Breakthrough: Mass-Production Of 'Embryonic' Stem Cells From A Human Hair
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SCIENCE DAILY - October 18, 2008
The first reports of the successful reprogramming of adult human cells back into so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which by all appearances looked and acted like embryonic stem cells, created a media stir. But the process was woefully inefficient: Only one out of 10,000 cells could be persuaded to turn back the clock.
Now, a team of researchers led by Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, succeeded in boosting the reprogramming efficiency more than 100-fold, while cutting the time it takes in half. In fact, they repeatedly generated iPS cells from the tiny number of keratinocytes attached to a single hair plucked from a human scalp.
Their method, published ahead of print in the Oct. 17, 2008 online edition of Nature Biotechnology, not only provides a practical and simple alternative for the generation of patient- and disease-specific stem cells, which had been hampered by the low efficiency of the reprogramming process, but also spares patients invasive procedures to collect suitable starting material, since the process only requires a single human hair.
"Having a very efficient and practical way of generating patient-specific stem cells, which unlike human embryonic stem cells, wouldn't be rejected by the patient's immune system after transplantation brings us a step closer to the clinical application of stem cell therapy," says Belmonte, PhD., a professor in the Gene Expression Laboratory and director of the Center of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona, Spain. ...
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Studying DNA: From Neanderthals To Aliens
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KOINONIA HOUSE - from the February 17, 2009 eNews issue
DNA is the digital code for life, the code that not only tells each part of the body how to form, but also what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. DNA can prove who committed a crime 20 years ago or explain why we inherit certain family diseases. Some scientists hope DNA can tell us about our ancient relatives, whom we only know from bones in caves. Others hope that DNA can even tell us about life on other planets.
Neanderthal DNA:
Two groups of researchers working together have succeeded in sequencing more than 3 billion bases of Neanderthal DNA from a collection of fragments that make up more than 60 percent of the Neanderthal genome. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig, Germany, and the 454 Life Sciences Corporation, in Branford, Connecticut believe they can now compare these DNA sequences to the sequences that have been done of the chimpanzee and modern human genomes. These efforts will help unravel the mystery of just how distant a relative the Neanderthal is.
A cursory examination of Neanderthal culture offers plenty of evidence that Neanderthals were fully human; they buried their dead, created art, and even made musical instruments. They are a variety of human that has died out, and anthropologists have long desired to know exactly what connection the Neanderthals did have to us modern-day folks. The sequencing of the Neanderthal genome may finally provide these eager scientists with some answers. The researchers will focus on comparing specific areas that are particularly 'human', like the genes associated with speaking and language, and those that deal with brain aging and development.
Genesis describes a massive Flood that destroyed every breathing creature on the earth except for eight humans and an assortment of animals tucked away on the Ark. All human beings alive on earth today descended from Noah's three sons and their wives, and only the DNA in their blood was passed onto us. Since the DNA of all the other humans on earth was wiped out, it makes sense that many other genetic variations of humans existed before the Flood, and those might have included, among others, these strange big-boned people we call the Neanderthals.
Synthetic DNA:
Scientists in Florida have created a new kind of DNA in a laboratory, and consider it a possible model for what alien DNA could look like. Biochemist Steven A. Benner of the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Gainesville has put together synthetic replicas of the four nucleotides - A C T G - that are the foundational molecules for DNA. Benner took those original nucleotides and mixed them up a little to form similar but different synthetic nucleotides the scientists have dubbed Z, P, V, J, Iso-C, Iso-G, X and K. Unlike the real things, his synthetic nucleotides can't replicate - anymore than a robot can have babies. While what Benner's team has created cannot be considered artificial life, he is confident that it will only take a few more years and some little pushes to help his laboratory-created molecules get busy.
