bbc--2019-02-19--Cultured lab meat may make climate change worse

Growing meat in the laboratory may do more damage to the climate in the long run than meat from cattle, say scientists.  Researchers are looking for alternatives to traditional meat because farming animals is helping to drive up global temperatures.  However, meat grown in the lab may make matters worse in some circumstances.  Researchers say it depends on how the energy to make the lab meat is produced.  There's increasing concern about the impact of meat consumption on the planet. Around a quarter of the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving up temperatures are estimated to have come from agriculture.  Beef production is considered the worst offender with cattle emitting methane and nitrous oxide from their manures, but also from their digestive processes.  There are also additional gases from fertiliser application to land, from the conversion of land for pasture or feed production.  Because of these impacts on the climate and because of a range of other concerns about issues such as welfare and sustainability, scientists have in recent years sought to develop meat that can be grown from animal cells in factories or laboratories.  One perceived advantage would be much lower greenhouse gas emissions, especially methane.  Back in 2013 a Dutch team of scientists produced what they claimed was the world's first burger grown in a lab.  Since then, there's been a lot of hype and noise but some real progress as well.  Essentially, the process involves collecting stem cells from animal tissue and then getting them to differentiate into fibres, these are then developed and grown into a sufficient mass of muscle tissue that can be harvested and sold as meat.  Firms in California have taken some important steps. Last year, chicken nuggets, developed by a firm called Just, were tasted by my colleague James Cook.  Tyson Foods, one of the biggest US meat processors, has also invested an undisclosed amount in Memphis Meats, another firm in this field that says it is "harvesting cells instead of animals".  But despite the promises, no-one has yet mass-produced cultured meat for sale to the general public.  Researchers from the Oxford Martin School looked at the long-term climate implications of cultured meat versus meat from cattle. The scientists say that previous studies had tended to look at the various emissions from cattle and converted them all to their carbon dioxide equivalent.  The team says this doesn't give you the full picture as methane and nitrous oxide have different impacts on the climate.  "Per tonne emitted, methane has a much larger warming impact than carbon dioxide. However, it only remains in the atmosphere for about 12 years, whereas carbon dioxide persists and accumulates for millennia," said co-author Prof Raymond Pierrehumbert.  "This means methane's impact on long-term warming is not cumulative and is impacted greatly if emissions increase or decrease over time."  The scientists' climate model found that in some circumstance and over the very long term, the manufacture of lab meat can result in more warming.  This is because the emissions from the lab are related to the production of energy which is almost entirely made up of carbon dioxide, which persists in the atmosphere for hundreds of years.  "The climate impacts of cultured meat production will depend on what level of sustainable energy generation can be achieved, as well as the efficiency of future culture processes," said lead author Dr John Lynch.  "If the lab-grown meat is quite energy intensive to produce then they could end up being worse for the climate than cows are."  One of the scenarios that the researchers looked at saw meat consumption increase initially and then decline to more sustainable levels over time.  The scientists found that the cattle production systems generally showed greater peak warming within this time frame, but as a result of the persistence of large scale CO2 emissions in the early period of production for cultured meat, "any long-term benefits of this production are further reduced compared to cattle systems.  "It may well be that these things are so energy efficient that it would simply be replacing a high-impact activity with a low one," said Dr Lynch.  "But from the cultured meat systems that are out there at the moment, we can't make that assessment for sure yet."  Yes, the authors say that a number of other factors should be considered including water pollution that cultured meat may avoid. But other experts say that isn't so clear cut.  "Artificial meat may result in the presence of organic or chemical molecule residues in water, because the process would need to produce huge amounts of chemical and organic molecules, such as hormones, growth factors, to add to the culture medium to grow the meat" said Prof Jean-Francois Hocquette, at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, who wasn't involved with the study.  It's far too early to tell as the products really haven't emerged from the laboratory yet.  Some researchers say that cultured meat has many other barriers to overcome before it's a huge hit with consumers.  "It is worth noting that most consumers have never heard of cultured meat, and many don't know that conventional meat production damages the environment," said Dr Chris Bryant from the University of Bath who has studied the issue.  "Consumers who learn about cultured meat usually think primarily of the benefits to animals. Having said that, environmental factors will be an issue for some consumers, and many environmentally conscious buyers are already moving away from meat and dairy consumption."  The new study has been published in the journal, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.


bbcuk--2019-08-21--Hampshire lab tests water quality every day of the year

A state-of-the-art laboratory is testing the quality of drinking water for 2.2 million people 24 hours a day, every day of the year.  The facility in Farnborough, Hampshire, is operated by South East Water and tests 500 samples a day for 200 different substances to ensure drinking water is clean.  Managers at the laboratory say climate change and measuring microplastics are among the issues they have to consider as future risks.


drudgereport--2019-10-01--Artificial blood better than the real thing made in lab by scientists

Artificial blood 'better than the real thing' made in lab by scientists...

