November 6, 2012

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Johnson & Johnson Owns Up To Deadly Formaldehyde-Containing Products In Wake Of Bacteria Scandal

August 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Originally posted by Jonathan Benson on NaturalNews.com, August 22, 2012

After struggling to maintain its image following a barrage of product recalls and safety scares, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has announced that it plans to reformulate not only its entire line of children’s personal care products, but also many of its adult personal care products, to remove a number of chemicals and chemical byproducts that have been the topic of public concern in recent years.

By 2015, virtually all J&J consumer care products will be free of preservative chemicals that release methylene glycol, the alcohol form of formaldehyde, which has been identified as a cancer-causing agent. J&J also plans to remove preservative chemicals that produce 1,4 dioxane, a chemical also linked to causing cancer.

“There’s a very lively public discussion going on about the safety of ingredients in personal care products, (and) it was really important that we had a voice in that,” said Susan Nettesheim, J&J’s Vice President for Product Stewardship. Though Nettesheim insists that the existing chemicals used in J&J products are safe, she also says her company is trying to respond to the concerns of its customers.

J&J has even created a website dedicated to this transition to new product formulations, many of which will take place even sooner than 2015, at least in products designed for children and babies. The site, entitled Our Safety & Care Commitment, explains how the company will eventually phase out phthalates, triclosan, parabens, fragrances, and many other questionable chemicals from its product lines in years to come.

“We’ve never really seen a major personal care product company take the kind of move that they’re taking with this,” said Kenneth A. Cook, President of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), about J&J’s decision to be an industry leader in this particular area. Cook even expressed a bit of surprise that a company as large as J&J has decided to take on the incredible, and quite costly, task of reformulating even its signature formulas, to which many people have grown accustomed.

In the process of phasing out its questionable ingredients, J&J says it plans to conduct extensive research on potential alternative ingredients to ensure their safety. When all is said and done, only a few J&J products will still contain trace levels of formaldehyde and 1,4 dioxane, as well as certain fragrance chemicals. Most J&J products; however, will eventually be free of phthalates, triclosan, parabens, and formaldehyde.

“We want to share our policies and plans in a forum that is designed to help consumers better understand what we do to ensure that the products they choose are as safe as can be,” added Nettesheim.

Sources:

https://www.naturalnews.com/036906_Johnson_&_formaldehyde_bacteria.html

https://www.jnj.com

https://www.nytimes.com

https://www.naturalnews.com/034846_Johnson_&_baby_lotion_bacteria.html

Filed Under: Big Pharma, Cancer, Chemistry, Health, Safety, Science

Hover Bike: Star Wars Technology Brought To Life

August 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Originally posted by EndTheLie.com

Image from www.aerofex.com

California-based firm Aerofex created an aerial vehicle with two ducted rotors instead of wheels, which originates from a design abandoned in the 1960s because of stability and rollover problems.

The aerospace firm managed to fix the stability issue by creating a mechanical system — controlled by two control bars at knee-level — that allows the vehicle to respond to a human pilot’s leaning movements and natural sense of balance, Innovation News daily reports.

“Think of it as lowering the threshold of flight, down to the domain of ATV’s [all-terrain vehicles],” said Mark De Roche, an aerospace engineer and founder of Aerofex.

The hover bike does not require special training and could become a useful tool in agriculture, border control and search-and-rescue operations.

“Imagine personal flight as intuitive as riding a bike,” reads the firm’s website. “Or transporting a small fleet of first-responder craft in the belly of a passenger transport. Think of the advantages of patrolling borders without first constructing roads.”

Aerofex does not plan on initially developing and selling a human version of the hover vehicle and instead plans to use the aerial vehicle as a test platform for unmanned drones.

Source: https://EndtheLie.com/2012/08/22/hover-bike-star-wars-technology-brought-to-life-video

Filed Under: Science, Technology

Argentinian Study Finds Roundup Ingredient Causes Birth Defects

August 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Originally posted by Elizabeth Renter on NaturalSociety.com, August 17, 2012

A study out of Buenos Aires has found that glyphosate, an herbicide created by Monsanto, and used on GMO soy in Argentina, could cause birth defects in unborn children. The most interesting thing about this revelation is that the herbicide known as glyphosate in Argentina, is also known to be connected with Roundup in the U.S.