Benner also believes these synthetic molecules could give researchers outside-the-box ideas in the search for alien DNA. "Unless it happens to shoot at you with a ray gun, the life that you encounter off of Earth will not necessarily have same biochemistry as us," Benner said. His research was funded by NASA as a way to find out what life might look like on other planets. Earth-based organisms survive in water, but researchers consider that life on other planets could survive in liquid nitrogen or methane, for example. By using these synthetic chains of created DNA, Benner hopes to find a combination that could survive in those abnormal conditions. It's a feasibility study to answer the question, "Is it possible for life to exist in conditions that Earth life cannot?"
Of course, even if these scientists do manage to develop an 'alien' molecule that could thrive in a tub of liquid nitrogen, they will not have demonstrated anything real about proposed alien evolution. They will simply have proven that an intelligent designer by the name of Steven A. Benner succeeded in developing a cold-nitrogen-loving molecule. Whether that same molecule could have formed by chance on a distant planet would be mere speculation.
Original Report
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| Return of the Neanderthals |
If we can resurrect them through fossil DNA, should we?
SLATE [The Slate Group-Wash Post Group/Graham] - By William Saletan - November 24, 2008
Here's the next question in the evolution debate: We know roughly how the sequence of life ran forward in time. What about running it backward? How would you feel about rewinding human evolution to a species that's almost like us, but not quite?
Last week in Nature, scientists reported major progress in sequencing the genome of woolly mammoths. They reconstructed it from two fossilized hair samples. One was 20,000 years old; the other was 65,000 years old. Now, according to Nicholas Wade of the New York Times, biologists are discussing "how to modify the DNA in an elephant's egg so that after each round of changes it would progressively resemble the DNA in a mammoth egg. The final-stage egg could then be brought to term in an elephant mother."
Cool, huh? But that's not the half of it. Wade notes:
The full genome of the Neanderthal, an ancient human species probably driven to extinction by the first modern humans that entered Europe some 45,000 years ago, is expected to be recovered shortly. If the mammoth can be resurrected, the same would be technically possible for Neanderthals.
In fact, Wade points out, there are good reasons to re-create a Neanderthal: "No one knows if Neanderthals could speak. A living one would answer that question and many others." ...
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Also:
Draft Version Of The Neanderthal Genome Completed
SCIENCE DAILY - February 16, 2009
Scientists they have completed a first draft version of the Neandertal genome. ...
The project, made possible by financing from the Max Planck Society, is directed by Prof. Svante Pääbo, Director of the Institute's Department of Evolutionary Genetics and Anthropology. Pääbo and his colleagues have sequenced more than one billion DNA fragments extracted from three Croatian Neandertal fossils, using novel methods developed for this project. The Neandertal genome sequence will clarify the evolutionary relationship between humans and Neandertals as well as help identify those genetic changes that enabled modern humans to leave Africa and rapidly spread around the world, starting around 100,000 years ago. ...
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| Regenerating a Mammoth for $10 Million |
 NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Nicholas Wade - November 19, 2008
Scientists are talking for the first time about the old idea of resurrecting extinct species as if this staple of science fiction is a realistic possibility, saying that a living mammoth could perhaps be regenerated for as little as $10 million.
The same technology could be applied to any other extinct species from which one can obtain hair, horn, hooves, fur or feathers, and which went extinct within the last 60,000 years, the effective age limit for DNA.
Though the stuffed animals in natural history museums are not likely to burst into life again, these old collections are full of items that may contain ancient DNA that can be decoded by the new generation of DNA sequencing machines.
If the genome of an extinct species can be reconstructed, biologists can work out the exact DNA differences with the genome of its nearest living relative. There are talks on how to modify the DNA in an elephant's egg so that after each round of changes it would progressively resemble the DNA in a mammoth egg. The final-stage egg could then be brought to term in an elephant mother, and mammoths might once again roam the Siberian steppes.
The same would be technically possible with Neanderthals, whose full genome is expected to be recovered shortly, but there would be several ethical issues in modifying modern human DNA to that of another human species. ...
