Synthetic stool a prospective treatment for C. difficile

The article below is from an investment newsletter. Despite that provenance, the essay is both fascinating and of interest to this group.

David M Gordon

Is the Heyday of Carbon Nanotubes Just Around the Corner?

A few weeks ago in these pages we ran an article in which we touched on one particular technology that I'd like to delve into more deeply today. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) warrant additional discussion partly because of the sheer scope of their potential applications and partly because of recent breakthroughs that are bringing their heyday closer to reality.

Although the term "carbon nanotubes" still sounds rather futuristic, scientists have known about their existence for quite some time. Sumio Iijima is typically credited with discovering CNTs by accident in 1991, but a careful reading of the literature actually shows that Russian scientist LV Radushkevich and his collaborators reported on CNTs as early as 1952. Then, in the mid-1970s, a collaborative effort between scientists from Japan and France reported the observation of CNTs via electron microscopy. The actual discovery of CNTs came with little fanfare, however, since nobody at the time thought they could be fabricated in meaningful amounts.

Fast forward about 15 years, to when Huffman in the US and Kratschmer in Germany developed the arc evaporation method to produce macroscopic amounts of C60, a carbon molecule in the shape of a soccer ball; these are often referred to now as "buckyballs." Iijima - who was studying the surfaces of the electrodes used in the arc evaporation process - found large amounts of multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) mixed with other graphite particles. The ability to source MWCNTs was of great importance... but there was more to come.

In early 1993, both Iijima (working at NEC in Japan) and Donald Bethune (of IBM) independently isolated single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). MWCNTs are easier to produce in high volume quantities than SWCNTs, but they're less sought after because their structural imperfections tend to diminish their desirable material properties. SWCNTs are more pliable than MWCNTs, and they have unique electronic and mechanical properties which are widely useful. Thus, for the purposes of this article, when we discuss CNTs we'll mostly be referring to SWCNTs.

CNTs are an allotrope of carbon that can be thought of as a sheet of graphene (a hexagonal lattice of carbon) rolled into a seamless cylinder. They are highly flexible and very strong (100 times stronger than steel at one-sixth the weight). They also have high electrical conductivity (as high as copper) and high thermal conductivity (as high as diamond). And they can easily penetrate membranes such as cell walls - in effect acting like a needle at the cellular level.

Due to the incredible properties of CNTs, research labs and companies the world over have been promising technological breakthroughs - in fields ranging from electronics and medicine to construction and aerospace - for the past two decades.

Some of these include:

Building transistors from CNTs to enable minimum transistor dimensions of a few nanometers, and developing techniques to manufacture integrated circuits built with nanotube transistors.
Creating drug-delivery systems with CNTs. One idea is to fill the tubes with a mixture of drugs and water molecules, then heat up the tubes with an infrared laser to boil the water inside, and once they've reached the desired target in the body, blow them up to release the drugs; i.e., "drug grenades" if you will.
Constructing superstrong, lightweight bridges and buildings out of CNTs instead of steel.
Replacing silicon with a thin layer of CNTs in window-based solar-energy production for a transparent solar window.

It's true that a few applications of CNTs are commercialized today (some products containing CNTs include paint, vehicle parts, and sports equipment), but these represent bulk applications in which MWCNTs play an auxiliary role to reinforce mechanical, thermal, or electric properties. The technological revolution in products that capitalize on the unique mechanical and electric properties of SWCNTs has been slower to materialize.

The main reason that the most promising applications have not yet come to pass is the lack of reproducibility of quality CNTs. Simply by changing the bonding configuration with itself, carbon can form a large variety of isomers from the same number of atoms. And the number of these isomers increases almost exponentially with the number of carbon atoms. For example, C60 has one isomer, while C120 has about 14,000. According to Dr. Gyula Eres, from the Materials Science and Technology Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, "The large number of isomers leads to a non-uniform product distribution that can dramatically change in response to relatively small changes in experimental parameters that are often difficult or impossible to account for. This is why the various methods used for synthesis of CNTs produce such vastly different distributions of single wall and multi-wall CNTs along with other carbon structures that are undesirable side products of the synthesis process."

But the long-awaited CNT revolution may be just around the corner, thanks to a couple of recent improvements to the production process.

Since the early '90s, CNTs have been described as "rolled-up sheets of graphene," except they couldn't actually be made that way. Instead, they were coaxed into self-assembling using the three typical production techniques of arc discharge, laser ablation, and chemical vapor deposition. It was recently reported, however, that researchers from Harvard and the NanoScience Center of the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland have discovered a new way to make CNTs by means of twisting graphene nanoribbons. The basic idea is easily explained: simply twist the ends of a strap on a backpack and you'll understand what's going on. The new method also supposedly allows for stricter experimental control, which would permit scientists selectively to create various types of CNTs.

Just two weeks ago, another - perhaps even more important - breakthrough in the production of CNTs was announced by a group of researchers from Malaysia. The group claims to have successfully created a method of continuously producing high-quality, pure CNTs at a cost of just $15 to $35 per gram, well below current production costs of $100 to $700 per gram. According to the team, "the system is capable of producing up to 1,000 grams of carbon nanotubes a day." It should be noted that details about this new method are hard to come by, and the group's claim is difficult to substantiate. If it is true, however, it represents a giant step forward in CNT research.

In addition to novel production techniques, we've also recently seen advances in the application of CNTs in electronics. It's been common knowledge for years that scaling bulk silicon transistors will be extremely difficult (if not impossible) once we get down to about 15 nm. Intel's new chips, coming out later this week, employ the company's Ivy Bridge 22 nm technology. Thus, we've almost reached the theoretical limit of being able to scale down planar transistors. (Intel's new chips do incorporate 3D transistor technology, but that's a discussion for another day.) One possible solution to this problem is to swap silicon transistors for ones made with CNTs. The problem is that nobody knew whether CNT transistors could offer performance advantages over silicon at sub-10 nm lengths - until now.

Dr. Aaron Franklin and his team at IBM recently showed that CNTs can operate as excellent switches at molecular dimensions of only 9 nm; i.e., less than half the size of the leading silicon technology. And these transistors deliver more current and require less operating power than silicon-based ones of similar size. This is the first experiment to clearly demonstrate that silicon can be replaced with CNTs in future semiconductor technology, and the results propel such devices to the forefront of future microchip technologies.

