collectiveevolution--2019-03-10--Research Reveals Plants Can Think Choose Remember

Research Reveals Plants Can Think, Choose & Remember

Facebook, which seems to have become a government-run agency claiming to help fight the war on ‘fake news,’ has pledged to delete and flag content that spreads misinformation. This is great, and should be done, but the only problem is that content around the internet is being taken down, flagged, and deemed as a ‘conspiracy theory’ when it is well-supported, factual, and backed by peer-reviewed science.  I just wrote an article about the recent measles outbreak in Washington State for example, and how that state is pushing hard for all school-aged children to receive a mandatory MMR vaccination. These outbreaks are constantly being blamed on unvaccinated children, but the mainstream never points people towards the actual statistics showing that Washington State, like many other states, have not experienced a drop in MMR vaccination coverage. Instead, MMR vaccine coverage is very high.  Furthermore, they don’t mention that there’s been a long history of measles outbreaks in highly vaccinated and fully vaccinated populations (see article linked below for examples and sources), and they don’t mention the deaths, disabilities, and adverse reactions that’ve occurred as a result of the MMR vaccine either. Why don’t they mention that the death rate from measles in Washington State was just 1.4/10,000 (source in article below) before the introduction of the vaccine? You can read more about that and access multiple studies and testimonies on this subject in the article linked below:  Biochemical Engineer Drops Bombshell Facts About Measles & The MMR Vaccine In Washington  Information and science are constantly emerging regarding vaccinations, but we never hear about any of it from mainstream media. I also recently published an article of Robert F. Kennedy explaining how big pharmaceutical companies are the biggest lobbyists, even more than big oil, and how they’ve completely compromised both the Democrats and the Republicans.  So, what’s some of the latest information regarding vaccine safety?  An article published in Nature, International Journal of Science titled “Italian scientists protest funding for vaccine-safety investigation” outlines how The National Order of Biologists made a €10,000 donation to a group that questions the safety of vaccines.  The groups name is Corvelva, and they received the donation on the 26th of October of 2018. The group believes that the research it conducts is necessary because “previous studies it has funded, which have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, indicate that some vaccines contain impurities, or lack the active ingredients they claim to contain.”  Nature points out that “Some scientists in Italy are up in arms over a donation from the organization that oversees the nation’s professional biology qualification to  an advocacy group that opposes the country’s policy of mandatory childhood vaccination.”  This part is confusing: Why would any group or any scientist oppose more safety studies regarding vaccinations? Wouldn’t professionals on both sides of the coin be in support of as much vaccine safety testing as possible?  ONB president Vincenzo D’Anna told Nature in an e-mail interview that there is a need for truly independent vaccine research because, in his opinion, work conducted in public laboratories and at universities is usually influenced or funded by companies that produce vaccines.  “The goal is to contribute to complete the biological and chemical analyses on vaccines,” he said in the interview, part of which the ONB has published in its Bulletin.  Again, Nature points out that many scientists dismiss the need for more vaccine safety testing and that they are upset. That being said, it’s a comforting thought that ONB disagrees and that they are supporting this type of thing. Clearly, many professionals within that organization don’t believe that vaccines go through rigorous safety testing, as is claimed by many. Again, what harm could be done by further testing?  The first vaccine that was tested was the Infanrix Hexa vaccine. It’s a six-in-one vaccine that’s manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) that’s supposed to contain the following antigens: tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis toxoids; inactivated poliomyelitis viral strains 1-2-3; and hepatitis B surface antigen.  Corvelva discovered that none of these antigens were actually in the vaccine, which means it had zero antibodies to the intended antigens to be created. This was a huge shock, and in addition to that they also found the following:  Traces of 65 chemical cross-contaminants from other manufacturing lines:  Tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis toxoids, D antigens of Poliomyelitis 1-2-3, hepatitis B proteins obtained with genetic engineering and Haemophylus polysaccharides chemically linked to tetanus toxoid as carrier. Toxoids are created by treatments with formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde that should remove toxicity keeping intact their ability to stimulate protective antibodies against original toxins. We were expecting to find the three toxoids and the other antigens not modified by treatment with formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde, to separate the antigens from each other and to be digestible by the enzyme specific for proteins (trypsin). We have found instead a real polymer, insoluble and indigestible, that we supposed to be the set of antigens chemically bound together (has to be defined if this is present as an aggregate of the individual antigens or a single macromolecule), on which we can find in literature partial information regarding the single antigens. This macromolecule could not be recognized in any way by the protein databases, and in fact it turned out to be a solid compound of an unknown chemical structure. Proteins solubility and their digestion (i.e. the capacity to divide them into small peptide fragments) are two typical proteins characteristics that not only makes it possible to study them through some specific analysis methods but are also fundamental for the interaction with the immune system to create protective antibodies, because if the protein structure is heavily altered from the original one, the new antibodies result completely different from those that are able to attack the original antibodies causing illnesses. Since this polymer we have encountered, derived from the antigenic mix, is not only different for its spatial conformation but it’s chemically different, so we can state that we are not facing antigens similar to the original ones but in the form of a compound with an unknown and unpredictable toxicity and efficacy. (source)  The fact that the vaccine antigens were not detected is seriously concerning, and so is the fact that, of the 65 signs of chemical contaminants, only 35% are known. This was only the first phase of this safety testing, as a second analytical study with standard controls will be released.  7 chemical toxins were also identified, and the group states that these toxins have a structure that could probably be partially derived from the formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde and cyanogen bromide reactions with other chemical contaminants in the vaccine.  We’d like to point out that the toxicity of many of these toxins have been confirmed and published in Pubchem or Toxnet and this poses important safety problems, issues and concerns. From the protein and peptide fraction study, various free peptides of bacterial origin have been obtained probably coming from the bacterial culture cells used for the antigen extraction. Literature reports bacterial peptides as potential allergens 5 and also as capable of inducing autoimmune reactions 6 and these too put a safety issue that needs to be further clarified with the regulatory bodies. Coming back to the two basic principles that have been our topic on this analysis path, we reaffirm what we have said in the recent interview on the scientific journal Nature: we are inquiring the vaccines efficacy and safety and we can’t quite understand how it is possible to claim that this vaccine is even able to generate the 6 protective antibodies – reason why it is designed for – and furthermore to understand how this cluster made of 6 neurotoxic antigens bound together can be claimed as not toxic for newborns. Infanrix Hexa hexavalent, as for the method we have commissioned, casts major doubts on both its effectiveness and on its safety… One thing is for sure: we will not stop to proceed.  In the 90s, Dr. Antonietta Gatti discovered the relationship between micro- and nano-particles as well as a great number of pathologies: cardiovascular diseases, many forms of cancer, multiple neurological diseases, and autoimmune diseases. She’s taken part in many international research projects, including the pathologies induced by depleted uranium, waste incineration, food polluted with inorganic particles, and more.  Currently, she is the coordinator of the Italian Institute of Technology’s Project of Nanoecotoxicology, called INESE.  She is also a selected expert of the FAO/WHO for the safety in nanotechnological food, a Member of the NANOTOX Cluster of the European Commission, the author of the book “Nanopathology: the health impact of nanoparticles,” on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Biomaterials Applications, and a Member of the CPCM of the Italian Ministry of Defense.  Furthermore, her and her husband Dr. Stefano Montanari founded a laboratory called Nano-diagnostics for the evaluation of the pathological tissues of patients. It’s presently at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy.  Recently, the Italian police raided their home, and the police took all  digital assets that were owned by the the two nanopathologists including their laptops, computers, and flash-drives; basically years of work and research.  James Grundvig via the World Mercury Project describes what happened quite well:  “Because Gatti and Montanari had taken their research of nanodust and nanoparticles, from in-vivo (performed in a living organism) and in-vitro (performed in a test tube) to what unseen contamination might reside in vaccines in 2016, they came under the microscope of the United States, European, and Italian authorities. They had touched the third rail of medicine. They had crossed the no-go zone with the purported crime being scientific research and discovery. By finding nano-contamination in random vaccines, Gatti and Montanari revealed, for the first time, what no one knew: Vaccines had more than aluminum salts adjuvants, Polysorbate-80, and other inorganic chemicals in them, they also harbored stainless steel, tungsten, copper, and other metals and rare elements that don’t belong in shots given to fetuses, pregnant women, newborns, babies and toddlers developing their lungs, immune and nervous systems.”  The scientists published their work in January of 2017, titled, New Quality‐Control Investigations on Vaccines: Micro‐ and Nanocontamination. If science wasn’t plagued by corruption, an investigation would have started, healthcare agencies would be involved, and vaccine safety policies would have come under intense scrutiny, but that never happened.  You can read more about this story and access an interview with the scientists here.  There are numerous vaccine safety issues. The bioaccumulation of various vaccine ingredients, for example, are one. Ingredients like aluminum have been added to vaccines for more than 100 years under the assumption that they are safe. It’s only within the last couple years that scientists decided to look to see where these ingredients go after being injected. They found that aluminum, when injected, doesn’t exit the body, it actually travels to distant organs and the brain. You can access those studies and read more about that here. You can also watch a short video from Dr. Christopher Shaw from the University of British Colombia explaining the difference between injectable aluminum and the aluminum our body takes in from food. Here is another related study you can read that goes into further detail.  The main point I’m trying to make is that no parent should ever be made to feel guilty for not vaccinating their children. Vaccines are clearly not as safe as they’re marketed to be, and it’s important that we ask ourselves why this type of information goes virtually unacknowledged by the masses.


collectiveevolution--2019-08-30--Research Shows That Time In Prison Does Not Successfully Rehabilitate Most Inmates

