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Evidence boosts core nuke theory
SAN DIEGO, March 27 (UPI) -- New government laboratory test results are fueling a controversial contention that a giant natural nuclear reactor at the center of the Earth powers the planet's life-protecting magnetic field -- but it might be running out of gas, scientists told United Press International.

The scenario parallels the plot of a science-fiction thriller that opens Friday.

Geophysicist J. Marvin Herndon sees the findings, reported in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, as irrefutable support for his convention-defying view of Earth containing a gigantic natural nuclear power plant.

His bold theory sets a 5-mile-wide broiling wad of uranium deep within Earth's bowels, churning out heat that ignites sleeping volcanoes and drifting continental plates and creating a shield that protects all life from the deadly ravages of the sun's radiation.

In contrast, the traditional view, favored by most geoscientists for the past 60 years, paints the inner core as a 300-times-larger ball of partially crystallized iron and nickel that gradually cools and expands as it oozes heat into a fluid core.

The computer simulations, conducted at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., provide the strongest evidence yet that a core georeactor has been at work for some 4.5 billion years, the widely accepted age of Earth -- and that an end to its lifetime might be approaching, Herndon contends.

"The Earth's nuclear furnace could die in as little as 100 years or as long as 1 billion years -- the uncertainty is great," said Herndon, president of Transdyne Corp. of San Diego.

posted by West 7:09 PM

 

Report: Science Being Delayed by Visas
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - More than two dozen research studies at 20 universities have been significantly affected since regulations on processing visas for foreign scientists were tightened after the Sept. 11 attacks, a newspaper reported.

The research involves diseases such as AIDS, cancer, the West Nile virus, leukemia and bioterrorism, the Hartford Courant said in a story prepared for Sunday editions.

Leaders of the National Academies complained in December that heightened security is "having serious, unintended consequences for American science, engineering, and medicine."

State Department officials have said they are working to clear a visa backlog, but The Courant said interviews with scientists and educators indicate the problem may be getting even worse.

"It has the potential of isolating the U.S. scientific community from the world scientific community," said Douglas Osheroff, a Nobel Prize winner who heads the physics department at Stanford University.

posted by West 7:50 AM

 

UN Warns of Worldwide Threat from Killer Pneumonia
GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization warned on Saturday of a worldwide health threat as a mystery killer pneumonia spread from east Asia to other parts of the globe.

Releasing a rare "emergency travel advisory," the United Nations health agency said an ill passenger had been taken to an isolation unit in Frankfurt, Germany, on Saturday after being removed from a plane en route from New York to Singapore.

Some 155 other passengers who had been due to change planes or stay in Frankfurt were placed in quarantine there, while the remaining 85 passengers and 20 crew on the Singapore Airlines flight continued their journey, German officials said.

A spokesman for the Geneva-based WHO said there were reports two people had died in Canada, taking the death toll to nine worldwide since the first outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), an atypical pneumonia whose cause is not yet known, was detected in China in February.

"This syndrome, SARS, is now a worldwide health threat," WHO director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland said in a statement.

posted by West 9:26 PM

 

Alert issued as flu fears grow
(BBC News, March 15, 2003)
The World Health Organisation has taken the rare step of issuing an emergency travel advisory amid fears that a mystery virus which has infected scores of people in Asia may be spreading. . . . The WHO says it has received reports of more than 150 suspected new cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) during the past week. . . . AFP news agency reports that 40 people have been infected in Vietnam. . . . It is thought the Hanoi outbreak started last month after an American businessman travelling from Shanghai infected hospital workers; he died in Hong Kong. . . . In Canada, a mother and child have reportedly died from the flu, while officials in Singapore report 16 cases. . . . "This syndrome, SARS, is now a worldwide health threat," said WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland. . . . It is possible the outbreak is linked to a spate of "atypical pneumonia" cases in the southern Guangdong province of China in February, which killed five people and infected hundreds more.

The WHO has so far not advised travellers to avoid any particular destination, but has warned them to watch out for symptoms, including a high fever, difficulty in breathing, and coughing.

posted by Lorenzo 12:11 PM

 

Stigmery is a powerful concept!
What are stigmergic systems?
Stigmergic systems are systems that use the concept of stigmergy for purposes of self organization.

