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Butterfly

Bacteria that thrive inside concrete discovered

David Nield
Science Alert
Fri, 06 Aug 2021 12:00 UTC
Concrete
© University of Delaware
Concrete samples used in the study.
Some types of bacteria are hardy enough to survive in the most inhospitable of conditions - and that includes concrete, as a new study proves. Not only can microbes survive in this dry, inhospitable building material, they can actually thrive there too.

The research shows that bacteria could provide early warnings of moisture-induced alkali-silica reactions (or 'concrete cancer') that can lead to structural deficiencies. Further down the line, we might even be able to harness bacteria to repair damage to bridges and roads.

While previous studies had already established that bacteria are able to make their homes inside concrete, here the scientists wanted to take a closer look at which microbes were present and how their communities might change over time.

Comment: It's increasingly looking like there are few niches where life in some form is not thriving: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Microscope 1

Researchers discover microbes with properties that may help fix DNA mutations


Source
Tue, 03 Aug 2021 17:27 UTC
Papus ankaliazontas dna repair mutations
© Press service of Tyumen State University
Papus ankaliazontas may have helpful DNA repair properties
Scientists from the University of Tyumen (UTMN) jointly with colleagues from the Papanin Institute for Biology of Inland Waters of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as part of an international research team, have discovered two new microbial species in the lakes of Asia.

According to the authors of the discovery, the study of these microorganisms will lead to a better understanding of DNA and RNA changes that cause serious hereditary disorders, as well as the creation of new drugs to treat parasitic diseases, the university's press service said.

New microbial species (Papus ankaliazontas and Apiculatamorpha spiralis) discovered in freshwater and saltwater lakes of Indonesia, Vietnam, and Turkey were found to be closely related to certain human and animal parasites, such as trypanosomes and leishmaniasis.
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Beaker

CDC/FDA confess: they had no virus when they concocted the test for the virus

Jon Rappoport
NoMoreFakeNews.com
Thu, 29 Jul 2021 13:54 UTC
Test PCR Covid-19
© Inconnu
The CDC has issued a document that bulges with interesting and devastating admissions.

The release is titled, "07/21/2021: Lab Alert: Changes to CDC RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 Testing." [1] It begins explosively:
"After December 31, 2021, CDC will withdraw the request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel, the assay first introduced in February 2020 for detection of SARS-CoV-2 only. CDC is providing this advance notice for clinical laboratories to have adequate time to select and implement one of the many FDA-authorized alternatives."
Many people believe this means the CDC is giving up on the PCR test as a means of "detecting the virus." I don't think the CDC is saying that at all.

They're saying the PCR technology will continue to be used, but they're replacing what the test is looking FOR with a better "reference sample." A better marker. A better target. A better piece of RNA supposedly derived from SARS-CoV-2.

Comment: The whole Covid pandemic, fascistic measures, and lockdowns were and still are based on PCR tests that are not a reliable method for diagnostics. Now we find out that even these PCR tests used contrived, manufactured samples of the virus.

So many people lost their lives because of the lockdowns and so much damage was done to the world economics and basic human freedom. All this is based on lies, propaganda, and manipulation so they could enslave humanity and make them accept the experimental vaccines that are far more dangerous than the virus itself.

Will humanity finally wake up and take their own destiny into their own hands?

See also:

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Arrow Down

Global population plummeted after Younger Dryas comet impact


The Cosmic Tusk
Sat, 07 Aug 2021 19:24 UTC
Comet impact
© Shutterstock
An artist's conception shows an impact event on Earth.
It is commonly thought that human genetic diversity in non-African populations was shaped primarily by an out-of-Africa dispersal 50-100 thousand yr ago (kya). Here, we present a study of 456 geographically diverse high-coverage Y chromosome sequences, including 299 newly reported samples. Applying ancient DNA calibration, we date the Y-chromosomal most recent common ancestor (MRCA) in Africa at 254 (95% CI 192-307) kya and detect a cluster of major non-African founder haplogroups in a narrow time interval at 47-52 kya, consistent with a rapid initial colonization model of Eurasia and Oceania after the out-of-Africa bottleneck. In contrast to demographic reconstructions based on mtDNA, we infer a second strong bottleneck in Y-chromosome lineages dating to the last 10 ky. We hypothesize that this bottleneck is caused by cultural changes affecting variance of reproductive success among males.