These recent developments add to our already bullish outlook for the future prospects of CNTs. But it's important to keep in mind that like any technology, it doesn't come without risks. Some studies have shown that CNTs, especially longer ones, can pose health risks similar to asbestos' if inhaled. Other studies have shown that CNT inhalation can also suppress the immune system. Thus, their ultimate use in industry could be significantly curbed by regulation.

Nevertheless, CNTs represent a disruptive technology the likes of which comes along once every few generations (if that). We're convinced that it is poised to reshape industries, create new ones, and make savvy investors very wealthy in the process. <snip>

Reply | Messages in this Topic (2)

#5130

From: Eric Anderson <eric25001@...>
Date: Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:09 am
Subject: Re: Is the Heyday of Carbon Nanotubes Just Around the Corner?

eric25001

David and all

I still think the two fold lifespan increase in rats is hopeful.

If C60 can increase human life to an average of 150 to 200 years it will have a most profound economic impact! Eric

--- On Thu, 4/26/12, David M Gordon <gordondm@...> wrote:

From: David M Gordon <gordondm@...>
Subject: [lvfuturists] Is the Heyday of Carbon Nanotubes Just Around the Corner?
To: "Las Vegas Future Salon" <lvfuturists@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Thursday, April 26, 2012, 5:51 PM

The article below is from an investment newsletter. Despite that provenance, the essay is both fascinating and of interest to this group.

David M Gordon

Is the Heyday of Carbon Nanotubes Just Around the Corner?

A few weeks ago in these pages we ran an article in which we touched on one particular technology that I'd like to delve into more deeply today. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) warrant additional discussion partly because of the sheer scope of their potential applications and partly because of recent breakthroughs that are bringing their heyday closer to reality.

Although the term "carbon nanotubes" still sounds rather futuristic, scientists have known about their existence for quite some time. Sumio Iijima is typically credited with discovering CNTs by accident in 1991, but a careful reading of the literature actually shows that Russian scientist LV Radushkevich and his collaborators reported on CNTs as early as 1952. Then, in the mid-1970s, a collaborative effort between scientists from Japan and France reported the observation of CNTs via electron microscopy. The actual discovery of CNTs came with little fanfare, however, since nobody at the time thought they could be fabricated in meaningful amounts.

Fast forward about 15 years, to when Huffman in the US and Kratschmer in Germany developed the arc evaporation method to produce macroscopic amounts of C60, a carbon molecule in the shape of a soccer ball; these are often referred to now as "buckyballs." Iijima - who was studying the surfaces of the electrodes used in the arc evaporation process - found large amounts of multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) mixed with other graphite particles. The ability to source MWCNTs was of great importance... but there was more to come.

In early 1993, both Iijima (working at NEC in Japan) and Donald Bethune (of IBM) independently isolated single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). MWCNTs are easier to produce in high volume quantities than SWCNTs, but they're less sought after because their structural imperfections tend to diminish their desirable material properties. SWCNTs are more pliable than MWCNTs, and they have unique electronic and mechanical properties which are widely useful. Thus, for the purposes of this article, when we discuss CNTs we'll mostly be referring to SWCNTs.

CNTs are an allotrope of carbon that can be thought of as a sheet of graphene (a hexagonal lattice of carbon) rolled into a seamless cylinder. They are highly flexible and very strong (100 times stronger than steel at one-sixth the weight). They also have high electrical conductivity (as high as copper) and high thermal conductivity (as high as diamond). And they can easily penetrate membranes such as cell walls - in effect acting like a needle at the cellular level.

Due to the incredible properties of CNTs, research labs and companies the world over have been promising technological breakthroughs - in fields ranging from electronics and medicine to construction and aerospace - for the past two decades.

Some of these include:

Building transistors from CNTs to enable minimum transistor dimensions of a few nanometers, and developing techniques to manufacture integrated circuits built with nanotube transistors.

Creating drug-delivery systems with CNTs. One idea is to fill the tubes with a mixture of drugs and water molecules, then heat up the tubes with an infrared laser to boil the water inside, and once they've reached the desired target in the body, blow them up to release the drugs; i.e., "drug grenades" if you will.

Constructing superstrong, lightweight bridges and buildings out of CNTs instead of steel.

Replacing silicon with a thin layer of CNTs in window-based solar-energy production for a transparent solar window.

It's true that a few applications of CNTs are commercialized today (some products containing CNTs include paint, vehicle parts, and sports equipment), but these represent bulk applications in which MWCNTs play an auxiliary role to reinforce mechanical, thermal, or electric properties. The technological revolution in products that capitalize on the unique mechanical and electric properties of SWCNTs has been slower to materialize.

The main reason that the most promising applications have not yet come to pass is the lack of reproducibility of quality CNTs. Simply by changing the bonding configuration with itself, carbon can form a large variety of isomers from the same number of atoms. And the number of these isomers increases almost exponentially with the number of carbon atoms. For example, C60 has one isomer, while C120 has about 14,000. According to Dr. Gyula Eres, from the Materials Science and Technology Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, "The large number of isomers leads to a non-uniform product distribution that can dramatically change in response to relatively small changes in experimental parameters that are often difficult or impossible to account for. This is why the various methods used for synthesis of CNTs produce such vastly different distributions of single wall and multi-wall CNTs along with other carbon structures that are undesirable side products of the synthesis process."

But the long-awaited CNT revolution may be just around the corner, thanks to a couple of recent improvements to the production process.

Since the early '90s, CNTs have been described as "rolled-up sheets of graphene," except they couldn't actually be made that way. Instead, they were coaxed into self-assembling using the three typical production techniques of arc discharge, laser ablation, and chemical vapor deposition. It was recently reported, however, that researchers from Harvard and the NanoScience Center of the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland have discovered a new way to make CNTs by means of twisting graphene nanoribbons. The basic idea is easily explained: simply twist the ends of a strap on a backpack and you'll understand what's going on. The new method also supposedly allows for stricter experimental control, which would permit scientists selectively to create various types of CNTs.