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Frozen mice cloned - are woolly mammoths next?
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REUTERS [Thomson-Reuters] - By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor - November 3, 2008
WASHINGTON - Japanese scientists have cloned mice whose bodies were frozen for as long 16 years and said on Monday it may be possible to use the technique to resurrect mammoths and other extinct species.
Mouse cloning expert Teruhiko Wakayama and colleagues at the Center for Developmental Biology, at Japan's RIKEN research institute in Yokohama, managed to clone the mice even though their cells had burst.
"Thus, nuclear transfer techniques could be used to 'resurrect' animals or maintain valuable genomic stocks from tissues frozen for prolonged periods without any cryopreservation," they wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Wakayama's team used the classic nuclear transfer technique to make their mouse clones. This involves taking the nucleus out of an egg cell and replacing it with the nucleus of an ordinary cell from the animal to be cloned.
When done with the right chemical or electric trigger, this starts the egg dividing as if it had been fertilized by a sperm. ...
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| A Baby, Please. Blond, Freckles -- Hold the Colic |
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL [News Corporation/Murdoch] - By Gautam Naik - February 12, 2009
Want a daughter with blond hair, green eyes and pale skin?
A Los Angeles clinic says it will soon help couples select both gender and physical traits in a baby when they undergo a form of fertility treatment. The clinic, Fertility Institutes, says it has received "half a dozen" requests for the service, which is based on a procedure called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD.
While PGD has long been used for the medical purpose of averting life-threatening diseases in children, the science behind it has quietly progressed to the point that it could potentially be used to create designer babies. It isn't clear that Fertility Institutes can yet deliver on its claims of trait selection. But the growth of PGD, unfettered by any state or federal regulations in the U.S., has accelerated genetic knowledge swiftly enough that pre-selecting cosmetic traits in a baby is no longer the stuff of science fiction. ...
"If we're going to produce children who are claimed to be superior because of their particular genes, we risk introducing new sources of discrimination" in society, says Marcy Darnovsky, associate executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society, a nonprofit public interest group in Oakland, Calif. If people use the method to select babies who are more likely to be tall, the thinking goes, then people could effectively be enacting their biases against short people.
In a recent U.S. survey of 999 people who sought genetic counseling, a majority said they supported prenatal genetic tests for the elimination of certain serious diseases. The survey found that 56% supported using them to counter blindness and 75% for mental retardation.
More provocatively, about 10% of respondents said they would want genetic testing for athletic ability, while another 10% voted for improved height. Nearly 13% backed the approach to select for superior intelligence, according to the survey conducted by researchers at the New York University School of Medicine.
There are significant hurdles to any form of genetic enhancement. Most human traits are controlled by multiple genetic factors, and knowledge about their complex workings, though accelerating, is incomplete. And traits such as athleticism and intelligence are affected not just by DNA, but by environmental factors that cannot be controlled in a lab.
While many countries have banned the use of PGD for gender selection, it is permitted in the U.S. In 2006, a survey by the Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University found that 42% of 137 PGD clinics offered a gender-selection service. ...
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Designer baby row over US clinic
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BBC NEWS [PSB operated by BBC Trust] - March 2, 2009
A US clinic has sparked controversy by offering would-be parents the chance to select traits like the eye and hair colour of their offspring.
The LA Fertility Institutes run by Dr Jeff Steinberg, a pioneer of IVF in the 1970s, expects a trait-selected baby to be born next year.
His clinic also offers sex selection.
UK fertility experts are angered that the service will distract attention from how the same technology can protect against inherited disease.
The science is based on a lab technique called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD.
Doctors then select an embryo free from rogue genes - or in this case an embryo with the desired physical traits such as blonde hair and blue eyes - to continue the pregnancy, and discard any others.
Dr Steinberg said couples might seek to use the clinic's services for both medical and cosmetic reasons. ...