Full paper: Karmin et al. 2020 A recent bottleneck of Y chromosome diversity coincides with a global change in culture
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Info

Light pollution is making it harder for animals to navigate at night

Scott Alan Johnston
Universe Today
Sat, 07 Aug 2021 19:01 UTC
Dung Beetle
© Chris Collingridge
A nocturnal dung beetle climbing atop its dung ball to survey the stars before starting to roll.
Ah, the majestic dung beetle. The pinnacle of evolution. In all seriousness, these little critters are incredibly sophisticated navigators who have, for millennia, used the night sky to guide them about their business. But light pollution is making their lives more difficult by limiting their ability to navigate by the stars. Other nocturnal creatures, including some birds and moths, may be facing similar challenges.

Dung beetles are known for their penchant for rolling dung into balls, then pushing their prize away from competing beetles as quickly as possible. To swiftly escape the competition, they need to be able to travel in straight lines away from a dung pile, putting as much distance as they can between them and their rivals. The stars provide these rushing beetles with a compass, acting as directional cues in the sky with which the beetles are able to orient themselves. When they reach a safe distance, the beetles then bury the dung and proceed to consume it in relative safety.

Researchers at the University of Würzburg in Germany, Lund University in Sweden, and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa set out to examine how light pollution affects the beetles' ability to travel by starlight.

Their results, published in the journal Current Biology, show that the beetles become disoriented in different lighting conditions. For example, in the presence of bright city lights, the beetles have a tendency to travel directly towards the nearest, brightest light source. Instead of dispersing away from a dung pile, the beetles are all drawn in one direction. This makes conflict and competition more likely as individuals encounter each other more frequently.
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SOTT Logo Radio

MindMatters: Cliodynamics and the Secular Cycles of History

Harrison Koehli, Elan Martin, Adam Daniels
Sott.net
Sat, 07 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC
cliodynamics
Does history really repeat? If so, how, and why? We discussed the "fourth turning" on a previous episode of MindMatters. According to Strauss and Howe, the United States has entered a time of crisis which could see societal collapse, revolution, or war. However, their theory has its problems. While suggestive on the descriptive level, it has not been scientifically supported. Enter Peter Turchin.

Today we continue our discussion of historical cycles by looking at cliodynamics, a field of study pioneered by Turchin. Turchin's work gives scientific support to the idea that cycles are an essential feature of civilization. Empires rise and fall. Periods of stagnation and crisis end in war, revolution, and collapse. These trends, and the factors that determine them, can be measured and modeled. And all the indicators show that the U.S. has indeed entered a time of crisis, along with Europe - on par with the conditions that led to the American Civil War.

Today on MindMatters we discuss the outlines of Turchin's work, how it applies to American history, and what it might mean for the future.


Running Time: 01:20:48

Download: MP3 — 64.2 MB


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Chalkboard

Physicists discover simple propulsion mechanism for bodies in dense fluids


PhysOrg
Sat, 07 Aug 2021 18:10 UTC
scallops seashells graphic
© redit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
A team of researchers from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), the University of Liège and the Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy have developed a micro-swimmer that appears to defy the laws of fluid dynamics: Their model, consisting of two beads connected by a linear spring, is propelled by completely symmetrical oscillations. The scallop theorem states that this cannot be achieved in fluid microsystems. The findings have now been published in the academic journal Physical Review Letters.

