Talks Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight

Amazing woman. Amazing story. It is incredible to see a scientist coming to life like this.

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.

Antoine Lavoisier, the Father of Modern Chemistry, was beheaded during the French Revolution.

An appeal to spare his life was cut short by the judge, who said:

“The Republic has no need of geniuses.”

(Source: http://www.neatorama.com)

Making Water Do the Splits

By Robert F.
Service Science
NOW Daily News
20 August 2007

It’s hard to imagine a greener way to power the planet than using solar power to turn water into hydrogen gas. This clean fuel can be piped through fuel cells to produce electricity and then recombined with oxygen to yield water as a waste product. Sunlight doesn’t break water molecules apart on its own, however, which is why Earth is covered with oceans. So researchers have spent decades searching for catalysts to help it along. And new work by researchers in Virginia takes a key step toward that goal.

A good solar catalyst has to be a jack of many trades. It must absorb high levels of solar energy, move the resulting electrons to a catalytic site where they can split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen atoms, and finally stitch a new bond between two hydrogen ions to generate hydrogen gas. On top of that, the catalyst must be cheap and not generate any unwanted byproducts that would prevent the reaction from working over and over again.

No water-splitting catalyst has come close to meeting all these challenges. One major stumbling block has been that two electrons are needed to turn hydrogen ions into hydrogen gas. Previous approaches for turning water to hydrogen have created catalysts only capable of dealing with one electron at a time, largely because electrons tend to repel each other.

Now researchers led by Karen Brewer, a chemist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, report in an advanced online publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society that they’ve found a way to double their electron pleasure. To do so, the researchers created long, complex molecules with a pair of light-absorbing groups on both ends. These groups funnel the electrons through a pair of molecular bridges to a single atom of catalytically active rhodium in the center. The bridges turn out to be key, Brewer explains, because they keep electrons far apart from one another until they reach the metal center that can handle both at one time to carry out the necessary reactions. In tests with the catalyst dissolved in water, the researchers found that it was able to convert about 1% of the energy in sunlight into stored energy in the form of hydrogen gas, a good start but still well below the amount of energy that can be harvested by conventional solar cells.

The new catalyst isn’t ready to revolutionize the energy business just yet, says Daniel Nocera, a chemist and solar fuels expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. One limitation of Brewer’s system, he points out, is that it requires organic molecules called amines, which give up their electrons to the light-absorbing complexes that in turn pass those on to the metal. Ultimately, researchers would prefer to pull these electrons from water molecules directly when they are split. Still, Nocera says, Brewer’s team “is on the right track.”

(Source: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/820/3?rss=1)

SCIENCE AND NEUROSIS

The public believe that science is absolutely true in the ideas it offers. Scientists know this to be untrue – science can only give a probability of correctness – but in the main they are happy to allow this public misconception to remain. But are scientists now beginning to believe their own publicity?
Science has been in a constant battle with ideas that cannot be proved. Such ideas usually surround the paranormal and spirituality, best expressed in the modern world with New Age and alternative ideas. Indeed, they are becoming so influential nowadays scientists descend to mockery and other ‘debating’ forms to ridicule such stances.

MEDIA INFLUENCE

A side effect of this assault is that scientists adopt a far more fundamental stance to their own ideas than is permissible. And fuelled by beliefs in their own publicity, the scientific picture is distorted.
This process is helped by a media that swallows practically every report, survey and finding they make. In medical matters, for instance, hardly a day goes by without new advice from a scientific survey that does not deserve the media coverage it gets.
The result is the idea, among many scientists, that their work is above the norm. In terms of sociology, scientists are taking over the role once reserved for gods in Classical times, with ‘cults’ making decrees and defining the morality and action of a society.