Roundup Ingredient Shown to Cause Birth Defects

According to the Latin American Herald Tribune, researchers with the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research conducted the study on amphibian embryos. The lead researcher says their results are “completely comparable to what would happen in the development of a human embryo.”

“The noteworthy thing is that there are no studies of embryos on the world level and none where glyphosate is injected into embryos,” said professor Andres Carrasco, one of the lead authors of the study.

The amounts shown to cause birth defects were said to be much lower than those levels used in fumigations. However, it’s important to note that the glyphosate was injected directly into the fetuses, not administered via food products, as it would be in humans.

Still, it’s possible, because our food feeds our cells, which in turn would feed an embryo, that digestion of foods containing the chemical would have similar, though perhaps not as dramatic effects. And of course this isn’t the only time glyphosate and Monsanto’s Roundup has been shown to cause birth defects.

GMO soy is Argentina’s leading crop. They are the world’s third largest exporter, and they use between 180 and 200 million liters of glyphosate annually. In agricultural regions, where the spraying of this Monsanto chemical is common, numerous cancers have shown up that are being associated with it.

A district called Ituzaingo, outside of Cordoba, has seen about 300 cancer cases in the last eight years. This district houses only about 5,000 people.

“In communities like Ituzaingo it’s already too late, but we have to have a preventative system, to demand that the companies give us security frameworks and, above all, to have very strict regulations for fumigation, which nobody is adhering to out of ignorance or greed,” said Carrasco.

Carrasco, and others, are calling on the government of Argentina to fund more in-depth research into the effects of glyphosate on humans. He says, “The companies say that drinking a glass of glysophate is healthier than drinking a glass of milk, but the fact is that they’ve used us as guinea pigs.”

Sources:

https://naturalsociety.com/argentinian-roundup-ingredient-causes-birth-defects/#ixzz24qrIcFwU

Laht.com

Filed Under: Argentina, Big Pharma, Cancer, Chemistry, Food, Health, Monsanto, Science

Giant Mega Corporation, URS Corporation, Runs Monsanto’s World HQ, Trains Troops

August 27, 2012 By 1 Comment

Special Thanks to the team at Exposing The Truth for compiling information

Monsanto’s World HQ in St. Louis, Missouri - from urscorp.com

I did a search for Monsanto’s World HQ and came upon this page.

“URS provides complete facilities management services in support of Monsanto’s world headquarters.” They (URS Corporation) have a network of offices in nearly 50 countries and provide national, state and local government services to a myriad of countries, as well as private sector services worldwide.

Who is URS Corporation?

They build weapons and train troops. “URS manages and operates government installations, military bases and laboratories.”

They help run Kennedy Space Center, where NASA is based, and work with Kennedy to “develop and execute the ‘Master Plan.’” Recently a new master plan was developed in which it was decided that NASA will sell in to the private sector.

According to Trey Carlson, Master Planner for Kennedy Space Center, one of the themes of the new “Future Development Concept” is “to adopt new business practices allowing companies and outside organizations to make investments in the center to operate their enterprises.”

“It is very challenging making the transition from a government program focused primarily on a single crewed spacecraft to a multiuser program.”

An artist rendering of the new headquarters building for NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. - nasa.gov

According to URS Corporation, they “provide vital services for every facet of daily operations at the Kennedy Space Center.”

As one of the goals of the new plan is “to build new facilities that are economically and environmentally sustainable,” it would stand to reason that URS Corporation are involved in that facet.

They are “one of the largest contractors serving the food, beverage and consumer products industries and have engineered and constructed more pulp and paper mill facilities than any other contractor.” They constructed the Hoover Dam in the 1930′s.

“Through a joint venture with Alberici Constructors, URS is building one of the world’s largest cement plants for Holcim (US) Inc.”

They “are one of the few companies globally that offer wholly integrated services spanning the full project life cycle for the mining industry” and “are the only North American contractor—and one of only four globally—to offer operations and maintenance services.”

They “have engineered more than 250,000 megawatts of electricity worldwide—more than any other contractor and equivalent to almost one-fourth of the current generating capacity in the United States. ”

“URS has provided planning, engineering or construction services for virtually every nuclear power plant operating in the United States today”

In regards to fossil fuels, they have “experience in dealing with all major suppliers in this industry.”

On oil, they “are a leading provider of design, construction and production services across the upstream, midstream and downstream supply chain” (That’s drilling, pipe-lining and refining). Since purchasing Flint Energy Services (now URS Flint) for $1.25 billion in February of 2012, they now service ” every major active North American oil and gas basin.”

