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at 4:10 AM 0

Every revolution in technology is followed by an explosion of new scientific knowledge. Biology is no exception. Van Leeuwenhoek's microscope jump-started microbiology, polymerase chain reaction revolutionized molecular biology (see Editorial in this issue), and single-cell imaging and sequencing approaches remarkably advanced immunology, cancer research, developmental biology, and beyond.

Recent years have witnessed disruptive innovations in biotechnology. Researchers have never been equipped with more powerful tools to probe biology. Breakthroughs in electron microscopy allow biomolecular complexes to be visualized with high resolution, offering insight into the workings of these molecular machines. Ingenious methods to break the diffraction limit in microscopy enable single molecules to be observed and tracked in single cells. Not only do we see cells in ever-greater detail, but with CRISPR-mediated gene editing techniques, biologists can precisely and easily manipulate cellular genomes of diverse organisms. As we gain understanding of biological networks, tools including those based on CRISPR give us the ability to record biological events, to detect and treat disease, and to engineer plants with new traits and greater productivity.

When biologists encounter problems that cannot be solved by currently available technologies, shared creativity between researchers drives the development of better and smarter tools. New technologies, in turn, push the frontier of biology. This synergy has been moving our society and humanity forward, and the advent of artificial intelligence is likely to speed up this cycle of discovery.
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at 4:00 AM 0



The seven planets of the TRAPPIST-1 system. Most are rich in volatile materials such as water.
Credit: M. Kornmesser/ESO

The seven planets orbiting the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 are mostly rocky, with some potentially holding more liquid water than Earth. 

New research reveals the density of the worlds within this crowded system to a greater precision than ever before. The findings reveal that some of the planets could have up to 5 percent of their mass in liquid water form, about 250 times as much water as found in Earth's oceans.

"All the TRAPPIST-1 planets are very Earth-like — they have a solid core, surrounded by an atmosphere," Simon Grimm, an exoplanet scientist at the University of Bern in Switzerland, told Space.com by email. Working with a team of researchers, Grimm precisely modeled the densities of the seven worlds. [Meet the 7 Earth-Size Exoplanets of TRAPPIST-1]

In addition to narrowing down the composition of the exoplanets, the researchers also found that one of the worlds could boast some familiar char
acteristics.

"TRAPPIST-1e is the exoplanet which is most similar to Earth in terms of mass, radius and energy received from its star," Grimm said.

A special system
In 2016, astronomers at The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile identified three planets around the dim star TRAPPIST-1. Less than a year later, NASA announced the discovery of even more worlds, for a total of seven. All of the exoplanets orbit in the habitable zone of their star, the region where water can remain liquid at the surface. The TRAPPIST-1 system boasts the largest number of rocky worlds ever found in a habitable zone of a single star and lies only 40 light-years from Earth. [TRAPPIST-1: How Long Would It Take to Fly to 7-Planet System?]

Intrigued by the system, Grimm and his colleagues decided to measure the system using a technique known as transit-timing variations (TTVs). By observing small variations in the amount of time it takes a world to pass between its star and our viewpoint, called a transit, TTVs allow researchers to make some of the most sensitive observations of planetary masses and densities. 

"Using TTVs is currently the only method to determine the masses and therefore the densities of planets like the TRAPPIST-1 system," Grimm said. 

Other methods don't work because the planets are too lightweight or the star is too faint, he said. The method allows astronomers to determine the mass of the planets relative to the stellar masses. Combined with the radii measured as the planet transits its star, the technique reveals the densities of each world.

The researchers relied on data captured by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and several of the European Southern Observatory's instruments in Chile to make detailed observations that could reveal the variations in planetary orbits.

If one planet traveled around its star alone, then the only gravitational pull it would feel would come from the star. But when a system holds two or more worlds, the planets interact gravitationally, tugging on one another with a force related to their masses. These shifts depend on the planets' mass, distance and other orbital parameters. 

At the same time, crowded systems like TRAPPIST-1 make it more challenging to tease out the effects of individual planets, as each world tugs somewhat at its neighbors. The TRAPPIST-1 planets are easier to measure because they orbit in sync; together, the seven exoplanets form a resonance chain connecting them all together and suggesting a slow, peaceful evolution.

"The TRAPPIST-1 system is special because all the planets are in a resonance condition," Grimm said.

Grimm took a simulation that he had previously used to calculate planetary orbits and adapted it to TTV analysis. Using more than 200 transits, his team modeled the mass and densities of the worlds, simulating the orbits of the planets until their modeled transits matched what was observed.

