Tag: science

Government scientist investigating mystery brain disease ‘banned’ from researching outbreak – stoking fears of a cover-up

A top scientist who advises the Canadian Government said he was blocked from studying a freak outbreak of a mysterious and deadly brain illness in young adults and teenagers. 

More than 200 New Brunswick residents have bizarrely developed a dementia-like disorder that causes vivid hallucinations, an inability to talk and write, memory lapses and even physical paralysis.

While the disease has baffled doctors, local health officials put the outbreak down to misdiagnosis, concluding that most patients in fact suffered common illnesses like dementia and cancer. 

Now, damning evidence has come to light that suggests health chiefs may have purposefully blocked investigations into other potential causes — namely, exposure to toxic pesticides. 

In leaked emails sent between Dr Michael Coulthart, a microbiologist, and members of Canada’s public health agency (PHAC), Dr Coulthart said he was ‘essentially cut off’ from being involved in the research.

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Scientists Used CRISPR Gene Editing to Make Chickens Resist Bird Flu — Here’s What Happened

Scientists who used the gene-editing technology CRISPR to create chickens resistant to avian influenza also showed how quickly a dangerous bird flu could mutate from laboratory chickens to humans, critics of a new study in the journal Nature Communications told The Defender.

The authors of the study, led by researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, altered the genetic code of 10 chickens to make them resistant to a bird-flu virus and then exposed them to the virus.

They also included 10 chickens in the study that were not genetically altered. All 10 chickens not genetically altered got sick when they were exposed to the virus. Only one of the genetically altered chickens got sick with the bird flu.

Altering a species’ DNA “promises a new way to make permanent changes in the disease resistance of an animal,” University of Edinburgh embryologist Mike McGrew, Ph.D., an author of the study, said at an Oct. 5 news briefing announcing the peer-reviewed research.

“This can be passed down through all the gene-edited animals, to all the offspring.”

According to the study, “Chickens genetically resistant to avian influenza could prevent future outbreaks. … Breeding for resistance and resilience to disease has significant potential in farmed poultry,” freeing farmers from routinely having to vaccinate birds.

But Jonathan Latham, executive director of the Bioscience Resource Project, who has a master’s degree in crop genetics and a Ph.D. in virology, told The Defender,

“The experiments were ultimately a failure of ‘the operation was a success but the patient died’ variety.”

When the 10 genetically altered chickens were exposed to a much higher dose of bird flu — more in line with what the chickens could be exposed to in nature or a factory farm setting — five of the 10 chickens developed the flu.

Virus samples collected from the infected, genetically altered birds showed the virus had made several mutations that seemed to allow it to bind to the ANP32A protein to replicate in the chickens, the study reported.

The virus also mutated a workaround to bind to two other related proteins for replication.

Worse yet, according to Latham, mutations also helped the virus replicate more efficiently in human cells.

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Gain-of-Function May Explain Bird Flu Jump To Cows And Humans

In the past six months, bird flu has surprised scientists at least twice.

Bird flu viruses have circulated mainly in birds for a long time. However, in early December 2023, an outbreak occurred in U.S. dairy cows, even though cattle are not typically susceptible to avian influenza A, the bird flu virus.

In late March, a U.S. dairy farm worker was infected by a H5N1 virus from a cow.

On May 22, a second human case of H5N1 infection was reported with prior exposure to infected dairy cows in Michigan.

On the same day in May, an Australian child was infected by an H7 strain,  another subtype of influenza A  known to cause human infections.

Since bird flu infections in humans are rare, these incidents have raised significant concern among scientists.

Why is this happening, and how concerned should we be?

This article aims to avoid unnecessary fear about a potential future pandemic. Instead, we encourage people to think rationally and make appropriate adjustments for the future.

Rapid Spread in Birds

The history of the H5N1 virus family can be traced back to 1996 when it was first discovered in a sick goose in the Guangdong province of China.