They have ” longstanding relationships with the world’s leading petrochemical and specialty chemical companies.”

They “operate approximately 300 miles of toll roads in the United States” and “have design and construction experience on every type of highway, bridge, tunnel and interchange.”

They were responsible for the “Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit project—the first design-build-operate-maintain transit project in the United States” in which they “are now providing operations and maintenance under a 20-year contract.” Upon further exploration, I noticed the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail is actually operated by 21st Century Rail Corporation. Then I noticed that the $1.9 billion 20 year contract was actually awarded to 21st Century Rail Corporation. THEN I noticed that 21st Century Rail Corporation is a “team led by URS.” So if URS Corporation has the 20 year contract, but 21st Century Rail Corporation has the contract, wouldn’t it mean URS Corporation is 21st Century Rail Corporation? How many other corporations are also URS Corporation?

It is more involved than that, though. URS Corporation “supoprts a wide range of complex, multiyear programs at U.S. Department of Defense and other government facilities throughout the world,” among which include “the renovation of the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. and the prototype design for all future U.S. embassies.”

“Since 1986, URS has trained over 20,000 student pilots at the U.S. Army Aviation Center for Excellence at Fort Rucker, Alabama.” URS Corporation “also is a leader in creating curricula for a new aviation community–Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) operators.” “Since 1990, [they] have worked with the U.S. Navy to develop flexible education programs for every level of officer operating VIRGINIA class submarines.”

The Pentagon, Headquarters of the US Department of Defense - photo by David B. Gleason

The first paragraph of their “Operations & Maintenance” page states clearly, “URS provides operations and maintenance services to weapons systems worldwide for the United States government. These services are performed for all branches of the Department of Defense, as well as the U.S. Coast Guard. URS’ services support every type of vehicle—in the air, on the ground and at sea. This includes manned and unmanned, rotary- and fixed- wing, wheeled and tracked, and above- and under-sea vessels.”

They have “longstanding relationships with the world’s leading chemical and pharmaceutical companies” and offer “innovative support services during all stages of the development and operations cycle.”

I feel like I’m talked out, and all I’ve really done is quote their website. They also offer “a full range of planning, design, construction and program and construction management services across the water and wastewater industry, including water supply planning, water storage and transmission, water quality management planning, water treatment and distribution, and wastewater collection, treatment and disposal.”

It would be difficult to display the vast array of projects taken on and listed by URS Corporation here, so I urge you to visit their project page and peruse yourself. I also urge you to visit their home page to get a glimpse at some of the categories of things they handle.

URS Corporation’s Headquarters is located at:

600 Montgomery Street, 26th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94111-2728 USA
+1.415.774.2700 +1.415.398.1905 fax

Sources:

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/kscmasterplanrevision.html

https://ursflint.acquisitioninformation.com

https://www.urscorp.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_class_submarine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson%E2%80%93Bergen_Light_Rail

Filed Under: Big Pharma, Biotechnology, Corporations, Featured, Food, Genetics, Military, Monsanto, USA

Precrime creeps closer to reality, with predictive smartphone location tracking

August 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Originally posted by Sebastian Anthony on ExtremeTech.com, August 21, 2012

 

As seen in “Minority Report”

A British research group has developed software that can predict, within 20 meters, where you will be 24 hours from now.

It’s actually surprisingly easy to predict your general, routine movements — home, car, office, lunch, car, home — but it has always been nigh impossible to predict breaks in routine, such as a trip to the cinema or a holiday abroad.

The researchers, Mirco Musolesi, Manlio Domenico, and Antonio Lima of the University of Birmingham, cracked this problem by factoring in the location of your friends and your social interactions with those friends (phone calls, meet-ups, etc.) By simply analyzing how many calls you make to a friend, and by correlating your movement patterns, the researchers can predict your movements over the next 24 hours — even if you deviate dramatically from routine.

The repercussions of such an algorithm are immense, with possible applications that range from awesome to terrifying. On the relatively benign side of things, you can imagine a version of Google Now that knows where you will be tomorrow, and offers up suggestions for which clothes to wear, which other friends will be in the area, and where you should eat (plus a coupon, if the restaurant is one of Google’s partner). This application of the algorithm would be opt-in — if you want to enjoy the services that Google can provide by knowing your predicted location, then that’s your choice.