A MATERIAL WORLD

The end product of this process is a society that is becoming increasingly more material in its lifestyles, spirituality seen as either crack pot or an alternative lifestyle used simply to ease the stresses of material living.
The idea of devotion to a deity is replaced by a self-centredness in all things spiritual, spirituality being a form of self-satisfaction.
As well as having an adverse effect on society, this mentality is dangerous for science itself. There has always been an idea that scientists tend to be eccentric and single-minded. This is an inevitability of working in the abstract. And intriguingly, the mentality has echoes in cultism proper.

ARE SCIENTISTS GURUS?

The defining psychology of a cult guru is an eccentric single-mindedness leading to an absolute belief in his rightness. Many psychologists have realized this link between the spiritual and scientific mind for some time. Living in a world of concepts will inevitability make the person blinkered to normal life, and eventually totally convinced of his rightness.
The divide between the guru and scientist has traditionally come from a peer group within science constantly questioning the scientist and his findings. Such questioning does not occur in cults, with the guru becoming so convinced of his ‘truth’ that a form of neurosis can occur if he is challenged. But with science now believing its own publicity, can we really be sure the sceptical peer group still does its job?
If we can doubt this, then there is little difference between the guru and scientist. And the mockery and ridicule they now vent upon any form of spirituality hints that the processes of neurosis are beginning to infect the scientific world.

(Source: http://beyondtheblog.wordpress.com/2007/07/28/science-and-neurosis/)

Zero Point Energy & The Dirac Equation Part II

I would like to invite you to check the second part of this interesting article on Zero Point Energy.

(Source: http://www.ufodigest.com/news/0707/zeropoint6.html)

Science Begins With Thought

by BrandonD

I recently read a blogger’s inquiry into people’s ideas of what might further the scientific inquiry into the ufo phenomenon. I think this is an excellent question.

Thinking about the subject, I must first acknowledge that science is not just instruments and measurements, its foundation is a particular way of thinking regarding the world around us. Because of this, a religious zealot with a lab coat and microscope is not a scientist, regardless of whether his religion is Mormonism or Darwinism. I may not have a great deal of helpful advice regarding which instruments and measurements will best serve ufology, but I believe I can offer observations of what will help ufology from a psychological perspective.

One of the major obstacles that is keeping ufology from moving forward is this ubiquitous striving to acquire mainstream acceptance. As I see it, this “social factor” comprises the majority of the efforts and discussions in ufology today, and is the primary cause for all of the bickering and in-fighting. There are a few exceptions, Vallee and Keel come to mind, but they are notably absent from the field presently.

To illustrate why I believe this mind-set needs to change, we should look first at the subject itself. Those who have studied this field seriously will soon come to the realization that the truth behind ufos, whatever it may be, is something that lies far outside the spectrum of what we consider ordinary reality. It exists in our world like the idea of an airplane existed during the time when man could not fly. Consider how difficult it was for people at that time (including the prevailing scientific establishment) to accept the idea that man could fly, and then amplify that mental block ten-fold. This would approximate the psychological gulf existing between our misconceptions and reality regarding the ufo phenomenon, in my opinion.

As such, it seems only logical that progress in our understanding of the ufo phenomenon, at this point in time, cannot be some sort of grand social revolution. Real understanding is only going to take place among individuals or small groups. It is going to be a long, long time before ufology gains this “credibility” that those in the field so are so desperately grasping towards. The roads of inquiry and credibility run parallel in the beginning, but diverge further and further as one delves into a subject whose underlying reality strays far from the mainstream.

The further a person goes down one road, the further he is away from the other. Sooner or later, he must choose one and leave the other behind.

Because of this, for the scientist who sincerely wishes to learn of the reality behind the ufo phenomenon, he must firmly discard the desire for widespread social or mainstream scientific acceptance. History supports the premise that this social change will never happen unless it serves the intelligence behind the phenomenon, and that is something that we can neither predict nor rely upon.

By freeing oneself of this baggage, I believe a person will be more able to discover (and not reject) the incredibly weird reality that undoubtedly underlies the ufo phenomenon, but which we are unable to discover.

