In a milestone for synthetic biology, colonies of E. coli thrive with DNA constructed from scratch by humans, not nature.

By Carl Zimmer

Scientists have created a living organism whose DNA is entirely human-made — perhaps a new form of life, experts said, and a milestone in the field of synthetic biology.

Researchers at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Britain reported on Wednesday that they had rewritten the DNA of the bacteria Escherichia coli, fashioning a synthetic genome four times larger and far more complex than any previously created.

The bacteria are alive, though unusually shaped and reproducing slowly. But their cells operate according to a new set of biological rules, producing familiar proteins with a reconstructed genetic code.

The achievement one day may lead to organisms that produce novel medicines or other valuable molecules, as living factories. These synthetic bacteria also may offer clues as to how the genetic code arose in the early history of life.

“It’s a landmark,” said Tom Ellis, director of the Center for Synthetic Biology at Imperial College London, who was not involved in the new study. “No one’s done anything like it in terms of size or in terms of number of changes before.”

Each gene in a living genome is detailed in an alphabet of four bases, molecules called adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine (often described only by their first letters: A, T, G, C). A gene may be made of thousands of bases.

Genes direct cells to choose among 20 amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, the workhorses of every cell. Proteins carry out a vast number of jobs in the body, from ferrying oxygen in the blood to generating force in our muscles.

Nine years ago, researchers built a synthetic genome that was one million base pairs long. The new E. coli genome, reported in the journal Nature, is four million base pairs long and had to be constructed with entirely new methods.

The new study was led by Jason Chin, a molecular biologist at the M.R.C. laboratory, who wanted to understand why all living things encode genetic information in the same baffling way.

Instead of requiring six codons to make serine, this genome used just four. It had two stop codons, not three. In effect, the researchers treated E. coli DNA as if it were a gigantic text file, performing a search-and-replace function at over 18,000 spots.

Now the researchers had a blueprint for a new genome four million base pairs long. They could synthesize the DNA in a lab, but introducing it into the bacteria — essentially substituting synthetic genes for those made by evolution — was a daunting challenge.

The genome was too long and too complicated to force into a cell in one attempt. Instead, the researchers built small segments and swapped them piece by piece into E. coli genomes. By the time they were done, no natural segments remained.

Much to their relief, the altered E. coli did not die. The bacteria grow more slowly than regular E. coli and develop longer, rod-shaped cells. But they are very much alive.

Dr. Chin hopes to build on this experiment by removing more codons and compressing the genetic code even further. He wants to see just how streamlined the genetic code can be while still supporting life.

The Cambridge team is just one of many racing in recent years to build synthetic genomes. The list of potential uses is a long one. One attractive possibility: Viruses may not be able to invade recoded cells.

Many companies today use genetically engineered microbes to make medicines like insulin or useful chemicals like detergent enzymes. If a viral outbreak hits the fermentation tanks, the results can be catastrophic. A microbe with synthetic DNA might be made immune to such attacks.

Recoding DNA could also allow scientists to program engineered cells so that their genes won’t work if they escape into other species. “It creates a genetic firewall,” said Finn Stirling, a synthetic biologist at Harvard Medical School who was not involved in the new study.

Researchers are also interested in recoding life because it opens up the opportunity to make molecules with entirely new kinds of chemistry.

Beyond the 20 amino acids used by all living things, there are hundreds of other kinds. A compressed genetic code will free up codons that scientists can use to encode these new building blocks, making new proteins that carry out new tasks in the body.

James Kuo, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School, offered a note of caution. Tacking bases together to make genomes remains enormously costly.

“It’s just way too expensive for academic groups to keep pursuing,” Dr. Kuo said.

But E. coli is a workhorse of laboratory research, and now it’s clear that its genome can be synthesized. It’s not hard to imagine that prices will fall as demands for custom, synthetic DNA rise. Researchers could apply Dr. Chin’s methods to yeast or other species.

“In theory, you could recode anything,” said Mr. Stirling.

Carl Zimmer writes the “Matter” column. He is the author of thirteen books, including “She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity.” 

@carlzimmer • Facebook

{ https://www.nytimes.com/ }

05-06-2019 om 01:48 geschreven door peter  

Lake Baikal in southern Siberia is 25 million years old and more than 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) deep. More than 2,500 plant and animal species have been documented in the lake, most found nowhere else. Controversy surrounds construction of hydropower stations on a river that feeds the lake.

Russia’s Lake Baikal – in southern Siberia – the world’s oldest and deepest lake.

Image via Yulia Starinova/RadioFreeEurope-RadioLiberty.

Around 25 million years ago, a fissure opened in the Eurasian continent and gave birth Lake Baikal, now the oldest lake in the world. It’s the world’s deepest lake, an estimated 5,387 feet deep (1,642 meters). Among freshwater lakes, it’s the largest in terms of volume, containing about 5,521 cubic miles of water (23,013 cubic kilometers), or approximately 20% of Earth’s fresh surface water. And – like many natural waterways on Earth today – Lake Baikal is the focus of ongoing controversies over development.

This ancient and deep lake is located near the Russian city of Irkutsk, one of the largest cities in Siberia with a little over half a million population according to a 2010 census. In the 1950s, the dam that made possible the Irkutsk Hydroelectric Power Station raised the water level in Lake Baikal by over a meter (several feet). This dam and its power station were heralded as:

… a Siberian miracle, a pearl of the Soviet water-power engineering.

Today, however, there’s more proposed development around Lake Baikal that’s not so universally admired. Environmental activists perceive various threats to the lake – for example, invasive algae along its coastlines – but the biggest perceived threat appears to be from Mongolian power companies that, with help from the World Bank, have been looking to build more hydroelectric dams near Lake Baikal. An April 2019 article at the website Rivers without Boundaries explained:

The Shuren Hydropower Plant, planned on the Selenga River in northern Mongolia, was first proposed in 2013 and is currently the subject of a World Bank-funded environmental and social impact assessment. In tandem, Mongolia is also considering building one of the world’s largest pipelines to transport water from the Orkhon River, one of the Selenga’s tributaries, to supply the miners in the Gobi desert 1,000 km (620 miles) away.

The ongoing environmental and social impact assessment began in 2017 and was expected to take three years, so there’s been something of a hiatus for those worried about Lake Baikal. But it’s a short hiatus, and a big worry. As RadioFreeEurope-RadioLiberty explained in 2017, as the new assessment was beginning:

… Mongolia’s project is far from dead. The Mongolian government has adopted the strategic goal of attaining energy independence from Russia, from which the country currently imports much of its electricity. In addition, China – eager to gain access to Mongolian coal – has pledged $1 billion in loans for the project. In fact, construction of power lines has already begun.

Why are environmentalists so worried about Lake Baikal?

Map via RadioFreeEurope-RadioLiberty.

The Selenga River, where the new power plant would be located, is a 600-mile river (nearly 1,000 km) that flows into Lake Baikal. It accounts for some 80 percent of the lake’s incoming water.

A strongly worded Siberian Times article published on May 25, 2016 spoke of an earlier ecological assessment of Lake Baikal. That assessment led to dire warnings that this lake could suffer the same fate as the Aral Sea, formerly one of the four largest lakes in the world, which began shrinking in the 1960s after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet irrigation projects. By the late 1990s, the Aral Sea was less than 10 percent of its original size. According to the Siberian Times article:

Construction of … hydro power stations on the Selenga River and its tributaries can cause the unique lake [Baikal] to dry out. The 25 million-year-old lake is on the edge of environmental catastrophe and if certain measures are not taken, it might disappear just like the Aral Sea.

It’s hard to imagine the world’s deepest and largest lake disappearing due to human influence. Then again, it’s not hard to imagine a damaging environmental effect on a once-pristine natural area.

The Aral Sea in 1989 (l) and 2014 (r).

Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Lake Baikal is currently a natural reservoir and a UNESCO world heritage site. It contains around 20 percent of the world’s unfrozen freshwater. In total, some 330 rivers and streams flow into Lake Baikal, some large like the Selenga and many small. Its main outflow is the Angara River. The water in the lake is said to be crystal clear, and some claim it has magical, mystical power. Those who want to preserve it point out that it is:

… the ‘Galapagos of Russia’ … its age and isolation have produced one of the world’s richest and most unusual freshwater faunas, which is of exceptional value to evolutionary science.

Holding one-fifth of Earth’s unfrozen fresh water, Lake Baikal is unlike other deep lakes in that it contains dissolved oxygen right down to the lake floor. That means creatures thrive at all depths in the lake. Most of Lake Baikal’s 2,500-plus species of plants and animals are found nowhere else in the world. Scientists believe up to 40 percent of the lake’s species haven’t been described yet. Species endemic to Lake Baikal have evolved over tens of thousands, perhaps millions, of years.