Research Shows That Time In Prison Does Not Successfully “Rehabilitate” Most Inmates

The basic idea of rehabilitation through imprisonment is that a person who has been incarcerated will never want to be sent back to prison after they have been set free. It is hoped that an inmate’s experiences while locked up will leave such a lasting impression that a former prisoner will do whatever it takes to avoid a second term. Unfortunately, research has consistently shown that time spent in prison does not successfully rehabilitate most inmates, and the majority of criminals return to a life of crime almost immediately. Many argue that most prisoners will actually learn new and better ways to commit crimes while they are locked up with their fellow convicts. They can also make connections and become more deeply involved in the criminal world. (source)  Ignorance is so convenient. But time’s up. We all have a choice to make, and hopefully, it will be an informed one.  Chances are we all probably fall into one of two populations. One: thoughtful, compassionate, aware and self-aware, or two: thoughtless, selfish, unaware, and self-righteous.  So, where do criminals come from? When we believed slavery was proper, we believed some people were given to us to righteously use and abuse. Today, in its place we have what I call The Tulip Theory. When I was newly married about 35 years ago, my husband and I were into gardening and we sent away for 100 tulip bulbs from Holland, never mind that we lived in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles County or that climate change was yet to be considered.  The endeavor to garden was life-changing for me. The bulbs arrived. I opened the box and there, on top of 100 tulip bulbs, was a note: “The wonderful thing about these bulbs is you can’t go wrong. They don’t need any care. You don’t have to water them, feed them or put them into the ground. Whatever you do or don’t do, they will still blossom into beautiful blooms even if you leave them on a shelf in the dark.” I put down the piece of paper and said to my husband, “Oh, my God. I was raised on The Tulip Theory.”  Prisoners were raised on The Tulip Theory, and some of us look at them as though they were given to us to righteously despise or to give us the illusion of superiority, when we’re not doing so well, ourselves. Today, lots of us share the philosophy of the tulip farmers, even professors, attorneys, and doctors, who may end up raising unhappy children by setting expectations without nurturing and coaching their children into achievement with regular prompts such as, “I know you can do this.”  Some parents raise ‘timebombs’ and shooters, in part because we leave our babies in the hands of daycare providers or rotating neighbors and relatives – this can be very psychologically damaging for some children.  The economy requires a two-income household now, so it is easy to see why both parents do end up working.  Working during the formative first five years of our children’s lives used to be a choice. Now, not so much.  The very wealthy want even more money. What they have is never enough. The pharmaceutical industry, the insurance industry and the educational industry all want you to believe in The Tulip Theory aka take the side of Nature in the Nature vs. Nurture debate. You have been told that the jury is in and the scientific evidence supports genetic programming of personality.  When I was a young, new therapist, I didn’t believe it, but my clients did. They brought me articles about evidence that their personalities were inborn. They brought articles about the Scandinavian Studies, the Schizophrenic Studies, the Babies Separated at Birth Studies, and the Adoption Studies.  I was never a science major. That wasn’t my thing. However, it appeared to me I had no choice. So, for twenty-five years, more or less, I researched the research. I had to teach myself how to read a study because they were written so that few would ever understand them. I finally got it down, and I uncovered and listed about 20 techniques that scientists use repeatedly to get the results they are paid to get (Snyder, The Search for the Unholy Grail, 2016).  I listed these techniques so that anyone could read, assess and see through a behavioral study. The best-designed studies and research questions can be replicated. The worst cannot. The best studies represent childhood causes. The worst represent genetic alleged causality. Some scientists from the Human Genome Project admitted that finding such genetic instruction isn’t supported by research or the design of the human brain to include inborn behavioral programs, after all.  All this is to say the jury is in, whether you want to know it or not. Criminals are made, not born. Sometimes, even with good parenting, a community can be so saturated with survival behavior, a parent can’t win. Still, there are consequences to parenting choices. Most of us don’t know them. So, we depend upon The Tulip Theory. How we raise a child will determine how successful and praiseworthy they become or how damned they will be. There but for the grace of God go I, right?  Not convinced? In another book I wrote about how anyone—parent, judge, school counselor, therapist, forensic evaluator—could assess a childhood on a single sheet of paper, and within a 10% margin of error, predict forward a person’s aptitude for a successful life or not (Snyder, Predicting and Understanding Behavior According to Critical Childhood Experiences, 2016). The same measures can help us understand backward how a person became the way they are.  Criminals are made, not born. In this book I evaluate the childhoods of 25 famous people known for extreme behaviors, so the reader can see how their childhoods created who they became.  Columbine, Sandy Hook, El Paso, ad infinitum, all had killers who were predictable and understandable, yet we continue to wonder how a person could do such a horrible thing. In 1988, I spent about twenty hours interviewing The Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez, and realized that no one honors thy father and mother like a serial killer. I studied the childhood of Jeffrey Dahmer in depth only to discover he killed in order to keep from being left. As an infant, his mother wouldn’t touch him. Even after he was old enough to climb out of his crib, she pushed him away from her. I watched the Menendez Brothers trial from beginning to end and heard jurors say afterwards, “I was abused, and I didn’t grow up to kill my parents.”  We don’t understand cause and effect yet.  Over the years, I developed a formula of not only what critical childhood experiences it takes to turn out to be dangerous or amazing people but in what combinations and orders these events need to take place.  A violent person has to have had an insecure attachment, to have been physically abused, and probably emotionally shamed as well. They too have to have been raised in a family with a repression ethic, as the underground child, but they also have to have been raised within a family blame ethic versus a family self-reflection ethic. If all three of these factors are present, there will be violence. If one factor is missing, there will not be violence without provocation. Repeat: If a child has had a secure attachment, she will never have the drive to exploit or harm another person, even after a high dose of abuse.  Put another way, a secure attachment in the first five years of life makes a child not only immune to long-term effects of abuse, but just about guarantees resilience as well. I could go on, but that’s not what I came to tell you today. I came to talk about why people become criminals and what we can do about it, if we care to invest in the quality of human development.  Criminal behavior involves a legacy of abuse, like slavery, racism, devaluations, and survival, but it can also be linked to families who simply fail to form an attachment with their child, employ abusive discipline, judge and blame others, and then insist their child not complain.  To create a poverty-based criminal, start with an insecure attachment because most of these moms and dads have to work. Add issues of deprivation and chronic concerns of survival. Add emotional abuse, a blame ethic (versus a self-reflection ethic), and a repression ethic (versus an expression ethic). Depending upon the seriousness of the crime, some or all of these features will be formative in childhood.  Then, there are the adult ‘modifiers’. The adult child could run into a wonderful group of friends or a religious environment of ethics and character, or the adult child could hang with drug addicts or gang members that influence them in another direction.  Note that the way to create the majority of criminals comes from broken attachments, deprivation and a lack of parental investment, but the way to create some of the most brutal criminals in the world is to give them broken attachments, to not give the child a stable and constant parental figure, as well as to over-indulge them with an entitlement to exploit and abuse others. The most terrible people on the planet murder, torture, exploit and abuse others. They are our dictators. Supporting them are business people without scruples, who invest in the entitled exploitation of others.  How do you feel about punishment and retribution? Have you thought you would like to rub someone into the ground for their harmful choices? Have you ever asked, “How could someone do this?” That question reveals that one doesn’t yet consider that meanness comes from a different way of thinking born of a different set of experiences and history.  This has to be Awareness 101.  The language we use, the values we have, the understandings we reference are not inborn. We don’t know what we don’t know. And even if we had some peripheral exposure to ethics, we disregard them, because those ethics never protected us. As a matter of fact, it may enrage us that others get to have such pretty lives, and we didn’t. We believe what we experience.  We take as true what we are taught unless we are given permission to question. If you want a person to think differently or better, you have to ensure they have the wherewithal or freedom to think differently.  Would we be willing to rehabilitate them in a controlled environment rather than punish them? Of course, we need a multi-tiered program where people earn their ways into more privileged populations. The hardcore prisoners don’t get to go up to the next tier unless they soften.  Can we then grant them trauma therapy and classes on adulting and relationship skills? Can we grant them an education? Can we grant them an opportunity to have relationships?  Can we find pleasure in the satisfaction they discover from praise for a job well done? Would we grant them a permanent companion, a dog, who loves them and only them (given the dog is safe)? Would we allow them to enjoy playing tennis?  Would we grant them a television to watch the news or educational programming? Would we want them to have good books to read, especially literature and sociological studies? Would we grant them the right to vote if it makes them feel a part of the system to which they never thought they could belong?  What do you think about redemption?  Can we grant them another round to try to live a better life? If a person learns to think differently and comes to regret their bad and harmful choices, are we capable of forgiving them? Can we take our boot off their neck? Can we grant them some guarded faith that they can turn their lives around? Or, would we insist that they couldn’t possibly change and should therefore never be forgiven?  Can we give them the opportunities we had that they never had? Can we believe in them, or would we be the people who refuse to believe in redemption? Would we, then, be hypocrites?  How would we assess whether a person has changed or could change? Do we have criteria by which we evaluate whether or not a person has genuinely changed? Can we recognize true remorse? Can we credit humility? Can we look for different choices? Do we recognize the dangers of negative mirrors, wherein a person can never outgrow their reputation? Can we identify a healthy dialogue supported by virtuous values? Can we praise new choices and show appreciation?  Rather than holding them as people we self-righteously despise, we might find our own reward in helping them take the high road and consider that a person never chose their own fate but lived out only what they knew. If we give them new experiences, we might find that we are richer ourselves, and capable of investing in a world of better people. Our planet is down to the final challenges between the enlightened and the greedy.  What side will you be on?  This article was written for Collective Evolution by Dr Faye Snyder.  Dr. Faye Snyder is a psychologist, marriage and family therapist, and forensic evaluator. She is the founder and clinical director of the non-profit Parenting and Relationship Counseling (PaRC) Foundation in Granada Hills, California. She has taught developmental psychology at the California State University, Northridge. Most importantly, Dr. Faye, as she prefers to be called, along with her husband, Ron, is the proud parent of daytime Emmy winning Scott Clifton, her laboratory and her evidence. Dr. Faye is a late bloomer and is rapidly producing products designed to help parents heal their children from previous injuries or raise their children for greatness.