So this is my hypothetical foundation for the establishment of a group investigating the reality of the ufo phenomenon. The individuals involved must share in a common aim, which is for scientific inquiry into the mystery by any means available. Nothing is assumed known unless agreed upon by all members. No attention will be directed towards acquiring mainstream scientific or social acceptance. It makes no difference whether the investigation moves into the field of chemistry or into a field of crop circles, it is all on an even plane.

If anyone knows of such a group drop me a line.

(Source: http://datthec.blogspot.com/2007/07/science-begins-with-thought.html)

Scientists call for wider search for alien life

By Carl Zimmer

Sunday, July 8, 2007

NEW YORK: A panel of scientists convened by America’s leading scientific advisory group says the hunt for extraterrestrial life should be greatly expanded to include what they call “weird life”: organisms that lack DNA or other molecules found in life as we know it.

“The committee’s investigation makes clear that life is possible in forms different from those on Earth,” the scientists conclude in their report, “The Limits of Organic Life in Planetary Systems,” published by the National Research Council.

Other experts hailed the report as an important rethinking of the search for life. “It’s going to help us a lot to make sure we go exploring with our eyes wide open,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars exploration program.

Starfish, sequoias, salamanders and the rest of Earth’s residents may seem very diverse, but they are surprisingly similar on the molecular scale. All species that scientists have studied need liquid water to survive, for example. Further, they all rely on DNA to carry genetic information, and they all use that information to build proteins from the same set of building blocks, known as amino acids.

NASA has long looked to life on Earth to guide its search for life on other worlds. Planets and moons that have hints of liquid water have been ranked high on the list of potential sites for life-detection missions.

But there is good reason to suspect that other kinds of chemistry could support life as well, the authors of the new report argue. Weird life could differ from life as we know it in small or big ways.

For example, while DNA uses phosphorus in its backbone, it might be possible to build a backbone out of arsenic instead. And life might exist in liquids other than water, perhaps ammonia or methane.

The report, which is posted on the Web site of the National Academies, www.nationalacademies.org, even explores the possibility of life based on silicon, not carbon, though Meyer, who had no role in the work, thinks that astrobiologists should limit their search to carbon-based life forms.

“When we look in the universe,” he said, “the only compounds we see with more than six atoms are all carbon chemistry. So there’s a hint that looking for carbon chemistry may be a better bet. There we have some idea of what to look for.”

The report calls for NASA and the National Science Foundation both to support research into weird life. Chemists need to investigate “the chemical possibilities for what forms life might take,” said one member of the committee, Steven Benner, a distinguished fellow at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, in Gainesville, Florida.

Scientists should also search Earth for weird life, the authors maintain. “There’s much about Earth life we don’t understand,” said the panel’s chairman, John Baross of the University of Washington.

Benner said there was “good evidence that the life we know on Earth was preceded by a weird form of life.” Early Earth life may have been based on RNA, a single-stranded form of DNA. Although DNA-based life may have out-competed earlier forms on the surface of the planet, RNA life may still exist in refuges. One potential hiding place is deep below the ocean floor.

“It’s an incredibly primordial world down there,” Baross said.

“If you’re going to look for remnants of an RNA world, those are the environments you want to go to.”

To find weird life, however, scientists will have to build new kinds of detectors. “There’s no question that the surveys of life on the planet we’ve done so far would have missed it,” Benner said.

The scientists also said the possibility of weird life should prompt NASA to reorder its future missions. They singled out Saturn’s moon Titan as particularly promising.

(Source: http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=6553275)

What a waste of time and money again. Searching for microbes when we know we have been visited countless of times by off-planet cultures. Are they blindly dismissing the work Steven Greer and the Disclosure Project witnesses have done in the last 15 years or they are just so deeply rooted in their old scientific paradigm, they just can’t see the light?

Same goes with all the money wasted on rocket propulsion with the shuttle. God! Are we going to stop wasting all this money on old tech and start digging in the work Lockheed and SAIC and all those companies have black-shelved?