On the nefarious end of the spectrum, though, this algorithm could be the cornerstone of a Precrime Police Division, a la Minority Report. Precrime would track the location of known criminals via their smartphones, and put a tap on their calls to correlate their movements with their friends/known associates. Very quickly, the Precrime Police could create a map of where every criminal will be in the next 24 hours. It would probably be difficult to predict actual crimes, but at least you’d know where to station your cops.

It’s worth noting that some police departments are already doing something similar, but on a much broader scale: They’re collating all of the reports and arrests in their database, and then plotting them on a map to see where crime is most likely to occur on any given day. In regions where police forces are being downsized, technology will become increasingly important as a force amplifier — and eventually, I wouldn’t be surprised if a real, per-criminal precrime system is deployed.

 

Source: https://www.extremetech.com/computing/134422-precrime-creeps-closer-to-reality-with-predictive-smartphone-location-tracking

Filed Under: Crime, Police, Science, Technology

Ancient Builders Created Monumental Structures that Altered Sound and Mind, Say Researchers

August 23, 2012 By 6 Comments

Originally posted by Popular-Archeology.com on March 5, 2012

 

The results of recent research suggests that ancient, or prehistoric, builders of the monumental structures found in such diverse places as Ireland, Malta, southern Turkey and Peru all have a peculiarly common characteristic — they may have been specially designed to conduct and manipulate sound to produce certain sensory effects.

 

Hal Saflieni Hypogeum on the island of Malta

Beginning in 2008, a recent and ongoing study of the massive 6,000-year-old stone structure complex known as the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum on the island of Malta, for example, is producing some revelatory results. Like its related prehistoric temple structures on Malta, this structure features central corridors and curved chambers. But this structure is unique in that it is subterranean, created through the removal of an estimated 2,000 tons of stone carved out with stone hammers and antler picks. Low voices within its walls create eerie, reverberating echoes, and a sound made or words spoken in certain places can be clearly heard throughout all of its three levels. Now, scientists are suggesting that certain sound vibration frequencies created when sound is emitted within its walls are actually altering human brain functions of those within earshot.

 

“Regional brain activity in a number of healthy volunteers was monitored by EEG through exposure to different sound vibration frequencies,” reports Malta temple expert Linda Eneix of the Old Temples Study Foundation, “The findings indicated that at 110 Hz the patterns of activity over the prefrontal cortex abruptly shifted, resulting in a relative deactivation of the language center and a temporary shifting from left to right-sided dominance related to emotional processing and creativity. This shifting did not occur at 90 Hz or 130 Hz……In addition to stimulating their more creative sides, it appears that an atmosphere of resonant sound in the frequency of 110 or 111 Hz would have been “switching on” an area of the brain that bio-behavioral scientists believe relates to mood, empathy and social behavior. Deliberately or not, the people who spent time in such an environment under conditions that may have included a low male voice — in ritual chanting or even simple communication — were exposing themselves to vibrations that may have actually impacted their thinking.” [1]

Researchers at the University of Malta are confirming the findings in an ongoing study.

Inside Malta’s Hal-Saflieni Hypogeum. Courtesy Old Temples Study Foundation

But the Hypogeum is not alone in its peculiar sound effects. A study conducted in 1994 by a consortium from Princeton University found that acoustic behavior in ancient chambers at megalithic sites such as Newgrange in Ireland and Wayland’s Smithy in England was characterized by a strong sustained resonance, or “standing wave” in a frequency range between 90 Hz and 120 Hz. ”When this happens,” says Eneix, “what we hear becomes distorted, eerie. The exact pitch for this behavior varies with the dimensions of the room and the quality of the stone.” Going further back in time, she points to the ancient 10,000 B.C. site of Göbekli Tepe in southern Turkey. Built by hunter-gatherers, the site is thought by many scientists to be located in the area transitional to the first development of agriculture and domesticated livestock. Located on a hilltop, it consists of 20 round stone-built structures which had been buried. Those structures that have been excavated feature massive, T-shaped, standing limestone pillars. “In the center of a circular shrine,” she says, “a limestone pillar “sings” when smacked with the flat of the hand. Obviously made to represent a human with a decorated belt and hands carved in relief at its waist, it bears unexplained symbols in the area of the throat.” [1]

The site of Göbekli Tepe. Courtesy Old Temples Study Foundation

And now, new findings of a recent archaeoacoustic study suggests that the ancients of the 3,000-year-old Andean ceremonial center at Chavín de Huántar, in the central highlands of Peru, practiced a fine art and science of manipulating sound with architecture to produce desired sensory effects. With the assistance of architectural form and placement, and sounds emitted from conch-shell trumpets, the “oracle” of Chavín de Huántar ”spoke” to the ancient center’s listeners.