Just two weeks ago, another - perhaps even more important - breakthrough in the production of CNTs was announced by a group of researchers from Malaysia. The group claims to have successfully created a method of continuously producing high-quality, pure CNTs at a cost of just $15 to $35 per gram, well below current production costs of $100 to $700 per gram. According to the team, "the system is capable of producing up to 1,000 grams of carbon nanotubes a day." It should be noted that details about this new method are hard to come by, and the group's claim is difficult to substantiate. If it is true, however, it represents a giant step forward in CNT research.

In addition to novel production techniques, we've also recently seen advances in the application of CNTs in electronics. It's been common knowledge for years that scaling bulk silicon transistors will be extremely difficult (if not impossible) once we get down to about 15 nm. Intel's new chips, coming out later this week, employ the company's Ivy Bridge 22 nm technology. Thus, we've almost reached the theoretical limit of being able to scale down planar transistors. (Intel's new chips do incorporate 3D transistor technology, but that's a discussion for another day.) One possible solution to this problem is to swap silicon transistors for ones made with CNTs. The problem is that nobody knew whether CNT transistors could offer performance advantages over silicon at sub-10 nm lengths - until now.

Dr. Aaron Franklin and his team at IBM recently showed that CNTs can operate as excellent switches at molecular dimensions of only 9 nm; i.e., less than half the size of the leading silicon technology. And these transistors deliver more current and require less operating power than silicon-based ones of similar size. This is the first experiment to clearly demonstrate that silicon can be replaced with CNTs in future semiconductor technology, and the results propel such devices to the forefront of future microchip technologies.

These recent developments add to our already bullish outlook for the future prospects of CNTs. But it's important to keep in mind that like any technology, it doesn't come without risks. Some studies have shown that CNTs, especially longer ones, can pose health risks similar to asbestos' if inhaled. Other studies have shown that CNT inhalation can also suppress the immune system. Thus, their ultimate use in industry could be significantly curbed by regulation.

Nevertheless, CNTs represent a disruptive technology the likes of which comes along once every few generations (if that). We're convinced that it is poised to reshape industries, create new ones, and make savvy investors very wealthy in the process. <snip>

Reply | Messages in this Topic (2)

#5131

From: Eric Anderson <eric25001@...>
Date: Tue May 1, 2012 5:07 am
Subject: Synthetic stool a prospective treatment for C. difficile

eric25001

Gut Bacteria! Many diseases might be helped with this approach. Also research into the gut bacteria might show lifespan increases and illness reduction with given bacteria ratios and or types. Eric from the SALT pits

Synthetic stool a prospective treatment for C. difficile

A synthetic mixture of intestinal bacteria could one day replace stool transplants as a treatment for Clostridium difficile (C. difficile)

A synthetic mixture of intestinal bacteria could one day replace stool transplants as a treatment for Clostridium difficile (C. difficile). C. difficile is a toxin-producing bacteria that can overpopulate the colon when antibiotics eradicate other, naturally protective bacteria living there.

"A synthetic stool transplant has a lot of potential because we can control what goes in and we can alter, change, or modify it as necessary," says Elaine Petrof, an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at Queen's University and in the Gastrointestinal Disease Research Unit (GIDRU) at Kingston General Hospital.

Dr. Petrof and her collaborator at the University of Guelph, Emma Allen-Vercoe, believe that a stool compound made from synthetic or "purified" bacteria could significantly improve on regular stool transplants. It could eliminate the chance of transmitting an infectious disease through fecal bacteria; physicians could tailor the mixture so as to increase patient acceptance; it would be easily reproducible; and, it may appeal to both doctors and patients as a 'cleaner' therapy.

Dr. Petrof and Dr. Allen Vercoe, an anaerobic microbiologist specializing in intestinal bacteria, are working closely to develop such a therapy. The goal behind their synthetic stool project is to offer a single-dose remedy, putting an end to revolving-door hospital visits for patients with recurring symptoms. Currently, they are continuing their research before using it as a new therapy.

###

Dr. Petrof recently presented the project's preliminary findings at the Beneficial Microbes Conference in Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands.

#5132

From: Shawn Jipp <sjipp@...>
Date: Tue May 1, 2012 8:17 am
Subject: Great Photo News In Our Future!

sjipp

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/education/college/ua-takes-photography-to-the-ne\
xt-dimension/article_e885c659-ebb9-5cd4-b986-1b9f1f858913.html


Sent from my iPad

#5133

From: "joealwine@..." <joealwine@...>
Date: Tue May 1, 2012 4:59 pm
Subject: Nanobots

joealwine

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/savvy-scientist/tomorrows-nanobots-today/441?tag\
=nl.e660

____________________________________________________________
53 Year Old Mom Looks 33
The Stunning Results of Her Wrinkle Trick Has Botox Doctors Worried
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4fa016782a10be73475st06duc

#5134

From: "Shawn Jipp" <sjipp@...>
Date: Tue May 1, 2012 8:31 pm
Subject: Battery Charging of the Future?

sjipp

http://news.yahoo.com/us-army-wants-wireless-battery-charging-everywhere-163914534.html

#5135

From: "Shawn Jipp" <sjipp@...>
Date: Wed May 2, 2012 2:06 pm
Subject: Terahertz microchip could let cell phones see through walls

sjipp

http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/2012/04/thz-microchip-ut-dallas.html

Richardson, TX--Researchers at UT Dallas have designed a THz microchip that could turn mobile phones into devices that see through opaque objects.

To access this article, go to:

#5136

From: Eric Anderson <eric25001@...>
Date: Thu May 3, 2012 5:50 pm
Subject: Double the lifespan C60 followup

eric25001

Below is a link to an article with more details about C60 and the increase in lifespan.

This requires more study.

Other animal models

Started later in the life cycle

Optimal dose and timeing

BUT a two fold increase is attractive

ALSO it appears almost all animals had great benifit

Eric from the SALT pits

Comments?

Here are links ==> http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142961212003237

Countless studies showed that [60]fullerene (C60) and derivatives could have many potential biomedical applications. However, while several independent research groups showed that C60 has no acute or subacute toxicity in various experimental models, more than 25 years after its discovery the in vivo fate and the chronic effects of this fullerene remain unknown. If the potential of C60 and derivatives in the biomedical field have to be fulfilled these issues must be addressed. Here we show that oral administration of C60 dissolved in olive oil (0.8 mg/ml) at reiterated doses (1.7 mg/kg of body weight) to rats not only does not entail chronic toxicity but it almost doubles their lifespan. The effects of C60-olive oil solutions in an experimental model of CCl4 intoxication in rat strongly suggest that the effect on lifespan is mainly due to the attenuation of age-associated increases in oxidative stress. Pharmacokinetic studies show that dissolved C60 is absorbed by the gastro-intestinal tract and eliminated in a few tens of hours. These results of importance in the fields of medicine and toxicology should open the way for the many possible -and waited for- biomedical applications of C60 including cancer therapy, neurodegenerative disorders, and ageing.