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Ethical questions over harvesting dead son's sperm
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ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Jamie Stengle - April 11, 2009
DALLAS - Nikolas Colton Evans had talked about how much he wanted to have a child, but the 21-year-old died after he was punched and hit his head on the ground in a fight. That would have been the end of it, if it weren't for his determined mother, a court order and a urologist.
Missy Evans has harvested her dead son's sperm and hopes to find a surrogate and one day raise her son's child. It's a decision that ethicists say raises troubling questions; one called the potential offspring a "replacement child." ...
After a doctor told her that nothing more could be done for her son, Missy Evans came up with the idea of harvesting his sperm. She discussed the idea with her ex-husband, her older son and other family members, and said all supported her wish to help a part of Nikolas live on through his future offspring.
She said her son once told her he wanted three sons and had already picked out names. ...
Evans had to go to court to get permission to harvest his sperm. On Tuesday, a Travis County probate judge granted her wish - ordering the county Medical Examiner's Office to keep her son's body chilled to at least 39.2 degrees and allow access so an expert could take the specimen. ...
An Austin urologist volunteered her services and collected testicular tissue from the body Wednesday night. Missy Evans said she's been told much of the sperm is viable and is making plans for it to be stored. ...
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Girl born a record 22 years after father's sperm is frozen
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THE TIMES of LONDON [News Corporation/Murdoch] - By Jacqui Goddard in Miami - April 14, 2009
A former leukaemia patient who had his sperm frozen as a teenager has fathered a baby after doctors successfully thawed his sample a record 22 years later.
Chris Biblis was 16 when doctors told him that he needed radiotherapy that would leave him sterile and recommended before going ahead with the life-saving treatment that they put a sample of his sperm into cryogenic storage for future use.
Now aged 38, he is celebrating the birth of a healthy baby daughter, Stella, who was conceived after scientists injected a defrosted sperm into an egg from his wife, Melodie, and implanted it in her uterus.
The 22-year lapse between storage in April 1986 and conception in June 2008 is a world record, according to specialists at the US fertility clinic who carried out the procedure. ...
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Breast cancer gene-free baby born
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BBC NEWS [PSB operated by BBC Trust] - January 9, 2009
The first baby in the UK tested before conception for a genetic form of breast cancer has been born.
Doctors at University College London said ... [T]he embryo was screened for the altered BRCA1 gene, which would have meant the girl had a 80% chance of developing breast cancer.
Women in three generations of her husband's family have been diagnosed with the disease in their 20s. ...
Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) involves taking a cell from an embryo at the eight-cell stage of development, when it is around three-days old, and testing it.
This is before conception - defined as when the embryo is implanted in the womb.
Doctors then select an embryo free from rogue genes to continue the pregnancy, and discard any whose genetic profile points to future problems.
Using PGD to ensure a baby does not carry an altered gene which would guarantee a baby would inherit a disease such as cystic fibrosis, is well-established.
But in 2006, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said doctors could test for so-called susceptibility genes, such as BRCA1. ...
"Underlying all this is eugenics."
Mrs Quintavalle said the message was that "you are better off dead, than being born with this gene".
"I hope 20 years down the line we will have eradicated breast cancer - not eradicated the carriers. ...
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| The perils of playing god |
ASIA TIMES ONLINE (Hong Kong) - By Fazile Zahir - January 28, 2009
FETHIYE, Turkey - The genetic blood disorder Mediterranean anemia, more commonly known as thalassemia, is a hot topic in the Turkish press. The most recent story to hit the headlines has focused on three-year-old twins Muhammed and Beyza, who had their genes altered at birth to be perfect bone marrow donors for older siblings suffering from the potentially fatal condition.
The twins had been the subject of media attention since their in-vitro fertilization (IVF) conception in 2006. Nicknamed the "Twins of Hope", their DNA was stripped of the thalassemia trait while still at the fetal stage and they were declared perfect future donors for their already-ill sisters.