collectiveevolution--2019-12-10--New Research Shows What Too Much Screen Time Does To Developing Brains

Cymatics is a very interesting topic. It illustrates how sound frequencies move through a particular medium such as water, air, or sand and as a result directly alter physical matter. There are a number of pictures all over the internet as well as youtube videos that demonstrate how matter (particles) adjust to different sounds and different frequencies of sound.  When it comes to ancient knowledge, sound, frequency and vibration have always been perceived as powerful forces that can influence and alter life all the way down to the cellular level. Sound healing methods are often used by Shamans, who employ drums and singing to access trance states. Research has even demonstrated that drumming and singing can can be used to slow fatal brain disease, and it can generate a sense of oneness with the universe . Sound therapy is getting more popular, and it can have many medical applications, especially within the psychological and mental health realms.  Sound, frequency and vibration are used all throughout the animal kingdom, and there are many examples. If we look at the wasp, they use antennal drumming to alter the caste development or phenotype of their larvae. Conventional thinking has held for quite some time that differential nutrition alone can explain why one larvae develops into a non-reproductive worker and one into a reproductive female (gyne). However, this is not the case, according to a 2011 study:  This finding indicates that the acoustic signals produced through drumming within certain species carry biologically meaningful information (literally: ‘to put form into’) that operate epigenetically (i.e. working outside or above the genome to affect gene expression).  Pretty fascinating, isn’t it? Like many other ancient lines of thought, this has been backed by modern day scientific research.  Another example comes from cancer research. In his Tedx talk, “Shattering Cancer with Resonant Frequencies,” Associate Professor and Director of Music at Skidmore College, Anthony Holland, tells the audience that he has a dream. That dream is to see a future where children no longer have to suffer from the effects of toxic cancer drugs or radiation treatment, and today he and his team believe they have found the answer, and that answer is sound. Holland and his team wondered if they could affect a cell by sending a specific electric signal, much like we do with LCD technology. After searching the patent database for a device that could accomplish this, they came across a therapeutic device invented by New Mexico physician Dr. James Bare. The device uses a plasma antenna that pulses on and off, which, as Holland explains, is important because a constant pulse of electricity would produce too much heat and therefore destroy the cell. For the next 15 months, Holland and his team searched for the exact frequency that would directly shatter a living microorganism. The magic number finally came in the form of two inputs, one high frequency and one low. The high frequency had to be exactly eleven times higher than the low, which in music is known as the 11th harmonic. At the 11th harmonic, micro organisms begin to shatter like crystal glass.  After consistently practicing until they became efficient at the procedure, Holland began working with a team of cancer researchers in an attempt to destroy targeted cancer cells. First they looked at pancreatic cancer cells, eventually discovering these cells were specifically vulnerable between 100,000 – 300,000 Hz.  Next they moved onto leukemia cells, and they were able to shatter the leukemia cells before they could divide. But, as Holland explains in his talk, he needed bigger stats in order to make the treatment a viable option for cancer patients.  In repeated and controlled experiments, the frequencies, known as oscillating pulsed electric field (OPEF) technology, killed an average of 25% to 40% of leukemia cells, going as high as 60% in some cases. Furthermore, the intervention even slowed cancer cell growth rates up to 65%.  You can read more about the story, find sources, and watch that TEDx talk here.  Another example occurred in 1981, when biologist Helene Grimal partnered with composer Fabien Maman to study the relationship of sound waves to living cells. For 18 months, the pair worked with the effects of 30-40 decibel sounds on human cells. With a camera mounted on a microscope, the researchers observed uterine cancer cells exposed to different acoustic instruments (guitar, gong, xylophone) as well as the human voice for 20-minute sessions.  They discovered that, when exposed to sound, cancer cells lost structural integrity until they exploded at the 14-minute mark. Far more dramatic was the sound of a human voice — the cells were destroyed at the nine-minute mark.  After this, they decided to work with two women with breast cancer. For one month, both of the women gave three-and-a-half-hours a day to “toning” or singing the scale. Apparently, the woman’s tumor became undetectable, and the other woman underwent surgery. Her surgeon reported that her tumor had shrunk dramatically and “dried up.” It was removed and the woman had a complete recovery and remission.  These are only a few out of multiple examples that are floating around out there.  Let’s not forget about when Royal Rife first identified the human cancer virus using the world’s most powerful microscope. After identifying and isolating the virus, he decided to culture it on salted pork. At the time this was a very good method for culturing a virus. He then took the culture and injected it into 400 rats, which, as you might expect, created cancer in all 400 rats very quickly. The next step for Rife was where things took an interesting turn. He later found a frequency of electromagnetic energy that would cause the cancer virus to diminish completely when entered into the energy field. You can read more about that story here.  A 2014 study published in the Journal of Huntington’s Disease found that two months of drumming intervention in Huntington’s patients (considered an irreversible, lethal neurodegenerative disease) resulted in “improvements in executive function and changes in white matter microstructure, notably in the genu of the corpus callosum that connects prefrontal cortices of both hemispheres.” The study authors concluded that the pilot study provided novel preliminary evidence that drumming (or related targeted behavioral stimulation) may result in “cognitive enhancement and improvements in callosal white matter microstructure.”  A 2011 Finnish study observed that stroke patients who were given access to music as cognitive therapy had improved recovery. Other research has shown that patients suffering from loss of speech due to brain injury or stroke regain it more quickly by learning to sing before trying to speak. The phenomenon of music facilitating healing in the brain after a stroke is called the “Kenny Rogers Effect.”  A 2012 study published in Evolutionary Psychology found that active performance of music (singing, dancing and drumming) triggered endorphin release (measured by post-activity increases in pain tolerance), whereas merely listening to music did not. The researchers hypothesized that this may contribute to community bonding in activities involving dance and music-making.  According to a study published by the National Institute of Health, “Music effectively reduces anxiety for medical and surgical patients and often reduces surgical and chronic pain. [Also,] Providing music to caregivers may be a strategy to improve empathy, compassion, and care.” In other words, music is not only good for patients, it’s good for those who care for them as well.  Below is an interesting interview with Dr. Bruce Lipton. You can view his curriculum vitae here.  What About The Mind?  A few years ago, these scientists held an International Summit on Post-Materialist Science, and created a manifesto to explain its significance. The scientists involved were Mario Beauregard, PhD (University of Arizona), Gary E. Schwartz, PhD (University of Arizona), and Lisa Miller, PhD (Columbia University), in collaboration with Larry Dossey, MD, Alexander Moreira-Almeida, MD, PhD, Marilyn Schlitz, PhD, Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, and Charles Tart, PhD.  There are hundreds of published peer-reviewed publications showing statistically significant results for this type of science, yet unfortunately, it is still shunned by mainstream academia, even though so many mainstream academic scientists support it. What is going on here?  The idea that the mind affects physical material reality is not trivial, and it’s been demonstrated repeatedly with statistically significant results through fascinating research undertaken by government programs, places like the Institute of Noetic Sciences (founded by Dr. Edgar Mitchell), and, in more recent developments, the group of internationally recognized scientists mentioned above.  Many studies have been conducted in these realms as well. Let’s look at water.  Experiments over the past four decades have investigated whether human intention alone can affect the properties of water. This question has been of interest to alternative medicine research, because the human body is made up of approximately 70% water. Interest in this topic has been rekindled recently by multiple researchers suggesting that intentionally influenced water can be detected by examining ice crystals formed from samples of that water. Scientists have hypothesized and shown that water influenced by intention can indeed influence the physical formation of the ice crystals that water produces. Consistent results commonly point to the idea that positive intentions tend to produce symmetric, well-formed, aesthetically pleasing crystals, and negative intentions tend to produce asymmetric, poorly formed, and unattractive crystals.  Dean Radin, the Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, along with Masaru Emoto, Takashige Kizu, and Nancy Lund, designed an experiment that tested this hypothesis.  You can access the full study here.  If thought alone does indeed have an effect on physical material reality, just imagine what it could do to our body? Something to think about  The information presented in this article isn’t even the tip of the iceberg when it comes the the medical applications of sound, frequency and vibration, which are all obviously correlated. One thing is clear, however, which is that there are many more methods out there, like the ones discussed in this article, that should be taken more seriously and given more attention from the medical establishment. It seems all mainstream medicine is concerned about is making money and developing medications that don’t seem to be representative of our fullest potential to heal. “Alternative” therapies shouldn’t be labelled as alternative, they should be incorporated into the norm.


collectiveevolution--2019-12-10--Research Shows We Can Heal With Vibration, Frequency & Sound


dailyheraldchicago--2019-06-20--Horns are growing on young peoples skulls Phone use is to blame research suggests

Horns are growing on young people's skulls. Phone use is to blame, research suggests.