Says Miriam Kolar, Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow, PhD Candidate
 at Stanford University and leader of the study: 

”At Chavín, we have discovered acoustic evidence for selective sound transmission between the site’s Lanzon monolith and the Circular Plaza: an architectural acoustic filter system that favors sound frequencies of the Chavín pututus [conch-shell trumpets] and human voice.” [2]

The Lanzon is a sacred statue or stela depicting the central deity of the ancient Chavín culture. Thought to be Chavin’s central “oracle” for its inhabitants, it is housed in a chamber, part of a series of underground passages within the Old Temple of the ceremonial and religious center of Chavín de Huántar. A central duct was built to connect the area of the Lanzon monolith with that of the Circular Plaza, an open-air place of ceremonial activity and significance. The duct was specifically designed to filter and magnify or conduct to a certain sound range — namely, the special range emitted by the Chavín pututu instrument. The specific reasons for this acoustical configuration are not entirely understood, but studies involving human participants within the ancient architectural and artifact context of the site are indicating that the resultant sound effects may have been related to intentional auditory perceptual effects of sound and space on humans.

So what does all of this mean? What explains these similar, yet geographically and culturally disparate finds?

“How curious that such varied ancient structures, separated by so much time and distance, should have common features which imply sophisticated knowledge”, observes Eneix. “Did the architects of the day each make and develop their own discoveries or did they inherit a concept from some older school of learning? Adding the time element to other fields of comparison suggests human trail-blazing of monumental proportion.” [1]

A detailed article about the acoustical qualities of prehistoric ancient architecture is published in the March 2012 issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine, and a live illustrated presentation on the implications of acoustics in the creation of megalithic structures is in production. More information about the lecture, “Sound and the Onset of Building Monumentally” is available from The OTS Foundation.

More information about the temples of Malta and Gozo can be obtained by going to: www.otsf.org and www.ancientmed.org

Article Sources

https://popular-archaeology.com/issue/march-2012/article/ancient-builders-created-monumental-structures-that-altered-sound-and-mind-say-researchers

https://wakeup-world.com/2012/08/24/ancient-builders-created-monumental-structures-that-altered-sound-and-mind-say-researchers/

[1] Linda Eneix, The Ancient Architects of Sound, Popular Archaeology Magazine, Vol. 6, March 2012. https://popular-archaeology.com

[2] Magic Sounds of Peru’s Ancient Chavín de Huántar, Popular Archaeology Magazine, Vol. 5, December 2011. https://popular-archaeology.com

Filed Under: Archaeology, Ireland, Malta, Music, Peru, Science, Turkey

New nanoparticles shrink tumors in mice

August 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Nanoparticles that shut off cancer genes could also allow researchers to screen potential drug targets more rapidly

MIT researchers have developed RNA-delivering nanoparticles that

Short strands of RNA can be used to selectively turn off cancer genes (credit: MIT)

allow for rapid screening of new drug targets in mice.

By sequencing cancer-cell genomes, scientists have discovered vast numbers of genes that are mutated, deleted or copied in cancer cells. This treasure trove is a boon for researchers seeking new drug targets, but it is nearly impossible to test them all in a timely fashion.

In their first mouse study, done with researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute, they showed that nanoparticles that target a protein known as ID4 can shrink ovarian tumors.

The nanoparticle system could relieve a significant bottleneck in cancer-drug development, says Sangeeta Bhatia, the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a member of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT.

“What we did was try to set forth a pipeline where you start with all of the targets that are pouring out of genomics, and you sequentially filter them through a mouse model to figure out which ones are important. By doing that, you can prioritize the ones you want to target clinically using RNA interference, or develop drugs against,” says Bhatia, one of the paper’s senior authors.

William Hahn, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the paper’s other senior author, is the leader of Project Achilles, a collaborative effort to identify promising new targets for cancer drugs from the flood of data coming from the National Cancer Institute’s cancer-genome-sequencing project.