H5N1 has evolved, resulting in different genetic lineages (clades) as they mutate, similar to a typical pattern of behavior for RNA viruses such as the ever-emerging COVID-19 variants. In 2013, the H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b emerged. Since then, it has spread rapidly to nearly 100 countries across Asia, Europe, Africa, and America, becoming the most dominant clade and causing significant losses to the poultry industry.

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Chinese scientists create 90% lethal Ebola-like virus to study eye disorders

Chinese scientists have genetically modified a virus that imitates Ebola infection. This virus has caused severe eye ulcers and ultimately wiped out an entire group of hamsters.

Researchers are hopeful that this study will aid in the research of Ebola-related eye disorders.

In this study, vesicular stomatitis, typically found in livestock, was harboring the Ebola virus. When they gave it to the hamsters, the entire group died after the ulcers in their eyes worsened.

New model reveals promising insights into Ebola virus research

Vesicular stomatitis (VSV), carries a part of the Ebola virus called glycoprotein (GP). It helps the virus to enter and infect the cells. Five female and five male hamsters that were up to three weeks old died within three days.

They showed symptoms similar to those in Ebola patients, such as weight loss, multi-organ failure, severe eye inflammation, and ulcers. Additionally, the hamsters had high levels of the virus in their bodies.

Scientists are optimistic that this new model could help in future research on Ebola-related eye disorders. “All animals died within 2-3 days after infection,” the researchers observed, noting that this model could be useful for testing Ebola vaccines.

According to the scientists, this model allowed for quick preclinical testing of Ebola virus countermeasures in BSL-2 conditions.

They added, “This surrogate model is a safe, effective, and cost-efficient tool for rapid preclinical evaluation of medical countermeasures against the Ebola virus under BSL-2 conditions. It has the potential to accelerate technological advances and breakthroughs in combating Ebola virus disease.”

More accessible to researchers for studying

The Ebola virus causes internal bleeding and tissue damage and is spread by direct contact with infected body fluids, such as blood or sweat, or by touching contaminated objects. This is significant because studying Ebola requires expensive and high-level biological security, like that in BSL-4 facilities.

As a result, the virus has been less accessible to scientists. According to the scientists, the development of countermeasures against EBOV has been hindered by the lack of ideal animal models. The reason was that EBOV requires handling in BSL-4 facilities.

In the study, they also analyzed the influence of the virus. They found that the virus had accumulated in critical tissues. Like for example the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, intestines, and brain. As the study showed, the highest viral loads were found in the liver, and the lowest levels were found in the brain.

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Top Medical Journal Slaps Down Scientific American’s Laura Helmuth For Unscientific Trans Activism

In a shot across the bow against Scientific American’s continued descent into unscientific twaddle, a BMJ investigation documented over a dozen social media posts by editor-in-chief Laura Helmuth promoting transgender care for children, despite scientific evidence showing such treatment has had “devastating consequences” for minors.

“Laws preventing trans kids from getting gender-affirming treatment are dangerous and abusive, as well as against all medical evidence,” Helmuth posted on X in late 2022, one of many examples that The BMJ sent to Scientific American and its publisher Springer Nature, asking them to explain Helmuth’s trans advocacy which runs contrary to medical evidence.

In other social media posts, Helmuth has labeled critics of dangerous trans gender medicine for children “biased,” “bigoted,” “antiscience,” “misinformation,” “cruel,” and compared them to Nazis.

Last year, Helmut promoted false news in Scientific American that argued, “The research is clear and all the relevant medical organizations agree: Gender-affirming care is evidence-based & medically necessary & leads to much better outcomes for trans kids than refusing them care.”

Six days later, The BMJ released an investigation of new research finding that the evidence for trans gender care for children lacked evidence and that medical authorities were urging caution.

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We have every reason to mistrust the “scientific community” but does that mean viruses don’t exist?

In the context of the covid-19 “pandemic,” many people have come to understand that political and scientific authorities have been systematically lying about the origin of the infectious agent, as well as the need for and the safety of mandatory countermeasures, including lock-downs, masks and vaccines. Some sceptics have gone further and begun to question the existence of the virus responsible for covid-19, or even of viruses and pathogenic germs altogether. Here, we put these questions in perspective.