Mobile technology has transformed the way we live -- how we read, work, communicate, shop and date. But we already know this.  What we have not yet grasped is the way the tiny machines in front of us are remolding our skeletons, possibly altering not just the behaviors we exhibit but the bodies we inhabit.  New research in biomechanics suggests that young people are developing hornlike spikes at the back of their skulls -- bone spurs caused by the forward tilt of the head, which shifts weight from the spine to the muscles at the back of the head, causing bone growth in the connecting tendons and ligaments. The weight transfer that causes the buildup can be compared to the way the skin thickens into a callus as a response to pressure or abrasion.  The result is a hook or hornlike feature jutting out from the skull, just above the neck.  In academic papers, a pair of researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, argues that the prevalence of the bone growth in younger adults points to shifting body posture brought about by the use of modern technology. They say smartphones and other handheld devices are contorting the human form, requiring users to bend their heads forward to make sense of what's happening on the miniature screens.  The researchers said their discovery marks the first documentation of a physiological or skeletal adaptation to the penetration of advanced technology into everyday life.  Health experts warn of "text neck," and doctors have begun treating "texting thumb," which is not a clearly defined condition but bears resemblance to carpal tunnel syndrome. But prior research has not linked phone use to bone-deep changes in the body.  "An important question is what the future holds for the young adult populations in our study, when development of a degenerative process is evident in such an early stage of their lives?" ask the authors in their most recent paper, published in Nature Research's peer-reviewed, open access Scientific Reports. The study came out last year but has received fresh attention following the publication last week of a BBC story that considers, "How modern life is transforming the human skeleton."  Since then, the unusual formations have captured the attention of Australian media, and have variously been dubbed "head horns," "phone bones," "spikes" or "weird bumps."  Each is a fitting description, said David Shahar, the paper's first author, a chiropractor who recently completed a Ph.D. in biomechanics at Sunshine Coast.  "That is up to anyone's imagination," he told The Washington Post. "You may say it looks like a bird's beak, a horn, a hook."  However it is designated, Shahar said, the formation is a sign of a serious deformity in posture that can cause chronic headaches and pain in the upper back and neck.  Part of what was striking about their findings, he said, was the size of the bone spurs, which are thought to be large if they measure 3 or 5 millimeters in length. An outgrowth was factored in to their research only if it measured 10 millimeters, or about two-fifths of an inch.  The danger is not the head horn itself, said Mark Sayers, an associate professor of biomechanics at Sunshine Coast who served as Shahar's supervisor and co-author. Rather, the formation is a "portent of something nasty going on elsewhere, a sign that the head and neck are not in the proper configuration," he told The Washington Post.  Their work began about three years ago with a pile of neck X-rays taken in Queensland. The images captured part of the skull, including the area where the bony projections, called enthesophytes, form at the back of the head.  Contrary to conventional understanding of the hornlike structures, which have been thought to crop up rarely and mainly among older people suffering from prolonged strain, Shahar noticed that they appeared prominently on X-rays of younger subjects, including those who were showing no obvious symptoms.  The pair's first paper, published in the Journal of Anatomy in 2016, enlisted a sample of 218 X-rays, of subjects ages 18 to 30, to suggest that the bone growth could be observed in 41 percent of young adults, much more than previously thought. The feature was more prevalent among men than among women.  The effect -- known as enlarged external occipital protuberance -- used to be so uncommon, Sayers said, that one of its early observers, toward the end of the 19th century, objected to its title, arguing that there was no real protrusion.  That's no longer the case.  Another paper, published in Clinical Biomechanics in the spring of 2018, used a case study involving four teenagers to argue that the head horns were not caused by genetic factors or inflammation, pointing instead to the mechanical load on muscles in the skull and neck.  And the Scientific Reports paper, published the month before, zoomed out to consider a sample of 1,200 X-rays of subjects in Queensland, ages 18 to 86. The researchers found that the size of the bone growth, present in 33 percent of the population, actually decreased with age. That discovery was in stark contrast to existing scientific understanding, which had long held that the slow, degenerative process occurred with aging.  They found instead that the bone spurs were larger and more common among young people. To understand what was driving the effect, they looked to recent developments -- circumstances over the last 10 or 20 years altering how young people hold their bodies.  "These formations take a long time to develop, so that means that those individuals who suffer from them probably have been stressing that area since early childhood," Shahar explained.  The sort of strain required for bone to infiltrate the tendon pointed him to handheld devices that bring the head forward and down, requiring the use of muscles at the back of the skull to prevent the head from falling to the chest. "What happens with technology?" he said. "People are more sedentary; they put their head forward, to look at their devices. That requires an adaptive process to spread the load."  That the bone growth develops over a long period of time suggests that sustained improvement in posture can stop it short and even ward off its associated effects.  The answer is not necessarily swearing off technology, Sayers said. At least, there are less drastic interventions.  "What we need are coping mechanisms that reflect how important technology has become in our lives," he said.  Shahar is pressing people to become as regimented about posture as they became about dental hygiene in the 1970s, when personal care came to involve brushing and flossing every day. Schools should teach simple posture strategies, he said. Everyone who uses technology during the day should get used to recalibrating their posture at night.  As motivation, he suggested reaching a hand around to the lower rear of the skull. Those who have the hornlike feature likely can feel it.


eveningstandard--2019-01-07--Indian scientists dismiss findings of Issac Newton and Albert Einstein at major science conference a

Indian scientists dismiss findings of Issac Newton and Albert Einstein at major science conference and claim ancient Hindus pioneered stem cell research

Academics at a major science conference in India have dismissed the discoveries of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein.  Some Indian scientists have hit out at the claims made at the annual Indian Science Congress, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  Remarks made by some of the delegates included that ancient Hindus had invented stem cell research and gravitational waves should be renamed as "Narendra Modi Waves".  Hindu mythology and religion-based theories have increasingly become part of the Indian Science Congress agenda.  At the conference, the head of a southern Indian university cited an old Hindu text as proof that stem cell research was discovered in India thousands of years ago.  G Nageshwar Rao, vice chancellor of Andhra University, also said a demon king from the Hindu religious epic, Ramayana, had 24 types of aircraft and a network of landing strips in modern-day Sri Lanka.  Kannan Jegathala Krishnan claimed “there was no bend in space-time gravity” and that Albert Einstein “didn’t even understand it.” He also called Einstein’s discoveries “misleading.”  He added that Isaac Newton was “not able to understand” gravitational repulsive force.  The Indian Scientific Congress Association expressed "serious concern" at the remarks.  "We don't subscribe to their views and distance ourselves from their comments. This is unfortunate," Premendu P Mathur, general secretary of Indian Scientific Congress Association, told AFP news agency.  "There is a serious concern about such kind of utterances by responsible people."  Last year, Indian academics claimed the first working airplanes were invented by and Indian named Shivakar Babuji Talpade eight years before the Wright brothers.  In 2017, the education minister for the western state of Rajasthan said it was important to “understand the scientific significance” of the cow, as it was the only animal in the world to both inhale and exhale oxygen.  In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said proof that cosmetic surgery existed in ancient India was shown the the story of the Hindu god Ganesha, whose elephant head is attached to a human body.


fortune--2019-01-30--Columbia Researchers Developed Technology That Can Translate Brain Activity Into Words

Neuroengineers from Columbia University reportedly developed a way to use artificial intelligence and speech synthesizers to translate one’s thoughts into words.  The team’s paper, published Tuesday in Scientific Reports, outlines how they created a system that can read the brain activity of a listening patient, then reiterate what that patient heard with a clarity never before seen from such technology.  The breakthrough opens the path for speech neuroprosthetics, or implants, to have direct communications with the brain. Ideally, the technology will someday allow those who have lost their ability to speak to regain a voice. This can help patients who have suffered a stroke or are living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) communicate more easily with loved ones.  “If the wearer thinks ‘I need a glass of water,’ our system could take the brain signals generated by that thought, and turn them into synthesized, verbal speech,” Dr. Nima Mesgarani, the paper’s senior author and a principal investigator at Columbia University’s Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, explained in a statement.  “This would be a game changer,” he continued. “It would give anyone who has lost their ability to speak, whether through injury or disease, the renewed chance to connect to the world around them.”  Right now, the technology can only voice what one’s listened to, not what they wish to say. But further development can improve the system for this purpose.  The technology is based on decades of research that show that when people speak or listen—or even imagine speaking or listening—certain patterns of activity occur in the brain.  To create their technology, Mesgarani and his team worked with Dr. Ashesh Dinesh Mehta, a neurosurgeon at Northwell Health Physician Partners Neuroscience Institute and co-author of the paper who works with epilepsy patients that undergo regular brain surgeries.  “Working with Dr. Mehta, we asked epilepsy patients already undergoing brain surgery to listen to sentences spoken by different people, while we measured patterns of brain activity,” said Mesgarani.  This trained a vocoder—a computer algorithm like Amazon Echo or Apple’s Siri that can learn to recreate speech from recordings. Instead of recordings, the study’s vocoder needed to learn from brain activity.  After the system was familiar with the brain activity, patients were asked to listen to a recording of someone reciting the numbers zero through nine. Their brain activity was recorded and run through the vocoder. The vocoder’s reiteration was analyzed and cleaned up using an artificial intelligence system, and the resulting sound was a robotic voice reciting digits zero through nine.  Subjects were asked to listen to the recording, and were able to “understand and repeat the sounds about 75% of the time, which is well above and beyond any previous attempts,” said Mesgarani. “We’ve shown that, with the right technology, these people’s thoughts could be decoded and understood by any listener.”


fortune--2019-08-26--The DEA Will Finally Help Expand Marijuana Research Brainstorm Health

