The victims of the deadliest flu pandemic in history were killed when their bodies unleashed an uncontrolled immune reaction as a protective mechanism, say scientists. Patients’ lungs rapidly became inflamed and filled with blood and other fluids which eventually drowned them. The discovery could help emergency authorities prepare for flu pandemics caused by the H5N1 avian flu virus, which appears to kill in a similar way. It may also give scientists ideas for making flu vaccines. In 1918 a strain of influenza ravaged populations around the world, killing an estimated 50 million people before it eventually died out. In a bid to understand why this strain, called the Spanish flu, was so dangerous, American scientists re-constructed the virus in 2005. In the latest experiment scientists used the re-constructed virus to infect macaque monkeys. They found that the over-reaction of the immune system destroyed the monkeys’ lungs within a week. There are strong parallels between this reaction and the one that almost killed six volunteers who were given the experimental antibody drug TGN1412 at London’s Northwick Park hospital in March last year. Both the virus and the drug caused a surge of cytokines, the molecules in the […]
BEIJING — Chinese scientists have successfully bred partially green fluorescent pigs which they hope will boost stem cell research, Xinhua news agency said. A research team at the Northeast Agricultural University in Harbin managed to breed three transgenic pigs by injecting fluorescent green protein into embryonic pigs, Xinhua quoted Professor Liu Zhonghua as saying. ‘The mouth, trotters and tongue of the pigs are green under ultraviolet light,’ said Liu. Genetic material from jellyfish was injected into the womb of a sow which gave birth to the three pigs 114 days later in Harbin, he said.
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, intent on putting global warming atop the Democratic agenda, is shaking up traditional committee fiefdoms dominated by some of Congress’ oldest and most powerful members. She’s moving to create a special committee to recommend legislation for cutting greenhouse gases, most likely to be chaired by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a Democratic leadership aide said Wednesday. Markey has advocated raising mileage standards for cars, trucks and SUVs and is one of the House’s biggest critics of oil companies and U.S. automakers, Pelosi has discussed the proposal with at least two Democratic committee chairmen: fellow Californian Henry Waxman of Oversight and Government Reform, and West Virginia Rep. Nick Rahall, who heads the Natural Resources panel. Pelosi intends to announce the move this week, said the leadership aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because not all of the details have been worked out. The move, to some degree, would sidestep two of the House’s most powerful Democratic committee bosses, in shaping what’s expected to be at least a yearlong debate on global warming: – Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell of Michigan, a defender of the auto industry and at […]
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation says that its investment practices have little or no impact on social issues. The principles of socially responsible investing (SRI) and shareholder activism don’t work for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – the largest in the world – according to Patty Stonesifer, the foundation’s CEO. Stonesifer put forth the position following publication of a two-part Los Angeles Times investigation, which claimed that hundreds of Gates Foundation investments – ‘totaling $8.7 billion, or 41 percent of its assets, not including U.S. and foreign government securities’ – have been in companies that ‘contribute to the problems of health, housing and social welfare that the foundation tries to solve.’ Among examples cited by the Times: a polio and measles vaccination program in Nigeria, supported by the Gates Foundation, which takes place amidst pollution filled with ‘toxic byproducts’ from nearby petroleum plants – owned by oil companies in which the Gates Foundation has invested $423 million. In the United States, the Times said, the Gates Foundation has invested heavily in finance companies with predatory lending practices and a healthcare company accused of medical lapses and fraud. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation endowment […]
WASHINGTON — The climate here has definitely changed. Legislation to control global warming that once had a passionate but quixotic ring to it is now serious business. Congressional Democrats are increasingly determined to wrest control of the issue from the White House and impose the mandatory controls on carbon dioxide emissions that most smokestack industries have long opposed. Four major Democratic bills have been announced, with more expected. One of these measures, or a blend of them, stands an excellent chance of passage in this Congress or the next, industry and environmental lobbyists said in interviews. Many events have combined to create the new direction – forsythia blooming in lawmakers’ gardens in January, polar bears lacking the ice they need to hunt and Al Gore’s movie, ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ along with pragmatic executives seeking an idea of future costs and, especially, the arrival of a Democratic-controlled Congress. There was evidence of the changed mood all over Washington this week. On Wednesday, leading scientists and evangelical pastors jointly declared their intention to fight the causes of climate change and the public confusion on the subject. Cheryl Johns, a professor at the Church of God Theological Seminary, called […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