The study involved about 60 rats. Six sets of ten rat groups. The weight of the treated rats did not go down so it would suggest they did not severely calorie restrict the rats, although there could have been some intermittent fasting.

The results of this pharmacokinetic study show for the first time that C60 is absorbed by the gastro-intestinal tract. In the case of oily solutions, the drug release rate is controlled by the partition coefficient of the drug between the oily vehicle and the tissue fluid and lipophilic drugs may be released concurrently with the disappearance of the oily vehicle from the injection site.

Four possible mechanisms for C60-liver protection were proposed:
(1) C60 can scavenge large numbers of free radicals
(2) it can act as a decomposition catalyst for O2/H2O2, as it has been postulated for its tris-malonic acid derivatives
(3) as a cytochrome P450 inhibitor as it has been reported for some fullerene derivatives
(4) it can inactivate Kupffer cells (liver resident macrophages) through accumulation and overloading with a large number of C60 aggregates

Pathological examinations show that even at very low doses, 500 times lower than that used previously, C60-olive oil solutions effectively protects the livers against CCl4 toxicity. These results are in agreement with those reported for very low doses of water solution of hydrated C60 fullerene in other experimental models.

The effect of pristine C60 on lifespan emphasizes the absence of chronic toxicity. These results obtained with a small sample of animals with an exploratory protocol ask for a more extensive studies to optimize the intestinal absorption of C60 as well as the different parameters of the administration protocol: dose, posology and treatment duration. In the present case, the treatment was stopped when a control rat died at M17, which proves that the effects of the C60 treatment are long-lasting as the estimated median lifespan for C60-treated rats is 42 months. It can be thought that a longer treatment could have generated even longer lifespans. Anyway, this work should open the road towards the development of the considerable potential of C60 in the biomedical field, including cancer therapy, neurodegenerative disorders and ageing. Furthermore, in the field of ageing, as C60 can be administered orally and as it is now produced in tons, it is no longer necessary to resort to its water-soluble derivatives, which are difficult to purify and in contrast to pristine C60 may be toxic.

#5137

From: "gildacabral" <gcabral@...>
Date: Sat May 5, 2012 12:26 am
Subject: Exercise Pill

gildacabral

BIOMEDICINE

Discovery Could Lead to an Exercise Pill

A newly identified hormone acts like a workout, and transforms bad fat into good.WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2012

BY KAREN WEINTRAUB

Audio �

Technology ReviewResearchers have discovered a natural hormone that acts like exercise on muscle tissue�burning calories, improving insulin processing, and perhaps boosting strength. The scientists hope it could eventually be used as a treatment for obesity, diabetes, and, potentially, neuromuscular diseases like muscular dystrophy.

In a paper published online today by the journal Nature, the scientists, led by Bruce Spiegelman at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, showed that the hormone occurs naturally in both mice and humans. It pushes cells to transform from white fat�globules that serve as reservoirs for excess calories�into brown fat, which generates heat.

Because the hormone is present in both mice and humans, Spiegelman speculates that it may have served as an evolutionary defense against cold by triggering shivering. He named it irisin, after the Greek messenger goddess Iris, who allowed humans to communicate with the gods in Greek mythology, because exercise appears to "talk" to various tissues in the body via irisin.

Mice given irisin lost a few grams in the first 10 days after treatment, the study shows, and certain genes involved in powering the cell were turned on. Irisin also appeared to reduce the damage done by a high-fat diet, protecting mice against diet-induced obesity and diabetes, according to the paper, whose first author is postdoctoral fellow Pontus Bostr�m.

"We are hopeful, though we have no evidence, that this hormone may embody some of the other benefits of exercise, perhaps in the neuromuscular system," Spiegelman says. If so, it could also be used to treat disorders like muscular dystrophy and muscle wasting.

Researchers still have to figure out how much benefit irisin could provide someone with diabetes or other health problems, says Spiegelman, also a professor of cell biology and medicine at Harvard Medical School. "I'm optimistic," he says. "I just don't want to overpromise and underdeliver."

Harvard Medical School's Dean Jeffrey Flier, an endocrinologist, says he is quite enthusiastic about the new hormone. The study, he says, "opens up a completely new approach to understanding the links between exercise, body weight, and diabetes."

Flier believes irisin offers strong therapeutic potential. "Though much remains to be learned about the action of irisin, and its status in humans with various diseases, this work has the potential to be a game-changer in the field of metabolic disease."

Last month, Spiegelman formed a Boston-based company named Ember Therapeutics to develop his brown-fat research projects, including irisin. The company raised $34 million in series A financing, and is backed by Third Rock Ventures of Boston.

Harvey Lodish, a professor of biology and bioengineering at MIT, and a member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, says it may be harder to make irisin into a drug than Spiegelman anticipates. Lodish tried for years to make adiponectin, a hormone he discovered in the mid-1990s, into a similar drug, but never succeeded.

The concentration of both hormones in the blood is already so high that manufacturing enough to make a difference in health is quite challenging, he says. Maybe irisin will be easier to produce, he says, or maybe it could be delivered via gene therapy, in a modified version of the delivery system Spiegelman used in his research�but Lodish is dubious.

However, of Spiegelman's new research, he says, "It's very nice, it's very elegant."

#5138

From: "Shawn Jipp" <sjipp@...>
Date: Sat May 5, 2012 4:02 pm
Subject: My Telescope Camera in 10 years? Maybe

sjipp

http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/2012/04/lsst-doe-critical-decision-1.html

#5139

From: Shawn Jipp <sjipp@...>
Date: Mon May 7, 2012 4:21 pm
Subject: Free Tickets

sjipp

Greetings:

I have a handful of free tickets to the LIGHTFAIR INTERNATIONAL trade show
exhibitions which are happening this Wed-Fri at the LV Convention Center.  If
interested, please send me a private email.  First come, first served and I need
to know today.

