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[rael-science] Radioactive Japan: Final Disposal Site for Highly Contaminated #Fukushima Soil and Debris May Be on Southern-Most Tip of Kyushu‏

วันอาทิตย์ที่ 26 สิงหาคม พ.ศ. 2555

[rael-science] Radioactive Japan: Final Disposal Site for Highly Contaminated #Fukushima Soil and Debris May Be on Southern-Most Tip of Kyushu‏

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The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
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Source: http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2012/08/radioactive-japan-final-disposal-site.html

#Radioactive Japan: Final Disposal Site for Highly Contaminated #Fukushima Soil and Debris May Be on Southern-Most Tip of Kyushu

(UPDATE) IWJ Kagoshima will netcast a protest against building the final disposal site in Minami Osumi-cho in Kagoshima, from 1:30PM today in Japan (August 25, 2012).

Japan Times says "Goshi Hosono denies nuke disposal report", but the title is not quite reflecting what it actually is. It is more like "Goshi Hosono doesn't deny nuke disposal report, does say it is not yet official."

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It makes absolutely no sense, but since when anything that the Japanese government (or any government these days) does make any sense?

TBS News reported that there has been a secret talk between the national government and the local officials in Minami Osumi in Kagoshima Prefecture to create the final disposal site for the radioactive waste from Fukushima Prefecture, 1,500 kilometers away from Fukushima.

The town of Minami Osumi has 9,000 residents and untouched, pristine mountains and the ocean.

Summary from TBS/JNN News (8/23/2012; link may not last):

A strong candidate for the final disposal site for the soil contaminated with radioactive materials from the Fukushima nuclear accident has finally been revealed, and it is the mountains in Minami Osumi-cho in Kagoshima Prefecture.

The national government has already been talking with the town's leaders.

Minami Osumi-cho is about 1,500 kilometers away from Fukushima I Nuclear Power plant, population less than 9,000. The town's industries are agriculture and fishery.

[In the map to the right, "A" is where the nuke plant is located, and "B" is Minami Osumi-cho.]

Decontamination work has been on-going in Fukushima Prefecture to remove radioactive materials from the nuclear accident. Currently, the soil removed in the decontamination is stored in temporary storage locations in the municipalities in Fukushima, but the residents do not want the storage sites in their midst.

The national government plan is to store the contaminated soil from decontamination in temporary storage locations in the municipalities. It will then be transferred to interim storage facilities inside Fukushima Prefecture, and within 30 years it will be removed to a final disposal site which is to be created outside Fukushima.

Mayor Idogawa of Futaba-machi, Fukushima:
"We can't even begin to negotiate [over the temporary storage] unless it's necessary, safe, and [the contaminated waste] is moved outside Fukushima."

Mayor Morita of Minami Osumi-cho, Kagoshima:
"No, we haven't been formally approached by the national government yet." [The keyword here is "formally", in my opinion.]

Governor Itoh of Kagoshima:
"No, no word from the national government. We have no room to accept, we have no intention to accept." [The problem is that it's not up to the governor; it's on the municipal level.]

Residents of Minami Osumi-cho:
"It's difficult, but we can't just say no." [Why not?]
"I don't want it here, but someone has to do something for the people in Fukushima..."

A government source telling TBS/JNN:
"Minami Osumi-cho is the one and only, largest final disposal site candidate."

The latest from TBS (8/25/2012; link may not last) is that this final disposal site is modeled after the storage site for low-level rad waste from nuclear power plants in Rokkasho-mura in Aomori Prefecture. The municipalities around Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant are welcoming the prospect of the final disposal site outside Fukushima, according to TBS.

What the article doesn't say is that the rad waste in Rokkasho is probably far, far less contaminated than the waste from "decontamination" in Fukushima Prefecture.

The most logical place for the final disposal site for contaminated soil and debris from Fukushima is Fukushima, close to Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, but since when the Japanese have been logical? You are not supposed to even suggest that it is a logical place.