They occupy ecological niches that were undisturbed, until the last few decades.

The large freshwater seal indigenous to Lake Baikal, called a “nerpa.” 

Read more about the Lake Baikal seal at AskBaikal.

Lake Baikal’s unique biodiversity includes species like the Baikal seal, also known as nerpa. It’s the only mammal indigenous to Lake Baikal. In fact, scientists aren’t sure how these seals originally got into Lake Baikal. There are two primary hypotheses concerning this question, which you can read about here.

Another famous species native to Lake Baikal is the omul, a type of whitefish. It’s part of the salmon family. Local economies around Lake Baikal depend on this fish; it’s the main product found at local fisheries. Due to overfishing, it was listed as an endangered species in 2004.

On the far right side of this map, just above Mongolia, do you see the large blue crescent? That’s Lake Baikal.

Map via Google.

By the way, even as humans vie for the opportunity to utilize the waterways around Lake Baikal – or protect them – over the long course of time, Mother Nature will also have its effect on the lake. The website Geology.com pointed out:

Lake Baikal is so deep because it is located in an active continental rift zone. The rift zone is widening at a rate of about 1 inch (2.5 cm) per year. As the rift grows wider, it also grows deeper through subsidence. So, Lake Baikal could grow wider and deeper in the future.

And so the saga of Lake Baikal continues …

Read more: Lake Baikal versus dams and pipelines, from Rivers without Boundaries.

Read more: Lake Baikal’s World Heritage Data Sheet

Read more: Rare animals of Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal seen from space.

Image via the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE.

Lake Baikal, via Flickr user Kyle Taylor.

• Bottom line: Ancient and deep Lake Baikal is a a UNESCO world heritage site. Controversy surrounds construction of hydropower stations on a river that feeds the lake.

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

04-06-2019 om 18:05 geschreven door peter  

Reincarnation & The Afterlife

A series of articles based on evidence of Reincarnation and Life after Death

1. The Afterlife Investigations
2. Is there Life before Life?
3. Reincarnation: The Boy Who Lived Before..
4. The Afterlife: 'Quantum theory of soul's existence'
5. Proof of Heaven
6. UFO expert describes Grey ETs and how the soul enters the body

1. The Afterlife Investigation

Breakthrough scientific evidence for the afterlife. The Scole Experiments. For five years a group of mediums and scientists witnessed more phenomena than in any other experiment in the history of the paranormal, including recorded conversations with the dead, written messages on sealed film, video of spirit faces and even spirit forms materializing.

These experiments may finally convince you there is life after death. The scientific team in change of overseeing these experiments include world renowned Cambridge Scientist - Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, Dr. David Fontana and Researcher Montague Keen who died during the filming of the documentary.

  

2. Is there Life before Life?

Evidence that we have lived before

1. People who claim to have lived prior lives have always seemed fake to me. Too often they claim to have been someone famous, like an Egyptian Pharaoh, Napoleon or Joan of Ark. Certainly, if reincarnation is real, it is not limited to the rich and famous...Article: Scientific Proof of Reincarnation

2. James Leininger was not yet 2 years old when he began to have terrible nightmares. His parents knew he would outgrow them, but his screams frightened them. When they would come to his bedside, they often found him on his back, kicking his legs in the air and thrashing his arms -- as if he were trying to escape from an imaginary box. He would also yell some garbled words that his parents could not understand...Article: Convincing Cases of Past Lives

3. Rabbi Yonassan Gershom is a Hasidic Jew and author of Beyond the Ashes -- Cases of Reincarnation from the Holocaust. Hasitism is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through Jewish mysticism. This very ancient mystic tradition is based on the Talmud and the teachings of the more recent Kabbala...Article: What Did Jesus Say?

4. While most people think of reincarnation as a dogma of religion or an interesting philosophy, the Buddhist monks in Tibet have developed it into a science.

This ancient and isolated Himalayan community has a tradition of contemplating and recording the aspects of human consciousness. Buddha, himself, began these thought experiments as a means of understanding human suffering. He discovered that our misery comes from our reluctance to accept change and our emotional attachment to both situations and material objects. Buddha understood that change is an inevitable process with time and he devised a method for detaching oneself, mentally and emotionally, from transient phenomenon...Article: Tibetan Buddhism: Rebirth v Reincarnation

5. Hinduism is the oldest and most intellectual religion in human history. Great minds contemplated ideas about God, the soul and human existence long before there was a written language to record such things. As such, the religion was mainly an oral tradition. There is no known founder. Yet the ideas about reincarnation, the laws of karma and the abstract nature of the Creator remain the ultimate revelation and source of almost all other faiths. We explore Hinduism, the Bhagavad-gita and Krishna Consciousness in this summary...Article: Hinduism: The Source of Knowledge

6. "Seeing the light" refers to the personal experience that is reported when one remembers their true identity as something "other than this body." There are many methods that have been used to achieve this goal. Meditation and good living are important but some ancient cults also used a technique that involved fire or reflected light. The method, called "phosphenes" is explored and a possible explanation of how it works is given for consideration. We start this journey in Greece, about 3600 years ago, during the Bronze Age. Our focus is part of a secret cult called the Eleusinian Mysteries...Article:Seeing the Light

7. This is a "true" story of a hypnosis session where an obese patient was receiving therapy for overeating. The hypnotist attempted to suggest that the patient remember how it felt to be thin and began a typical regression procedure. Not being careful on the selection of words, the therapist regressed the patient back to a time "when you were light". This reference to light apparently brought the patient back to a time between incarnations -- only the subsequent life that was recalled was not in the past... This amazing transcript is reproduced, word for word, and describes a life in the future. What do humans look like? How do we live? What mysteries have we solved? Although we cannot vouch for its authenticity, it is certainly a thought provoking and interesting read...Article: Can We Recall FUTURE Lives?

3. Refreshing take on Reincarnation: The Boy Who Lived Before..

Documentaries all too often come with attitude. Last week, when Dominion Post film critic Graeme Tuckett said that one of the strengths of the film festival's My Kid Could Paint That was that it made you have to make up your own mind, I agreed with him.

It was refreshing to see a documentary actually doing what documentaries by definition are supposed to do.

The Boy Who Lived Before starred Cameron, who was only two when he started talking in detail about another place and another family that he had previously belonged to.

If last night's documentary on Prime, The Boy Who Lived Before, had an attitude, it was one of respect. Its subject matter – reincarnation, in this case a small child who had memories of a previous life and of a place which he had never visited – was one guaranteed to get a cynic sneering. But all this documentary set out to do was to allow the audience to observe Cameron's story being checked out. It made for riveting – and touching – viewing.

Cameron was only two when he started talking in detail about another place and another family that he had previously belonged to. That other place was the island of Barra, off the west coast of Scotland, a place neither he nor his family had ever visited. He also spoke of a white house on the sand, watching planes land on the beach, a black and white dog, siblings, a mother who'd had her long hair cut short, and a father who had died because he didn't look both ways. Most two-year-olds don't suffer from nostalgia, but Cameron missed his "other mother" so much that sometimes he cried when his real mother picked him up from kindergarten. His memories, which he continued to have till he was five, when we met him, were completely consistent. He even knew his "other" father's name – Shane Robertson. He was a happy and loving little boy, but he yearned for his other life.

Cameron was fortunate to have a marvellously understanding and compassionate mother. She did that very difficult thing – she kept an open mind. She also managed another even more difficult thing – she at least appeared unthreatened by his longing for his other family. She took a risk when she allowed a camera crew to accompany her on the search for Cameron's other family, but it was one that paid off.

Even the people Cameron's mother approached in her attempt to make sense out of the rationally impossible allowed her her dignity.

The first person she spoke to (on camera, anyway) was potentially the hardest – psychologist Chris French, also the editor of The Skeptic Magazine. Though he was careful not to mock, in lots of ways he stated the bleeding obvious: somehow – through TV perhaps? or a family friend? – Cameron had learnt about Barra and invented a world that he had inhabited.

At this point in our house we became a little restless and uneasy, recalling how our daughter, when aged two, had had the habit of waking three or so hours after having been put to bed. At playcentre one day this guileless toddler had displayed such a parentally-humiliating knowledge of the Ewing family and Southfork that I kick myself now for not having known about children who'd lived another life – I could have just explained away her knowledge by telling everyone that Sue- Ellen was her other mother.

Norma, however, could not think of an opportunity Cameron might have had to pick up such detailed information. Also it would have been easy enough to check whether any TV drama or documentary had been made which contained the details which were so entrenched in this small child's imagination.X So she took Cameron to see a child psychologist who confirmed that, like many children, Cameron had an imaginary world. There were significant differences though – most children who create a friend or a world know that it's their own creation. Cameron insisted his existed.