Among those potential targets are many considered to be “undruggable,” meaning that the proteins don’t have any pockets where a traditional drug could bind to them. The new nanoparticles, which deliver short strands of RNA that can shut off a particular gene, may help scientists go after those undruggable proteins.

“If we could figure out how to make this work [in humans], it would open up a whole new class of targets that hadn’t been available,” says Hahn, who is also director of the Center for Cancer Genome Discovery at Dana-Farber and a senior associate member of the Broad Institute.

An abundance of targets

Through Project Achilles, Hahn and his colleagues have been testing the functions of many of the genes disrupted in ovarian cancer cells. By revealing genes critical to cancer-cell survival, this approach has narrowed the list of potential targets to several dozen.

Typically, the next step in identifying a good drug target would be to genetically engineer a strain of mice that are missing (or overexpressing) the gene in question, to see how they respond when tumors develop. However, this normally takes two to four years. A much faster way to study these genes would be simply to turn them off after a tumor appears.

RNA interference (RNAi) offers a promising way to do that. During this naturally occurring phenomenon, short strands of RNA bind to the messenger RNA (mRNA) that delivers protein-building instructions from the cell’s nucleus to the rest of the cell. Once bound, the mRNA molecules are destroyed and their corresponding proteins never get made.

Scientists have been pursuing RNAi as a cancer treatment since its discovery in the late 1990s, but have had trouble finding a way to safely and effectively target tumors with this therapy. Of particular difficulty was finding a way to get RNA to penetrate tumors.

Bhatia’s lab, which has been working on RNAi delivery for several years, joined forces with Hahn’s group to identify and test new drug targets. Their goal was to create a “mix and dose” technique that would allow researchers to mix up RNA-delivery particles that target a particular gene, inject them into mice and see what happens.

Shrinking tumors

In their first effort, the researchers decided to focus on the ID4 protein because it is overexpressed in about a third of high-grade ovarian tumors (the most aggressive kind), but not in other cancer types. The gene, which codes for a transcription factor, appears to be involved in embryonic development: It gets shut down early in life, then somehow reactivates in ovarian tumors.

To target ID4, Bhatia and her students designed a new type of RNA-delivering nanoparticle. Their particles can both target and penetrate tumors, something that had never before been achieved with RNA interference.

On their surface, the particles are tagged with a short protein fragment that allows them to enter tumor cells. Those fragments are also drawn to a protein found on tumor cells, known as p32. This fragment and many similar ones were discovered by Erkki Ruoslahti, a professor at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute at the University of California at Santa Barbara, who is also an author of the new paper.

Within the nanoparticles, strands of RNA are mixed with a protein that further helps them along their journey: When the particles enter a cell, they are encapsulated in membranes known as endosomes. The protein-RNA mixture can cross the endosomal membrane, allowing the particles to get into the cell’s main compartment and start breaking down mRNA.

In a study of mice with ovarian tumors, the researchers found that treatment with the RNAi nanoparticles eliminated most of the tumors.

Gordon Mills, chair of the systems biology department at the University of Texas’ MD Anderson Cancer Center, says the work is an important step toward generating new targets for drugs to treat ovarian cancer, which is the fifth-leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the United States.

“This approach has the potential to [validate] targets that are deemed ‘undruggable’ using current technologies and to provide sufficient throughput to screen candidates arising from high-throughput sequencing, shRNA and siRNA screens and other screens for novel potential targets,” says Mills, who was not part of the research team.

The researchers are now using the particles to test other potential targets for ovarian cancer as well as other types of cancer, including pancreatic cancer. They are also looking into the possibility of developing the ID4-targeting particles as a treatment for ovarian cancer.

The research was funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institutes of Health, the Mary Kay Foundation, the Sandy Rollman Ovarian Cancer Foundation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the H.L. Snyder Medical Foundation.

Filed Under: Biotechnology, Cancer, Drugs, Genetics, Health, Nanoparticles, Positive, Vaccines and Medicine

200 page book converted into DNA by researchers

August 22, 2012 By 1 Comment

Originally posted by Jed E. Robinson on RoundNews.com on August 17, 2012

Scientists from Harvard University wanted to prove that DNA, the genetic template substance, can be a viable storage solution. They took a 200+ page book that totalled close to 53000 words.

The book also had 11 images and a short javascript code added to its contents.