Artificial blood that can be used by anyone regardless of their blood type and will increase the survival rate of patients has been created by scientists .  Japanese researchers from the National Defense Medical College have revealed the blood which they created in a lab.  The team boast it can be transfused into patients regardless of their blood.  Scientists boasted their tests on rabbits have been successful, and it is hoped to be used on humans.  It is also hoped medics will be able to use the artificial blood to help seriously injured people, and it will increase survival rates.  Doctors will now no longer have to worry about limits on the amount of blood available from donors.  Scientists claim their artificial blood can also be stored for a year at normal temperatures.  Blood can normally be kept for only 20 days at chilled temperatures before it spoils.  Loss of blood platelets that stop bleeding, and red blood cells that carry oxygen, will lead to death.  Platelets can only be stored for four days and need to be shaken.  Professor Manabu Kinoshita said: “It is difficult to stock a sufficient amount of blood for transfusions in such regions as remote islands.  “The artificial blood will be able to save the lives of people who otherwise could not be saved.”  Scientists used the artificial blood on ten rabbits suffering from serious blood loss.  Six of them managed to survive the tests, a ratio similar to rabbits treated with real blood.  Researchers said no negative side effects were reported in the rabbits.  The team boasted that the artificial blood will increase the survival rate of injured patients.  It means doctors will be able to act more quickly rather than having to search for blood of the right type.  The team’s artificial blood consists of platelets and red blood cells – and is derived from the cell membrane.  The team’s findings were published in the US medical journal Transfusion.


fortune--2019-02-06--Huawei Offers to Create Polish Security Lab to Ward Off 5G Bans

Huawei has offered to open a security-testing facility in Poland, if the authorities will allow it.  The Chinese company, which is the biggest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the world, is having a hair-raising time on the trust front these days. Many intelligence agencies suspect that its equipment could provide Chinese spies with a surveillance conduit—a possibility that Huawei denies—and there’s an ever-increasing list of countries that won’t allow its equipment into future 5G mobile networks.  Poland is one of the countries that’s likely to shun Huawei, after its security services last month arrested a Chinese Huawei sales director for allegedly spying alongside a Polish employee of the telco Orange.  Desperate to avoid that fate, Huawei on Wednesday made its security center pitch.  “We are ready to establish a cybersecurity center in Poland if authorities accept this as a trusted solution,” Huawei Poland chief Tonny Bao said at a press conference, as reported by Reuters. Another executive chimed in that Poland’s government had no reason to lock Huawei out of 5G deployments.  Huawei already operates security labs in some countries, in order to assuage fears about its trustworthiness. It opened one last year in Bonn, Germany, and next month it’s due to launch a lab in Brussels, Belgium—the heart of EU-level policy-making. At these facilities, telecommunications network operators can come in and test Huawei’s equipment.  The company also owns a nine-year-old facility in the U.K. called the Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre, or HCSEC. This operates on another level, giving British intelligence workers—who comprise some of the staff there—the opportunity to peek inside Huawei’s equipment. It is more likely that the Polish lab, if the offer were to be accepted, would be for the benefit of telcos.  Earlier this week, it was reported that HCSEC will soon issue a report hammering Huawei over its security, and its failure to address previously-raised issues.  Separately, Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Canada is more likely than not to ban Huawei from 5G rollouts, though it may delay the decision in the light of China’s detention of three Canadians. Canada last year arrested Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who faced deportation to the U.S. on a variety of charges.  German ministers are also reportedly meeting on Wednesday to discuss what to do about Huawei’s involvement in the shift to 5G networks.  Countries that have effectively issued such bans include Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The U.S. has by many accounts been pressuring all its allies to follow suit.


fortune--2019-09-09--The Problems at MIT and its Media Lab Are Deeper Than Jeffrey EpsteinData Sheet