Their placental stem cells were extracted and frozen at birth, in preparation for use in 2009. The first operation took place on Muhammed and his older sister, Busra, on January 19.
Doctors had to act, though the twins were just three, because 15-year-old Aysegul and 14-year-old Busra were already having problems with their liver function and their stem cells needed to be supplemented with bone marrow from the younger children. Because the siblings were a perfect match, Busra is expected to make a total recovery from the disease. ...
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Youthfulness an American obsession - at what cost?
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ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Martha Irvine and Lindsey Tanner - December 7, 2008LAS VEGAS - It's one of those photos that make you do a double-take. Dr. Jeffry Life stands in jeans, his shirt off. His face is that of a distinguished-looking grandpa; his head is balding, and what hair there is is white. But his 69-year-old body looks like it belongs to a muscle-bound 30-year-old. The photo regularly runs in ads for the Cenegenics Medical Institute, a Las Vegas-based clinic that specializes in "age management," a growing field in a society obsessed with staying young. Life, who swears that's his real last name, also keeps a framed copy of the photo on his office wall at Cenegenics. "He's the man!" patient Ed Detwiler says teasingly, pointing to the photo of the doctor who, in many ways, has become his role model. Detwiler, 47, has been Life's patient for more than three years. In that time, he has adopted the regimen that his doctor also follows-drastically changing his exercise and eating habits and injecting himself each day with human growth hormone. He also receives weekly testosterone injections. He does it because it makes him feel better, more energetic, clear-minded. He does it because he wants to live a long, healthy life. ... As the baby boomers march toward retirement, Botox, wrinkle fillers and hormones of various kinds have become big business. Medco's latest drug trend report shows, for instance, that human growth hormone use grew almost 6 percent in 2007. The list for age-defying tactics is endless. Want six-pack abs? There's a surgical procedure to create fake ones. How about drastically cutting your calorie intake to slow the aging process? There's a group of die-hards that swears by it. This search for eternal youthfulness certainly isn't new. "In 1,500 B.C. people were ingesting tiger gonads to rejuvenate them," says Dr. Gene Cohen, a George Washington University expert on aging. But for a generation of adults who've been weaned on the modern marketing message-that for a price, you can have it all-the quest is taking on a new urgency. ... Full Report Posted on the Be Alert! BlogRead Full Report
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A Deception of Cosmic Proportions
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OLIVE TREE MINISTRIES > Understanding The Times Weekly eUpdate - By Heidi Swander - April 7, 2009
UFOs are real, they're just not from outer space. So says Chuck Missler in his informative book, Alien Encounters: The Secret Behind the UFO Phenomenon. Missler is convinced that the alleged aliens publicized these days are demonic forces, and equates them convincingly with the angels that co-habited with women in Genesis 6.
Stay with me for these few paragraphs and see if your curiosity isn't piqued just a bit. Granted, there are many details we don't know about the pre-flood days, but in my opinion, Missler's hypothesis fills in a lot of gaps (Matt. 24:37).
Think about it. The Bible says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork" (Psalm 19:1). But talk of UFOs and aliens from outer space doesn't glorify God. To the contrary; you'd be very surprised at what they DO glorify.
For instance, these alleged extraterrestrials are big proponents of a new world order. According to Missler, "Throughout the history of alleged extraterrestrial contact there is one theme that dominates ETs' messages to mankind. In order to survive, we must unify our resources into a global society, with a world governing body and global religion." Sound familiar?
He then cites Brad Steiger, author of the book, The Fellowship: "Contactees have been told that the Space Beings hope to guide Earth to a period of great unification . . . The Space Beings also seek to bring about a single, solidified government, which will conduct itself on spiritual principles . . ."
Missler's conviction that these beings are demons is further strengthened by the fact that these alleged aliens are "coincidentally" concerned with the exact same philosophies espoused by the New Age movement! He says a vast majority of abductees "have shown an interest in paranormal activities, Eastern religions, and New Age world-view. A large percentage of abductees have also reported a history of involvement with Ouija boards, astrology, witchcraft, astral projection, telepathic communication, channeling, past life regressions, and the like."