The researchers found densities of the worlds ranging from 0.6 to 1.0 times Earth's density. The seven worlds are rich in water, with water levels on some reaching as high as 5 percent of the total mass. In comparison, only about 0.02 percent of Earth's mass is contained in water.

TRAPPIST-1b and c, the innermost worlds, are likely to have rocky cores and be surrounded by dense atmospheres thicker than Earth's. Lying close to their star, the hottest worlds probably have thick, steamy atmospheres, while the most distant ones could be covered in ice.

TRAPPIST-1d is the lightest of the seven planets, weighing about 30 percent of Earth's mass. Its low mass could be caused by a large atmosphere, an ocean or a frozen icy layer.

TRAPPIST-1f, g and h lie far enough from their host star that water could be frozen into ice across their surfaces. The thin atmospheres would probably lack the heavier molecules found on Earth. 

Then there's TRAPPIST-1e, the most Earth-like of the group. As the only planet slightly denser than Earth, TRAPPIST-1e likely has a denser iron core, and may lack a thick atmosphere, ocean or ice layer.

The researchers cautioned that the new results, which were published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, do not directly say anything about habitability. However, by helping researchers to better understand the conditions involved in the crowded system, the new research helps to make strides in understanding whether the worlds may be capable of supporting life.
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at 7:09 PM 0


The Cryogenic Sapphire Oscillator is one of the most precise clocks ever invented -- and it's not just keeping time, it's keeping Australia safe.

Researchers at the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS) in Adelaide, Australia in conjunction with Cryoclock, have, for the past 20 years been working on developing the Oscillator which they have dubbed the "Sapphire Clock."
It is 1,000 times more precise than any other commercial system currently available and ticks 10 billion times per second. The  "cryogenic" in the device's real name comes from the 1,200-carat sapphire crystal that needs to be cooled to minus 267 degrees Celsius (around 512 degrees Fahrenheit) -- only a few degrees above absolute zero.

The idea to harness the amazing properties of sapphire came from Andre Luiten, director of IPAS, during his PhD project before moving to Adelaide in 2013.   
Accuracy in timing is an important aspect of electronics systems we use every day, such as GPS. However, the chief application of the Sapphire Clock would be to upgrade the sensitivity of radar signalling in JORN, an over-the-horizon radar network that acts as an early warning system in Australia's defence capabilities.

The radar network plays a role in Australia's ability to detect foreign threats by air or sea by broadcasting a signal that is reflected of a foreign object and then detected by a receiver back on land in Australia. The more "pure" that signal is, the better capacity the radar network has to detect smaller, slower objects at greater distance.

"The sensitivity to detect objects at great distances depends on the purity of the reference clock frequencies. Our Sapphire Clock would allow JORN to generate signals that are 1000 times purer than its current technology," said Luiten.

Beyond improving JORN's capabilities, Luiten also sees the Sapphire Clock providing other uses in the future.
"In the longer term we see other applications - in civilian radar at airports for example, or in providing the master clock for quantum computers, or in providing the timing for 5G telecommunications base stations," Luiten told CNET.

It's an impressive scientific achievement and one that saw the research team take out the 2018 Defence Science and Technology Prize for Outstanding Science in Safeguarding Australia award at the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes on Aug. 29. The annual awards event rewards scientific excellence across research and innovation, in addition to science engagement and education.
More impressive? The clock is one of eight currently built and operational. Two will be shipped out to JORN, but two remain in the University. A new "next generation" unit, half the size of the original, is now the focus of more experimentation.

It's not the first time a clock has been developed with such unbelievable precision. Horologists have been working out ways to make our time-keeping ever more accurate for decades. In 2014, the strontium clock was created, able to keep time without losing a second for some 5 billion years. Newer iterations on the strontium clock can keep time for 90 billion years.
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at 6:57 AM 0

Actual 1974 Congressional Testimony of Dr. Jose Delgado
"We need a program of PSYCHOSURGERY for POLITICAL CONTROL of our society. The purpose is PHISICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND. Everyone who deviates from the given norm can be SURGICALLY MUTILATED." The individual may think that the most important reality is his own existence, but this is only his personal point of view. This lacks historical perspective.

"Man does NOT HAVE THE RIGHT to develop his own mind. This kind of liberal orientation has great appeal. We must ELECTRICALLY CONTROL THE BRAIN. Some day armies and generals will be controlled by electric stimulation of the brain."