Before we go into any specifics on germs and viruses, we should acknowledge that the public has ample reason to mistrust not only politicians, public officials and the media, but also the “scientific community.” Even before the covid-19 pandemic, several very senior members of that community had drawn attention to the deplorable state of scientific integrity in medical research. Particularly poignant is this quote by a former editor-in-chief of one of the world’s leading medical journals, Marcia Agnell [1]:

It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.

Agnell’s assessment is echoed by The Lancet’s editor Richard Horton [1], leading epidemiologist John Ioannidis [2], and Bruce Charlton, former editor of Medical Hypotheses [3]. And, to be sure, this already precarious state declined even further in the covid-19 “pandemic.” Here are some of the lies regarding covid-19 that were told alike by politicians and their scientific court jesters the world over:

  • the SARS-CoV-2 virus is of natural origin and jumped spontaneously from bats or pangolins to humans;
  • PCR-testing of asymptomatic patients is an appropriate means for tracking the spread of covid-19;
  • the early covid-19 waves threatened to overload the healthcare system to such a degree that it became necessary to destroy the economy in order to “flatten the curve”;
  • general vaccination was necessary to overcome the pandemic;
  • even though the vaccines were “safe and effective,” vaccinated persons were still at risk of being infected by unvaccinated individuals (but not by other vaccinated ones).

These absurd and brazen lies have been dealt with elsewhere, for example by cardiologist Dr. Thomas Binder [4]. We only cite them here to make it clear that we sympathise in principle with the radically sceptical attitude of much of the public. Nevertheless, we think that in some cases this radical scepticism has been taken too far and that the proverbial baby has been thrown out with the bathwater. To support our case, we will survey some of the history of “germ theory” of infectious disease.

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“FOO FIGHTER” EXPERIMENTAL FIRE CONTROL SATELLITE PROGRAM TO DEVELOP NEW GROUND SYSTEM PRIOR TO OFFICIAL LAUNCH

The Space Development Agency (SDA) has announced it is moving forward with the development of a ground system infrastructure for its experimental “FOO Fighter” fire control satellites.

Boeing’s Millennium Space Systems is developing the Fire-Control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter, or FOO Fighter (F2) system. The system will involve an array of eight prototype satellites capable of high-fidelity tracking of adversary missiles and providing precise coordinates to missile defense interceptors.

The program “will accelerate the ability to provide fire-control in support of global detection, warning, and precision tracking of advanced missile threats, including hypersonic missile systems,” according to a draft solicitation released by the SDA last fall. “The F2 system will demonstrate advanced missile defense capability by incorporating fire control-quality sensors into a prototype constellation,” the solicitation adds.

This week, it was revealed that the first request for proposals for the experimental satellites is set to be released on June 18, according to SDA Director Derek Tournear, who spoke with reporters on May 24. The proposal request was first reported by Breaking Defense.

According to its current timelines, the SDA plans to solicit proposals for contractors to develop and manage the ground system backbone for the FOO Fighter program. This initiative marks a significant step toward advancing the U.S.’s satellite-based missile defense capabilities.

Tournear explained on Friday that a pre-RFP announcement had been posted on the SAM.gov website, detailing the SDA’s solicitation for an integrator to develop and manage the ground system for the FOO Fighter program.

The first solicitation, called the “Advanced Fire Control Ground Integration,” is looking for contractors to lay the groundwork for the program through the establishment of a developmental operations center (DOC) at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.

The development of the system’s DOC will include the construction of ground entry points for data downlinks, cloud hosting for computing, and providing the IT resources that will support the FOO Fighter program during its initial stages, as well as later providing support for other fire control demonstrations.

This will be followed by a second solicitation, the “Advanced Fire Control Mission Integration” (AFCMI), later this summer. This solicitation will secure a contractor to oversee ground-based operations for the management of incoming data from the FOO Fighter and future demonstrations, helping to propel the program toward eventual use with military operators.

Originally, the SDA had envisioned hiring a sole contractor to oversee all of the program’s demonstration satellites under the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Futures Program (PFP). This included the T1DES (Tranche 1 Demonstration and Experimentation System) project and the T2DES (Transport Layer Tranche 2).