Here is information:

http://www.lightfair.com/lightfair/V40/

///////Shawn

Sent from my iPad

#5140

From: Eric Anderson <eric25001@...>
Date: Fri May 11, 2012 6:02 pm
Subject: Free-floating planets in the Milky Way outnumber stars by factors of thousands

eric25001

If this is proven it may provide a way to skip accross the Milky Way. Humans could send robots who could collect resources and work on these exoplanets maybe helping with laser power or fuels for ships from earth to other stars. Eric from the SALT pits

Free-floating planets in the Milky Way outnumber stars by factors of thousands

Researchers say life-bearing planets may exist in vast numbers in the space between stars in the Milky Way

A few hundred thousand billion free-floating life-bearing Earth-sized planets may exist in the space between stars in the Milky Way. So argues an international team of scientists led by Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, Director of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology at the University of Buckingham, UK. Their findings are published online in the Springer journal Astrophysics and Space Science.

The scientists have proposed that these life-bearing planets originated in the early Universe within a few million years of the Big Bang, and that they make up most of the so-called “missing mass” of galaxies. The scientists calculate that such a planetary body would cross the inner solar system every 25 million years on the average and during each transit, zodiacal dust, including a component of the solar system’s living cells, becomes implanted at its surface. The free-floating planets would then have the added property of mixing the products of local biological evolution on a galaxy-wide scale.

Since 1995, when the first extrasolar planet was reported, interest in searching for planets has reached a feverish pitch. The 750 or so detections of exoplanets are all of planets orbiting stars, and very few, if any, have been deemed potential candidates for life. The possibility of a much larger number of planets was first suggested in earlier studies where the effects of gravitational lensing of distant quasars by intervening planet-sized bodies were measured. Recently several groups of investigators have suggested that a few billion such objects could exist in the galaxy. Wickramasinghe and team have increased this grand total of planets to a few hundred thousand billion (a few thousand for every Milky Way star) - each one harbouring the legacy of cosmic primordial life.

Reference:

Wickramasinghe NC et al (2012). Life-bearing primordial planets in the solar vicinity. Astrophysics and Space Science; DOI 10.1007/s10509-012-1092-8

#5141

From: "gildacabral" <gcabral@...>
Date: Sun May 13, 2012 1:32 am
Subject: Chinese Physicists Teleport Photons Over 100 Kilometers

gildacabral

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-05/chinese-physicists-teleport-protons-over-100-kilometers

#5142

From: "Shawn Jipp" <sjipp@...>
Date: Sun May 13, 2012 11:05 am
Subject: Local Events in Vegas and Area 51 Talk at Atomic Testing Museum

sjipp

http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1103014240760-487/CC+Friday+Buzz+5-11-12.pdf

My friend Yvette publishes a weekly free e-newsletter called the Friday Buzz. Here is last edition:

For this Thursday the listing includes this entry:

Dr. John B. Alexander will discuss his book, “UFO’s: Myths, Conspiracies, and

Realities” at the Atomic Testing Museum on 5/17 at 6pm. It details the findings

of the interagency military group he created, which studied top-secret reports

of extraterrestrial exploration. Reception & book signing. RSVP: 794-5150. $15

Robyn and I will attend this event as we have met and had discussions with Dr. Alexander and have found him to be a scientific investigator regarding UFO phenomena.

His book is highly recommended.

Be sure to call 794-5150 as they would like to know how many are attending. We hope to see you there!

///////Shawn & Robyn

#5143

From: "Shawn Jipp" <sjipp@...>
Date: Sun May 13, 2012 4:54 pm
Subject: NASA & Environmental Studies in Space

sjipp

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/humanresearch/areas_study/environment/enviro_microbiology.html

Dear Friends:

NASA continues to study how mankind can survive space flights of long duration. Here are some documents (with an excerpt for each section) that will take you to areas that they have worked on regarding environmental factors. These links were supplied by a friend at NASA who is the NASA fellow on Human Factor Design.

At this time the limiting issue/problem is radiation protection, not bacteria or mold. Once this is solved, the only other limiting factor will be the willingness of countries to dedicate some of their resources for humans to travels to Mars and back.

///////Shawn

Human Research

Human Health and Safety

“At even the minutest level, the space environment differs drastically from life on Earth. In addition to microorganisms that may already exist in space, crewmembers will bring bacteria, viruses, and other microscopic life forms with them from Earth. Once in space, these organisms may react in unexpected ways to the environmental conditions that exist in reduced gravity or in the closed environment of a spacecraft.

As a result, the microbiology of the space environment has long been a concern of the Human Research Program. HRP microbiologists study factors such as infectious diseases, antibiotic resistance, and metabolic and genetic changes. Future research will focus on the microbiological implications of long-term space travel and habitation, with the International Space Station serving as one of the primary sites for further study.”

DRAFT Human Health, Life Support and Habitation Systems

Technology Area 06

NASA 2010

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/500436main_TA06-HHLSHS-DRAFT-Nov2010-A.pdf

Excerpts:

“The major technical challenge for future human exploration is determining the best way to protect humans from the high-charge and high-energy galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) permeating interplanetary space.”

“With our current knowledge base, the need to proactively provide mitigation technologies (such as biological countermeasures and/or shielding) against GCR occurs beyond LEO for missions greater than ~90 to 100 days to remain below Space Radiation Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs)11. Exposure estimates for both short-stay (600 days) and long-stay (900 days) Mars missions are estimated at about three to five times above PELs. This technical challenge is extremely difficult because 1) GCR-heavy ions cause damage at the cellular and tissue levels that is largely different from the damage caused by terrestrial radiation (such as x-rays or gamma rays), as it has significantly higher ionizing power and large associated uncertainties exist in quantifying biological response; and 2) shielding GCR is much more difficult than shielding terrestrial radiation, due to severe mass constraints and GCR ability to penetrate shielding material (high-charge and high-energy). Shielding from solar particle events (SPEs) is much easier than shielding from GCR. Protecting humans from SPEs may be a solvable problem in the near-term through technology maturation of identified shielding solutions, through design and configuration. However, mission operational planning has a major knowledge gap of forecasting the occurrence and magnitude, as well as all clear periods, of SPEs.”