The third expert that Norma consulted was Dr Jim Tucker, an academic from the University of Virginia who – in a this could only happen in America sort of way – headed a department dedicated to scientifically investigating paranormal phenomena such as near-death experiences, ghosts and reincarnation. Tucker accompanied Norma and her two little boys to Barra.

If this had been fiction (a very similar idea was dealt with a couple of years back in Sea of Souls) it would have had to have had a resolution, and this documentary offered no amazing ending. What it did show – in an impressively unspooky sort of way – was that much of what Cameron remembered did exist. After a false start – there were very few people called Robertson on Barra – we were taken with Cameron to see the house he remembered, where several decades ago a family called Robertson had spent a couple of summers. Then we were taken to meet a woman who was a member of the family. She looked kindly, yet nervously, at Cameron. There'd been no Shane Robertson. There had, though, been several Jameses. There'd been a black and white dog. There'd been a big black car.

And there they left us. Like all other children who have had this experience – and there are thousands documented – as Cameron grew older the memories faded. Having seen the house that he had so vividly described, he became a happier, more settled child. It was terrifically interesting, and I anticipate many happy hours a-Googling. It was evidence of what a really good documentary should do – not tell you how to think, but encourage you to get your own brain ticking over.

Even though it goes against all my naturally pragmatic instincts, on the issue of reincarnation this documentary leaves my mind refreshingly open.

4. The Afterlife: 'Quantum theory of soul's existence'

A pair of world-renowned quantum scientists say they can prove the existence of the soul.

A near-death experience happens when quantum substances which form the soul leave the nervous system and enter the universe at large, according to a remarkable theory proposed by two eminent scientists.

Their idea stems from the notion of the brain as a biological computer, "with 100 billion neurons and their axonal firings and synaptic connections acting as information networks" which can persist in the universe even after death, explaining the perceptions of those who have near-death experiences.

American Dr Stuart Hameroff and British physicist Sir Roger Penrose developed a quantum theory of consciousness asserting that our souls are contained inside structures called microtubules which live within our brain cells.

In a near-death experience the microtubules lose their quantum state, but the information within them is not destroyed. Or in layman's terms, the soul does not die but returns to the universe. Thus it is held that our souls are more than the interaction of neurons in the brain. They are in fact constructed from the very fabric of the universe - and may have existed since the beginning of time.

Let's say the heart stops beating, the blood stops flowing, the microtubules lose their quantum state.

"The quantum information within the microtubules is not destroyed, it can't be destroyed, it just distributes and dissipates to the universe at large.

'If the patient is resuscitated, revived, this quantum information can go back into the microtubules and the patient says "I had a near death experience".'

In the event of the patient's death, it was "possible that this quantum information can exist outside the body indefinitely - as a soul. Read more here and here


5. Proof of Heaven

Top neurosurgeon 'spent six days in heaven' during a coma.

A top neurosurgeon claims to have ‘Proof of heaven’ after making a full recovery from a seven day coma that saw his neocortex inactivated.

Dr Eben Alexander, who teaches neuroscience at Harvard University among others, fell seriously ill after contracting a rare form of bacterial meningitis in 2008.

Within hours of developing a severe headache, Dr Alexander’s entire cortex—the section of the brain that controls thought and emotion —had shut down.

Though his chances of survival were low, he awoke from the coma seven days later and began describing an ‘other worldly experience’. Read full article here

Dr. Evan Alexander tells us about his experience in the afterlife and concludes that consciousness survives physical death.

  

6. UFO expert describes Grey ETs and how the soul enters the body

In an exclusive Suzanne Hansen, Founding Director of UFOCUS NZ Research Network (New Zealand) publicly reveals the unique and compelling history of how she first met the soul of her son aboard a Grey ET spacecraft when she was only 8 years old and her son appeared as a “Ball of Light.”

Ms. Hansen reveals that later in her life, after she was married and pregnant with her son, she was taken aboard a Grey ET spacecraft, where she met her son’s soul once more as “a Ball of Light.” On this occasion, her son’s Soul was inserted into her womb and her son’s body in a procedure by the Grey ETs, who also gave her deep information about the future positive social role her son would play on Earth. Throughout her life, Ms. Hansen states, her experiences with the Grey ETs were “transformational, purposeful, and positive.”

Excerpt from Suzanne Hansen's interview:

Suzanne Hansen’s account is corroborated by Mary Rodwell, RN, who led Ms. Hansen through hypnotic regression sessions designed to help her recover her memories of her life-long experiences around her son’s Soul aboard Grey ET spacecraft.X Ms. Rodwell is “a world leader in alien abduction counseling. Mary Rodwell was featured in an SBS documentary alongside her son – a self-confessed UFO skeptic. Mary, a former nurse and midwife and clinical hypnotherapist founded ACERN in 1997 and has since investigated over 1600 cases of ET encounters worldwide

Suzanne Hansen’s statement:

1. During this experience at age eight, I was initially taken to a large room in which I 'played' with children of mixed species, using mind games to facilitate telepathic communications between us. The interesting thing is that I could 'see' the objects being produced by our minds, with both my mind (thoughts) and my eyes. You will notice a strange small bed in this drawing with a baby on it and a Grey beside it. In another regression session, Mary Rodwell regressed me to when I was 6 months old, where I could see myself lying on this small bed. I have nick-named it the 'lullaby bed' and a description of how and why this bed is used with human babies, and the technology involved, features in another chapter of my book.

2. I was invited to accompany a Grey to a room where I was to meet another 'child'. Here I am as an eight-year-old girl, during my first 'official' meeting with the ball of blue light, learning to relate to the soul of my future son through play. The Greys 'observed' from another area of the craft to see if we would be suited.                                             

3. At age 28, I was taken onboard craft for a 'merging' procedure, where the soul of my future son would enter my body, and that of my unborn child, for the first time. Two Grey-mixed-species entities comforted me, while a Grey began a procedure to lower my metabolism prior to the soul entering my body.

Her experiences with the specific species of Grey ETs she encountered are purposeful and transformational, although she has had to work through a period of personal fear about the experiences.X Ms. Hansen says that her understanding is that souls are universal, and can chose to incarnate into a variety of species on different planets.

She says that a soul is a spiritual entity, and all of its incarnations appear designed to learn moral or evolutionary lessons.

The Grey ETs’ job

Ms. Rodwell concludes by saying that her abduction research has led her to conclude that a specific species of Grey ETs job includes:

1. Gathering genetic information and materials on humans
2. Healing procedures on humans;
3. Cooperation between interdimensional intelligences, as evidenced by the cooperation between human souls and Grey ETs;
4. Deepening of compassion and love, healing ability, and telepathic transfer of information by humans.

The medical and health inspections of humans by the Grey ETs appear to be for levels of pollution, toxins, and other harmful materials that relates to the planet’s problems.

The typology of intelligent civilizations

The dimensional ecology hypothesis of the multi-verse includes a new typology of extraterrestrial civilizations, based on empirical evidence confirming the existence of the following typologies of extraterrestrial civilizations and extraterrestrial governance bodies:

A. Solar system civilizations: Planetary civilizations in our own solar system, such as the intelligent human civilization living under the surface of Mars that reportedly enjoys a strategic relationship with the United States government.

B. Deep space civilizations: Intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations that are based on a planet, solar system, or space station in our galaxy or in some other location in this known physical universe. An example includes the 10 – 100 intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations that, according to a NATO report, have been visiting Earth for many centuries.

C. Hyper-dimensional civilizations: Intelligent civilizations that are based in dimensions or universes parallel to our own and that may use technologically advanced physical form and/or transport when entering our known universe.

D. Extraterrestrial governance authorities: Legally constituted extraterrestrial governance authorities with jurisdiction over a defined territory, such as the Milky Way Galactic Federation, which has been empirically located in replicable research. Read full article

Our review of the impact of the dimensional hypothesis shows that humanity is being misinformed about the reality of its soul, of life after death, and the mechanisms of reincarnation.

Video: Interview with Ms. Hansen:

  

Source: exopolitics , exopoliticstv , au.news.yahoo.com , seektruthandwisdom , dailymail , news.com.au , sciencechannel , stuff.co , viewzone ,  ufotvstudios

{ https://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

04-06-2019 om 10:49 geschreven door peter  

Stanton Friedman Talks Life After Death And Technological Progress With MUFON Interview. UFO Sighting News.

Here is a 2019 interview with the great late Stanton Friedman. He dives into some very interesting topics about life after death, the possibilities that exist and how we need to open our minds more in the science community. He says what was once thought impossible is now possible, even considering telepathy as a possible way aliens communicate. But he says one thing that stands out more than all the others...which has serious consequence for Generations Z..."Remember...technological progress comes from doing things differently in unpredictable ways." 