Forbidden Archeology Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOKDIp282h8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7ADowMKXEE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6cbH9ilhjQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO2_ieNi5q0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YPYMNPG25I

Fat Kills Cancer: Turning Stem Cells Taken from Fat Tissue into Personalized, Cancer-Targeted Therapeutics

Newswise — Researchers in Slovakia have been able to derive mesenchymal stem cells from human adipose, or fat, tissue and engineer them into “suicide genes” that seek out and destroy tumors like tiny homing missiles. This gene therapy approach is a novel way to attack small tumor metastases that evade current detection techniques and treatments, the researchers conclude in the July 1 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

“These fat-derived stem cells could be exploited for personalized cell-based therapeutics,” said the study’s lead investigator, Cestmir Altaner, Ph.D., D.Sc., an associate professor in the Cancer Research Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. “Nearly everyone has some fat tissue they can spare, and this tissue could be a source of cells for cancer treatment that can be adapted into specific vehicles for drug transport.”

Mesenchymal stem cells help repair damaged tissue and organs by renewing injured cells. They are also found in the mass of normal cells that mix with cancer cells to make up a solid tumor. Researchers believe mesenchymal stem cells “see” a tumor as a damaged organ and migrate to it, and so might be utilized as a “vehicle” for treatment that can find both primary tumors and small metastases. These stem cells also have some plasticity, which means they can be converted by the micro environment of a given tissue into specialized cells, Altaner says.

After extracting the stem cells from human fat tissue the researchers worked to find a less toxic way to treat colon cancer than the standard-of-care chemotherapy agent, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), which can produce toxic side effects in normal cells. They expanded the number of mesenchymal stem cells in the laboratory and then used a retrovirus vector to insert the gene cytosine deaminase into the cell. This gene can convert a less toxic drug, 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC), to 5-FU inside the stem cells, and the chemotherapy can then seep out into the tumor, producing a lethal by-stander effect. …

(Full story: http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/531252/?sc=dwhn)
(Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_cell)

Brain Scans Reveal Why Meditation Works

Melinda Wenner
Special to LiveScience
LiveScience.com

If you name your emotions, you can tame them, according to new research that suggests why meditation works.

Brain scans show that putting negative emotions into words calms the brain’s emotion center. That could explain meditation’s purported emotional benefits, because people who meditate often label their negative emotions in an effort to “let them go.”

Psychologists have long believed that people who talk about their feelings have more control over them, but they don’t know why it works.

UCLA psychologist Matthew Lieberman and his colleagues hooked 30 people up to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machines, which scan the brain to reveal which parts are active and inactive at any given moment.

They asked the subjects to look at pictures of male or female faces making emotional expressions. Below some of the photos was a choice of words describing the emotion—such as “angry” or “fearful”—or two possible names for the people in the pictures, one male name and one female name.

When presented with these choices, the subjects were asked to pick the most appropriate emotion or gender-appropriate name to fit the face they saw.

When the participants chose labels for the negative emotions, activity in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex region—an area associated with thinking in words about emotional experiences—became more active, whereas activity in the amygdala, a brain region involved in emotional processing, was calmed.

By contrast, when the subjects picked appropriate names for the faces, the brain scans revealed none of these changes—indicating that only emotional labeling makes a difference.

“In the same way you hit the brake when you’re driving when you see a yellow light, when you put feelings into words, you seem to be hitting the brakes on your emotional responses,” Lieberman said of his study, which is detailed in the current issue of Psychological Science.

In a second experiment, 27 of the same subjects completed questionnaires to determine how “mindful” they are.

Meditation and other “mindfulness” techniques are designed to help people pay more attention to their present emotions, thoughts and sensations without reacting strongly to them. Meditators often acknowledge and name their negative emotions in order to “let them go.”