Read Full Report
Also:
In pictures: The UFO files
The National Archives is displaying previously classified files on UFOs. They include this diagram, whose author believed alien craft used decoy methods to avoid detection, carrying not humans but "fallen angels".
Original Report Here
Moon-walker claims alien contact cover-up
Original Report Here
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The Road to Area 51
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LOS ANGELES TIMES [Tribune Company] - By Annie Jacobsen - April 11, 2009
Area 51. It's the most famous military institution in the world that doesn't officially exist. If it did, it would be found about 100 miles outside Las Vegas in Nevada's high desert, tucked between an Air Force base and an abandoned nuclear testing ground. Then again, maybe not- the U.S. government refuses to say. You can't drive anywhere close to it, and until recently, the airspace overhead was restricted-all the way to outer space. Any mention of Area 51 gets redacted from official documents, even those that have been declassified for decades.
It has become the holy grail for conspiracy theorists, with UFOlogists positing that the Pentagon reverse engineers flying saucers and keeps extraterrestrial beings stored in freezers. Urban legend has it that Area 51 is connected by underground tunnels and trains to other secret facilities around the country. In 2001, Katie Couric told Today Show audiences that 7 percent of Americans doubt the moon landing happened-that it was staged in the Nevada desert. Millions of X-Files fans believe the truth may be "out there," but more likely it's concealed inside Area 51's Strangelove-esque hangars-buildings that, though confirmed by Google Earth, the government refuses to acknowledge.
The problem is the myths of Area 51 are hard to dispute if no one can speak on the record about what actually happened there. Well, now, for the first time, someone is ready to talk-in fact, five men are, and their stories rival the most outrageous of rumors. Colonel Hugh "Slip" Slater, 87, was commander of the Area 51 base in the 1960s. Edward Lovick, 90, featured in "What Plane?" in LA's March issue, spent three decades radar testing some of the world's most famous aircraft (including the U-2, the A-12 OXCART and the F-117). Kenneth Collins, 80, a CIA experimental test pilot, was given the silver star. Thornton "T.D." Barnes, 72, was an Area 51 special-projects engineer. And Harry Martin, 77, was one of the men in charge of the base's half-million-gallon monthly supply of spy-plane fuels. Here are a few of their best stories-for the record: ...
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GENETICALLY MODIFIED CORN
German Lawmakers Mull a Frankenfood Ban |
DER SPIEGEL [BMG: Bertelsmann Media Group/Gruner & Jahr Magazines] - April 10, 2009Does Germany's agriculture minister want to ban genetically modified corn in Germany because it may be risky, or is the idea meant to give her party a quick boost in the polls? The controversy exposes a rift in Germany's conservatives. German agriculture minister Ilse Aigner will announce in the coming weeks whether her office will impose a ban on the commercial use of a type of genetically modified corn produced and marketed by the American biotech giant Monsanto. But the idea has sparked a war of words between normally allied German conservatives. ... Monsanto, the world's largest producer of seeds, manufactures the only GM plant still approved for use in commercial farming in Germany, a corn used for animal feed. The primary benefit of the plant, called MON 810, is that it produces a toxin to fight off one of its worst enemies , the voracious larvae of the corn borer moth. The seed was introduced in the EU in 1998. Aigner is under pressure from Horst Seehofer, the leader of the CSU, to push through the ban so he can use the issue to gain votes for his party in the upcoming EU and German elections. The electoral boost would come from the many voters in Germany that have fiercely resisted GM plants and Monsanto. These include organic farmers, beekeepers, church groups and anti-capitalism protesters. But Aigner is also feeling pressure not to impose the ban -- which would contradict EU law -- from within her own ministry, from other political parties and ministers, and from members of the scientific community. ... Source: JOURNAL OF TURKISH WEEKLY -- with wire reportsRead Full Report
Also:
Monsanto intends to market drought-resistant corn by 2012