Yeah, thats is exactly what most UFO and alien researchers (astrobiologists) are doing today. They are each following their own paths, searching their own leads and finding some extraordinary proof that aliens exist. 

Stan the man...your UFO and alien research will change generations. 
Scott C. Waring

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

04-06-2019 om 10:32 geschreven door peter  

Drone maakt een foto die niemand had mogen zien

Tegenwoordig kunnen de prachtigste beelden worden gemaakt. Sinds de intrede van drones kunnen nóg betere foto's en video's dan voorheen worden geschoten van de meest afgelegen of moeilijk bereikbare plaatsen. En dat zorgt soms voor ontdekkingen van bijzondere locaties.

Kijk maar eens naar het volgende, indrukwekkende lijstje met foto's die door drones gemaakt zijn. Bereid je voor spectaculaire beelden met bijzondere verhalen. De meeste plaatjes moet je wel meerdere keren bekijken, voordat je precies begrijpt wat je ziet. Je zult versteld staan... We willen je speciale aandacht vragen voor de vijfde foto uit dit lijstje. Op deze foto ging het nog maar net goed en gelukkig is iedereen ongedeerd. Bekijk ook vooral de video die bij de foto's hoort waarmee we het artikel afsluiten.

Ik heb enkel de video op mijn blog geplaatst...  Wil  je de 30 foto's + verhalen apart bekijken, dan raad ik jouw aan om naar de website te gaan   https://www.bright-story.com/nl/

{ https://www.bright-story.com/nl/ }

03-06-2019 om 17:56 geschreven door peter  

Alleged NASA hacker Claims The US Has Deep Space Warships

According to a hacker who is facing a ten-year legal battle after breaking into NASA computers, the United States has a fully operational fleet of Space Warships. Gary McKinnon, firmly believes that he came across the ultimate information that proves the US have a secret space program operated by the navy with fully operational warships that operate in Space.

In a new interview on UFO channel Richplanet TV, McKinnon finally reveals the entire truth about his findings saying: ‘I kept going for months and months. I kept thinking, ‘They’re going to close this door’.

McKinnon said that he used a software called Landsearch which allowed him to search all files and folders of interest to him.

‘I scanned and looked for documents, I found an Excel spreadsheet which said, ‘Non-terrestrial officers’, states McKinnon.

‘It had ranks and names. It had tabs for ‘material transfer’ between ships.

‘I took that to be, they must have a ships based in space – the names started with U.S.S.’

Gary McKinnon is accused of mounting the biggest ever hack in the history of the United States by breaking into the computers of the Army, Air force, Navy and NASA.

During his latest interview, McKinnon describes a conversation from a former NASA whistleblower Donna Hare, who had been told by a colleague that NASA was trying to hide delicate information by “airbrushing” UFOs from their photos.

“There was a colleague, who was in another room — they all had secret clearance but they were on different projects — and she (Hare) was in this chap’s lab or room or whatever it is and he said come and take a look at this,” said McKinnon.

While there are many people who firmly believe this is yet another elaborate hoax, there have been a series of former NASA and government employees who back up the claims made by McKinnon.

According to statements from a former Marine not only have humans made it to Mars in the past, but we have developed a secret space program and flotilla that operates in space. The former US Marine, was posted on the red planet for years and his mission was to protect the five human colonies from indigenous life forms on Mars. According to the former Marine known as Captain Kaye, not only did he spend years on Mars, but he also served aboard a giant space carrier for three years. He worked for the Mars Defense Force (MDF) which is owned and operated by the Mars Colony Corporation (MCC) which is basically a conglomerate of financial institutions, government and tech companies. Kaye and his team were part of a special section of the United States Marines with a highly classified mission, protect and ensure the existence of five newly-established colonies on the surface of the red planet. The Earth Defense Force, another secret military branch has military recruits from countries such as the United States, China and Russia.

Parts of the testimony from Captain Kaye are consistent with that of Michael Relfe, another whistleblower who claims to have served 20 years tour on the red planet. Laura Magdalene Eisenhower, great-granddaughter of former President Eisenhower claims that efforts were made to recruit here onto a human colony on Mars, led by researcher Dr. Hal Puthoff.

According to “Jackie”, there are humans on Mars, and we have been on the red planet for over 20 years. ‘Jackie’, she and six other employees saw the exact same thing, suggesting this might be the evidence that proves that a secret space program did exist (or might even still).

According to ‘Jackie’ while working as part of the team downloading telemetry from the Viking Lander, she saw human setting foot on the surface of the red planet via a live feed from Mars.

In an interview with Coast-to-Coast AM, Jackie talked about humans on Mars, something that has been discussed among other alleged NASA employees for years.

Many Ufologists firmly believe that the statements made by the above individuals is accurate and that this information is being withheld from the general public.

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }  - https://beforeitsnews.com/v3/ }

03-06-2019 om 16:17 geschreven door peter  

A Family of Comets Reopens the Debate about the Origin of Earth’s Water

Where did the Earth’s water come from? Although comets, with their icy nuclei, seem like ideal candidates, analyses have so far shown that their water differs from that in our oceans.

 Now, however, an international team, bringing together CNRS researchers at the Laboratory for Studies of Radiation and Matter in Astrophysics and Atmospheres (Paris Observatory – PSL/CNRS/ Sorbonne University/University of Cergy-Pontoise) and the Laboratory of Space Studies and Instrumentation in Astrophysics (Paris Observatory – PSL/CNRS/Sorbonne University/University of Paris), has found that one family of comets, the hyperactive comets, contains water similar to terrestrial water. 

 

The comet 46P/Wirtanen on January 3, 2019.

Credit:  © Nicolas Biver

The study, published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics on May 20, 2019, is based in particular on measurements of comet 46P/Wirtanen carried out by SOFIA, NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy.

According to the standard theory, the Earth is thought to have formed from the collision of small celestial bodies known as planetesimals. Since such bodies were poor in water, Earth’s water must have been delivered either by a larger planetesimal or by a shower of smaller objects such as asteroids or comets.

To trace the source of terrestrial water, researchers study isotopic ratios1, and in particular the ratio in water of deuterium to hydrogen, known as the D/H ratio (deuterium is a heavier form of hydrogen). As a comet approaches the Sun, its ice sublimes2, forming an atmosphere of water vapour that can be analysed remotely. However, the D/H ratios of comets measured so far have generally been twice to three times that of ocean water, which implies that comets only delivered around 10% of the Earth’s water.

When comet 46P/Wirtanen approached the Earth in December 2018 it was analysed using the SOFIA airborne observatory, carried aboard a Boeing aircraft. This was the third comet found to exhibit the same D/H ratio as terrestrial water. Like the two previous comets, it belongs to the category of hyperactive comets which, as they approach the Sun, release more water than the surface area of their nucleus should allow. The excess is produced by ice-rich particles present in their atmosphere.

Intrigued, the researchers determined the active fraction (i.e. the fraction of the nucleus surface area required to produce the amount of water present in their atmosphere) of all comets with a known D/H ratio. They found that there was an inverse correlation between the active fraction and the D/H ratio of the water vapour: the more a comet tends towards hyperactivity (i.e. an active fraction exceeding 1), the more its D/H ratio decreases and approaches that of the Earth.

Scientists at work aboard a Boeing 747 SOFIA 

© Credit: Nicolas Baker/IRAP/NASA/CNRS Photothèque

Hyperactive comets, whose water vapour is partially derived from icy grains expelled into their atmosphere, thus have a D/H ratio similar to that of terrestrial water, unlike comets whose gas halo is produced only by surface ice. The researchers suggest that the D/H ratios measured in the atmosphere of the latter are not necessarily indicative of the ice present in their nucleus. If this hypothesis is correct, the water in all cometary nuclei may in fact be very similar to terrestrial water, reopening the debate on the origin of Earth’s oceans.

Contacts and sources:
CNRS

Citation: Terrestrial deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio in water in hyperactive comets.
Dariusz C. Lis, Dominique Bockelée-Morvan, Rolf Güsten, Nicolas Biver, Jürgen Stutzki, Yan Delorme, Carlos Durán, Helmut Wiesemeyer, Yoko Okada. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2019; 625: L5 DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201935554

Source:

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/v3/ }

02-06-2019 om 21:38 geschreven door peter  

By: Nidhi Goyal 

Image courtesy covert shores

{ https://www.industrytap.com/ }

31-05-2019 om 21:22 geschreven door peter  

There are certain areas in the world that are prone to earthquakes. California, Japan, and other regions sitting on fault lines all run the risk of these geological upheavals, and the people who live in these areas are well aware of it, living in a constant haze of fear in the back of their minds that one may strike at any moment. Yet there have been other areas of the world that do not face such anxiety, where earthquakes should really be one of the least of their worries, but despite this there have been anomalous quakes that have come and gone on to become baffling mysteries. Such is the case of a series of earthquakes that hit the Midwest region of the United States in the 19th century, which were not only odd that they happened at all, but also rather weird in that they are some of the most powerful quakes the country, and indeed the world, has ever seen.

