Human cloning ‘flawed’

Scientists in the United States say hundreds of attempts to clone monkeys have ended in failure. They think the biological make-up of the eggs of primates, including humans, makes cloning almost impossible.

Cloning has been successful in several mammals, including sheep, mice and cattle, but there is increasing evidence that it does not work in all species. The research, reported in the journal Science, casts further doubt on efforts by a handful of mavericks to clone humans.

Clonaid, a company created by a UFO cult known as the Raelians, claims to have already cloned several babies. It has produced no evidence to substantiate these claims.

Meanwhile, controversial reproductive scientist Panayiotis Zavos has published a picture of what he claims is “the first human cloned embryo for reproductive purposes”. – bbc

They also once said it was impossible to fly.  Setbacks are a normal part of the process of discovery.

New Giant Toothless Pterosaur Species Discovered

A researcher at the University of Portsmouth has identified a new species of pterosaur, the largest of its kind to ever be found. It represents an entirely new genus of these flying reptiles that ruled the skies 115 million years ago.

The finding is significant because it originated in Brazil and is the only example of the Chaoyangopteridae, a group of toothless pterosaurs, to be found outside China and is the largest one ever discovered.

Mark Witton identified the creature from a partial skull fossil from which he was able to estimate that it would have had a five-metre wingspan – bigger than a family car – and would stand over one metre tall at the shoulder.

He said: “Some of the previous examples we have from this family in China are just 60 centimetres long – as big as the skull of the new species. Put simply, it dwarfs any chaoyangopterid we’ve seen before by miles.”

Witton has christened the new species Lacusovagus, meaning ‘lake wanderer’, after the large body of water in which the remains were buried. … – sd

The more fossils we find, the more the details of evolution come into focus. But it is a slow process because conditions which create fossils are very rare and most animals decompose entirely.

How are fossils formed?

There are two major requirements for an organism to be preserved as a fossil:

1. It must possess hard parts,

2. It must undergo rapid burial in a protective medium.

Flesh is subject to extremely rapid decay, and is rarely preserved in fossils; among the few exceptions are the frozen mammoths of Siberia and Alaska, and a rhinoceros found in oil sands in Poland. Thus, under normal circumstances, only animals possessing hard parts of shell, bone or chitin (the hard matter in insects) are capable of preservation as fossils. Rapid enclosure in a protective medium is necessary to protect hard parts from the destructive action of scavengers and the weather. This protection is usually accomplished by burial in waterborne sediments, thus giving aquatic, particularly marine, forms of life the best chance of fossilisation. Terrestrial animals have comparatively little chance of preservation unless washed into lakes, as the land surface is largely an area of erosion. – cartage

This is why many transitional species from our own evolution are still missing. (But enough exist to show that evolution did occur!)  If you read Gilgamesh, it seems that dead people were just left outside to decompose in ancient times. Burial is not common in the animal kingdom. Besides modern humans, only Chimpanzees and elephants are known to throw leaves and branches over fallen members of their family groups. Neanderthals were the first to bury their dead. Some view them as a subspecies ohters as a separate species. Time will tell as we learn more.

The worm on Mars

Metallic Objects Found Near Area of Supposed UFO Crash in Needles, California

Needles UFO Crash followup: In May 2008, a large object with a turquoise glow plummeted out of the sky and crashed into the earth southwest of Las Vegas, NV. Eyewitnesses say it was not a meteorite since several military helicopters hauled it away. …

In an interview with journalist Linda Howe, Bob says he saw at least five helicopters flying in formation, including a large sky crane. The crane picked up the oval shaped object, still glowing, and flew away, heading in the direction of Las Vegas. One odd detail, the choppers arrived only 17 minutes after the object crashed. He described it to Hayes.

“It was about the size of a semi-trailer, he says, oblong shaped thing,” said Hayes.

Out of the blue, the station got a call from a friend in Laughlin who said the Laughlin Airport had been inundated on the night of the crash with so-called Janet planes. That’s the airline that flies workers to top secret Area 51. Costigan says the airport could not confirm this because no one is on duty after 6 p.m. at night, not even in the tower. – naturalplane

NASA Mars photo reveals strange object

Is evidence of life on Mars being suppressed?