Following additional feedback from industry stakeholders, an additional draft solicitation was issued last month, prompting SDA to take a slightly different approach.

The April 30 solicitation announced an award “using Other Transaction Authority (OTA) with a total potential value of approximately $414 million to build eight satellites, for launch in first quarter fiscal year 2027,” revealing that the fixed-price agreement had been awarded to California-based Millennium Space Systems, Inc.

“The FOO Fighter program will provide an operational demonstration of fire control efforts separate from, but complementary to, our missile warning/missile tracking and missile defense efforts already underway in the tranches,” Tournear said, accompanying the solicitation’s release.

“We look forward to working with Millennium, a new teammate in the expanding marketplace of performers innovating to deliver the PWSA for the warfighter,” Tournear said.

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World’s first bioprocessor uses 16 human brain organoids for ‘a million times less power’ consumption than a digital chip

A Swiss biocomputing startup has launched an online platform that provides remote access to 16 human brain organoids. FinalSpark’s Neuroplatform is claimed to be the world’s first online platform delivering access to biological neurons in vitro. Moreover, bioprocessors like this are claimed to “consume a million times less power than traditional digital processors.”

FinalSpark says its Neuroplatform is capable of learning and processing information, and due to its low power consumption could reduce the environmental impacts of computing. In a recent research paper about its developments, it claims that training a single LLM like GPT-3 required approximately 10GWh – about 6,000 times greater energy consumption than the average European citizen uses in a whole year. Such energy expenditure could be massively cut following the successful deployment of bioprocessors. 

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World’s first transgenic cow can produce human insulin in her milk

Diabetes happens when the body doesn’t have enough insulin, also called Type 1 diabetes, where the body’s own immune system damages cells in our body’s insulin-making machine called the pancreas.

Diabetes can also happen when the body gets insulin but doesn’t know how to use this insulin properly. This is called Type 2 diabetes, where the body becomes resistant to insulin, and the pancreas can’t make enough to keep up.

Both lead to high blood sugar levels

Although scientists have found ways to make insulin using different methods, such as E coli and yeast, researchers at the University of Illinois aim to make insulin in cow’s milk.

This is because they produce much milk, and milk is an everyday product in most homes. 

The researchers explain in their paper that they used special techniques to put human insulin genes into cow cells so that the cows produce milk containing human insulin. This milk can, in turn, make insulin for people.

“Mother Nature designed the mammary gland as a factory to make protein really, really efficiently. We can take advantage of that system to produce a protein that can help hundreds of millions of people worldwide,” said Matt Wheeler, professor of biotechnology and developmental biology at the University of Illinois and co-author of the study.

Wheeler and his team used somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), which was previously used to create transgenic animals, like sheep, cows, and pigs, that can produce specific proteins, like insulin. 

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Mothers Exposed to Fluoride Birth Brain Damaged Babies — Study

A study published Wednesday has found that pregnant women with higher levels of the drug fluoride in their bodies give birth to children with higher rates of neurological-based behavioral problems.

“These findings suggest that prenatal fluoride exposure may increase risk of neurobehavioral problems among children living in an optimally fluoridated area in the US,” the study said in the ‘Meaning’ section.

The data indicates that with certain levels of fluoride, mothers basically double the risk of having clinically-damaged, misbehaving children. This is the first study on U.S. specific outcomes of prenatal fluoride exposure and the effects it has on children’s neurobehavioral outcomes.

“In this cohort study of 229 pregnant women and their children, a 0.68 mg/L (ie, 1 IQR) increase in specific gravity–adjusted maternal urinary fluoride during pregnancy was associated with nearly double the odds of T scores for total child neurobehavioral problems being in the borderline clinical or clinical range,” the study said in the ‘Findings’ section.

The importance of this study stems from the fact that other research out of Canada and Mexico has indicated that children exposed to fluoride in the womb have poorer neurodevelopment characteristics than non-fluoridated children. This study specifically looks at the U.S. population.

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