DES MOINES REGISTER [Gannett] - By Philip Brasher - January 11, 2009Monsanto said last week it's seeking regulatory approval of drought-tolerant corn, a crop that will mark a major milestone in agricultural biotechnology. ... Pioneer Hi-Bred has a conventional drought-tolerant corn in development it hopes to launch in 2010 or 2011. A transgenic version is said to be five to seven years from reaching market. A Pioneer spokesman said corn has shown a 14 percent improvement in yields in testing so far. Introduction of drought-resistant corn could shake up the global debate about biotechnology amid worries about the impact of a warming climate. Genetically engineered crops now on the market are either immune to Roundup herbicide or resistant to insects. Read Full Report |
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Austrian Government Study Confirms Genetically Modified (GM) Crops Threaten Human Fertility and Health Safety
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INSTITUTE FOR RESPONSIBLE TECHNOLOGY - Immediate Release - November 13, 2008
Los Angeles, CA. - A long-term feeding study commissioned by the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, managed by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Health, Family and Youth, and carried out by Veterinary University Vienna, confirms genetically modified (GM) corn seriously affects reproductive health in mice. Non-GMO advocates, who have warned about this infertility link along with other health risks, now seek an immediate ban of all GM foods and GM crops to protect the health of humankind and the fertility of women around the world.
Feeding mice with genetically modified corn developed by the US-based Monsanto Corporation led to lower fertility and body weight, according to the study conducted by the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. Lead author of the study Professor Zentek said, there was a direct link between the decrease in fertility and the GM diet, and that mice fed with non-GE corn reproduced more efficiently.
In the study, Austrian scientists performed several long-term feeding trials over 20 weeks with laboratory mice fed a diet containing 33% of a GM variety (NK 603 x MON 810), or a closely related non-GE variety used in many countries. Statistically significant litter size and pup weight decreases were found in the third and fourth litters in the GM-fed mice, compared to the control group.
The corn is genetically modified with genes that produce a pesticidal toxin, as well as genes that allow it to survive applications of Monsanto's herbicide Roundup.
A book by author Jeffrey M. Smith, Genetic Roulette, distributed to members of congress last year, documents 65 serious health risks of GM products, including similar fertility problems with GM soy and GM corn: Offspring of rats fed GM soy showed a five-fold increase in mortality, lower birth weights, and the inability to reproduce. Male mice fed GM soy had damaged young sperm cells. The embryo offspring of GM soy-fed mice had altered DNA functioning. Several US farmers reported sterility or fertility problems among pigs and cows fed on GM corn varieties. Additionally, over the last two months, investigators in India have documented fertility problems, abortions, premature births, and other serious health issues, including deaths, among buffaloes fed GM cottonseed products.
The principle GM crops are soy, corn, cottonseed and canola. GM sugar from sugar beets will also be introduced before year's end. ...
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This Company May Be the Biggest Threat to Your Future Health
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MERCOLA.com - Source: Vanity Fair May 2008
On March 11 a new documentary was aired on French television. It is a documentary most Americans will never see, explaining how the gigantic biotech corporation Monsanto is threatening to destroy the agricultural biodiversity which has served mankind for thousands of years.
For millennia, farmers have saved seeds from season to season. But when Monsanto developed GM seeds that would resist its own herbicide, Roundup, Monsanto patented the seeds. For nearly all of its history the United States Patent and Trademark Office refused to grant patents on seeds, viewing them as life-forms with too many variables to be patented. But in 1980 the U.S. Supreme Court allowed for seed patents in a five-to-four decision, laying the groundwork for a handful of corporations to begin taking control of the world's food supply.