According to an article written August 5, 2008, a piece of “timber” has been found in one of the NASA photos, taken by the Mar´s Rover “Opportunity”

The NASA explanation is:

“What you’re seeing is a piece of flat, platy, layered sulfur-rich outcrop rock like we’ve seen almost everywhere the Opportunity rover has been in Meridiani Planum,” said Bell. “Sometimes, like in this case, those flat, platy rocks have been tilted or dislodged, this one probably from the forces associated with the huge impact crater that formed nearby.” – examiner

Here are some more “tilted rocks” which look to me like old tree trunks in a dry river bed.

Check out this larger picture (click to enlarge): What is that bright reflection in the upper left on the hill?

If these were petrified wood they would technically be rocks.

Petrified wood … consists of fossil wood where all the organic materials have been replaced with minerals (most often a silicate, such as quartz), while retaining the original structure of the wood. – wiki

Are we looking at tree fossils on Mars?

You can read the full article here: “NASA Mars photo leaked – wood found on mars!“
Where would a piece of timber (if that is what it is) come from, if there are no trees on Mars? The author of the article says “There are vast forests on Mars, ones that are kept from the public. This piece of wood looks like it floated to its present location, being partially sunk in the soil.”

Whilst conditions on Mars are different to that on Earth (atmosphere and temperatures), it seems unlikely that a piece of wood could survive any great length of time, a point the author makes “This flood had to have happened within the past thirty or forty years because the wood is intact, though this is judging the rate of decay by Earth standards. Some may say that Mars did have water on it long ago and that it even had an atmosphere, which is true, but a piece of timber isn´t going to survive for thousands of years.”

Although the Viking Orbiters photographed what appeared to be forests on Mars, there has been no mention of this recently, or any new images.

It is the author´s belief that the photograph released by NASA was an accident and that it is “a photo that could get someone killed” … Clearly the photo came from NASA, as you can see other images of the “log” in photos displayed on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory site. So if this is a hoax, it is someone at NASA who is doing it. – ac

More about the trees on Mars. And holy heck, those look like alien trees to me, not ice crystals or rocks.

Both of the Viking Orbiters filmed vast forests on Mars, though no subsequent probe to the Red Planet has shot a single frame of film showing a tree. This was by design. The Viking photographs show more than just a few trees but rather thousands upon thousand of them. These trees appear to be much larger than Earth trees, having a leaf and branch system that is unique to Mars. The foliage spans much wider than a similar plants on Earth do, rising to who knows what heights. The spacing between them could be the result of the dying Martian atmosphere. … The fact that trees can survive in such an atmosphere, and with much less water than Earth trees do, reveals their unique structure while offering hope for an increasingly polluted Earth. Since the Martian atmosphere is 95% carbon dioxide, these plants would have to thrive on it in a way much superior to Earth trees. They may give off oxygen, though I am using terrestrial vegetation for comparison, but they could give off another gas, one even toxic to humans. Seeding or drafting these trees in bulk could bring breathable air back to the Red Planet. – thecrit

Did Neanderthal cells cook as the climate warmed?

Neanderthals may have gone extinct because their cells couldn’t cope with climate change, according to a new hypothesis presented at a genetics conference this month.

Metabolic adaptations to Ice Age Europe may have proved costly to Neanderthals after the continent’s climate started to change, says Patrick Chinnery, a molecular biologist at Newcastle University, UK.

He and colleague Gavin Hudson identified potentially harmful mutations in the newly sequenced Neanderthal mitochondrial genome. In particular, the researchers found genes that are associated with neurodegenerative diseases and deafness. “If they were found in modern humans they would be bad news,” Chinnery says.

The extinction of Neanderthals, close relatives of modern humans, some 25,000 years ago remains unexplained.

One theory holds that they were physically outcompeted by modern humans , another that they were economically eclipsed by us.. Yet another theory suggests that Neanderthals couldn’t adapt to climate change.

The discovery of harmful mutations in the Neanderthal mitochondrial genome supports the climate-change idea, with a twist.