DRAFT Human Health, Life Support and Habitation Systems

Technology Area 07

NASA 2010

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/501327main_TA07-HEDS-DRAFT-Nov2010-A.pdf

Excerpt:

“This area includes technologies for advanced textiles that can be used internal to the spacecraft in low PSI and high O2 environment that will allow multiple color choices, low toxicity off-gassing, and is flame retardant for long-duration deep-space human missions. Examples of technologies required

include low toxicity off-gassing; flame retardant; multi-color; self cleaning; antimicrobial surfaces; integrated sensors; bio-technology coating for toxicity detection; bio-sensing; bio-technology coating for illumination; bio-technology coating for self cleaning; integrated radiation protection; automated color / image changeability; and integrated power management and distribution for low power wireless distribution.”

#5144

From: Eric Anderson <eric25001@...>
Date: Tue May 15, 2012 12:01 am
Subject: Obama's Green Energy Dream Threatened by Rocky Mountain Oil Find

eric25001

What could this mean for the Rocky Mountain economy and USA jobs? Could this mean energy independeance and we stop sending USA cash to the middle east? Can we pay off some or all of the national debt with the USA royalties? GREEN but not

Obama's Green Energy Dream Threatened by Rocky Mountain Oil Find

Almost unnoticed, an auditor from the General Accounting Office gave Congress the news that the Green River Formation in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah has more recoverable oil under it than the rest of the world combined, according to CNS News.

But in a good news/bad news kind of way, the auditor also noted much of the oil is in a shale formation under federal land. Therefore the government has the ability to determine how or if that oil is accessed.

In other words, the GAO auditor has announced a history-changing bit of news that would free the U.S. from dependency on "conflict oil" from the Middle East and other unfriendly countries or has announced a new political controversy. By noting the possibility of an environmental and economic impact of an oil boom in the Rocky Mountain West, the auditor suggests we might be in for the latter.

While the Obama administration has made itself infamous by standing like a stone wall between the U.S. and new sources of oil and gas, such as its refusal to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, controversies involving oil on federal land have been around for decades. Politicians, backed up by battalions of environmental entrepreneurs, have stopped drilling in places like ANWR on the north coast of Alaska since the Carter administration.

Undeterred by embarrassments such as Solyndra, the Obama administration is likely to be reluctant to approve leases in an oil formation that promises to extend the age of fossil fuels for many decades. President Barack Obama wants his age of green energy and he wants it now. If more oil and gas start to flow, bringing down the price of energy, relatively expensive wind and solar power systems are not likely to be as attractive, no matter how much government subsidies those technologies get.

That is the problem of trying to determine energy technology by government fiat. Reality keeps getting in the way. The market clearly points toward traditional oil and gas, at least until green energy technologies are refined sufficiently to make them competitive. The Obama administration is impatient with the dictates of the market and believe it can set them aside with an executive order or a well-placed regulation. The administration is wrong in this assessment, but its attempts to be proven right will be damaging in the meantime.

#5145

From: "Shawn Jipp" <sjipp@...>
Date: Tue May 15, 2012 7:40 am
Subject: RE: Obama's Green Energy Dream Threatened by Rocky Mountain Oil Find

sjipp

Eric:

I am not sure why you are quoting from an avidly extreme right source of news that attacks our President’s energy policy in the name of futurism?

I am sure if I wanted to, I could probably find some far left newspaper that questions the possible future energy policies of Mr. Romney. But how would that benefit our discussion of Futurism?

///////Shawn

From: lvfuturists@yahoogroups.com [mailto:lvfuturists@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Eric Anderson
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2012 5:01 PM
To: Science Links; Group Group; Boulder Future
Subject: [lvfuturists] Obama's Green Energy Dream Threatened by Rocky Mountain Oil Find

Obama's Green Energy Dream Threatened by Rocky Mountain Oil Find

#5146

From: "Shawn Jipp" <sjipp@...>
Date: Tue May 15, 2012 2:24 pm
Subject: Intelligent Machines

sjipp

http://news.yahoo.com/science-fiction-fact-humanlike-intelligent-machines-soon-exist-195302358.html

#5147

From: Eric Anderson <eric25001@...>
Date: Tue May 15, 2012 5:38 pm
Subject: RE: Obama's Green Energy Dream Threatened by Rocky Mountain Oil Find

eric25001

I am not aware that the Government Accounting Office GAO is a right wing or left wing group. Does anyone object to paying off the national debt with royalties from public lands?

Do not be so quick to jump on the energy band wagon of any specific path.

Open minds and science and economics work better than ideaology.

I myself think geothermal converted direct to electric is a good path.

I am open to solar or thorium.

A key in my opinion is decentralized power.

Cheap clean and abundent!

--- On Tue, 5/15/12, Shawn Jipp <sjipp@...> wrote:

From: Shawn Jipp <sjipp@...>
Subject: RE: [lvfuturists] Obama's Green Energy Dream Threatened by Rocky Mountain Oil Find
To: "'Eric Anderson'" <eric25001@...>, "'Science Links'" <DailySalt@yahoogroups.com>, "'Group Group'" <lvfuturists@yahoogroups.com>, "'Boulder Future'" <boulderfuture@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Tuesday, May 15, 2012, 12:40 AM

Eric:

I am not sure why you are quoting from an avidly extreme right source of news that attacks our President’s energy policy in the name of futurism?

I am sure if I wanted to, I could probably find some far left newspaper that questions the possible future energy policies of Mr. Romney. But how would that benefit our discussion of Futurism?

///////Shawn

Obama's Green Energy Dream Threatened by Rocky Mountain Oil Find

#5148

From: Eric Anderson <eric25001@...>
Date: Tue May 15, 2012 6:00 pm
Subject: First Gene Therapy Successful Against Aging-Associated Decline

eric25001

Share on blogger Share on digg Share on fark Share on linkedin Share on myspace Share on newsvine Share on reddit Share on stumbleupon| 295

This may be an important way to increase human lifespan or it may not. I think we might all benifit from more research and testing. What abput other species? more doses?