The Problems at MIT and its Media Lab Are Deeper Than Jeffrey Epstein—Data Sheet

This is the web version of Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the top tech news. To get it delivered daily to your in-box, sign up here.  In July, before the connections between the MIT Media Lab and Jeffrey Epstein came to light, The New York Times Magazine published a thorough and damning article about the pernicious effects of outside funding on MIT, including the media lab.  MIT had taken money from the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, as had the famed media lab, which the article cleverly points out isn’t much of a media organization. Joi Ito, the now-deposed head of the lab and also now a former member of the board of the company that owns The Times, showed his contempt for the media by being vague, evasive, and unhelpful when asked to clarify who had donated how much and what their status was.  Together with the Epstein episode, details around Ito’s departure (particularly in Ronan Farrow's piece in The New Yorker on Friday), point to the corporate rot at the heart of pseudo-academic institutions like the media lab and, for that matter, full-on academic institutions like MIT. According to the magazine article, corporate donors—called “members”—who pay at least $250,000 a year make up the majority of the Media Lab’s annual budget. In other words, while these institutions project the appearance of being focused on academic pursuits—finding the truth, asking tough questions, pursuing independent lines of exploration, and so on—in reality they are corporate lap dogs fetching the balls their masters throw. (Slate also had a good take with more insider details on the vibe at the Media Lab.)  The point here is that these institutions can afford to pay their own way. MIT’s endowment exceeds $16 billion. And yet they insist on chasing dollars from organizations whose jobs, no matter what the Business Roundtable says, is to make money. Getting mixed up with unsavory donors is the tip of the iceberg of why that’s problematic.  Jack Ma steps down this week as Alibaba chairman, and Breakingviews has a good take on the state of play among Chinese Internet giants  … Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph is publishing a book, excerpted this weekend in The Wall Street Journal. There’s a helpful nugget on the importance for all companies, especially startups, of focusing … Sure sign of bad things to come: the credit card company Brex is opening a restaurant.  Seeking forgiveness. Factories in China run by Foxconn that make Apple products used too many temporary workers, violating Chinese rules, the companies admitted on Monday. Elsewhere regarding China, Microsoft chief legal officer Brad Smith came to the defense of Chinese equipment maker Huawei, saying the Trump administration had treated the company unfairly.  A constant supply of hot air. Unhappy with Google’s implicit criticism of iPhone security, Apple struck back in a piece that hit several wrong notes, such as claiming the attack was “not a broad-based exploit” because it only affected the Uyghur Muslim community in China. “It feels like their statement is more of a straw man to deflect away from the human rights abuses,” Jake Williams, founder of the firm Rendition Infosec, told Ars Technica.  Crushing. Over the weekend, India’s Chandrayaan 2 moon mission lost its Vikram lander and Pragyan rover units as they attempted to touch down on the lunar surface. The still-orbiting Chandrayaan 2 will be able to fulfill 95% of the mission’s goals, the Indian Space Research Organization said.  Deal or no deal. In private company news, the bug bounty trackers at HackerOne raised $36 million from investors led by Valor Equity Partners. French accounting and expense management startup Spendesk raised $39 million led by Index Ventures.  We’re approaching the 60th anniversary of the first use of computer programs written in COBOL, or the Common Business-Oriented Language. Amazingly, some 200 billion lines of COBOL code are still running and 90% of Fortune 500 companies still use the ancient language, originally invented by a programmer at Burroughs Corp. named Mary Hawes. The language is now overseen by developer Micro Focus, as global director of product marketing Derek Britton explains to ZDNet:  How to Watch New York Fashion Week On Your Phone By Kate Dwyer  Your Next Spotify Playlist Might Be Curated with Wine Pairings in Mind By Billy Lyons  Jingles All the Way: How Sonic Branding Is Helping Companies Get Heard in the Voice Computing Age By Jennifer Alsever  12 Books on Business and Journalism to Add to Your Fall Reading List By Rachel King  Google Bans Ads for Unproven Medical Treatments. Critics Ask: What Took So Long? By Danielle Abril  Facebook Faces Another Antitrust Probe—a Time by State Attorneys General By Alyssa Newcomb  I fear have let you down, Data Sheet readers, for I have missed a big story about the world’s biggest airplane, the late Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch Roc. It seems that way back in May, the company closed down, ending development of the plane with the 385-foot wingspan. I discovered this news while reading that Allen’s 414-foot-long yacht, Octopus, is up for sale for $325 million. I believe you also get the yellow submarine Pagoo, which resides inside the yacht, as well.  This edition of Data Sheet was curated by Aaron Pressman. Find past issues, and sign up for other Fortune newsletters.


humansarefree--2019-06-02--Alabama Lab Owner Arrested for Falsifying Results of Drug Tests Used to Medically Kidnap Children