When the team compared brain scans from subjects who had more mindful dispositions to those from subjects who were less mindful, they found a stark difference—the mindful subjects experienced greater activation in the right ventrolateral prefrontral cortex and a greater calming effect in the amygdala after labeling their emotions.

“These findings may help explain the beneficial health effects of mindfulness meditation, and suggest, for the first time, an underlying reason why mindfulness meditation programs improve mood and health,” said David Creswell, a UCLA psychologist who led the second part of the study, which will be detailed in Psychosomatic Medicine.

(Source: http://news.yahoo.com)
(Original: http://www.livescience.com/health/070629_naming_emotions.html)

The Ocean -Our Power Future

From The Daily Galaxy
News from Planet Earth & Beyond
by Casey Kazan Daily Galaxy
Editorial Staff

Seventy one percent of our planet is covered by one of the most powerful forces known to us; and we’re having a power crisis. A multitude of major cities are situated on coastlines and in bays thanks to centuries old needs to control shipping ports; and we’re having a power crisis. Tsunamis and hurricanes have devastated countries from impoverished South East Asia to the pinnacle of wasted power, the United States of America; and we’re still having a power crisis.

Thankfully though, cities and scientists the world round are finally beginning to grasp the scope of the crisis, and step up to the plate.

Early June of this year saw the reporting of America’s first Tidal Power installation. Such an installation is eerily similar to that of wind turbines, except situated atop the ocean bed. The relative inconsistency of wind patterns is thus negated, when dealing with the steady currents of the ocean floor. The New York installation, situated in the East River near Roosevelt Island, currently consists of six 35-killowatt turbines; however plans for 100 turbines are anticipated for this location.

San Francisco is also jumping on the hydro-power bandwagon, with a $1.5 million study to determine where the best location for a Tidal Power installation of their own would be. The City of San Francisco and their electrical utility, PG&E, are teaming up to create a station that could provide anywhere up to 400 megawatts of power.
In a different spin, Norwegian energy group Norsk Hydro and German engineering firm Siemens are teaming up to create the world’s first floating wind turbine. Planned to be in operation in the North Sea by 2009, a floating wind turbine station would essentially quell all issues that skeptics have with the controversial power generation systems.

Birds migratory routes would not be impacted, they would be away from human eyes, and the obvious benefits of a cut in the use of fossil fuels are all benefits that will make the $33.64 million price tag seem reasonable. And though its implementation is two years behind the original plan, both companies are hoping for a wind farm somewhere in 2013-14 if all funding is acquired.

Could this finally be the swing towards the ‘green’ thinking that is needed to keep humans, and our planet alive? One can only hope so.

New, Revised Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Take your mind back to your early education, and tell me what galaxy it is that our Solar System inhabits? Your answer is, naturally, the Milky Way galaxy. However everything is not as it seems, according to a study coming out of the University of Massachusetts.

What they learned is that we’re not from the Milky Way galaxy, we come from the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy!

The Two-Micron All Sky Survey, also known as 2MASS, was a massive astronomical undertaking to map the night sky. Begun in 1997 and completed in 2001, two telescopes (Mt. Hopkins Arizona in the Northern Hemisphere and Cerro Tololo/CTIO Chile in the Southern Hemisphere) targeted the night sky to catalogue all detected stars and galaxies.

The University of Massachusetts study has used the considerable data collected by 2MASS, and finally deciphered why it is that the Milky Way appears sideway in our night sky. The reason for this phenomenon will cause a massive shift in thinking and teaching; we’re not from the Milky Way galaxy, we come from the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy.

Scientists have long been baffled by the sideways appearance of the Milky Way in our night sky, for if we were indeed a part of the Milky Way, everything would have been aligned accordingly, just as we are aligned with the 8 other planets in our system and our sun. The fact of the matter is the Milky Way galaxy is slowly but surely eating our own Sagittarius galaxy.

“We sifted several thousand interesting stars from a catalog of half a billion,” said co-author Michael Skrutskie, U.Va., professor of astronomy and principal investigator for the 2MASS project. “By tuning our maps of the sky to the ‘right’ kind of star, the Sagittarius system jumped into view.”