The morning of December 16, 1811 probably started much as any other day in the central Mississippi Valley of the United States, yet at approximately 2:15 AM the entire region was jolted and viciously rocked by a powerful tremor which would later be determined to have originated at an epicenter in northeast Arkansas. Considering that this was the Midwest of the United States, probably the last thing that was on anyone’s mind was that they would be struck by an earthquake, and not only was it unusual, but it was exceptionally potent, measuring a magnitude of 7.5 to 7.9, causing massive damage, and felt as far away as New York City, Boston, Ohio, Massachusetts, Montreal, and Washington D.C. Even more terrifying still was that this was just the beginning, with a 7.4 magnitude aftershock striking later that same day, and unfortunately more was to come.

Over the next few months the region would be hit by more earthquakes measuring between magnitude 7 and 8, as well as countless aftershocks, until by March of 1812 the region had been terrorized by thousands of powerful temblors. Two of the earthquakes after the initial one were just as intense as the first, if not more so, such as a magnitude 7.8 quake on January 23, 1812, and the third major quake on February 7, 1812, which was estimated as being as much as a massive magnitude 8.8, all interspersed by countless aftershocks that all caused havoc, capsized boats, leveled forests, and even reshaped the landscape by forming islands, new waterfalls, massive sand boils, geysers, numerous deep fissures said to have even swallowed people alive, and creating Reelfoot Lake. What would go on to become the New Madrid Earthquakes, named after the Mississippi River town of New Madrid, would be felt to some degree over an area of around 1 million square miles fanning out from the central Midwest, and making it all even more frightening were some of the odd phenomena surrounding them.

A commonly reported phenomenon during the quakes was the presence of a loud roaring noise, like thunder or explosions, which was reported by countless locals and which made it all the more ominous. There were also reported the presence of dark clouds in the sky and a sort of foul smelling smog that descended upon the land to make breathing difficult and obscure vision, as well as the smell of sulphur and mysterious flashes of light in the sky, likely the result of a phenomenon known as seismoluminescence. Also rather unusual is that there were reports from boatmen of the Mississippi River actually flowing in the opposite direction at the time of the original quake and for up to several hours after. One rather frightening report of all of this mayhem was given by an eyewitness who illustrated the chaos:

On the 16th of December, 1811, about two o’clock, a.m., we were visited by a violent shock of an earthquake, accompanied by a very awful noise resembling loud but distant thunder, but more hoarse and vibrating, which was followed in a few minutes by the complete saturation of the atmosphere, with sulphurious vapor, causing total darkness. The screams of the affrighted inhabitants running to and fro, not knowing where to go, or what to do—the cries of the fowls and beasts of every species—the cracking of trees falling, and the roaring of the Mississippi— the current of which was retrograde for a few minutes, owing as is supposed, to an irruption in its bed— formed a scene truly horrible.

It must have seemed like the ends of days, and of course considering all of these strange phenomena and the fact that the Midwest region had never experienced anything like this before, there were immediately dire omens about what it all meant. Many highly religious people believed it to be a sign from God, and stated that many of the details could be found in Bible scripture. Native tribes of the area also had their theories that it was tied to their angry great spirits, and it did not go unnoticed that a comet not seen since the time of Ramses II in Egypt had arrived in the previous months and was at its brightest during the earthquakes, making it believed to have been some sort of portent to disaster.

Although the sparsely inhabited nature of the region at the time meant that the death toll was kept to a minimum, the New Madrid earthquakes were, and still are, considered to be the most powerful and most prolonged earthquakes to hit the United States east of the Rocky Mountains in recorded history, which is quite odd and surprising for an area of the United States not known for its earthquakes, and which does not lie on the edge of any of the earth’s 15 tectonic plates. Despite all of the more supernatural explanations that have popped up in the wake of the quakes, there is likely a more scientific explanation, but it is poorly understood, made even more difficult because the region has had so few earthquakes in its history as a basis of comparison.

What is now called the New Madrid Seismic Zone is a bit of an anomaly to say the least. In most cases, earthquakes occur along the edges of Earth’s tectonic plates, where friction between two of the plates sliding against or pushing or pulling each other causes the tremors, but that is not the case for the New Madrid earthquakes since they originated practically right in the center of one of these plates. There have been all manner of hypotheses for why this zone should cause these powerful quakes, such as that it is the result of magma pushing up from beneath the earth, a weakened crust in the area, the result of the release of stress at the surface from the retreat of glaciers, local changes to the mantle flow, and others.

One of the most popular recent theories is that the quakes were caused by a spider web of fissures underground called the Reelfoot Rift, formed 700 million and 540 million years ago when the ancient supercontinent of Rodinia broke apart and split, creating a system of fissures and weakened, fractures crust deep in the earth that is possibly prone to earthquakes, although not in the traditional sense. Despite all of these theories, no one is still really sure why these powerful quakes should hit the region, and research is ongoing. One seismologist at the University of Memphis in Tennessee, Christine Powell, has said of it all:

Here, in the center of a plate, we don’t have a theory that we can attribute the earthquakes to. So in order to understand why they’re occurring, you have to think outside the box.

Whatever the reasons for the New Madrid Earthquakes may be, it was certainly not a one-time freak occurrence. Ever since these earthquakes the region has been consistently hit with numerous temblors, to the tune of about 4,000 mild to moderate quakes since 1974, and it is thought that there is a 25 to 45% chance of a magnitude 6 or greater earthquake in the area within the next 50 years, which would be devastating to the now highly populated area. In the end we are left with quite the geological mystery. How is it that not only was there a strong series of earthquakes, but also some of the most relentless and intense the country has ever seen, right out in the middle of nowhere where no earthquake should have been in the first place? It is tetament to the fact that there are still mysteries of our planet we do not fully understand, and until we do we can only wait and see if there will be another repeat of that 1811 catastrophe.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

30-05-2019 om 18:22 geschreven door peter  

THIS IS NOT “NORMAL”: THERE HAVE BEEN MORE THAN 500 TORNADOES IN THE U.S. DURING THE LAST 30 DAYS

Since 1998, there has been an average of 279 tornadoes during the month of May.  So the fact that we have had more than 500 over the last 30 days means that we are running way, way above normal…

29-05-2019 om 20:40 geschreven door peter  

Evolution: What is it? How does it work?

BY ZOE GORDON

This is an odd start, but before we get into complicated things I want to talk about something near and dear to my heart—corn. Once upon a time, the corn we know and love (at least I do), used to be something called teosinte, a small green plant that doesn’t look anywhere near as appetizing. It is hard to believe, I know, but something very interesting happened. In the area that is now Mexico, this plant was identified as having potential as a food crop, so farmers began intentionally growing it. Being good farmers, they thought that maybe if they kept the seeds of the biggest ones and kept planting those they would get more food out of it. As it turns out, they were right. After ten thousand years of only planting the ones that produced the biggest kernels, we ended up with maize as we know it today. It’s bizarre but entirely true and it happened through a process we call artificial selection.

In nature similar, very strange changes can happen to species over time given enough pressure by the environment around them. Evolutionary biology is essentially the study of how organisms have changed over time to develop into new species. The topic is a bit contentious, as we all know, but there are also many common misconceptions about exactly how this process works. Thinking about it as a whole is difficult, with many points where it is easy to get hung up and confused. So, instead of looking at the big strange picture, we should start with a closer look at the little parts that make up the concept. As we move into this article, remember that, ultimately, every species needs to survive and reproduce because that’s how species continue to exist. With that said, let us take a look!

Credit: Pixabay.

Getting Fit

Let us consider two individuals, Tom and Jack. Tom is long-limbed, athletic, lightweight, and doesn’t have much body hair. Jack is shorter, has a fair amount of hair, and a larger, higher-fat build. If you put both of these men in a forest, it is likely that Tom will have a bit of an advantage with traversing, climbing, et cetera. However, take the same pair and put them in a windy tundra and Jack will likely do a lot better in the harsh weather.

Every environment poses its own unique challenges. If you live in an area that has a lot of water, you will do a lot better if you can swim. If you live in an area that has a lot of plants and cover, predators are less likely to see you if you’re small and green. These factors contribute to something we call fitness which is a measure of how well you are built to survive and how likely you are to reproduce. In some ways, it’s a bit like physical fitness in humans. And, similarly, this fitness affects more than just your looks.