Since the 1980s, Monsanto has become the world leader in genetic modification of seeds and has won 674 biotechnology patents, more than any other company. Farmers who buy Monsanto's Roundup Ready seeds are required to sign an agreement promising not to save the seed produced after each harvest for re-planting, or to sell the seed to other farmers. This means that farmers must buy new seed every year.
Monsanto puts pressure on farmers, farmers' co-ops, seed dealers, and anyone else it suspects may have infringed its patents of genetically modified seeds. To do this, Monsanto relies on a shadowy army of private investigators and agents. They secretly videotape and photograph farmers, store owners, and co-ops. They infiltrate community meetings. They gather information from informants about farming activities.
Some Monsanto agents pretend to be surveyors. Others confront farmers on their land and try to pressure them to sign papers giving Monsanto access to their private records. Farmers call them the "seed police" and use words such as "Gestapo" and "Mafia" to describe their tactics.
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Terrorists could use 'insect-based' biological weapon
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Terrorists would find it "relatively easy" to launch a devastating attack using swarms of insects to spread a deadly disease, an academic has warned.
LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH [Barclay] - By Stephen Adams - January 5, 2009
Jeffrey Lockwood, professor of entomology at Wyoming University and author of Six-legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War, said such Rift Valley Fever or other diseases could be transported into a country by a terrorist with a suitcase.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think a small terrorist cell could very easily develop an insect-based weapon."
He said it would "probably be much easier" than developing a nuclear or chemical weapon, arguing: "The raw material is in the back yard."
He continued: "It would be a relatively easy and simple process.
"A few hundred dollars and a plane ticket and you could have a pretty good stab at it."
Governments, he advised, needed to have robust "pest management infrastructure that's able to absorb and respond to an introduction" of infected insects, he said. ...
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S.Korean bio firm says dog cloning to be cheaper
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REUTERS [Thomson-Reuters] - By Jon Herskovitz - January 29, 2009
SEOUL - Cloning a Chow Chow is expected to be easier and perhaps as much as 50 percent less costly, a South Korean biotech firm said on Thursday as it unveiled a new cloning technology.
But pet owners -- who have to shell out $100,000 or more to clone a pet dog -- will still have to pay tens of thousands of dollars if they want to clone their beloved dogs and should be prepared for long waits because most commercial canine cloning is for working animals including sniffer dogs at airports.
RNL Bio said it has developed a new method to clone dogs using stem cells derived from fat tissue that greatly increases the likelihood of success.
It added the new technology can also help in studying treatments of genetic disorders in canines that have similarities to human illnesses including diabetes.
"If we fully develop this technology, dog cloning will be much easier than now. We can reduce the cost for cloning," said Ra Jeongchan, the chief executive of Seoul-based RNL Bio. ...
Canines are considered one of the more difficult mammals to clone because of their reproductive cycle that includes difficult-to-predict ovulations. ...
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Google and Nasa back new school for futurists
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FINANCIALTIMES of LONDON [Pearson Group,UK] - By David Gelles in San Francisco - February 3, 2009
Google and Nasa are throwing their weight behind a new school for futurists in Silicon Valley to prepare scientists for an era when machines become cleverer than people.
The new institution, known as "Singularity University", is to be headed by Ray Kurzweil, whose predictions about the exponential pace of technological change have made him a controversial figure in technology circles.
Google and Nasa's backing demonstrates the growing mainstream acceptance of Mr Kurzweil's views, which include a claim that before the middle of this century artificial intelligence will outstrip human beings, ushering in a new era of civilisation.
To be housed at Nasa's Ames Research Center, a stone's-throw from the Googleplex, the Singularity University will offer courses on biotechnology, nano-technology and artificial intelligence.
The so-called "singularity" is a theorised period of rapid technological progress in the near future. Mr Kurzweil, an American inventor, popularised the term in his 2005 book "The Singularity is Near".
Proponents say that during the singularity, machines will be able to improve themselves using artificial intelligence and that smarter-than-human computers will solve problems including energy scarcity, climate change and hunger. ...
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