Chinnery and Hudson suggest that mutations in mitochondria helped Neanderthals cope with the cold weather, but that when the climate started fluctuating between warm and cold periods, they were at a disadvantage.

In all cells, from yeast to human, a mitochondrion’s main job is to produce the energy that powers cells – this takes the form of a chemical called ATP. Our mitochondria do this quite efficiently under ideal conditions, making 36 ATP molecules with the energy stored in a single molecule of glucose sugar.

Mutations that sap this efficiency would generate heat instead – a potentially useful trick for Neanderthals who are known to have had adaptations to cold weather, Chinnery says. However, a warmer and less climatically stable habitat could have spelled trouble for Neanderthals with such mutations. …. However, with only a single Neanderthal DNA sequence decoded so far, that hypothesis remains provisional. … – newsci

Blueberries ‘reverse memory loss’

Eating blueberries can reverse memory loss and may have implications in the treatment of diseases like Alzheimer’s, University of Reading scientists claim.

Scientists found adding foods like blueberries to a regular diet, resulted in improvements in memory.

The foods, known as flavonoids, were historically believed to act as antioxidants in human bodies. But the study indicates they also activate the part of the brain which controls learning and memory.

Dr Jeremy Spencer, from the department of food biosciences at the university, said: “Scientists have known of the potential health benefits of diets rich in fresh fruits for a long time.

“Our research provides scientific evidence to show that blueberries are good for you and supports the idea that a diet-based approach could potentially be used to increase memory capacity.

“We will be taking these findings to the next level by investigating the effects of diets rich in flavonoids on individuals suffering from cognitive impairment and possibly Alzheimer’s disease.”

The research has been published in the Free Radical Biology and Medicine journal. – bbc

I’ve been eating organic blueberries almost every day for over a year. Love ‘em.

Scientists Report Mental ‘Body-Swapping’

The illusion of body-swapping — making people perceive the bodies of mannequins and other people as their own — has been achieved by Swedish neuroscientists.

In one experiment, the team fitted the head of a mannequin with two cameras connected to two small screens placed in front of volunteers’ eyes, so that they had the same view as the mannequin.

When the mannequin’s camera eyes and a participant’s head were directed downwards, the participant saw the mannequin’s body where the person would normally have seen their own body.

The researchers created the illusion of body-swapping by touching the stomach of both the mannequin and the volunteer with sticks. The person saw the mannequin’s stomach being touched while feeling (but not seeing) a similar sensation on their own stomach. As a result, the person developed a strong belief that the mannequin’s body was actually their own.

“This shows how easy it is to change the brain’s perception of the physical self. By manipulating sensory impressions, it’s possible to fool the self not only out of its body but into other bodies, too,” project leader Henrik Ehrsson, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, said in a news release. … – washpost

Out of body experiences are brain malfunctions. Perhaps fun if you experience one in the right state of mind. This might make an awesome game.

Search for Mumbai gunman’s roots only deepens mystery

Indian officials and news media officials identified him variously as Ajmal Amir Kamal, Azam Amir Kasav, or Azam Ameer Qasab, and Indian news media quoted police as saying that the alleged killer’s home village was in Faridkot, near the city of Multan in the southern part of Pakistan’s Punjab province.

Local residents, however, are bewildered and alarmed. They said there was no one of that surname in this village, and no missing resident who fit the pictures and description shown in the Indian news media. – wrh

Big brother police in UK, show ID or face jail

State officials are to be given powers previously reserved for times of war to demand a person’s proof of identity at any time.

Anybody who refuses the Big Brother demand could face arrest and a possible prison sentence.

The new rules come in legislation to be unveiled in today’s Queen’s Speech.

They are presented as a crackdown on illegal immigration, but lawyers say they could be applied to anybody who has ever been outside the UK, even on holiday.

The civil rights group Liberty, which analysed clauses from the new Immigration and Citizenship Bill, called them an attempt to introduce compulsory ID cards by the back door.

The move would effectively take Britain back to the Second World War, when people were stopped and asked to ‘show their papers’. – dailymail

Some Brits are control freaks. This is why we formed the USA.