We’re not the only captives in this galactic struggle. Stars and star-clusters inhabiting the outer parts of the Milky Way galaxy have also been stolen by the larger of the two galaxies, drawn in by its significantly greater gravity. In fact, we are witnessing the end of a 2 billion year meal, in which the Milky Way has slowly consumed the smaller galaxy, and it looks as if Sagittarius has reached the end. “We are seeing Sagittarius at the very end of its life as an intact system,” said 2MASS Science Team member and study co-author Martin Weinberg of the University of Massachusetts.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said it best, when he said that “… things are not what they seem.”

(Source: http://viewzone.com/milkyway.html & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2MASS)

New, Revised Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Take your mind back to your early education, and tell me what galaxy it is that our Solar System inhabits? Your answer is, naturally, the Milky Way galaxy. However everything is not as it seems, according to a study coming out of the University of Massachusetts.

What they learned is that we’re not from the Milky Way galaxy, we come from the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy!

The Two-Micron All Sky Survey, also known as 2MASS, was a massive astronomical undertaking to map the night sky. Begun in 1997 and completed in 2001, two telescopes (Mt. Hopkins Arizona in the Northern Hemisphere and Cerro Tololo/CTIO Chile in the Southern Hemisphere) targeted the night sky to catalogue all detected stars and galaxies.

The University of Massachusetts study has used the considerable data collected by 2MASS, and finally deciphered why it is that the Milky Way appears sideway in our night sky. The reason for this phenomenon will cause a massive shift in thinking and teaching; we’re not from the Milky Way galaxy, we come from the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy.

Scientists have long been baffled by the sideways appearance of the Milky Way in our night sky, for if we were indeed a part of the Milky Way, everything would have been aligned accordingly, just as we are aligned with the 8 other planets in our system and our sun. The fact of the matter is the Milky Way galaxy is slowly but surely eating our own Sagittarius galaxy.

“We sifted several thousand interesting stars from a catalog of half a billion,” said co-author Michael Skrutskie, U.Va., professor of astronomy and principal investigator for the 2MASS project. “By tuning our maps of the sky to the ‘right’ kind of star, the Sagittarius system jumped into view.”

We’re not the only captives in this galactic struggle. Stars and star-clusters inhabiting the outer parts of the Milky Way galaxy have also been stolen by the larger of the two galaxies, drawn in by its significantly greater gravity. In fact, we are witnessing the end of a 2 billion year meal, in which the Milky Way has slowly consumed the smaller galaxy, and it looks as if Sagittarius has reached the end. “We are seeing Sagittarius at the very end of its life as an intact system,” said 2MASS Science Team member and study co-author Martin Weinberg of the University of Massachusetts.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said it best, when he said that “… things are not what they seem.”

(Source: http://viewzone.com/milkyway.html & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2MASS)

“Playing God” – Scientists in Final Stage of Creating Man-made Life

Dr Craig Venter, who has led the private sector effort to sequence the human genome, has been working for years to create a man-made organism. He says his company Synthetic Genomics Inc, has nearly completed the journey to create the world’s first free-living artificial organism. According to Venter, it will only be a few more weeks before manmade life is unveiled in his very own laboratory. “It will be one of the bright milestones in human history, changing our conceptual view of life.” Said Venter.

Others have a less “bright” view of Venter’s work—they say it could be potentially dangerous. It has been suggested that this type of technology could turn out to be the scary side of “playing God”, since it invariably suggests the chance that dangerous organisms could be inadvertently (or purposefully) unleashed on a world unprepared to deal with the consequences. Because there is no precedence, scientists don’t know for sure what kind of negative impact is possible.

While control measures have been suggested, such as using software to spot purchases of DNA sequences that could be used as weapons, there is no comprehensive regulation in the field of synthetic life. Watchdogs say we’re taking a big gamble that the science will stay a step ahead of nefarious uses.