Browsing through the tweets from Professor Yukio Hayakawa, he is being attacked for dare suggesting Fukushima Prefecture is contaminated.

Instead, the talk, if TBS/JNN is correct, is to transport all the contamination by sea to a small town on the southern tip of Japan mainland 1,500 kilometers away.

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WARNING FROM RAEL: For those who don't use their intelligence at its full capacity, the label "selected by RAEL" on some articles does not mean that I agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL" means that I believe it is important for the people of this planet to know about what people think or do, even when what they think or do is completely stupid and against our philosophy. When I selected articles in the past about stupid Christian fundamentalists in America praying for rain, I am sure no Rael-Science reader was stupid enough to believe that I was supporting praying to change the weather. So, when I select articles which are in favor of drugs, anti-semitic, anti-Jewish, racist, revisionist, or inciting hatred against any group or religion, or any other stupid article, it does not mean that I support them. It just means that it is important for all human beings to know about them. Common sense, which is usually very good among our readers, is good enough to understand that. When, like in the recent articles on drug decriminalization, it is necessary to make it clearer, I add a comment, which in this case was very clear: I support decriminalizing all drugs, as it is stupid to throw depressed and sad people (as only depressed and sad people use drugs) in prison and ruin their life with a criminal record. That does not mean that there is any change to the Message which says clearly that we must not use any drug except for medical purposes. The same applies to the freedom of expression which must be absolute. That does not mean again of course that I agree with anti-Jews, antisemites, racists of any kind or anti-Raelians. But by knowing your enemies or the enemies of your values, you are better equipped to fight them. With love and respect of course, and with the wonderful sentence of the French philosopher Voltaire in mind: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".

--
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ethics" is simply a last-gasp attempt by deist conservatives and
orthodox dogmatics to keep humanity in ignorance and obscurantism,
through the well tried fermentation of fear, the fear of science and
new technologies.

There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history,
it is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations.

On the contrary, let us embrace Science and the new technologies
unfettered, for it is these which will liberate mankind from the
myth of god, and free us from our age old fears, from disease,
death and the sweat of labour.

Rael
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tell your friends that they can subscribe to this list by sending an email to:
subscribe@rael-science.org
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To unsubscribe, send an email to:
unsubscribe@rael-science.org
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[rael-science] [with Rael's comment] Israel anger at S Africa 'Occupied Territories' labels‏

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The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
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RAEL'S COMMENT: South Africa is 100 % right and all countries of the world should do the same.

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Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19347577

Israel anger at S Africa 'Occupied Territories' labels

Jewish
settlement of Pisgat Zeev in East Jerusalem (16 October 2010)

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law

Israel and Jewish groups have protested after South Africa's cabinet approved regulations to label goods made in Israeli settlements as being from the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Israel's foreign ministry said the requirement was "totally unacceptable" and "blatant discrimination".

But South African said the move conformed with its standing policy.

Pro-Palestinian groups have called for a boycott and sanctions campaign against Israeli goods and companies.

South African government spokesman Jimmy Manyi told reporters: "This is in line with South Africa's stance that recognises the 1948 borders delineated by the United Nations and does not recognise occupied territories beyond these borders as being part of the state of Israel."

'Racist nature'

But in a statement, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said: "What is totally unacceptable is the use of tools which, by essence, discriminate and single out, fostering a general boycott.

"Such exclusion and discrimination bring to mind ideas of racist nature which the government of South Africa, more than any other, should have wholly rejected."

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies also criticised the new measures, calling them "discriminatory" and "divisive".

"They are believed to be motivated not by technical trade concerns but by political bias against the state of Israel," the group said in a statement.

An international boycott of South Africa helped to bring down the apartheid regime in the 1980s, with Israel being one of the last countries to sign up to the campaign.

In 2009, the European Union ruled that goods made in Israeli settlements in the West Bank would no longer be eligible for the preferential trade terms enjoyed by other Israeli producers.