The DEA Will Finally Help Expand Marijuana Research: Brainstorm Health

Hello and happy Monday, readers. I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  One of the biggest barriers to marijuana research is the reality that, well, it's not particularly easy to research because of existing laws and regulations. But that may finally be changing with a new federal notice announced by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) meant to facilitate scientific and medical research into cannabis as an increasing number of states legalize it.  "DEA is making progress in the program to register additional marijuana growers for federally authorized research, and will work with other relevant federal agencies to expedite the necessary next steps," said DEA acting administrator Uttam Dhillon in a statement on Monday. "We support additional research into marijuana and its components, and we believe registering more growers will result in researchers having access to a wider variety for study."  The agency went on to say that "the total number of individuals registered by DEA to conduct research with marijuana, marijuana extracts, derivatives, and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) has increased by more than 40 percent from 384 in January 2017 to 542 in January 2019."  So, why is this important? For one, take a gander at this map from Governing on marijuana legalization across the country. The District of Columbia and 11 states have legalized marijuana for recreational use; 33 states plus the District have legalized, or decriminalized, the use of marijuana for either medical or recreational purposes. And those states include some of the largest in the nation, such as the entirety of the Pacific coast.  This is, obviously, a political issue. But it's a medical and public health one as well. Federal restrictions on marijuana research have made it much more difficult to have an informed conversation on exactly how the drug affects people—although the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine released one of the more comprehensive reports on the subject in 2017.  Under the DEA's evolving posture, we'll hopefully get far more detailed information.  Read on for the day's news.  A legendary biotech analyst passes away. The biotech world is reeling from news that Mark Schoenebaum, a former analyst at Evercorse ISI who was widely considered one of the best (and kindest) individuals in the industry, has passed away. To get a sense of what he meant to the industry, just read Adam Feuerstein’s moving tribute to him at STAT News.  Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $572 million in Oklahoma opioid case. In a landmark decision, drug giant Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay $572 million by a judge for allegedly fueling Oklahoma’s opioid addiction and overdose crisis. “As a matter of law, I find that defendants’ actions caused harm, and those harms are the kinds recognized by [state law] because those actions annoyed, injured or endangered the comfort, repose, health or safety of Oklahomans,” wrote Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman in his ruling. The nature of the ruling shouldn’t be understated—it’s seen as a major inflection point in dozens of cases brought against drug makers and distributors accused of unethical and aggressive marketing practices that have worsened the opioid epidemic. It could, in effect, be one of the major dominoes to fall in these cases (it should be noted that J&J has argued that the case against it is entirely without merit and unjustified by existing Oklahoma law). But, on the other hand, prosecutors were looking for a much bigger payout, in the billions. (NBC News)  There have now been more than 1,200 measles cases this year. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that another 12 people have been diagnosed with measles in the U.S., bringing the total number of cases up to 1,215 this year alone (and across 30 states). While that’s not exactly great news, there’s a silver lining: The pace of infections appears to be slowing. (Reuters)  CEOs Say They Want to Look Beyond Shareholders—But the Law May Get in the Way, by Geoff Colvin  How Tech Business Interests and Politics Could Clash in India, by Adam Lashinsky  Even After Capital One’s Breach, Don’t Doubt the Cloud, by Robert Hackett


hitandrun--2019-08-26--The DEA Says Its Finally Moving Forward on Research Cannabis Applications

The DEA Says It's Finally Moving Forward on Research Cannabis Applications

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced today that it will "facilitate and expand scientific and medical research for marijuana in the United States" by publishing "notice of pending applications from entities applying to be registered to manufacture marijuana for researchers."  It's a step in the right direction, albeit a mostly symbolic one.  The DEA usually publishes notice of applications to manufacture controlled substances within weeks of receiving them. But two dozen of the applicants revealed today in the Federal Register applied for a license to grow research cannabis more than two years ago. They've been on hold ever since. They'll probably be on hold a little longer.  "I am pleased that DEA is moving forward with its review of applications for those who seek to grow marijuana legally to support research," Attorney General William Barr said in a statement. "The Department of Justice will continue to work with our colleagues at the Department of Health and Human Services and across the Administration to improve research opportunities wherever we can."  The DEA first announced it would license additional cannabis growers here in the U.S. in August 2016. At the time, cannabis advocates interpreted the notice as an acknowledgment that America's sole legal grower of cannabis—the University of Mississippi, which has a DEA license and a contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse—was incapable of serving the needs of researchers and drug developers.  That hope was misplaced. Under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department brought the process to a halt. Sessions told Congress that it was not clear additional research cannabis was necessary, and that approving new manufacturers might violate the United Nations' Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. This was pure stonewalling. There is nothing in the U.N. treaty that prohibits licensing additional cannabis growers, and it has been clear for years now that Mississippi's monopoly on legal cannabis production has stymied medical research.  In June, one of the applicants sued the DEA and the Justice Department, seeking a "writ of mandamus" from a federal court that would compel action on the applications. The Scottsdale Research Institute, a Phoenix-based clinical trial company that applied in 2016 for a DEA manufacturing license in order to grow its own cannabis for an ongoing study of medical marijuana as a treatment for veterans suffering from PTSD, argued in its suit that federal law requires "that the Attorney General, upon receiving an application to manufacture a Schedule I substance for use only in a clinical trial, publish a notice of application not later than 90 days after accepting the application for filing."  In July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered the Drug Enforcement Administration to explain why it has yet to respond to nearly two dozen researchers around the U.S. who applied three years ago for a license to grow research cannabis.  The court gave the DEA a deadline of August 28. Today's announcement is the first time since 2016 that the agency has beat a deadline. (Sessions blew several of the deadlines Congress set for the Justice Department on this very issue.)  Applicants are not out of the woods yet. There are now 33 entities requesting a federal license to manufacture research cannabis, and the DEA will almost certainly not approve all of them. The agency also plans to modify and reissue the notice that was sent out by President Barack Obama's Justice Department in 2016: "Prior to making decisions on these pending applications, DEA intends to promulgate regulations that govern the program of growing marihuana for scientific and medical research under DEA registration." The Federal Register notice published today says the DEA will propose those new regulations "in the near future."  The DEA is also allowing any applicant who wants a license to grow hemp—which is no longer a controlled substance, thanks to the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018—to withdraw their application and have the application fees returned. Applicants wishing to receive a refund of their fees must notify the DEA in writing by November 1, 2019.


lifesitenews--2019-11-15--Authors, media spinning study on benefits of ‘gender-affirming’ treatment, researcher says

November 15, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – For months now, the mainstream media has touted a recent study purporting to show that “gender-affirmation” treatment improves transgender mental health, but a prominent researcher argues that the study’s actual findings are very different.  On October 4, the American Journal of Psychiatry published a study by a team of Yale researchers based on more than 2.500 people diagnosed with gender incongruence between 2005 and 2015. It found, according to the abstract, that “years since initiating hormone treatment was not significantly related to likelihood of mental health treatment,” but “increased time since last gender-affirming surgery was associated with reduced mental health treatment.”  From that, the authors concluded that the “longitudinal association between gender-affirming surgery and reduced likelihood of mental health treatment lends support to the decision to provide gender-affirming surgeries to transgender individuals who seek them.”  These findings led to various headlines proclaiming things like “Long-Term Mental Health Benefits of Gender-Affirming Surgery for Transgender Individuals” (American Psychiatric Association), “Sex-reassignment surgery yields long-term mental health benefits” (NBC News), and “Transgender surgery linked with better long-term mental health, study shows” (ABC News).  Such readings are not warranted by the study itself, says University of Texas sociology professor Mark Regnerus, a prominent researcher on family and sexuality issues who analyzed the study Wednesday at The Public Discourse.  Regnerus found no fault with the authors’ data and methodology but argued the problem arises with the “scholarly interpretations of the study’s results, which are remarkably out of step with the far more modest conclusions they merit.”  “The study found no mental health benefits for hormonal interventions in this population,” he wrote. “Given the surge in interest, demand, and supply of hormonal therapies to self-identified transgender persons today, you would think that it is a solution that pays obvious benefits in reduced subsequent need — over time — for treatment of mood or anxiety disorder, or hospitalization after a suicide attempt. Yet there was no statistically significant effect. In fact, the confidence intervals actually reveal a nearly significant aggravating effect of hormonal treatment on subsequent mental health needs.  “It is the surgical effect, however, that has grabbed all the attention,” he continued. “Bränström and Pachankis detected a statistically significant effect of time since last ‘gender-affirming’ surgery on reduced mental health treatment,” meaning that the “odds of being treated for a mood or anxiety disorder (in 2015) were reduced by about 8 percent for each year since the last surgery.” However, the “linear decrease” they cite “is simply not visible in the study’s graphs.”  According to the actual data, Regnerus wrote, a clinic “may have to perform as many as 49 gender-affirming surgeries before they could expect to prevent one additional person from seeking subsequent mental health treatment. Yet that’s not what the authors say.”  A range of scientific literature indicates that reinforcing a patient’s gender confusion often fails to prevent significant emotional harm up to and including attempted suicide (with or without surgery), because fixating on “gender affirmation” tends to distract from exploring other issues that may be the actual root of a patient’s mental or emotional unrest.  “That the authors corrupted otherwise excellent data and analyses with a skewed interpretation signals an abandonment of scientific rigor and reason in favor of complicity with activist groups seeking to normalize infertility-inducing and permanently disfiguring surgeries,” Regnerus warned. “Physicians should not be pushed to prescribe such profoundly consequential treatment by threat of call-out, malpractice suits, patient demand, or — in this case — the overreaching interpretations of quality data.”  “Clinicians are being bullied into writing a radical prescription based on fear, not on sensible conclusions from empirical data,” he said. “But this reasonable position is getting more difficult to defend.”