Even if artificial biology could be kept under control and appropriately monitored—something many say is near impossible—activists and researchers are concerned that the technology may be exclusively locked up for commercial gain.

Synthetic Genomics Inc, has filed controversial patents on synthetic bugs that would make fuels such as ethanol or hydrogen, and likely make a lot of money for those involved, as well. It has also filed an international application at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) which names more than 100 countries where the institute may seek monopoly patents.

The J Craig Venter Institute’s US patent application claims exclusive ownership of a set of essential genes and a synthetic “free-living organism that can grow and replicate” made using those particular genes.

In early June, the ETC Group, a watchdog organization based in Canada, which monitors developments in biotechnology, launched a campaign against Venter’s patent application. They called on patent offices to reject applications on life forms. ETC’s Jim Thomas says that Venter’s company is poised to become the “Microbesoft” of synthetic biology.

The company announced a deal June 13 with energy giant BPPLC to identify and modify naturally occurring microbes with the capability to turn coal or oil below the earth’s surface into cleaner fuel. Microorganisms “have the potential to provide all the transportation fuel we need in the U.S.,” says Venter. “I joke that I’m going from the gene king to the oil king.” The thing is, no one really thinks he’s joking.

Venter says he’s been expecting attacks on his work. “Patents are a hot word, and people are afraid of synthetic organisms.” He says this research is merely the “tip if the iceberg”, and future possibilities include bugs that clean up pollution, or signal when they detect explosives.

Indeed, the technology may end up providing beneficial solutions to some of the planet’s biggest problems, and Venter has won kudos for bringing together a panel of bioethicists, religious leaders, and biowarfare experts to study the issues. The consensus for that particular group was that the research shouldn’t be stopped, but that synthetic organisms must be controlled and contained.

According to Venter, Environmental groups shouldn’t be fighting his work, but rather be “ecstatic about what we are doing, since we provide one of the clear alternatives to burning oil and coal.”

Very few would argue that there are no potential goods coming out of this type of work, but experts strongly caution that the potential negative consequences cannot be ignored.

“While creating new life may not be playing God,” says Arthur L. Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, “it has revolutionary implications for how we see ourselves. When we can synthesize life, it makes the notion of a living being less special.” And there’s a perception that synthetic biologists may be “manipulating nature without knowing where they are going.” he says. “There are arrogant scientists, and our friend Venter may be one of them.”

(Source: http://www.dailygalaxy.com)

This wouldn’t bother me if our spirituality evolution would have followed our technological advancement. But we know pretty darn well, what this is going to be used for, first…I’m going to let your imagination carry you with this thought.

Most Massive Star Discovered

Most Massive Star Discovered By Andrea Thompson Staff Writer posted: 07 June 2007 12:59 pm ET

The most massive star known in the universe has been discovered and “weighed,” astronomers announced today.

The star, part of a binary system, topped the scales at 114 times the mass of the sun.

Though astronomers suspected that stars with masses up to 150 times the mass of the sun must exist, this discovery marks the first time a star has broken the 100-solar-mass barrier. The previous record holder was only a measly 83 solar masses.

The newly weighed star, known simply as A1, is the brightest hot star at the heart of a giant, but dense, young star cluster called NGC 3603, which lies 20,000 light-years from Earth. The star’s companion has a mass 84 times that of the sun.

These massive stars were “weighed” by inspecting their orbits with the Very Large Telescope and combining that data with eclipses observed by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Stars have a mass limit of 150 solar masses because above that, the pressure pushing outward from the star overwhelms the inward pull of gravity and causes the star to become unstable.

In the early universe, however, stars with masses up to several hundred times that of the sun are believed to have existed because the pressure in the stars was not as high because the heavier elements had not yet been “cooked” by the nuclear fusion taking place in the cores of stars.

The discovery was announced at the annual meeting of the Canadian Astronomical Society.

(Source: http://www.space.com)