About 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

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WARNING FROM RAEL: For those who don't use their intelligence at its full capacity, the label "selected by RAEL" on some articles does not mean that I agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL" means that I believe it is important for the people of this planet to know about what people think or do, even when what they think or do is completely stupid and against our philosophy. When I selected articles in the past about stupid Christian fundamentalists in America praying for rain, I am sure no Rael-Science reader was stupid enough to believe that I was supporting praying to change the weather. So, when I select articles which are in favor of drugs, anti-semitic, anti-Jewish, racist, revisionist, or inciting hatred against any group or religion, or any other stupid article, it does not mean that I support them. It just means that it is important for all human beings to know about them. Common sense, which is usually very good among our readers, is good enough to understand that. When, like in the recent articles on drug decriminalization, it is necessary to make it clearer, I add a comment, which in this case was very clear: I support decriminalizing all drugs, as it is stupid to throw depressed and sad people (as only depressed and sad people use drugs) in prison and ruin their life with a criminal record. That does not mean that there is any change to the Message which says clearly that we must not use any drug except for medical purposes. The same applies to the freedom of expression which must be absolute. That does not mean again of course that I agree with anti-Jews, antisemites, racists of any kind or anti-Raelians. But by knowing your enemies or the enemies of your values, you are better equipped to fight them. With love and respect of course, and with the wonderful sentence of the French philosopher Voltaire in mind: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[rael-science] [with Rael's comment] Jesus and His Father Offensive Cartoon Has German Christians Fuming‏

RAEL'S COMMENT:

This kind of reaction is so stupid. First of all, the name "Jesus" isn't written anywhere. Second, nobody knows exactly what Jesus looked like (and the same is true for depictions of Muhammed). And third, the fact that someone was represented on a cross doesn't mean it was Jesus, since thousands of people were crucified during his time (as well as before and after him). Crucifixion was a very common way of executing people, especially criminals. Last but not least, they were using wood assembled in a T-shape, not a cross, since it takes way too much work to make a cross.

Source: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/offensive-caricature-has-angered-christians-in-germany-a-851436.html

This caricature in Kassel is causing a commotion. The German city of Kassel is best known for the art exhibition Documenta, which is currently taking place. These days, though, a local caricature museum is dominating the headlines with a controversial cartoon hanging in its window, depicting Jesus on the cross. Christian leaders want it removed.
Lampooning religion has proven an easy way to get into hot water in recent years. Caricatures poking fun, or outright hostility, at Islam have been especially prone toproducing controversy -- or even violence.

Now, however, it is Germany's Christians who find themselves on the receiving end of an indelicate cartoon. Several religious leaders in Kassel, the western German city that is currently hosting the semi-decadal art exhibition Documenta, have protested against a drawing advertising a show in the city's caricature museum.

"I find it problematic when a caricature disparages the very heart of a faith," Barbara Heinrich, a Protestant official in the city, told German news agency DPA. Local Catholic priest Harald Fischer has likewise criticized the caricature, according to the local paper, the Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine (HNA), as have Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders from the area.

The cartoon in question is hanging outside the Kulturbahnhof, a cultural center which houses the caricature museum, known as Caricatura. It depicts Jesus in agony on the cross as a voice calls down from heaven, "Hey, you. I fucked your mother."

'Not Good for the Church'

Museum head Martin Sonntag has rejected calls to remove the poster. He told the HNA that caricatures are by their very nature offensive to some observers. "But we can't remove caricatures after every complaint," he said. Were the museum to take into account all religious and other viewpoints, he added, it would have to close its doors.

The artist behind the caricature, Mario Lars, likewise expressed surprise at the burgeoning debate. "It was not my intention to hurt the feelings of the faithful," Lars said. "I was just making a joke…. (The church) should stand aloof of such things and address more important problems. Such a large commotion over a small joke isn't good for the church."