naturalnews--2019-01-09--Research finds that eating breakfast helps obese people become more active

(Natural News) According to the results of a study, if you want to lose weight effectively and become more physically active, you shouldn’t skip breakfast. The study, which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a leading diet and nutrition journal, examined connections between breakfast and health for obese people.  The study involved health scientists working at the Department for Health who compared the test results of two sets of participants: a fasting group and a breakfasting group. For the study, both groups ate similar amounts of food overall.  Based on the results of the study, eating breakfast didn’t make obese individuals lose weight but it did help them become more physically active in the morning. Breakfast consumption also helped reduced food intake later in the day.  The researchers noted that since “[increasing] activity is one of the most important ways to improve health” in an increasingly sedentary population, educating the public about the benefits of consuming a healthy breakfast regularly may help promote proper nutrition and regular exercise. (Related: Eating breakfast before exercise may “prime” your body to burn more carbohydrates.)  The results of this study on an obese group of volunteers referenced data from earlier studies by researchers at the University of Bath regarding the effects of eating breakfast in a “lean” population. The two studies are part of the three-year Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)-funded “Bath Breakfast Project” (BBP).  100% organic essential oil sets now available for your home and personal care, including Rosemary, Oregano, Eucalyptus, Tea Tree, Clary Sage and more, all 100% organic and laboratory tested for safety. A multitude of uses, from stress reduction to topical first aid. See the complete listing here, and help support this news site.  The combined results of these studies resulted in insights that are currently considered as “some of the most comprehensive to date into the effects of eating breakfast.” The study results also helped Dr. James Betts, the lead researcher of the BBP, win the prestigious Cuthbertson Medal from the Nutrition Society.  Researchers wanted to test for the potential connections among three factors: breakfast, body weight, and health. Dr. Betts said that even though many people have different opinions about “whether or not you should eat breakfast,” there is currently a lack of “rigorous scientific evidence” that proves how or even if eating breakfast could improve one’s health.  He noted that the study helped emphasize some of these impacts, but the importance of breakfast still “depends on the individual and their own personal goals.”  To illustrate, if a person wants to lose weight, there isn’t enough data to support the assumption that only eating breakfast or skipping it will significantly affect your weight. But Dr. Betts added that based on other markers of a healthy lifestyle, such as being more physically active or strictly controlling and monitoring blood sugar levels, there is sufficient proof that eating breakfast can help.  For the study, researchers conducted the obese trial by grouping participants, who were aged from 21 to 60, into two groups: “fasting” and “breakfasting.” The scientists measured the outcomes of the study during a six-week period.  The majority of existing research is limited to surveys of a large number of people. However, for this study researchers intensively tested a focus group in tightly-controlled conditions. This means the relevant effects of breakfast or fasting on the body can be studied without requiring data from thousands of people.  The breakfasting group was instructed to consume at least 700 kilocalories (kcal) by 11:00 a.m. The first half of the food for this group was consumed within about two hours of waking. The fasting group only consumed water until noon.  The participants were allowed to choose what they wanted to eat for breakfast, and the scientists wish to continue their research to determine if results will differ based on different breakfast types. Further study can help the researchers determine effective recommendations regarding the kind of food sources and nutrients that could best improve an individual’s overall well-being.  If you want to eat healthily, consider starting your day by combining some of the nutritious food options listed below:  You can read more articles about the importance of eating a nutritious breakfast at Slender.news.


naturalnews--2019-01-27--Heres what research shows about the mental health benefits of ginger

Here's what research shows about the mental health benefits of ginger

![Image: Here’s what research shows about the mental health benefits of ginger ](wp-content/uploads/sites/91/2019/01/Ginger-Rood-Herb-Spoon.jpg)  * * *  ([Natural News](https://www.naturalnews.com)) Ginger is a natural anti- inflammatory that also offers other health benefits. In fact, the versatile plant can even helpÂ [boost your mental health](https://bebrainfit.com/ginger- health-benefits/).  GingerÂ  _(Zingiber officinale)_ comes from the rhizome or root of a flowering plant native to China, but the spice canÂ grow in any area that is warm and humid. Aside from its use as a natural remedy forÂ digestive disorders, ginger can also be used to address arthritis,Â memory loss and dementia, and muscle aches and pains.  Thanks to scientific research, experts are beginning toÂ understand how ginger works. To date, research has identified overÂ 100 compounds in ginger. More than 50 of these are **antioxidants** , which is crucial to brain health since the organ is vulnerableÂ to free radical damage.  Ginger is often used as an **anti-inflammatory** , making it a popular natural remedy for arthritis. The plant’sÂ anti-inflammatory property can also help people with brain disorders likeÂ ADHD, Alzheimerâs,Â anxiety, brain fog, andÂ depression, which are often associated with chronic inflammation of the brain.Â Experts believe that gingerâs anti-inflammatory effects on the brain are due to two unique compounds called 6-shogaol andÂ 10-gingerol.  LikeÂ the Indian spice turmeric, ginger also has a compound called **curcumin**. This compound is a natural antibacterial, antifungal, anti- inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiviral. Curcumin is a potentÂ herbal brain supplement ingredient that can help address anxiety, brain aging,Â depression, and neurodegenerative diseases. (Related:Â [What Happens To Your Body When You Start Eating Ginger Every Day](https://www.naturalnewsblogs.com/happens-body- start-eating-ginger-every-day/).)   _ **The power of the elements** : Discover Colloidal Silver Mouthwash with quality, natural ingredients like Sangre de Drago sap, black walnut hulls, menthol crystals and more. Zero artificial sweeteners, colors or alcohol. [Learn more at the Health Ranger Store](https://colloidalsilvermouthwash.healthrangerstore.com/colloidal- silver-mouthwash.html) and help support this news site._  ## Ginger for brain health  YourÂ body is constantly under attack from oxidative stress. Oxygen in the body splits into single atoms with unpaired electrons, and electrons can often be found in pairs. These atoms, called **Â free radicals** , scavenge the body to find other electrons so they can become a pair. When these atoms are paired, they cause damage to cells, DNA, and proteins. Studies show thatÂ [free radicals are linked to diseases](https://www.livescience.com/54901-free- radicals.html)Â like Alzheimer’s disease,Â atherosclerosis,Â cancer, and Parkinson’s, among others.  Your brain is proneÂ to free radical damage since it requires a lot of oxygen.Â Free radicals are caused by common factors like:    * Air pollution   * Fried food   * Grilled meat   * Lack of sleep   * Radiation from your mobile phone and computer   * Stress  Antioxidants in ginger can also protect the brain from further damage and memory loss after a stroke.  Ginger increases the level of two of the most important brain chemicals: dopamine andÂ serotonin.Â  **Depression** is strongly associated with deficient levels of both chemicals.  **Dopamine** is called the “motivation molecule” because it helps you focus and be productive. Dopamine is also in charge of your pleasure-reward system.Â Meanwhile,Â  **serotonin** is known as the “happiness molecule” because it helps sustain a positive mood.  The spice isÂ traditionally used to treat **memory loss and dementia** andÂ research has determined that ginger can help improve other cognitive functions besides memory. According to a study,Â healthy adults given dried ginger supplements showed improvements in attention, reaction time, andÂ working memory.  People with **diabetes** also rely on ginger as a natural remedy because it canÂ help control blood sugar, especially if you are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Ginger has antioxidants called **gingerols** that enhance insulin sensitivity and prevent certain neurological diabetic complications.  Ginger is an effective remedy that can minimize the pain of **migraine headaches**. The spice has similar effects toÂ sumatriptan, a commonly prescribed migraine drug that narrows blood vessels to the brain. But unlikeÂ sumatriptan, which is associated with negative side effects, ginger can relieve migraines without any side effects.  ### Suggested ginger dosages  Ginger, which comes in many forms, can be used as a food and as a supplement. Ginger supplements are available as capsules, crystals, essential oils, extracts,Â loose powder, and tinctures.  A typical dose of ginger is one gram, and the bestÂ way to ingest this dose is by taking two ginger capsules. Most supplements contain at 500 milligrams (mg) per capsule.  Below are some ginger dosage equivalents:    * One teaspoon of fresh, grated ginger root   * Two droppers (or two milliliters [ml]) of liquid ginger extract   * Two pieces of crystallized ginger (about a one-inch square and 1/4 inch thick for each piece)   * Four cups of ginger tea (Make the tea by steeping two teaspoons of grated ginger in 32 ounces of water for five to 10 minutes.)  ### Possible ginger side effects and interactions  When consumed as a food, especially fresh, ginger is considered very safe with little to no side effects.Â However, when too much ginger is consumed in other forms, especially powdered ginger, it may cause side effects such as bloating, gas, heartburn, and nausea.  Ginger also functions as a blood thinner. Avoid taking it as a supplement if you take blood-thinning medication such as warfarin.Â If you take diabetes or high blood pressure medications, talk to a healthcare professional to determineÂ adjustments to your medication if you want to takeÂ supplemental ginger.  Ginger is a versatile herbal remedy that can help relieveÂ digestive upset, and it also offers various benefits for brain health and function.Â Add fresh ginger to your diet or take it as a supplement to enjoy its many benefits and improve both your physical and mental well-being.  VisitÂ [Healing.news](http://Healing.news)Â to read more articles about ginger and other natural cures that can help improve your mental health.  **Sources include:**  [BeBrainFit.com](https://bebrainfit.com/ginger-health-benefits/)  [LiveScience.com](https://www.livescience.com/54901-free-radicals.html)


naturalnews--2019-01-31--Groundbreaking research indicates that what we think we know about viruses is a LIE