The scope of Harvard’s research was to see if DNA molecules ca be used to store a large amount of data. DNA can last for thousands of years as opposed to the average harddrive lifespan which is close to 5 years of active use. If DNA is trapped in amber then it can last for million of years.

In order to convert the digital version of the book to DNA the following process was followed:

- Researchers first took the binary code of the book.

- The resulting binary string was analysed bit by bit. A nucleobase was assigned for every bit value.

- The 5.27 million base long DNA strand was synthesized by analysing 96 bases at a time

- The synthesized DNA now contains the entire book. Its weight is one million time less than the weight of a grain of salt.

After the book was converted to DNA, Harvard scientists went ahead and tried to read the content in order to determine how reliable is DNA as a storing medium. Only 10 bits out of the total of 5.27 million were erronated. Current technology offers an easy way to read DNA. There are many commercially available solutions on the market.

DNA is our basis of life. Using it for storing data in the close future is not that far fetched.

Source: https://www.roundnews.com/science/beyond-science/449-200-page-book-converted-into-dna-by-researchers.html

Filed Under: Genetics, Media, Positive, Science, Technology

Darpa Looks to Make Cyberwar Routine With Secret ‘Plan X’

August 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Col. Todd Wood (right), commander of 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, briefs National Security Agency director Gen. Keith Alexander at Forward Operating Base Masum Ghar in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. Photo: Sgt. Michael Blalack/U.S. Army

Originally posted by Noah Shachtman on wired.com on August 21, 2012

The Pentagon’s top research arm is unveiling a new, classified cyberwarfare project. But it’s not about building the next Stuxnet, Darpa swears. Instead, the just-introduced “Plan X” is designed to make online strikes a more routine part of U.S. military operations. That will make the son of Stuxnet easier to pull off — to, as Darpa puts it, “dominate the cyber battlespace.”

Darpa spent years backing research that could shore up the nation’s cyberdefenses. “Plan X” is part of a growing and fairly recent push into offensive online operations by the Pentagon agency largely responsible for the internet’s creation. In recent months, everyone from the director of Darpa on down has pushed the need to improve — and normalize — America’s ability to unleash cyberattacks against its foes.

That means building tools to help warplanners assemble and launch online strikes in a hurry. It means, under Plan X, figuring out ways to assess the damage caused by a new piece of friendly military malware before it’s unleashed. And it means putting together a sort of digital battlefield map that allows the generals to watch the fighting unfold, as former Darpa acting director Ken Gabriel told the Washington Post: “a rapid, high-order look of what the Internet looks like — of what the cyberspace looks like at any one point in time.”

It’s not quite the same as building the weapons themselves, as Darpa notes in its introduction to the five-year, $100 million effort, issued on Monday: “The Plan X program is explicitly not funding research and development efforts in vulnerability analysis or cyberweapon generation.” (Emphasis in the original.)

But it is certainly a complementary campaign. A classified kick-off meeting for interested researchers in scheduled for Sept. 20.

The American defense and intelligence establishment has been reluctant at times to authorize network attacks, for fear that their effects could spread far beyond the target computers. On the eve of the Iraq invasion of 2003, for instance, the Bush administration made plans for a massive online strike on Baghdad’s financial system before discarding the idea out of collateral damage concerns.

It’s not the only factor holding back such operations. U.S. military chiefs like National Security Agency director Gen. Keith Alexander have publicly expressed concern that America may not be able to properly respond to a national-level attack unless they’re given pre-defined battle plans and “standing rules of engagement” that would allow them to launch a counterstrike “at net speed.” Waiting more than a few moments might hurt the American ability to respond at all, these officers say.

“Plan X” aims to solve both problems simultaneously, by automatically constructing mission plans that are as easy to execute as “the auto-pilot function in modern aircraft,” but contain “formal methods to provably quantify the potential battle damage from each synthesized mission plan.”

Then, once the plan is launched, Darpa would like to have machines running on operating systems that can withstand the rigors of a full-blown online conflict: “hardened ‘battle units’ that can perform cyberwarfare functions such as battle damage monitoring, communication relay, weapon deployment, and adaptive defense.”