Scallops can swim in water by quickly clapping their shells together. They are large enough to still be able to move forwards through the moment of inertia while the scallop is opening its shell for the next stroke. However, the Scallop theorem applies more or less depending on the density and viscosity of the fluid: A swimmer that makes symmetrical or reciprocal forward or backward motions similar to the opening and closing of the scallop shell will not move an inch. "Swimming through water is as tough for microscopic organisms as swimming through tar would be for humans," says Dr. Maxime Hubert. "This is why single-cell organisms have comparatively complex means of propulsion such as vibrating hairs or rotating flagella."
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Red Pill

Dead scientists, genetically engineered viruses and government pandemics: Conspiracy theorists were so right


Jolly Roger
Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:44 UTC

Comment: This is an old one from our archives, an anonymous blogpost from 2009. While it remains to be seen whether 'culling the population' is an intended outcome of Covid-1984, 'conspiracy theorists' like this were remarkably accurate in most of their predictions...


puppet masters economist
© The Economist
'Conspiracy theory' in 2009, acknowledged mainstream fact in 2020
If you sell crack, join a gang, or rob the mob you can expect to die a violent death, but if you listen to your mother, eat all the right foods, and study hard in college to become a microbiologist, you should expect to live to a ripe old age and die peacefully.

That being the case, a few eyebrows were raised when five microbiologists either disappeared or died mysteriously violent deaths in 2001. A short time later the number rose to 19, and then 29.

They were found stabbed to death in the trunks of cars, thrown off bridges, or they wrapped their cars around trees after their brake fluid disappeared. Once again, this is the stuff of Hollywood spy stories, and not the way you would expect a microbiologist to give up the ghost.
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Blue Planet

How supereruption of Toba volcanoe 74,000 years ago disrupted climate

Rutgers University
Source
Tue, 27 Jul 2021 12:00 UTC
Toba
© Landsat satellite photo
Lake Toba, Sumatra, Indonesia
A massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia about 74,000 years ago likely caused severe climate disruption in many areas of the globe, but early human populations were sheltered from the worst effects, according to a Rutgers-led study.

The findings appear in the journal PNAS.

The eruption of the Toba volcano was the largest volcanic eruption in the past two million years, but its impacts on climate and human evolution have been unclear. Resolving this debate is important for understanding environmental changes during a key interval in human evolution.

"We were able to use a large number of climate model simulations to resolve what seemed like a paradox," said lead author Benjamin Black, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. "We know this eruption happened and that past climate modeling has suggested the climate consequences could have been severe, but archaeological and paleoclimate records from Africa don't show such a dramatic response.

Comment: And it's possible that what caused the eruption was an encounter with a cometary body: Volcanoes, Earthquakes And The 3,600 Year Comet Cycle

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Magnify

Scientists' suspicious deaths are under the microscope

Alanna Mitchell, Simon Cooper & Carolyn Abraham
Globe and Mail
Sat, 04 May 2002 06:52 UTC
don wiley

'Superstar scientist' Don Wiley
It's a tale only the best conspiracy theorist could dream up.

Eleven microbiologists mysteriously dead over the span of just five months. Some of them world leaders in developing weapons-grade biological plagues. Others the best in figuring out how to stop millions from dying because of biological weapons. Still others, experts in the theory of bioterrorism.

Throw in a few Russian defectors, a few nervy U.S. biotech companies, a deranged assassin or two, a bit of Elvis, a couple of Satanists, a subtle hint of espionage, a big whack of imagination, and the plot is complete, if a bit reminiscent of James Bond.


Comment: Notice how the authors are trivializing the murders with multiple allusions to fictional and stereotypical notions in an attempt to preemptively allay readers' suspicions. In all likelihood, these scientists' deaths - and the dark underbelly of Western military intelligence networks that connect them - could not be matched by anything in Hollywood fiction.


The first three died in the space of just over a week in November. Benito Que, 52, was an expert in infectious diseases and cellular biology at the Miami Medical School. Police originally suspected that he had been beaten on Nov. 12 in a carjacking in the medical school's parking lot. Strangely enough, though, his body showed no signs of a beating. Doctors then began to suspect a stroke.

Just four days after Dr. Que fell unconscious came the mysterious disappearance of Don Wiley, 57, one of the foremost microbiologists in the United States. Dr. Wiley, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Harvard University, was an expert on how the immune system responds to viral attacks such as the classic doomsday plagues of HIV, ebola and influenza.
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