The mini-imbroglio recalls a recent scandal involving the German satirical magazine Titanic. The publication recently printed an image of Pope Benedict XVI soiling himself front and back under the headline: "The Leak Has Been Found." The Vatican was not amused and filed a cease and desist order against the magazine.

cgh -- with wire reports

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[rael-science] Fasting Mice Overcome Harmful Effects of a High-fat Diet

วันเสาร์ที่ 30 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2555

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The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
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Source: http://www.alnmag.com/news/fasting-mice-overcome-harmful-effects-high-fat-diet

Fasting Mice Overcome Harmful Effects of a High-fat Diet

News Posted: May 21, 2012

It turns out that when we eat may be as important as what we eat. Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have found that regular eating times and extending the daily fasting period may override the adverse health effects of a high-fat diet and prevent obesity, diabetes and liver disease in mice.

In a paper published in Cell Metabolism, scientists from Salk's Regulatory Biology Laboratory reported that mice limited to eating during an 8-hour period are healthier than mice that eat freely throughout the day, regardless of the quality and content of their diet. The study sought to determine whether obesity and metabolic diseases result from a high-fat diet or from disruption of metabolic cycles.

"It's a dogma that a high-fat diet leads to obesity and that we should eat frequently when we are awake," says Satchidananda Panda, an associate professor in the Regulatory Biology Laboratory and senior author of the paper. "Our findings, however, suggest that regular eating times and fasting for a significant number of hours a day might be beneficial to our health."

Panda's team fed two sets of mice, which shared the same genes, gender and age, a diet comprising 60 percent of its calories from fat (like eating potato chips and ice-cream for all your meals). One group of mice could eat whenever they wanted, consuming half their food at night (mice are primarily nocturnal) and nibbling throughout the rest of the day. The other group was restricted to eating for only eight hours every night; in essence, fasting for about 16 hours a day. Two control groups ate a standard diet comprising about 13 percent of calories from fat under similar conditions.

After 100 days, the mice who ate fatty food frequently throughout the day gained weight and developed high cholesterol, high blood glucose, liver damage and diminished motor control, while the mice in the time-restricted feeding group weighed 28 percent less and showed no adverse health effects despite consuming the same amount of calories from the same fatty food. Further, the time-restricted mice outperformed the ad lib eaters and those on a normal diet when given an exercise test.

"This was a surprising result," says Megumi Hatori, a postdoctoral researcher in Panda's laboratory and a first author of the study. "For the last 50 years, we have been told to reduce our calories from fat and to eat smaller meals and snacks throughout the day. We found, however, that fasting time is important. By eating in a time-restricted fashion, you can still resist the damaging effects of a high-fat diet, and we did not find any adverse effects of time-restricted eating when eating healthy food."

Hatori cautioned that people should not jump to the conclusion that eating lots of unhealthy food is alright as long as we fast. "What we showed is under daily fasting the body can fight unhealthy food to a significant extent," she says. "But there are bound to be limits."

Obesity is a major health challenge in many developed countries, reaching global pandemic proportions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one-third of American adults and 17 percent of youth are obese. Obesity increases the risk of a number of health conditions including: high blood pressure, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes. Lifestyle modifications, including eating a healthy diet and daily exercise, are first-line interventions in the fight against obesity. The Salk study suggests another option for preventing obesity by preserving natural feeding rhythms without altering dietary intake.

Scientists have long assumed that the cause of diet-induced obesity in mice is nutritional; however, the Salk findings suggest that the spreading of caloric intake through the day may contribute, as well, by perturbing metabolic pathways governed by the circadian clock and nutrient sensors.