Dr. Jose M.R. Delgado Director of Neuropsychiatry Yale University Medical School Congressional Record, No. 26, Vol. 118 February 24, 1974 (Author of "PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND" 1969) The following article was originally published in the 36th-year edition of the Finnish-language journal, SPEKULA (3rd Quarter, 1999). SPEKULA is a publication of Northern Finland medical students and doctors of Oulu University OLK (OULUN LAAKETIETEELLINEN KILTA).


MICROCHIP IMPLANTS, MINDCONTROL AND CYBERNETICS



By Rauni-Leena Luukanen-Kilde, MD Former Chief Medical Officer of Finland. In 1948 Norbert Weiner published a book, CYBERNETICS, defined as a neurological communication and control theory already in use in small circles at that time. Yoneji Masuda, "Father of Information Society," stated his concern in 1980 that our liberty is threatened Orwellian-style by cybernetic technology totally unknown to most people. This technology links the brains of people via implanted microchips to satellites controlled by ground-based super-computers.

The first brain implants were surgically inserted in 1874 in the state of Ohio, U.S.A., and also in Stockholm, Sweden. Brain electrodes were inserted into the skulls of babies in 1946 without the knowledge of their parents. In the 50's and 60's, electrical implants were inserted into the brains of animals and humans, especially in the U.S., during research into behavior modification, and brain and body functioning. Mind control (MC) methods were used in attempt to change human behavior and attitudes. Influencing brain functions became an important goal of military and intelligence services.

Thirty years ago brain implants showed up in xrays the size of one centimeter. Subsequent implants shrunk to the size of a grain of rice. They were made of silicon, later still of gallium arsenide. Today they are small enough to be inserted into the neck or back, and also intravenously in different parts of the body during surgical operations, with or without the consent of the subject. It is now almost impossible to detect or remove them.

It is technically possible for every newborn to be injected with a micro- chip, which could then function to identify the person for the rest of his or her life. Such plans are secretly being discussed in the U.S. without any public airing of the privacy issues involved. In Sweden, Prime Minister Olof Palme gave permission in 1973 to implant prisoners, and Data Inspection's ex-Director General Jan Freese revealed that nursing-home patients were implanted in the mid- 1980's. The technology is revealed in the 1972:47


Swedish state report, STATENS OFFICIELLA UTRADNINGER (SOU). Implanted human beings can be followed anywhere. Their brain functions can then be remotely monitored by supercomputers and even altered through the changing of frequencies. Guinea-pigs in secret experiments have in-cluded prisoners, soldiers, mental patients, handicapped children, deaf and blind people, homosexuals, single women, the elderly, school children and any group of people considered "marginal" by the elite experimenters. The published experiences of prisoners in Utah State Prison, for example, are shocking to the conscience.

Today's microchips operate by means of low-frequency radio waves that target them. With the help of satellites, the implanted person can be tracked anywhere on the globe. Such a technique was among a number tested in the Iraq war, according to Dr. Carl Sanders, who invented the intell-igence- manned interface (IMI) biotic, which is injected into people. (Earlier during the Vietnam War, soldiers were injected with the Rambo chip, designed to increase adrenaline flow into the bloodstream.)

The U.S. National Security Agency's (NSA) 20 billion bits/second supercomputers could now "see and hear" what soldiers experience in the battlefield with a remote monitoring system (RMS). When a 5-micromillimeter microchip (the diameter of a strand of hair is 50micromillometers) is placed into optical nerve of the eye, it draws neuroimpulses from the brain that embody the experiences, smells, sights and voice of the implanted person. Once transferred and stored in a computer, these neuroimpulses can be projected back to the person's brain via the microchip to be re-experienced. Using a RMS, a land-based computer operator can send electromagnetic messages (encoded as signals) to the nervous system, affecting the target's performance.

With RMS, healthy persons can be induced to see hallucinations and to hear voices in their heads. Every thought, reaction, hearing and visual observation causes a certain neurological potential, spikes, and patterns in the brain and its elect- romagnetic fields, which can now be decoded into thoughts, pictures and voices. Electromagnetic stimulation can therefore change a person's brainwaves and affect muscular activity, causing painful muscular cramps experienced as torture.

The NSA's electronic surveillance system can simultaneously follow and handle millions of people. Each of us has a unique bioelectrical reson- ance frequency in the brain, just like we have unique fingerprints. With electro- magnetic frequency (EMF) brain stimulation fully coded, pulsating electromagnetic signals can be sent to the brain, causing the desired voice and visual effects to be experienced by the target. This is a form of electronic warfare. U.S. astronauts were implanted before they were sent into space so their thoughts could be followed and all their emotions could be registered 24 hours a day.