How might this interact with diet? Buckyballs? Protein Restriction? Mannoheptulose? other approaches? Eric

First Gene Therapy Successful Against Aging-Associated Decline

Mouse Lifespan Extended Up to 24% With a Single Treatment

ScienceDaily (May 14, 2012) — A new study consisting of inducing cells to express telomerase, the enzyme which -- metaphorically -- slows down the biological clock -- was successful. The research provides a "proof-of-principle" that this "feasible and safe" approach can effectively "improve health span."

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 demonstrated that the 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 aging. The therapy has been found to be safe and effective in mice.

The results were recently 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% on average, and those treated at the age of two, by 13%. 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 aging indicators like neuromuscular coordination.

The gene therapy 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 aging. Telomerase repairs the extreme ends or tips 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-aging 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 around 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 tumour development that has set back the investigation of telomerase-‐based anti-‐aging therapies.

In 2007, Blasco's group demonstrated 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% 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 tumours 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 hemophilia 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 University of Naples) and Utz Herbig (New Jersey Medical School-‐University Hospital Cancer Centre) in a commentary published in the same journal.

Although this therapy may not find application as an anti-‐aging 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, "aging 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 aging, 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-‐aging therapy, since other strategies would require the drug to be administered over the patient's lifetime, multiplying the risk of adverse effects."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncologicas (CNIO).

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Bruno Bernardes de Jesus, Elsa Vera, Kerstin Schneeberger, Agueda M Tejera, Eduard Ayuso, Fatima Bosch, Maria A. Blasco. Telomerase gene therapy in adult and old mice delays ageing and increases longevity without increasing cancer. EMBO Molecular Medicine, 2012 (in press) DOI: 10.1002/emmm.201200245

#5149

From: Joshua Andrews <andrews1701@...>
Date: Tue May 15, 2012 6:00 pm
Subject: Re: Obama's Green Energy Dream Threatened by Rocky Mountain Oil Find

battlebornguy

I believe he meant the CNS News but you knew that.

Onwards,

~~ Joshua Andrews

~~ Andrews1701@...

On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 11:38 AM, Eric Anderson <eric25001@...> wrote:

�

I am not aware that the Government Accounting Office GAO is a right wing or left wing group. Does anyone object to paying off the national debt with royalties from public lands?

�

Do not be so quick to jump on the energy band wagon of any specific path.

�

Open minds and science and economics work better than ideaology.

�

I myself think geothermal converted direct to electric is a good path.

�

I am open to solar or thorium.

�

A key in my opinion is decentralized power.

�

Cheap clean and abundent!

--- On Tue, 5/15/12, Shawn Jipp <sjipp@...> wrote:

From: Shawn Jipp <sjipp@...>
Subject: RE: [lvfuturists] Obama's Green Energy Dream Threatened by Rocky Mountain Oil Find
To: "'Eric Anderson'" <eric25001@...>, "'Science Links'" <DailySalt@yahoogroups.com>, "'Group Group'" <lvfuturists@yahoogroups.com>, "'Boulder Future'" <boulderfuture@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Tuesday, May 15, 2012, 12:40 AM

�

Eric:

�

I am not sure why you are quoting from an avidly extreme right source of news that attacks our President�s energy policy in the name of futurism?

�
I am sure if I wanted to, I could probably find some far left newspaper that questions the possible future energy policies of Mr. Romney.� But how would that benefit our discussion of Futurism?
�
///////Shawn
�

From: lvfuturists@yahoogroups.com [mailto:lvfuturists@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Eric Anderson
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2012 5:01 PM
To: Science Links; Group Group; Boulder Future
Subject: [lvfuturists] Obama's Green Energy Dream Threatened by Rocky Mountain Oil Find

�
�

What could this mean for the Rocky Mountain economy and USA jobs?� Could this mean energy independeance and we stop sending USA cash to the middle east? Can we pay off some or all of the national debt with the USA royalties?� GREEN but not

�

Obama's Green Energy Dream Threatened by Rocky Mountain Oil Find

Almost unnoticed, an auditor from the General Accounting Office gave Congress the news that the Green River Formation in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah has more recoverable oil under it than the rest of the world combined, according to CNS News.

But in a good news/bad news kind of way, the auditor also noted much of the oil is in a shale formation under federal land. Therefore the government has the ability to determine how or if that oil is accessed.
In other words, the GAO auditor has announced a history-changing bit of news that would free the U.S. from dependency on "conflict oil" from the Middle East and other unfriendly countries or has announced a new political controversy. By noting the possibility of an environmental and economic impact of an oil boom in the Rocky Mountain West, the auditor suggests we might be in for the latter.
While the Obama administration has made itself infamous by standing like a stone wall between the U.S. and new sources of oil and gas, such as its refusal to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, controversies involving oil on federal land have been around for decades. Politicians, backed up by battalions of environmental entrepreneurs, have stopped drilling in places like ANWR on the north coast of Alaska since the Carter administration.

�

Undeterred by embarrassments such as Solyndra, the Obama administration is likely to be reluctant to approve leases in an oil formation that promises to extend the age of fossil fuels for many decades. President Barack Obama wants his age of green energy and he wants it now. If more oil and gas start to flow, bringing down the price of energy, relatively expensive wind and solar power systems are not likely to be as attractive, no matter how much government subsidies those technologies get.
That is the problem of trying to determine energy technology by government fiat. Reality keeps getting in the way. The market clearly points toward traditional oil and gas, at least until green energy technologies are refined sufficiently to make them competitive. The Obama administration is impatient with the dictates of the market and believe it can set them aside with an executive order or a well-placed regulation. The administration is wrong in this assessment, but its attempts to be proven right will be damaging in the meantime.

#5150

From: Shawn Jipp <sjipp@...>
Date: Thu May 17, 2012 2:47 am
Subject: LIGHTWEIGHT DATA GLASSES

sjipp

http://www.ledsmagazine.com/products/35204?cmpid=EnlLEDsMay162012

#5151

From: "Shawn Jipp" <sjipp@...>
Date: Thu May 17, 2012 6:55 am
Subject: Interesting Links

sjipp

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/may/15/national-atomic-testing-museum-unveils-area-51-exh/

Thursday evening at 6PM is the presentation by Dr. John Alexander at the Atomic Testing Museum. Hope to see some of you there. John sent this out to his mailing list today:

In case you haven't seen these. They are to help the National Atomic Testing Museum. The HP story was on their front page as well as on aol.com front page.