Genetics plays a huge role in this, and your genes (genotype) are expressed through your outward characteristics, called your phenotype. Small brown lizards living in a forest are displaying (‘expressing’) genes that give them the small and brown phenotype, and maybe even more that tell them to like staying on surfaces that match their color. Which brings us to the next main idea, a process called natural selection.

Selection Bias

Natural selection looks at the differences in the likelihood of survival and reproduction based on a species’ phenotype. Ultimately, in nature, creatures that have genes that result in fit phenotypes will survive and reproduce. This concept is where the term “survival of the fittest” comes from. The survivors live to have offspring and so genes in that population will, therefore, start leaning towards that fitter survivor genotype. Let us use an example.

Imagine that in a grassland there is a population of mostly large, green grasshoppers. They are doing well here because nature provides a lot of cover. This season, though, there isn’t much rain and the grassland starts turning brown and sparse. This means that the larger, brighter grasshoppers become much easier to see by predators and many of them get eaten. So, the next generation of grasshoppers ends up being mostly smaller and perhaps a bit less green, because the ones that best survived the change in the grasslands were the ones that were harder to see.

This is natural selection. Those built to survive in an environment will live long enough to have offspring, changing the gene variety in the next generation. The same process happens with plants, fungi, and microorganisms. An important thing to note here, though, is that this is only possible because a healthy population has a wide range of genes to choose from. Not all organisms of a species will be the same size or the same color or have the same features.

Charles Darwin is considered the father of modern evolutionary biology. He developed his theory of natural selection by observing the variations among the species of the Galapagos Islands. He was best known for his study of birds, which all occupied different niches on these far islands but bore obvious resemblances to mainland species.

Image credits: John Gould. 

Over a long period of time and given a lot of pressure, a population of organisms can change in significant ways. The reason we are now having an antibiotic crisis is that, after many years of exposing bacteria to chemicals designed to kill them, the ones that had the gene quirks allowing them to survive are the ones which were able to multiply. So now we have a large number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to contend with which have whole sections of DNA that exist only to counteract these drugs—but that, of course, raises a question. If they didn’t have these genes before, why do they have them now?

Mutant Power

Credit: Pixabay.

Mutation is a major factor influencing the process of evolution. Every so often, when cells are dividing, the mechanisms that copy bits of genetic data make a mistake. While it can often result in problems, it sometimes creates just what an organism needs to survive. One reason why HIV has been so hard to cure is that its reproduction process is unstable and prone to genetic errors. What this means is that the medication will work on most viral particles, but not all of them. The virus is, therefore, constantly evolving and the ‘error’, mutant forms that help it survive persist due to natural selection.

Some mutations are overtly harmful, like mutations in hemoglobin genes that cause sickle cell disease, where red blood cells curve into a “sickle” shape. The mutation makes the cells less efficient oxygen carriers and more fragile, and sometimes they cause painful blockages and organ damage. However, these mutations continue to persist because if a person is only a carrier, having received the variant gene from only one parent, it has a protective effect against malaria—a common disease in the parts of Africa where sickle cell is most prevalent. The fragility of the cell due to the hemoglobin structure means the cell will often rupture before the parasite can reproduce. But, since the remainder of their hemoglobin is normal, they don’t experience most of the severe effects seen in persons with the full form of the disease. The carrier phenotype is, therefore, fit. Natural selection is a strange process indeed.

So we have looked at mutation, natural selection, and fitness. We have looked at bacteria and viruses and how these factors have made them survive and evolve on a smaller faster scale. Now, how does that translate to bigger more complex things?

Making Sense of it All

Imagine that there is a ground-dwelling species of mammal that lives in a forest. Many of them are competing for the same food sources. A few of them, have started climbing in the hopes of finding another food source. A mutation comes which makes one offspring’s claws curve a bit more, causing that individual to be better at climbing. It survives to reproduce. A few generations down the line, all its descendants may have these curved claws. Somewhere along the line, a descendant is born with unusually long limbs which makes it better at both climbing and jumping, this individual’s offspring may well, do better than others—and so on. These minor changes can add up over time, just like the biggest teosinte kernels being intentionally planted. In nature, however, it takes far longer than a neat ten thousand years to produce something as different as maize.

Let this mammal group adapt for many thousands of years with natural selection favoring climbing habits and hunting in trees. At the end of that time if you were to take one of these climbing adapted creatures and put them alongside the ground dwellers they would look very different. They may have a different body form, make different sounds, have eyes that are adapted to seeing at a distance, and so on. And, because of the amount of mutation and genetic changes that brought them to this point, any offspring born of a mix of these two creatures would be sterile like a liger or mule. Just like that, you now have two different species. This also speaks to a common misconception, the idea that if one organism advanced from another, the first one should be gone. That simply isn’t how the process works.

In nature, creatures will exist side by side as one group remains the same and others experience changes due to environmental pressure. It is strange, and hard to fully appreciate, but we have a bit of evidence that can follow the trail. Think even of the liger I just mentioned, the mere fact that a lion and tiger—two distinct species from two different regions—can produce offspring means that their genotypes must be similar enough to make an embryo viable. We interpret this to mean that these big cats must have some ancestry in common.

What Do We Know?

Though it happens over a very long period of time in creatures that take longer to reproduce than bacteria or viruses, there are a few ways we can observe that evolution is an acting process. If an organism has advanced from one form to another, it stands to reason that there had to be some forms in between. Well, though we don’t always have all the bits of the puzzle, the fossils we find often help us fill these gaps. For example, between dinosaurs and birds we have found species of feathered, winged dinosaurs like Archaeopteryx.

There are also several odd cases in nature of organisms growing parts they have no need for. Some snake species and legless lizards retain a pelvic girdle with no real function, dolphin embryos in development still start to grow hind limb buds that retract after a time, and many cave dwelling or burrowing species retain non-functioning eyes. The fact that the genetic machinery required to make these structures happen exists, presents as evidence that these genes had a purpose at some point in the organism’s history.

There are other factors to consider as well. Genetic evidence frequently shows fairly small differences between one species and another of a similar type that cannot reproduce with each other. In fact, genetic evidence shows that a large variety of organisms have a surprising number of genes in common—whales, humans, bats, and cats all have the same bones making up their forelimbs. But, this gets into very complex discussion and murky waters. This article really just serves to give a background of a concept. Take the information here, interpret and think about it as you will and, of course, there are many other great sources of information on the topic out there. Whether evolution on a larger scale makes sense to you or not, hopefully we can at least agree that these smaller processes of change are things we can observe. By now, I hope, the idea of what evolution is and how it works is at least a little bit clearer.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

27-05-2019 om 20:20 geschreven door peter  

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27-05-2019 om 01:35 geschreven door peter  

© Copyright New Dawn Magazine, www.newdawnmagazine.com. Permission granted to freely distribute this article for non-commercial purposes if unedited and copied in full, including this notice.

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27-05-2019 om 01:11 geschreven door peter  

In the early 2000s, several Spanish scientists became interested in relatively unknown and mysterious meteorological phenomena known as megacryometeors after huge chunks of ice, some weighing up to 6 pounds (2.7 kg), fell repeatedly from cloudless skies over Spain. While a few peer-reviewed studies were published following these incidents (see here and here), little remains known about these anomalous ice conglomerations.

Ice falling from passing aircraft is often cited as the most likely explanation for megacryometeors, as ice can form on aircraft at high altitudes and melt as aircraft descend. However, numerous incidences of megacryometeors have been cited far from flight paths, not to mention the fact that accounts of the phenomena pre-date the invention of aviation.

A Spanish megacryometeor from 2007.

The latest report of an anomalous ball of ice falling from the sky occurred in Arizona on April 27 as a 10-pound chunk of ice crashed through a woman’s house in Havasu, Arizona. Unlucky homeowner Sandy Ford said the megacryometeor crashed through her roof and destroyed her garage ceiling before exploding on the ground. The ice was clear, as opposed to the blue ice that is typically used in airline septic systems. According to Ford, the noise of the ice exploding in garage was so loud that neighbors called emergency services:

It sounded like a sonic boom in my garage. My neighbor heard the sound and came over, then someone from the fire department showed up. When I went out, I was expecting to see that my hot water heater exploded … it was a chunk of ice that fell through the tile roof, through the ceiling and all the way to the ground.

In 2018, a megacryometeor was caught on camera as it exploded on a London street just feet away from a street cleaner. Just last month, a huge chunk of ice shattered a Colorado woman’s windshield as she drive along a busy highway. When will one of these incidents turn deadly?

For now, megacryometeors remain an enigma. Could these phenomena merely be signs that aviation and human population growth are contributing to increased incidents of ice falling from aircraft onto populated areas? Then what to make of similar reports that are nowhere near flight paths? Aircraft could be to blame, but that would mean that – gasp! – there are undisclosed aircraft buzzing around places they shouldn’t be. That couldn’t be, could it?