The Salk study found the body stores fat while eating and starts to burn fat and breakdown cholesterol into beneficial bile acids only after a few hours of fasting. When eating frequently, the body continues to make and store fat, ballooning fat cells and liver cells, which can result in liver damage. Under such conditions the liver also continues to make glucose, which raises blood sugar levels. Time-restricted feeding, on the other hand, reduces production of free fat, glucose and cholesterol and makes better use of them. It cuts down fat storage and turns on fat burning mechanisms when the animals undergo daily fasting, thereby keeping the liver cells healthy and reducing overall body fat.

The daily feeding-fasting cycle activates liver enzymes that breakdown cholesterol into bile acids, spurring the metabolism of brown fat — a type of "good fat" in our body that converts extra calories to heat. Thus the body literally burns fat during fasting. The liver also shuts down glucose production for several hours, which helps lower blood glucose. The extra glucose that would have ended up in the blood — high blood sugar is a hallmark of diabetes — is instead used to build molecules that repair damaged cells and make new DNA. This helps prevent chronic inflammation, which has been implicated in the development of a number of diseases, including heart disease, cancer, stroke and Alzheimer's. Under the time-restricted feeding schedule studied by Panda's lab, such low-grade inflammation was also reduced.

"Implicit in our findings," says Panda, "is that the control of energy metabolism is a finely-tuned process that involves an intricate network of signaling and genetic pathways, including nutrient sensing mechanisms and the circadian system. Time-restricted feeding acts on these interwoven networks and moves their state toward that of a normal feeding rhythm."

Amir Zarrinpar, a co-first author on the paper from the Univ. of California San Diego, says it was encouraging that a simple increase in daily fasting time prevented weight gain and the onset of disease. "Otherwise, this could have been only partly achieved with a number of different pills and with adverse side effects," he says.

The multimillion-dollar question is what these findings mean for humans. Public health surveys on nutrition have focused on both the quality and quantity of diet, but they have inherent flaws such as sampling bias, response bias and recall errors that make the results questionable. Thus, says Panda, with the current data it is difficult to connect when we eat, what we eat with how much weight we gain.

"The take-home message," says Panda, "is that eating at regular times during the day and overnight fasting may prove to be beneficial, but, we will have to wait for human studies to prove this."

The good news, he adds, is that most successful human lifestyle interventions were first tested in mice, so he and his team are hopeful their findings will follow suit. If following a time-restricted eating schedule can prevent weight gain by 10 to 20 percent, it will be a simple and effective lifestyle intervention to contain the obesity epidemic.

Other researchers on the study were Christopher Vollmers, Amir Zarrinpar, Luciano DiTacchio, Shubhroz Gill, Mathias Leblanc, Amandine Chaix, Matthew Joens and James A.J. Fitzpatrick, from the Salk Institute; and Eric Bushong and Mark Ellisman, of the Univ. of California, San Diego.

Source: the Salk Institute

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ethics" is simply a last-gasp attempt by deist conservatives and
orthodox dogmatics to keep humanity in ignorance and obscurantism,
through the well tried fermentation of fear, the fear of science and
new technologies.

There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history,
it is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations.

On the contrary, let us embrace Science and the new technologies
unfettered, for it is these which will liberate mankind from the
myth of god, and free us from our age old fears, from disease,
death and the sweat of labour.

Rael
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tell your friends that they can subscribe to this list by sending an email to:
subscribe@rael-science.org
- - -
To unsubscribe, send an email to:
unsubscribe@rael-science.org
- - -

[rael-science] Sunscreen use actually causes cancer

วันศุกร์ที่ 29 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2555

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The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.foodandthought.com/?p=1654

Sunscreen use actually causes cancer

I’ve been saying this for years. Now the research is finally coming out to prove it: sunscreen use actually causes cancer, according to comprehensive new research published in the U.K.

There are two primary reasons why sunscreen causes cancer. First, and most importantly, the use of sunscreen blocks the skin from absorbing the sun’s rays. That’s what it’s supposed to do, right? Yes, but in doing so, it also blocks the creation of all-essential vitamin D, the nutrient that the human body desperately needs to prevent as many as 25 chronic diseases. Notably: prostate cancer, breast cancer, osteoporosis, schizophrenia and heart disease.