The Huff Post is a national piece the other local.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/16/ufo-amnesty-sought-by-army-colonel_n_1513197.html?ref=weird-news

John Alexander

#5152

From: "John de Rivaz" <John@...>
Date: Tue May 15, 2012 9:10 am
Subject: RE: Obama's Green Energy Dream Threatened by Rocky Mountain Oil Find

longevityrpt

The politics of the present is part of the future. Politicians and lawyers have enormous power to direct humanity in ways that are not defined by scientific logic.

The issues are complex beyond the ability of a single human mind. If oil shale mining in the USA saves lives by reducing US influence on 6000 year old wars amongst Abrahamic religions in the Middle East that is surely a good thing. What would be even better is economic and political pressure to single mindedly put a stop to all these wars. By single mindedly, I mean without consideration to canal routes or raw material supplies.

The money (and oil) saved by not shipping vast quantities of crude oil around the place could still be spent on feed in tariffs or whatever politicians and lawyers decide would benefit the solar power industry and no one need by any worse off than they are now.

--
Sincerely, John de Rivaz: http://John.deRivaz.com for websites including
Cryonics Europe, Longevity Report, The Venturists, Porthtowan, Alec Harley
Reeves - inventor, Arthur Bowker - potter, de Rivaz genealogy, Nomad .. and
more

#5153

From: Shawn <sjipp@...>
Date: Thu May 17, 2012 8:39 pm
Subject: Our Meeting is Tomorrow Night!

sjipp

It is time for...BACK TO THE FUTURE!

We will meet at Denny's tomorrow night at 7PM for dinner and discussion. Our topic this month will be on transportation in the future. What part of the future? 50, 250 and 500 years. Bring your ideas and speculation. We will also decide on future topics.

Robyn and I will see you there!

///////Shawn
--
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy SII Android phone using K-9 mail.

#5154

From: Eric Anderson <eric25001@...>
Date: Fri May 18, 2012 3:51 am
Subject: drug-free intervention to prevent obesity and diabetes

eric25001

Why might this be important? If robust and confirmed in humans it could reduce health care costs and increase lifespans. I would think the 16 hour period between the feeding window might induce autophagey which could increase many of the health benifits cited in the article. Combine this with protein restriction at an older age and or alternate day eating patterns, buckyballs, telemere vaccine and who knows what lifespans might be achieved? Eric from the SALT pits

Looking forward to lifespan discussions ==>

Salk study may offer drug-free intervention to prevent obesity and diabetes

Extended daily fasting overrides harmful effects of a high-fat diet

In a paper published May 17 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."



		IMAGE: These images of liver tissue show the difference in fat accumulation between two groups of mice fed a high-fat diet. A mouse allowed to eat 24 hours a day (left)... Click here for more information.

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.



		IMAGE: Pictured are Satchidananda Panda, associate professor in Salk's Regulatory Biology Laboratory, and postdoctoral researcher Megumi Hatori. Click here for more information.

"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 University of California San Diego, said 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 A. Bushong and Mark H. Ellisman, of the University of California, San Diego.

This work was partially supported by the Pew Scholars Program in Biomedical Sciences, NIH grant R01DK091618 to M.M., Sanofi Discovery Innovation Grant, and Anderson Foundation support to S.P.; JSPS fellowship to M.H.; Blasker Science and Technology Grant Award to C.V.; NIH grant T32DK007202 to A.Z.; and NCRR grant 5P41RR004050 to M.H.E.

About the Salk Institute for Biological Studies:

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is one of the world's preeminent basic research institutions, where internationally renowned faculty probe fundamental life science questions in a unique, collaborative, and creative environment. Focused both on discovery and on mentoring future generations of researchers, Salk scientists make groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of cancer, aging, Alzheimer's, diabetes and infectious diseases by studying neuroscience, genetics, cell and plant biology, and related disciplines.

Faculty achievements have been recognized with numerous honors, including Nobel Prizes and memberships in the National Academy of Sciences. Founded in 1960 by polio vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk, M.D., the Institute is an independent nonprofit organization and architectural landmark.

#5155

From: Shawn <sjipp@...>
Date: Fri May 18, 2012 5:20 pm
Subject: Would These Be Full Of Hot Air In Vegas?

sjipp

http://m.cnet.com/news/57436639?tag=mncol
--
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy SII Android phone using K-9 mail.

#5156

From: "Shawn Jipp" <sjipp@...>
Date: Fri May 18, 2012 8:35 pm
Subject: How to Observe Solar Eclipse

sjipp

Like other types of solar eclipses, annular eclipses are spectacular but potentially dangerous skywatching events. Care must be taken to observe them properly, or serious and permanent eye damage — including blindness — could result.

Warning: Never look directly at the sun, either with the naked eye or through telescopes or binoculars without the proper filters.

To safely observe the May 20 annular eclipse, you can buy special solar filters to fit over your equipment, or No. 14 welder's glass to wear over your eyes. Do NOT use standard sunglasses or any kind of homemade sun-shading contraption.

The safest and simplest technique is perhaps to watch the eclipse indirectly with the solar projection method. Use your telescope, or one side of your binoculars, to project a magnified image of the sun’s disk onto a shaded white piece of cardboard.

The image on the cardboard will be safe to view and photograph. Be sure to cover the telescope's finder scope or the unused half of the binoculars, however, and don't let anybody look through them.

And if you snap any good eclipse photos that you'd like to be considered for use in a story or gallery, send them to SPACE.com managing editor Tariq Malik at tmalik@....

#5157

From: Shawn <sjipp@...>
Date: Fri May 18, 2012 10:08 pm
Subject: Itinerary

sjipp

There were at least 4 of us from the Futurists group that attended Dr. Alexander's talk on UFOs. In addition to discussing Transport in the future, we will also discuss the presentation last night at the Atomic Testing Museum (one of 34 Smithsonian Museums in the US.) and our thoughts on UFOs.

SEE YOU ALL SOON!

///////Shawn
--
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy SII Android phone using K-9 mail.

#5158

From: "Shawn Jipp" <sjipp@...>
Date: Sat May 19, 2012 5:54 pm
Subject: Annular Solar Eclipse, Sunday, May 20, 2012

sjipp

http://stardate.org/mediacenter/201205-annular-solar-eclipse