But that leaves out what to make of reports that pre-date aircraft. Could these megacryometeors simply be some kind of super-sized hailstone created under a very specific set of atmospheric conditions? That begs the question: could they become more common as climate patterns change? That’s a scary thought.

Figure 1.

A chunk of ice that fell in Chilches (Castellón de la Plana, Spain) having a diameter of around 10 cm.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

25-05-2019 om 20:48 geschreven door peter  

Huge underwater eruption created giant volcano off the coast of Africa

BY MIHAI ANDREI

The beautiful island of Mayotte was shaken by numerous volcanic temblors.

Image credits: Yane Mainard.

Volcanic shake

About half a year ago, seismologists noticed something unusual off the coast of Mayotte, an overseas French territory between Africa’s eastern coast and Madagascar. Sensors all around the world picked up seismic waves coming from around the island, but the source was largely unknown.

The locals felt it too. Almost every day, they felt small rumbles, stressing out about what the source might be, and authorities had little answers. French researchers had a hunch what the source might be, but without an on-site expedition, it was impossible to confirm. In February, such an expedition was launched. Nathalie Feuillet of the Institute of Geophysics in Paris (IPGP) and colleagues installed six seismometers on the seafloor, 3.5 kilometers beneath the surface, to monitor the seismic activity.

They pinpointed the seismic area, triangulating a region some 20-50 km deep — but this was only the first step. After the area was identified, researchers mapped it using sonar, finding evidence of a tall volcanic mountain formed underwater, and a huge quantity of solidified lava around it.

The outline of the volcano (in red) was excellently outlined by the sonar beams. The 800-meter (half a mile) volcano was built from nothing in just six months. The eruption was so dramatic that the island of Mayotte sank by about 13 centimeters (5 inches) and moved eastwards about 10 centimeters (4 inches). The sonar also revealed 5 cubic km (1.2 cubic miles) of magma on the seafloor

Image credits: MAYOBS TEAM (CNRS/IPGP-UNIVERSITÉ DE PARIS/IFREMER/BRGM).

Competing theories

Mayotte is part of the Comoros archipelago, an archipelago formed through volcanic eruptions. However, although some areas of the Comoros are still very active, the last eruption around Mayotte took place about 7,000 years ago. It’s not just the location of this new volcano that’s a bit puzzling, its nature is also a mystery.

There are several competing theories regarding the nature of this volcanic range. Most volcanoes are found along mid-ocean ridges — underwater mountain ranges formed where the Earth’s tectonic plates are pulling apart, and where convection currents from the mantle are bringing magma closer to the surface. However, this isn’t really the case in the Comoros.

Another possibility is that of a hotspot. A volcanic hotspot is an area where a rising mantle plume comes really close to the surface, producing volcanic activity. The classic example is Hawaii, although the nearby island of Reunion was also formed this way. Hot spots aren’t affected by plate tectonics, and they stay in place while tectonic plates move about, typically leaving a “trail” of volcanoes on the surface. This is consistent with the fairly deep earthquakes observed around Mayotte, which would also suggest that the volcanic magma chamber is also very deep. But the evidence isn’t convincing enough to definitively say that there’s a hotspot there.

Depiction of a rift breaking down into multiple rigid blocks.

Image credits: Italian Institute for Geosciences.

Another likely culprit is the geological process of rifting. East Africa is one of the world’s most active rift zones, with the African tectonic plate splitting into two separate plates. The rifting area isn’t exactly close to Mayotte, but rifting tends to break large areas into rigid blocks, and this might be responsible for the volcanic events.

Most intriguingly, it could be a combination of some (or all) of the above, making Mayotte one of the most exciting volcanic areas to study.

As for the island’s inhabitants, they still have reason to worry. The volcano is probably too deep to threaten the island in any way — the eruptions are too deep to affect the surface and even a potential collapse of one of its flanks would likely be too deep to generate a tsunami. However, the earthquakes seem to be slowly migrating towards the island, which could po}entially lead to a collapse of the island’s flank itself — which would, of course, be much more dangerous. Given this turn of events, Feuillet wants to extend the mission for a few months and get a much better view of what’s happening with this volcanic activity in order to assess the potential risk to the locals. After this is done, results will also be published in a journal, Feuillet says.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

25-05-2019 om 00:47 geschreven door peter  

First UK Crop Circle of 2019 Found

By Tim Binnall

The 2019 crop circle season is officially underway in England as the first formation of the year has been found. The design was reportedly discovered in the town of Warminster on Wednesday. The appearance of the formation may have elicited sighs of relief from the UK crop circle research community who have not had to wait this long for the season to begin since 2013, when it took until June for the first design to be discovered.

Suggesting that perhaps the crop circle makers are working off a bit of rust accumulated over the winter months, this first formation of the year is a fairly basic design. It consists of a circle surrounded by a thick ring and then a thinner ring which features a pair of larger spheres opposite of each other. Suggestions as to what the formation may be meant to convey include a rudimentary electrical generator or possibly some kind of celestial alignment.

Per usual, fastidious crop circle investigators in England have already flocked to the site to document the formation by way of two different drone videos as well as close-up photographs from the inside the design. What may be most noteworthy about the scene is that the crops appear to be fairly high, making the shape of the formation noticeably crisp, which somewhat makes up for its lackluster design.

As to who or what may have created the formation, it's a safe bet that the debate over the cause of the crop circle phenomenon will undoubtedly continue in 2019 as skeptics contend that the formation came courtesy of human hands. However, based on his examination of the drone videos, researcher Dr. Horace R. Drew argued that "there is no indication at present of any heavy mechanical or other man-made actions in its formation." One thing that seems certain is that we'll be seeing many more formations in the weeks and months to come now that crop circle season has begun.

{ https://www.coasttocoastam.com/ }

24-05-2019 om 23:10 geschreven door peter  

Chimpanzees can use sticks to dig up food buried in the soil even if they have never been shown how

• Zoo-based chimps spontaneously used the makeshift tools to dig and shovel dirt 
• The chimpanzees were also seen fashioning their own tools from nearby plants
• This is the first time that this spontaneous behaviour has been caught on camera
• Tool adoption by chimpanzees may mirror similar behaviour by early hominins

By IAN RANDALL FOR MAILONLINE

Chimpanzees can figure out on their own how to use sticks as tools to dig up buried items of food — without needing a demonstration first.  

An international research team led by the University of Oslo filmed chimps in a Norway Zoo after presenting the primates with buried fruit and various sticks.

The chimpanzees not only used various digging techniques but they also picked different shaped-sticks for different tasks and made their own tools from plants.   

The findings may help researchers to understand how early hominins, our distant ancestors, began adopting tools for digging.

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Chimpanzees can figure out on their own how to use sticks as tools to dig up buried items of food such as fruit, roots and tubers — without a demonstration to learn from

University of Tübingen researcher Alba Motes-Rodrigo and colleagues presented a troop of chimpanzees living in Norway's Kristiansand Zoo with buried fruit and a selection of sticks that they could potentially use as tools.

Researchers found that, despite having had no training or previous exposure to other animals digging for food, they spontaneously used the sticks to dig.

The primates were seen performing a number of different behaviours with the makeshift tools — including digging, shovelling and perforating.

Chimpanzees also discriminated between different tool choices, preferring, for example, to use longer sticks as excavation tools.

The chimpanzees were also seen using naturally-occurring vegetation to make their own tools, which they then brought to the digging site.

This is the first time that this digging-with-tools behaviour has been filmed. 

The primates were seen performing a number of different behaviours with the makeshift tools — including digging, shovelling and perforating

University of Tübingen researcher Alba Motes-Rodrigo and colleagues presented a troop of chimpanzees living in Norway's Kristiansand Zoo with buried food and a selection of sticks that they could potentially use as tools

A second experiment similarly presented chimpanzees with buried fruit, but no tools with which to dig them up.

In this case, researchers found that the great apes preferred to preferentially use their hands to excavate the food, over that of making use of tools fashioned from nearby vegetation.

Researchers propose that developing the use of tools to dug up roots and tubers would have been a key behaviour learnt during human evolution.

'These underground foods likely made up a significant part of the diet of early hominins during the transition from forested to dry habitats,' said Ms Motes-Rodrigo.

However, we know little about the exact tools and techniques that our earliest ancestors would have employed.  

'This study provides novel data to help us understand early hominin behaviour using chimpanzees as behavioural models,' Ms Motes-Rodrigo added.