It turns out that most people living in the Northern hemisphere (which probably includes you) are chronically deficient in vitamin D. By wearing sunscreen, they’re depriving their bodies of perhaps the single most important nutrient they need to stay healthy.

The second reason sunscreen causes cancer is because it contains toxic chemicals in the form of artificial fragrance, chemical colors and petroleum products used as fillers and stabilizers. These chemicals are absorbed through the skin where they enter the blood stream and wreak havoc on the immune system. Artificial fragrances, just by themselves, may contain dozens of carconigenic chemicals that damage the liver, the heart, and even promote systemic cancer.

Of course, the sunscreen manufacturers continue to deny all this while propagating the ridiculous myth that, “There’s no such thing as a healthy tan.” In reality, there’s no such thing as a healthy pale person! A tan is a bonafide sign of good health, and a deep tan actually protects you from cancer.

All this has come out in this comprehensive new research report entitled, “Sunlight Robbery.” To summarize the findings of the report,“To ensure optimum levels of vitamin D and optimum health people in the UK need to sun bathe whenever they can wearing as few clothes as possible while taking care not to burn.Vitamin D obtained from food provides only about 10% of our needs.”

Well said. So much for the myth that sunshine is somehow bad for you.

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WARNING FROM RAEL: For those who don't use their intelligence at its
full capacity, the label "selected by RAEL" on some articles does not
mean that I agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL"
means that I believe it is important for the people of this planet to
know about what people think or do, even when what they think or do is
completely stupid and against our philosophy. When I selected articles
in the past about stupid Christian fundamentalists in America praying
for rain, I am sure no Rael-Science reader was stupid enough to believe
that I was supporting praying to change the weather. So, when I select
articles which are in favor of drugs, anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish, racist,
revisionist, or inciting hatred against any group or religion, or any
other stupid article, it does not mean that I support them. It just
means that it is important for all human beings to know about them.
Common sense, which is usually very good among our readers, is good
enough to understand that. When, like in the recent articles on drug
decriminalization, it is necessary to make it clearer, I add a comment,
which in this case was very clear: I support decriminalizing all drugs,
as it is stupid to throw depressed and sad people (as only depressed and
sad people use drugs) in prison and ruin their life with a criminal
record. That does not mean that there is any change to the Message which
says clearly that we must not use any drug except for medical purposes.
The same applies to the freedom of expression which must be absolute.
That does not mean again of course that I agree with anti-Jews,
anti-Semites, racists of any kind or anti-Raelians. But by knowing your
enemies or the enemies of your values, you are better equipped to fight
them. With love and respect of course, and with the wonderful sentence
of the French philosopher Voltaire in mind: "I disapprove of what you
say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".

[rael-science] Scientists Turn DNA into Hard Drives

วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 28 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2555

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The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Source: http://www.biotechniques.com/news/biotechniquesNews/biotechniques-330807.html

Scientists Turn DNA into Hard Drives

05/21/2012

Jesse Jenkins

To record biological events in living cells, synthetic biologist Drew Endy and his team have created the first rewriteable DNA-based memory module.

When we talk about data storage, it’s usually in terms of bits, hard drives, and servers. But recently researchers have been looking into a new storage device: DNA. The idea is that DNA could record cellular events that trigger aging, cancer, and other developmental processes. So far, however, scientists have only created limited single-write technology.

The RAD module, driven by set-and-reset input signals, modifies a part of DNA within microbes that determines how the one-celled organisms will fluoresce under ultraviolet light. The microbes glow red or green depending upon the orientation of the section of DNA. Source: PNAS

But now researchers from Stanford University have now engineered the first rewriteable DNA-based memory module called the recombinase addressable data (RAD) module, which provides up to one bit of data storage within living cells. The module has the capability to write, erase, and rewrite data to record repetitive events like cell division. In contrast, previous single-write DNA-based data storage systems can only address linear data.