The Washington Post reported in in May 1995 that Prince William of Great Britain was implanted at the age of 12. Thus, if he were ever kidnapped, a radiowave with a specific frequency could be targeted to his microchip. The chips signal would be routed through a satellite to the computer screen of police headquarters, where the Princes movements could be followed. He could actually be located anywhere on the globe.

The mass media have not reported that an implanted person's privacy van- ishes for the rest of his or her life. S/he can be manipulated in many ways. Using different frequencies, the secret controller of this equip- ment can even change a person's emotional life. S/he can be made aggress- ive or lethargic. Sexuality can be artificially influenced. Thought sig-nals andsubconscious thinking can be read, dreams affected and even induced, all without the knowledge or consent of the implanted person.

A perfect cyber-soldier can thus be created. This secret technology has been used by military forces in certain NATO countries since the 1980's without civilian and academic populations having heard anything about it. Thus, little information about such invasive mind-control systems is available in professional and academic journals. The NSA's Signals Intelligence can remotely monitor information from human brains by decoding the evoked potentials (3.50HZ, 5 milliwatt) emitted by the brain. Prisoner experimentees in both Gothenburg, Sweden and Vienna, Austria have been found to have [missing word] brain lesions. Diminished blood circulation and lack of oxygen in the right temporal frontal lobes result where brain implants are usually operative. A Finnish experimentee experienced brain atrophy and intermittent attacks of unconsciousness due to lack of oxygen.

Mind control techniques can be used for political purposes. The goal of mind controllers today is to induce the targeted persons or groups to act against his or her own convictions and best interests. Zombified individ- uals can even be programmed to murder and remember nothing of their crime afterward. Alarming examples of this phenomenon can be found in the U.S.

This silent war is being conducted against unknowing civilians and soldiers by military and intelligence agencies. Since 1980 electronic stemulation of the brain (ESB) has been secretly used to control people targeted without their knowledge or consent. All international human rights agreements forbid nonconsensual manipulation of human beings even in prisons, not to speak of civilian populations. Under an initiative of U.S. Senator John Glenn, discussions commenced in January 1997 about the dangers of radiating civilian populations. Targeting peoples brain functions with electromagnetic fields and beams (from helicopters and airplanes, satellites, from parked white vans, neighboring houses, telephone poles, electrical appliances, Mobil phones, TV, radio, etc.), is part of the radiation problem that should be addressed in democratically elected government bodies.

In addition to electronic MC, chemical methods have also been developed. Mind-altering drugs and different smelling gasses affecting brain function,negatively can be injected into air ducts or water pipes. Also, bacteria and viruses have been tested this way in several countries. Today's super technology, connecting our brain functions via microchips (or even without them, according to the latest technology) to computers via satellites in the U.S. or Israel, poses the gravest threat to humanity. The latest supercomputers are powerful enough to monitor the whole worlds population. What will happen when people are tempted by false premises to allow microchips into their bodies? One lure will be a micro-chip identity card. Compulsory legislation has even been secretly pro-posed in the U.S. to criminalize removal of an ID implant.

Are we ready for the robotization of mankind and the total elimination of privacy, including freedom of thought? How many of us would want to cede our entire life, including our most secret thoughts, to Big Brother? Yet the technology exists to create a totalitarian "New World Order." Covert neurological communication systems are in place to counteract independent thinking and to control social and political activity on behalf of self-serving private and military interests.

When our brain functions are already is connected to supercomputers by means of radio implants and microchips, it will be too late for protest. This threat can be defeated only by educating the public, using available literature on biotelemetry and information exchanged at international congresses. One reason this technology has remained a state secret is the widespread prestige of the psychiatric DIAGNOSTIC STATISTICAL MANUAL IV produced by the U.S. American Psychiatric Association (APA), and printed in 18 languages. Psychiatrists working for U.S. intelligence agencies no doubt participated in writing and revising this manual. This psychiatric "bible" covers up the secret development of MC technologies by labeling some of their effects as symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia.

Victims of mind control experimentation are thus routinely diagnosed, kneejerk fashion, as mentally ill by doctors who learned the DSM symptom list in medical school. Physicians have not been schooled that patients may be telling the truth when they report being targeted against their will or being used as guinea pigs for electronic, chemical and bacteriological forms of psychological warfare. Time is running out for changing the direction of military medicine, and ensuring the future of human freedom.
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