(Natural News) Modern society is drowning in “fake news” – information that can neither be trusted nor verified – leaving many of us feeling like we don’t know what we can believe about anything. There are certain things, however, that we feel we do know, understand and can trust; scientific concepts that have been fully explored and are well understood by experts.  One such concept is known as “germ theory,” the belief that many diseases are caused by microorganisms too tiny to see with the naked eye, which invade living hosts where they then reproduce and cause disease. Vaccination is based on the concept that if you introduce a very small amount of these invaders into the bodies of humans or animals, their immune systems will recognize the invasion and build weapons against it, making these living hosts immune to that particular invader in the future.  That sounds simple and seems to make sense, right? But, what if our entire understanding of what these microorganisms are – particularly viruses – is totally flawed? A groundbreaking study entitled, Conserved and host-specific features of influenza virion architecture, published in the journal Nature Communications, confirms that much of the research into what pathogens are and how they infect us has been flawed and that viruses are far more complicated than scientists have led us to believe. (Related: Germ theory delusions collapse as new science reveals healthy people carry 10,000 different germ strains at all times.)  The study abstract opens with the statement:  Mother Nature's micronutrient secret: Organic Broccoli Sprout Capsules now available, delivering 280mg of high-density nutrition, including the extraordinary "sulforaphane" and "glucosinolate" nutrients found only in cruciferous healing foods. Every lot laboratory tested. See availability here.  Viruses use virions to spread between hosts, and virion composition is therefore the primary determinant of viral transmissibility and immunogenicity.  Green Med Info explains exactly what this means:  Virion are also known as “viral particles,” and they are the means by which viral nucleic acids are able to move and ‘infect’ living organisms. Without the viral particle (taxi) to carry around the virus DNA (passenger), it would be harmless; in fact, viruses … do not produce their own energy, nor are transmissable without a living host. And so, in this first line, the authors are making it clear that virion composition is also the primary determinant in how or whether a virus is infectious (transmits) and what effects it will have in the immune system of the infected host.  So, these viruses that we fear so much are actually powerless without this complicated interaction with multiple components found in the living host.  The study authors went on to note:  We show that a conserved influenza virion architecture, which includes substantial quantities of host proteins as well as the viral protein NSI, is elaborated with abundant host-dependent features. As a result, influenza virions produced by mammalian and avian hosts have distinct protein compositions.  This indicates that the flu virus is composed just as much of material supplied by its living host as it is of its own viral genetic material. This means that the host has a very large impact on the exact way in which the virus will develop, and that has huge implications for the vaccine industry, as explained by Green Med Info:  Presently, human flu vaccine antigen is produced via insects and chicken eggs. This means that the virus particles extracted from these hosts would contain foreign proteins, and would therefore produce different and/or unpredictable immunological responses in humans than would be expected from human influenza viral particles.  This study raises serious questions about germ theory, including: Would that not mean that our beliefs about how to fight these enemies are built on shaky ground? And, what if these invaders are not necessarily harmful but might actually perform a useful function? Could the current medical propaganda about eradicating them through medication and vaccination not then potentially lead to disaster in the future? (Related: Viruses — The immune system’s smallest enemy that causes the biggest problems.)  Clearly, much more research is needed to understand viruses properly before humans subject their bodies to the ill-understood, dangerous process of vaccination. Learn more about how viruses really work at Medicine.news.


naturalnews--2019-02-22--Bacteria samples from all over the globe found to have antibiotic resistance genes says research

Bacteria samples from all over the globe found to have antibiotic resistance genes, says research

(Natural News) Researchers warn that infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria will continue to increase each year, especially since these acquire more resistance genes from other bacteria. The effects of such a genetic delineation prompted scientists from the Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden to evaluate large numbers of bacterial DNA. Their study looked at DNA sequences of bacterial samples from people and environments from all over the globe.  The results of their study, published in the journal Microbiome, concluded that there are at least 76 new types of antibiotic-resistant genes, several of which can give bacteria the ability to degrade carbapenems, the most powerful class of antibiotics used against multidrug-resistant bacteria.  “Our study shows that there are lots of unknown resistance genes. Knowledge about these genes makes it possible to more effectively find and hopefully tackle new forms of multi-resistant bacteria,” said Erik Kristiansson, lead investigator of the study and a professor at Chalmers.  He added that identifying a resistance gene is difficult, especially if it has not been known in the past. To identify a resistance gene, Kristiansson and his team developed a new computational method to determine patterns in DNA that are linked with antibiotic resistance. Then, they tested the genes they identified in the laboratory to confirm their predictions.  “Our methods are very efficient and can search for the specific patterns of novel resistance genes in large volumes of DNA sequence data,” said Fanny Berglund, one of the researchers of the study.  100% organic essential oil sets now available for your home and personal care, including Rosemary, Oregano, Eucalyptus, Tea Tree, Clary Sage and more, all 100% organic and laboratory tested for safety. A multitude of uses, from stress reduction to topical first aid. See the complete listing here, and help support this news site.  The researchers plan to identify the genes that influence the resistance of bacteria to other forms of antibiotics. Kristiansson said that the novel genes that they found are “only the tip of the iceberg” and there a still a lot of unknown antibiotic-resistant genes that could lead to major global health problems in the future.  People have treated antibiotics as the silver bullet when it comes to treating infections since the 1940s. Yet, recent studies show that bacteria have become antibiotic-resistant: These strains can cause infections that are harder to treat compared to non-resistant bacteria.  This is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today, according to the World Health Organization. Ever year, drug-resistant infections end the lives of at least 700,000 people. If not acted on immediately, this number is expected to increase tenfold by 2050. Drug-resistant infections not only lead to increased deaths, but also higher medical costs, and longer stays in the hospital. One of the primary causes of antibiotic resistance is the overuse of antibiotics to treat conditions that do not require antibiotics. Misuse of antibiotics is also common in agriculture, where at least 240 million kilograms of antibiotics are used in livestock every year. (Related: Antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in hospitals likely came from industrial livestock farms.)  Infections, such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, blood poisoning, gonorrhea, and foodborne disease, are continually becoming more difficult or impossible to treat because antibiotics are becoming less effective. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year in the U.S., at least 2 million people are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, with over 23,000 dying as a direct consequence of these infections. Some of the bacteria resistant to medications are methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE), multi-drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MDR-TB), and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) gut bacteria.  Find out more scientific breakthroughs at Research.news.


naturalnews--2019-02-27--Researchers reveal how the common curry spice turmeric kills colon cancer cells

(Natural News) Turmeric packs a powerful punch against cancer. This spice, which is commonly used to make curry, is known not just for its distinct taste but also for its various pharmacological activities. Most of its beneficial effects can be attributed to a compound called curcumin. Recently, researchers from the Sri Ramaswamy Memorial Institute of Science and Technology showed that this compound works against colon cancer by inducing apoptosis and cell cycle arrest.  Colon cancer is the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths. It is very difficult to treat and diagnose since, in most cases, symptoms only appear in the later stages of the disease. Some symptoms may include diarrhea, loose stools, rectal bleeding, painful bowel movements, unexplained weight loss, and irritable bowel syndrome. Although there are conventional treatments for colon cancer like chemotherapy and radiation, these are associated with many side effects. These include hair loss, nausea, fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea, changes in appetite, and weight loss. These highlight the need for treatments that are not just effective but are also safe and accessible.  Curcumin is a polyphenol compound that has been the focus of many scientific studies due to its health benefits. It has the ability to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, improve brain function, alleviate symptoms of depression, and delay aging. It also has potent antiproliferative and anticancer effects. Previous reports have shown that upon inducing cell death and inhibiting cell proliferation in colon cancer, curcumin generates reactive oxygen species (ROS). However, the role that ROS plays in these processes is yet to be revealed.  The power of the elements: Discover Colloidal Silver Mouthwash with quality, natural ingredients like Sangre de Drago sap, black walnut hulls, menthol crystals and more. Zero artificial sweeteners, colors or alcohol. Learn more at the Health Ranger Store and help support this news site.  In this study, published in the journal Nutrition Research, the researchers hypothesized that curcumin-induced ROS works against colon cancer by promoting apoptosis and inhibiting the cell cycle. They tested this through in vitro experiments involving Smd4 and p53 mutated HT-29 colon adenocarcinoma cells.  The results showed that curcumin treatment increases ROS levels in colon cancer cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The compound also reduced cell viability and proliferation in a similar manner. Moreover, when treated with the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine, the anticancer effect of curcumin was significantly reduced. This suggests that curcumin-generated ROS have an important role against colon cancer cells.  The researchers found that the ROS produced by curcumin caused DNA fragmentation, chromatin condensation, and cell nuclear shrinkage. These molecules were also shown to induce apoptosis in a dose- and time-dependent manner. They also played a role in the inhibition of the cell cycle in colon cancer cells.  From these results, the researchers concluded that curcumin from turmeric can be used as a natural remedy against colon cancer. This is because of its ability to generate ROS that induces apoptosis and cell cycle arrest of colon cancer cells. (Related: IV injection of aqueous curcumin inhibits colon cancer growth and kills cancer cells, research reveals.)  You can reap many health benefits from increasing your intake of turmeric. To help you on your road to better health, here are some recipes that you can make with this spice:


naturalnews--2019-03-12--Research shows that berries are one of the best ways to prevent cancer