“Think of a CD that you can only write onto once… you fill up space really quickly,” said study author Jerome Bonnet, a post-doc in Drew Endy’s Stanford lab. “But we came up with a way where we can write and rewrite as many times as we want, and we haven’t seen any change in performance.”

To create the module, Bonnet and his co-authors needed to reliably flip a DNA sequence’s genetic orientation between two states repeatedly. In one state, the sequence would express a green fluorescent protein; in the other, a red fluorescent protein. To switch between the two states, the team relied on the synthesis of two proteins: integrase and excisionase. In their system, integrase would invert the DNA sequence; the presence of both proteins would reset the modules to its original orientation.

But these two proteins are highly volatile when placed within the same cell, so many of the initial designs failed. “This kind of stoichiometry inside a living cell is very tricky,” said co-author Pakpoom Subsoontorn, a graduate student at Stanford. “We needed to have precise control over how much we had of each protein to get to the correct state.”

After three years of optimizing the design, the team found the right balance of those two proteins. In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (1), the team described their RAD memory element, which is capable of passive information storage in the absence of heterologous gene expression for more than 100 cell divisions.

Now, while the team is exploring other enzymes to improve the efficiency of their method, their next big target is increase the storage capability of the module to 8 bits, or 1 byte.

“If you want to use this kind of memory to keep track of the events inside a living cell for a study in aging for example, the scale or number of the events that you are tracking is normally 50-200 events. We would need about 8 bits of data storage to record that,” said Subsoontorn.

References

Bonnet J., P. Subsoontorn, and D. Endy. 2012. Rewritable digital data storage in live cells via engineered control of recombination directionality. PNAS [published online May 21, 2012]

[rael-science] Gene Therapy Effective Against Aging in Mice

วันพุธที่ 27 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2555

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Gene Therapy Effective Against Aging in Mice

News Posted: May 16, 2012

A number of studies have shown that it is possible to lengthen the average life of individuals of many species, including mammals, by acting on specific genes. To date, however, this has meant altering the animals' genes permanently from the embryonic stage — an approach impracticable in humans. Researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), led by its director María Blasco, have proved that mouse lifespan can be extended by the application in adult life of a single treatment acting directly on the animal's genes. And they have done so using gene therapy, a strategy never before employed to combat ageing. The therapy has been found to be safe and effective in mice.

The results are published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine. The CNIO team, in collaboration with Eduard Ayuso and Fátima Bosch of the Centre of Animal Biotechnology and Gene Therapy at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), treated adult (one-year-old) and aged (two-year-old) mice, with the gene therapy delivering a "rejuvenating" effect in both cases, according to the authors.

Mice treated at the age of one lived longer by 24 percent on average, and those treated at the age of two, by 13 percent. The therapy, furthermore, produced an appreciable improvement in the animals' health, delaying the onset of age-related diseases — like osteoporosis and insulin resistance — and achieving improved readings on ageing indicators like neuromuscular coordination.

The gene therapy utilized consisted of treating the animals with a DNA-modified virus, the viral genes having been replaced by those of the telomerase enzyme, with a key role in ageing. Telomerase repairs the extremes of chromosomes, known as telomeres, and in doing so slows the cell's and therefore the body's biological clock. When the animal is infected, the virus acts as a vehicle depositing the telomerase gene in the cells.

This study "shows that it is possible to develop a telomerase-based anti-ageing gene therapy without increasing the incidence of cancer", the authors affirm. "Aged organisms accumulate damage in their DNA due to telomere shortening, [this study] finds that a gene therapy based on telomerase production can repair or delay this kind of damage", they add.

'Resetting' the biological clock
Telomeres are the caps that protect the end of chromosomes, but they cannot do so indefinitely: each time the cell divides the telomeres get shorter, until they are so short that they lose all functionality. The cell, as a result, stops dividing and ages or dies. Telomerase gets round this by preventing telomeres from shortening or even rebuilding them. What it does, in essence, is stop or reset the cell's biological clock.