The phenomenon of self organization arises spontaneously in a stigmergic system. It is the result of a complex interaction between individuals and their landscape or environment. This is in sharp contrast to the way communication systems are usually considered, which is in terms of direct human to human interaction. The accent here is on the use of the landscape as an essential intermediary.

The stigmergy project
The basis of a stigmergic system is a location on the Web where people can represent themselves as agents. These agents are left on the Web where they act like ants, in as much as they can lay trails in a landscape. These trails are more complex than those laid by ants, as they can describe the owner of the agent and impart the knowledge the owner want to share with others. People visiting such a site, can interact with these agents to find out who their owners are and learn the locations of valuable sources of information and knowledge the owners have built into the memories of their agents.

A project has been set up on this site to create examples of these basic stigmergic systems, to cover various niche areas of technology.

There is a tutorial relating to this project, which besides explaining in full detail the concept of stigmergy, describes the thinking necessary to set up and put into practice one of these stigmergic information areas.

posted by Lorenzo 11:13 AM

 

Court orders full disclosure of secret U.S. Special Virus Program that may have created the AIDS virus
SAN DIEGO – A March sixth federal court order mandates civil rights activist Boyd E. Graves legally competent to prosecute the AIDS bioengineering case originally filed in the Southern District of California Dec. 6, 2001. . . . “At issue in the case is the action or lack of action on the part of government AIDS officials who located the secret AIDS program in May 2000 and took no affirmative action for the American people and the people of the world,” Graves said. “The complaint seeks the full disclosure of the secret U.S. Special Virus Program which spans from 1948-1978.” . . . President George W. Bush and other named defendants inside the case are provided 60 days by law and are compelled to respond to Dr. Graves' complaint by May 1, 2003. . . . US Mycoplasma Expert Confirms 1971 Flow Chart Aimed at HIV.

American civil rights' activist Dr. Boyd E. Graves is the author of "STATE ORIGIN: The Evidence of the Laboratory Birth of AIDS" and "WORLD WAR AIDS: The Third World War"

posted by Lorenzo 1:09 PM

 

GeneAlert ...
UPI - Genetic researchers have found a mutation linked to glaucoma and are seeking clues to childhood bipolar disease, plus other genomic news.

posted by West 7:56 AM

 

Gene reorder may drive evolution
United Press International - Researchers from three British centers have put the natural course of events in reverse to reveal how a rearrangement of genetic matter could help drive evolution.

Working with baker's yeast, investigators from the University of Manchester, the University of Leicester and the Institute of Food Research in Norwich, England, found swapping large chunks of genetic material might spur the split of one species into two.

By reshuffling similar chromosome regions so they align in two closely related but genetically diverse groups, the scientists were able to produce a hybrid life form capable of successful reproduction -- the hallmark of a new species. Chromosomes, threadlike structures in the cell center composed of a double strand of twisted DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, contain the archive of an organism's hereditary traits.

The findings -- that not only the content but also the layout of the draft of life can affect how different species may arise -- cast a shadow of doubt over how individual classes of organisms are currently defined, biologists said.

In addition to revealing a possible evolutionary pathway, they told United Press International, the results carry implications for a number of endeavors, from genetic engineering of agricultural crops to understanding and managing some inherited diseases.

posted by West 8:31 PM

 

Superbug's new strain thrives outside hospitals

timesonline.co.uk - A NEW strain of the drug- resistant superbug MRSA has escaped from hospitals to infect thousands of healthy adults across the United States, hitting hardest among homosexual men.

The bacterium, which normally affects only sick and elderly hospital in-patients, is striking fit Americans with no links to the hospitals in which it thrives, raising fears of an epidemic that could spread to Britain. The germs, which can withstand many common antibiotics, are transmitted by skin contact, with no need for an open wound.

Outbreaks have been reported in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Boston and Miami. Most of those affected are homosexual men and prison inmates, but athletes and schoolchildren involved in contact sports have also fallen ill. Precise figures for the number of infections are not available, because MRSA is not a notifiable disease in the United States, but public health officials believe cases already run into the thousands, with several deaths.

The disease normally manifests itself as a skin condition, beginning with sores that resemble insect bites, and progressing to cause painful abscesses and boils. In rarer cases, when it reaches the lungs or the bloodstream, it can cause life-threatening pneumonia or septicaemia.

posted by West 8:04 PM