(Natural News) Berries are a delicious and nutritious addition to any meal or beverage. Several studies suggest that these antioxidant-rich fruits also possess potent cancer-fighting properties.  According to scientific research, berries are rich in powerful antioxidants that protect cells from the damage that may cause cancer. Berries have positive effects on genes linked with inflammation in the body. In fact, berries can help reduce inflammation and prevent the growth and spread of cancer.  For over two decades, Dr. Gary Stoner from the Medical College of Wisconsin studied the various ways that berries help prevent cancer. Over the course of his studies, Dr. Stoner found that a diet of freeze-dried strawberries or black raspberries helped inhibit esophageal cancer by at least 70 percent.  Dr. Stoner also noted that berries inhibited colon cancer in the subjects by about 80 percent. Meanwhile, human patients diagnosed at higher risk for colon cancer experienced a 36 percent regression of rectal polyps after consuming black raspberry powder for nine months. (Related: Prevent cancer with proper diet: Compounds in turmeric, red grapes, berries, and apple peels found to shrink prostate tumors.)  The study findings also showed that black raspberries and blueberries helped reduce breast tumor volume in rats by at least 70 percent after being consumed for six months.  In a separate study, which was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, researchers verified that the following berries had anti-cancer benefits:  The power of the elements: Discover Colloidal Silver Mouthwash with quality, natural ingredients like Sangre de Drago sap, black walnut hulls, menthol crystals and more. Zero artificial sweeteners, colors or alcohol. Learn more at the Health Ranger Store and help support this news site.  The researchers noted that these berries helped inhibit cancer growth and stimulate cancer cell apoptosis in vitro.  Apoptosis is defined as a form of cell death where a programmed sequence of events results in the elimination of cells without releasing harmful substances into the surrounding area. Apoptosis has an important role in developing and maintaining the health of the body because it helps eliminate old cells, unnecessary cells, and unhealthy cells.  The researchers added that “the stronger the berry extract, the more potent it seemed to be in preventing cancer.”  Experts believe that berries help prevent cancer because they contain potent phytochemicals called polyphenols. The two most active types of polyphenols are ellagitannins, a source of ellagic acid, and anthocyanins, the flavonoids that give berries their bright color.  Experts believe that the ellagic acid in berries such as blackberries, cranberries, and strawberries can inhibit estrogen production, and cut off the “fuel supply” of the tumor. Additionally, ellagic acid can help prevent bladder, breast, esophagus, lung, and skin cancer.  Berries are also rich in fiber, manganese, and vitamin C. Various berries are also full of beneficial phenols like ferulic acid and quercetin.  When buying berries, select organic fruits to ensure that they are free from pesticides and toxins. Organic fresh or frozen unsweetened berries also have more potent cancer-fighting abilities because they possess a higher concentration of key nutrients.  Berries are a healthier alternative to a sugary dessert that has many artificial ingredients and preservatives. You can eat one or several types of berries as a simple snack or dessert, especially if you’re craving something sweet.  Make a nutritious breakfast by adding berries and chopped nuts to a serving of cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, or ricotta cheese. Another option is to add berries to salads and other sweet or savory dishes.  Researchers suggest consuming at least four to five servings of different types of berries every week to lower your risk of developing cancer. Studies have determined that consuming only two ounces of berries every day can naturally expel toxins and slow cancer cell growth.


naturalnews--2019-03-29--Researchers say consuming fish oils is linked to lower insulin-promoted breast cancer risk

(Natural News) Breast cancer is among the most studied diseases, and scientists are hard at work coming up with ways to prevent it. A team of researchers from China explored the effects of omega-3 fatty acids on lowering insulin levels – one of the risk factors for breast cancer.  The researchers tested the ability of omega-3 free fatty acids (FFAs) to reduce insulin-promoted breast cancer cell proliferation. High insulin levels in obese people are considered a risk factor in the formation of breast cancer cells.  Consumption of omega-3s is associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer, but there is little scientific data confirming that omega-3 FFAs can regulate insulin signaling pathways to prevent breast cancer. After testing this hypothesis, the researchers found that omega-3 FFAs were able to reduce MCF-7 cell proliferation and modulate Akt and Erk1/2 signaling pathways stimulated by insulin.  They also found that knockdown of Shp2 – or the protein tyrosine phosphatase 2 which is associated with breast cancer among other types – by the drug siRNA resulted in significantly elevated omega-3 FFAs-activated Akt phosphorylation. However, the mechanism did not change insulin-stimulated Akt and Erk1/2 phosphorylation. Furthermore, viable cell number was not affected by either downregulation of Shp2 expression or Erk1/2 inhibitor U0126 treatment.  These findings, which were published in the journal Nutrition Research, suggest that omega-3 FFAs can reduce insulin-stimulated breast cancer cell proliferation and insulin-activated Akt phosphorylation. (Related: Endocannabinoids: Molecules that are formed when your body metabolizes omega-3s inhibit cancer growth.)  The power of the elements: Discover Colloidal Silver Mouthwash with quality, natural ingredients like Sangre de Drago sap, black walnut hulls, menthol crystals and more. Zero artificial sweeteners, colors or alcohol. Learn more at the Health Ranger Store and help support this news site.  Obesity is one condition that really opens the doors to deadlier health problems, such as breast cancer. Preventing insulin-promoted breast cancer risk starts with improving, reversing, and preventing the symptoms of obesity.  Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to help people control their body weight and their blood sugar, and it’s easy to see why experts recommend them as part of a healthy diet if you have diabetes. One study from England found that women who consumed more omega-3s had a healthier mix of gut bacteria. These bacteria have been found to reduce the risk of obesity and Type 2 diabetes.  When it comes to breast cancer prevention, studies have shown that increasing the intake of certain types of omega-3 fatty acids can help. In particular, omega-3s derived from fish oil are said to be the best ones for preventing breast cancer. These are EPA and DHA.  EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) are omega-3 fatty acids that are found in cold water fish. They are highly unsaturated fats that are considered vital nutrients and play an important role in maintaining healthy functions of the brain and retina.  Taking EPA and DHA also provides a boost in energy, insulates the body against heat loss, prevents skin from drying and flaking, and protects tissues and organs.  If you’re a vegan or vegetarian, you can get another type of omega-3s from plant-based sources. ALA, or a-linolenic acid, can be obtained from soy and flaxseeds.  For more studies on the effects of omega-3 fatty acids on health, visit Omega3.news.


naturalnews--2019-04-09--Barbules and velcro Researchers study birds for inspiration to develop new adhesives and aerospace

Barbules and velcro: Researchers study birds for inspiration to develop new adhesives and aerospace materials

(Natural News) Do you remember the times when your younger child self toyed with the feather of a bird? When you ran your fingers along its barbs and watched the disturbed parts return to their original positions? Researchers do, and they used the shape of the barbules of a feather to develop new adhesives and aerospace materials.  It has been 20 years since the last time someone performed a detailed investigation of the overall shape of bird feathers that was not limited to a single species. The new study was conducted by a research team from the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego).  Team leader Tarah Sullivan oversaw efforts to print 3D structures based on the various parts of feathers from multiple species of birds. The printed shapes underwent various tests that helped define their properties.  One example is the difference between the underside and the top part of the feather. The underside can generate lift for flight by catching air, while the top can keep air out when the bird needs to land.  Sullivan published her team’s findings in the scientific journal Science Advances. Her paper is titled “Scaling of bird wings and feathers for efficient flight.” (Related: Experts: Preserving old villages and farm buildings could help halt the decline of certain bird populations.)  In her study, Sullivan examined the spacing between barbules in different species of birds. A barbule is a tiny hooked shape that acts as an attachment point for feather barbs. She found that the gaps between these barbules measured eight to 16 micrometers.  Sponsored solution from CWC Labs: This heavy metals test kit allows you to test almost anything for 20+ heavy metals and nutritive minerals, including lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, aluminum and more. You can test your own hair, vitamins, well water, garden soil, superfoods, pet hair, beverages and other samples (no blood or urine). ISO accredited laboratory using ICP-MS (mass spec) analysis with parts per billion sensitivity. Learn more here.  Furthermore, this range of measurement held true in the feathers of all of the bird species they studied. It didn’t matter if the bird was a tiny hummingbird or a huge condor. It seemed that such a gap was a requirement for flight.  “The first time I saw feather barbules under the microscope I was in awe of their design: intricate, beautiful and functional,” Sullivan explained. “As we studied feathers across many species it was amazing to find that despite the enormous differences in size of birds, barbules spacing was constant.”  She added that further examination of the barbules, barbs, and vanes that made up the structure of the feather could reveal new uses for the shapes. Sullivan herself was able to print prototypes of a new adhesive material similar to Velcro, and the hooks were similar to the barbules in feathers.  “We believe that these structures could serve as inspiration for an interlocking one-directional adhesive or a material with directionally tailored permeability,” she said.  In addition to studying bird feathers, Sullivan and her UC San Diego teammates also examined the bones in the wings of the animals. They paid particular attention to the humerus, the longest bone in the forelimb of the animal.  By now, researchers knew that the humerus was larger than it should be. However, Sullivan was able to figure out the reason as to why this particular wing bone was so big.  Bird bones are rather flimsy. Their strength is not proportional to the overall weight of the animal. Furthermore, the act of flying subjects the wing bones to even greater levels of physical stress. The last thing a bird needed is to break a wing bone while in mid-flight.  To get around this limitation, the humerus grows much faster and larger than the rest of the bones in a bird’s skeleton. This unequal growth of body parts is called allometry, and it grants the humerus sufficient structural strength to withstand the stresses of flight.