But in most cells the telomerase gene is only active before birth; the cells of an adult organism, with few exceptions, have no telomerase. The exceptions in question are adult stem cells and cancer cells, which divide limitlessly and are therefore immortal — in fact several studies have shown that telomerase expression is the key to the immortality of tumour cells.

It is precisely this risk of promoting tumor development that has set back the investigation of telomerase-based anti-ageing therapies.

In 2007, Blasco's group proved that it was feasible to prolong the lives of transgenic mice, whose genome had been permanently altered at the embryonic stage, by causing their cells to express telomerase and, also, extra copies of cancer-resistant genes. These animals live 40 percent longer than is normal and do not develop cancer.

The mice subjected to the gene therapy now under test are likewise free of cancer. Researchers believe this is because the therapy begins when the animals are adult so do not have time to accumulate sufficient number of aberrant divisions for tumors to appear.

Also important is the kind of virus employed to carry the telomerase gene to the cells. The authors selected demonstrably safe viruses that have been successfully used in gene therapy treatment of haemophilia and eye disease. Specifically, they are non-replicating viruses derived from others that are non-pathogenic in humans.

This study is viewed primarily as "a proof-of-principle that telomerase gene therapy is a feasible and generally safe approach to improve healthspan and treat disorders associated with short telomeres", state Virginia Boccardi (Second Univ. of Naples) and Utz Herbig (New Jersey Medical School-Univ. Hospital Cancer Centre) in a commentary published in the same journal.

Although this therapy may not find application as an anti-ageing treatment in humans, in the short term at least, it could open up a new treatment option for ailments linked with the presence in tissue of abnormally short telomeres, as in some cases of human pulmonary fibrosis.

More healthy years
As Blasco says, "ageing is not currently regarded as a disease, but researchers tend increasingly to view it as the common origin of conditions like insulin resistance or cardiovascular disease, whose incidence rises with age. In treating cell ageing, we could prevent these diseases".

With regard to the therapy under testing, Bosch explains, "Because the vector we use expresses the target gene (telomerase) over a long period, we were able to apply a single treatment. This might be the only practical solution for an anti-ageing therapy, since other strategies would require the drug to be administered over the patient's lifetime, multiplying the risk of adverse effects".

Source: Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO)

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WARNING FROM RAEL: For those who don't use their intelligence at its
full capacity, the label "selected by RAEL" on some articles does not
mean that I agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL"
means that I believe it is important for the people of this planet to
know about what people think or do, even when what they think or do is
completely stupid and against our philosophy. When I selected articles
in the past about stupid Christian fundamentalists in America praying
for rain, I am sure no Rael-Science reader was stupid enough to
believe that I was supporting praying to change the weather. So, when
I select articles which are in favor of drugs, anti-semitic,
anti-Jewish, racist, revisionist, or inciting hatred against any group
or religion, or any other stupid article, it does not mean that I
support them. It just means that it is important for all human beings
to know about them. Common sense, which is usually very good among our
readers, is good enough to understand that. When, like in the recent
articles on drug decriminalization, it is necessary to make it
clearer, I add a comment, which in this case was very clear: I support
decriminalizing all drugs, as it is stupid to throw depressed and sad
people (as only depressed and sad people use drugs) in prison and ruin
their life with a criminal record. That does not mean that there is
any change to the Message which says clearly that we must not use any
drug except for medical purposes. The same applies to the freedom of
expression which must be absolute. That does not mean again of course
that I agree with anti-Jews, antisemites, racists of any kind or
anti-Raelians. But by knowing your enemies or the enemies of your
values, you are better equipped to fight them. With love and respect
of course, and with the wonderful sentence of the French philosopher
Voltaire in mind: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to
the death your right to say it".

The Elohim Sound

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