The full findings of the study were published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Read more:

• Chimpanzee extractive foraging with excavating tools: Experimental modeling of the origins of human technology

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

23-05-2019 om 23:35 geschreven door peter  

Something has changed. For some reason, reports of mysterious or otherwise unexplained booms seem to be far less frequent than they have been in recent memory. Over the past two years, I’ve had plenty of weeks where I’ve had four or five mystery boom reports to share. Throughout the end of April and May, however, reports of these anomalous acoustic disturbances seemed to have slowed a bit. What’s with the sudden slowdown in mystery booms?

On Thursday, April 24, residents of two villages in county Suffolk in eastern England reported being shocked a “mystery bang” some initially feared was an automobile crash or industrial explosion. While the case remains unsolved, aircraft scrambled from nearby Royal Air Force bases have been known to cause similar booms in the past over the same area.

A Royal Air Force Typhoon at RAF Honington.

On the evening of Monday, April 29, residents of Hampton Roads, Virginia felt and heard a powerful boom. The National Weather Service in nearby Wakefield issued a statement shortly after claiming that with no meteorological explanations, the boom was likely caused by a supersonic aircraft breaking the sound barrier. Shortly after, the U.S. Navy issued a statementclaiming one of its F/A-18 Super Hornets had indeed caused the boom:

Based on analysis of data by fleet area control, surveillance facility and strike fighter wing Atlantic, we can conclusively state the loud noise heard across Hampton Roads around 6:30 p.m. Monday was a sonic boom generated by a U.S. F18 super hornet from Oceana.

Naval Air Station Oceana is located just east of where the boom was reported. The base is the east coast home of seventeen Navy strike fighter squadrons and Strike Fighter Weapons School Atlantic.

An F/A-18E Super Hornet.

That same night on April 29, houses in suburban Queensland, Australia were rattled by an “unexplained big boom” which witnesses say caused the earth to shudder. “My wife and I were inside when we experienced the house shuddering – it was so loud I could not image any handheld device could possibly create that amount of noise,” said Cornubia resident Shaun Pask. “It was not a small object hitting a small part of the roof – it was like something fell from the sky and it landed on our whole roof at the one time. It was like a sonic boom hammered down on the entire roof and neighbours said they had the same experience.”

A week later, people in Kingman, Arizona were terrified by a “loud boom” that echoed throughout the town on the evening of Wednesday, May 8. Some residents even reported finding debris strewn throughout city roads. Nevertheless, Mohave County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Specialist Anita Mortensen told local news reporters that there is nothing to worry about. “We found nothing that would point to any specific type of occurrence,” Mortensen said. “Nothing is confirmed at this time, and the investigation is ongoing.”

On Monday, May 13, shocked residents of Sidney, Nebraska reported a “mysterious loud ‘boom’ sound” which several residents described as similar to a cannon being discharged. Sidney Police Chief Joe Aikens said that while police received several calls about the noise, they have no idea where it came from or what caused it. The Sidney police have asked residents to share any information they have pertaining to the noise.

On May 16, hundreds of people throughout the Otago coastline in southeast New Zealand reported hearing a massive boom. The New Zealand Herald reports that most witnesses thought the noise could have been a meteorite or an earthquake, but shortly thereafter local meteorological services reported that a single powerful lightning strike was detected 50km (31 miles) out at sea which could have caused the boom. Apparently, the strike was caused by a particularly low-altitude type of thunderstorm called a squat thunderstorm which can cause thunder much louder than typical storms. Do you buy that explanation?

While there may have been fewer incidents to report on this month, six reports in four weeks still isn’t anything to shake a stick at. Interestingly, sonic booms seem to be increasingly cited or suspected as a cause of these booms now that winter is over and “frostquakes” are no longer a standby scapegoat. Could more of these reports be explained by sonic booms? I’ve suspected sonic booms from the start but with little to no evidence left in the wake of these unexplained sonic phenomena, there’s no telling what could be splitting the skies with such regularity.

Keep your eyes and ears upward.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

23-05-2019 om 22:56 geschreven door peter  

Imagine sitting on the edge of your seat engrossed in a scary horror movie when suddenly … a paranormal conference breaks out. That’s the feeling I got while watching “Terror in the Skies,” the latest documentary from Small Town Monsters. Fortunately, in the capable and experienced hands of director/writer/producer Seth Breedlove, this combination is a good thing, with seamless transitions between movie and expert commentaries that maintain the tension while adding meat to already meaty stories about a number of mysterious flying creature events in the history of Illinois that continue to occur right up to the present.

“Terror in the Skies” opens with an eerie twilight recreation of a 1948 small town sighting of what appeared to be an abnormally huge bird … a sighting we quickly learn was just one of many at the time in southern Illinois’ heavily wooded corner of the Ozark Mountains as they fade into the Mississippi River. The sightings are recounted by Illinois native Loren Coleman, founder of the International Cryptozoological Museum and one of the world’s leading authorities on mysterious and mythical beasts.

Wearing his producer hat well, Seth Breedlove recruits an impressive array of senior and up-and-coming cryptid investigators and writers to fill in the details of a surprisingly large yet little known number of flying creature sightings in Illinois dating back to Native American legends and centered around the Mississippi River town of Alton. From giant birds to dinosaur-like creatures to flying humanoids, director Breedlove weaves the narration of longtime collaborator Lyle Blackburn through animated recreations, newspaper clippings and eyewitness accounts of sightings of the Piasa Bird, Thunderbirds and lesser-known aerial apparitions.

“Terror in the Skies” closes in the skies over Chicago, where sightings of various forms of bird-, bat- and Mothman-like creatures have been reportedly steadily since 2017. Bringing together the analyses of a number of cryptozoologists and paranormal investigators who have looked into these sightings, Breedlove creates a form of that paranormal conference staple – the round-table discussion – to form a pseudo-debate of what it might be and whether this apparition deserves its “Mothman” description.

Conclusions? You’ll have to see “Terror in the Skies” to find out. Rest assured it exceeds the high bar Seth Breedlove sets for himself and the rest of his excellent Small Town Monsters team. The long list of Kickstarter contributors in the credits attests to the high quality of their previous documentaries and series and the newest offering will please these folks and the ever-growing number of fans of this soon-to-be-big-town production company. The release date is June 7, 2019, but you can pre-order “Terror in the Skies” by clicking here.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

22-05-2019 om 20:10 geschreven door peter  

Geologist: A Yellowstone Eruption “Would DESTROY MOST of the U.S.”

A geologist has said that if the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, it would destroy most of the United States, all but wiping the country off of the map. Dr. Jerzy Zaba is importantly not predicting that the volcano is going to erupt soon, but simply stating that it does have the power to destroy humanity and life as we know it.

According to Tech WP, Dr. Zaba says that Yellowstone, if it erupted in a similar manner as it did 640,000 years ago, it would destroy much of the United States. Dr. Zaba, who is a geologist at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland, said the mass explosion is completely unavoidable although it’s impossible to say when that explosion will occur. In addition to the annihilation of the United States, the geologist also says about 5 billion other people will starve to death in the volcanoes aftermath: a volcanic winter.

It is forecasted that if there was an explosion similar to the one from 640,000. for years, it would destroy most of the United States. Discarded materials would cover everything with a meter layer within a radius of 500 km. And due to the emission of a huge amount of dust, gases or sulfur oxide to the atmosphere, there would be a temporary cooling of the climate. Sulfur oxide would create a thin veil of sulfuric acid around the planet reflecting sunlight. [This] would persist for many years. It is estimated that due to climate change about five billion people would starve to death. The scenario of such an explosion can be seen in the documentary film “Superwulkan – disaster scenario”. This is, of course, a catastrophic film, but a lot of scientific truth in it.

–Dr. Jerzy Zaba, via Tech WP

An eruption at Yellowstone would cause the Earth’s temperature to plummet as the sulfuric acid would reflect the sunlight, making growing food difficult across the globe.

As more talk is made by geologists that suggest that the supervolcanoes are “waking up” around the world, the fears will simultaneously spike. That doesn’t mean an eruption will happen anytime soon, only that Earth will experience another supervolcano eruption in the future.

Recently, there was even talk that the Laacher See volcano 650 kilometers from the Polish border has “come to life“. When that volcano last erupted nearly 13 thousand years ago, the population living in its vicinity died out. Europe also then suffered from several colder years of “volcanic winter”.

Experts still say there is no reason to fear a supervolcano eruption just yet, but understanding the devastation that we will all face sooner or later is important in the advancement of science and human survival.

 This article has been contributed by SHTF Plan. Visit www.SHTFplan.com for alternative news, commentary and preparedness info.

Source: 

• https://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/geologist-a-yellowstone-eruption-would-destroy-most-of-the-u-s_05202019

{  https://beforeitsnews.com/v3/ }

21-05-2019 om 23:26 geschreven door peter