The ability to operate in dangerous areas, pull potential missions off-the-shelf, and assess the impact of attacks — these are all commonplace for air, sea, and land forces today. The goal of Plan X is to give network-warfare troops the same tools. “To get it to the point where it’s a part of routine military operations,” explains Jim Lewis, a long-time analyst of online operations at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Of course, many critics of U.S. policy believe the deployment of cyberweapons is already too routine. America’s online espionage campaign against Iran has been deeply controversial, both at home and abroad. The Russian government and its allies believe that cyberweapons ought to be banned by international treaty. Here in the U.S., there’s a fear that, by unleashing Stuxnet and other military-grade malware, the Obama administration legitimized such attacks as a tool of statecraft — and invited other nations to strike our fragile infrastructure.

The Darpa effort is being lead, fittingly, by a former hacker and defense contractor. Daniel Roelker helped start the intrusion detection company Sourcefire and the DC Black Ops unit of Raytheon SI Government Solutions. In a November 2011 presentation (.pdf), Roelker decried the current, “hacker vs. hacker” approach to online combat. It doesn’t scale well — there are only so many technically skilled people — and it’s limited in how fast it can be executed. “We don’t win wars by out-hiring an adversary, we win through technology,” he added.

Instead, Roelker continued, the U.S. needs a suite of tools to analyze the network, automate the execution of cyberattacks, and be sure of the results. At the time, he called these the “Pillars of Foundational Cyberwarfare.” Now, it’s simply known as Plan X.

Source: https://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/08/plan-x

Filed Under: Cyberwarfare, Internet, Iran, Law, Military, Police, Politics, Privacy, Russia, Science, Surveillance, Technology, USA, War

Major advance in generating electricity from wastewater

August 21, 2012 By 2 Comments

Improved microbial fuel cell (credit: Oregon State University)

Engineers at Oregon State University have made a breakthrough in the performance of microbial fuel cells that can produce electricity directly from wastewater, opening the door to a future in which waste treatment plants not only will power themselves, but will sell excess electricity.

The new technology developed at OSU uses new concepts — reduced anode-cathode spacing, evolved microbes and new separator materials — and can produce more than two kilowatts per cubic meter of liquid reactor volume — 10 to 50 more times the electrical per unit volume than most other approaches using microbial fuel cells, and 100 times more electricity than some.

This technology cleans sewage by a very different approach than the aerobic bacteria used in the past. Bacteria oxidize the organic matter and, in the process, produce electrons that run from the anode to the cathode within the fuel cell, creating an electrical current.

Almost any type of organic waste material can be used to produce electricity — not only wastewater, but also grass straw, animal waste, and byproducts from such operations as the wine, beer or dairy industries.

The researchers say this could eventually change the way that wastewater is treated all over the world, replacing the widely used “activated sludge” process that has been in use for almost a century. The new approach would produce significant amounts of electricity while effectively cleaning the wastewater, they suggest.

“If this technology works on a commercial scale the way we believe it will, the treatment of wastewater could be a huge energy producer, not a huge energy cost,” said Hong Liu, an associate professor in the OSU Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering. “This could have an impact around the world, save a great deal of money, provide better water treatment and promote energy sustainability.”

Experts estimate that about 3 percent of the electrical energy consumed in the United States and other developed countries is used to treat wastewater, and a majority of that electricity is produced by fossil fuels.

The system also works better than an alternative approach to creating electricity from wastewater that is based on anaerobic digestion that produces methane. It treats the wastewater more effectively, and doesn’t have any of the environmental drawbacks of that technology, such as production of unwanted hydrogen sulfide or possible release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, the researchers believe.

The OSU system has now been proven at a substantial scale in the laboratory, Liu said, and the next step would be a pilot study. A good candidate, she said, might initially be a food processing plant, which is a contained system that produces a steady supply of certain types of wastewater that would provide significant amounts of electricity.

Once advances are made to reduce high initial costs, researchers estimate that the capital construction costs of this new technology should be comparable to that of the activated sludge systems now in widespread use today — and even less expensive when future sales of excess electricity are factored in.

The approach may also have special value in developing nations, where access to electricity is limited and sewage treatment at remote sites is difficult or impossible as a result.

The ability of microbes to produce electricity has been known for decades, but only recently have technological advances made their production of electricity high enough to be of commercial use. OSU researchers reported several years ago on the promise of this technology, but at that time the systems in use produced far less electrical power. Continued research should also find even more optimal use of necessary microbes, reduced material costs and improved function of the technology at commercial scales, OSU scientists said.

Filed Under: Chemistry, Environment, Featured, Green Energy, Pollution, Positive, Self-Sustainability
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