Falsified Records are Common in Cases Where Children are Removed from Their Parents


instapundit--2019-08-11--FLASHBACK Prosecutors who covered up Mass drug lab scandal now face bar discipline civil rights

FLASHBACK:  Prosecutors who covered up Mass. drug lab scandal now face bar discipline, civil rights …

FLASHBACK: Prosecutors who covered up Mass. drug lab scandal now face bar discipline, civil rights lawsuit.  In December 2011, after police in Springfield, Mass., had arrested Renaldo Penate for allegedly selling heroin, the drugs from that case were tested at a state drug lab by technician Sonja Farak. The same day that she did the tests, Farak wrote in a diary that she “tried to resist using [drugs] @ work but ended up failing.”  About two weeks later, Farak subsequently acknowledged, she spent the morning smoking crack in various bathrooms of her lab building, while also testing Penate’s drugs a second time. That same day, she found that police had submitted tablets of LSD. She took it, and “the sensation of colors in the wind left her unable to function for work,” court records show. Her actions would be discovered a year later, and Farak admitted she had been stealing and using drugs from the lab since 2004.  But when Penate’s lawyers asked for any information about Farak’s drug use during the time she was working in the lab, prosecutors with the Massachusetts attorney general’s office repeatedly refused to provide it. And so Penate was convicted and spent more than 5½ years in prison. A judge who investigated in 2016 called the prosecutors’ actions “intentional, repeated, prolonged and deceptive withholding of evidence from the defendants” and wrote that one of the prosecutors had a “lack of a moral compass.”


lewrockwell--2019-08-08--Feds Shut Down Military Lab Studying Ebola and Plague

The US government has shut down all research at the nation’s top biological warfare lab amid fears deadly microbes could leak into the water supply.  Scientists at Fort Detrick, Maryland, study Ebola, the plague (caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis) and rabbit fever (caused by the bacterium tularemia).  But last month US health officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent a cease-and-desist order citing concerns that the lab does not have ‘sufficient systems in place to decontaminate wastewater.’  Caree Vander Linden, spokesperson for the center, said research is ‘on hold’ and may be suspended for months. Amazon.com Gift Card i... Buy New $10.00 (as of 01:55 EDT - Details)  It comes just weeks after uproar over a new book on Lyme disease, Bitten, which suggested the tick-borne illness, now plaguing the US, was unwittingly unleashed on Americans by biological warfare researchers at Fort Detrick decades ago.  The cease-and-desist notice automatically terminated the center’s registration with the Federal Select Agent Program, which grants special permission for the study and possession disease-causing materials.  In order to get re-approved, the center will have to improve its decontamination processes.  Regulators also took issue with the lack of periodic re-training of staff who are handling the dangerous bacteria.


liveaction--2019-02-02--Texas OBGYN Lab rats have more protections than preborn babies

Texas OB/GYN: Lab rats have more protections than preborn babies

In a video produced by FRC.org and shared by the Susan B. Anthony List on Facebook, Dr. Ingrid Skop, an obstetrician-gynecologist from Texas, says that lab rats have more legal protections than preborn children.  “An elementary skill for an OBGYN is amniocentesis… typically it’s done around 14-16 weeks gestational age, very early, before pro-choice people tell us that they can feel pain,” says Dr. Skop in the video below. “But if… the baby runs into the needle, he withdraws exactly as we would expect someone who feels pain to withdraw. Additional studies have shown they have increased adrenaline, increased heart rate. They show all of the same signs that we expect from someone who feels pain.”  “As a society,” she adds, “We want to protect lab rats from feeling pain. We’ve got more legislation to protect the lab rats than we do the children that we’re electively terminating.”  A study published March of 2017 found that “the adult-like pattern of skin innervation is established before the end of the first trimester, showing important intra- and inter-individual variations in nerve branches.” As reported by Live Action News’ Nancy Flanders, “the fact that the nervous system develops sooner than once thought backs up other evidence that proves fetuses are capable of feeling pain at as early as eight weeks gestation.” In addition, “As early as 8 weeks gestation, it has been shown that the fetus responds to touch. Abortion proponents have long argued that this is simply a reflex because the nervous system was not thought to be well developed at this age, however, this latest study proves this theory wrong.”  At around the same time — between weeks eight and nine of development — as previously reported by Live Action News, “The fetus stage begins. A girl now has eggs in her ovaries, and a baby at this stage can suck his thumb, move his tongue, sigh, stretch, move his head, and open his mouth.”  “Like” Live Action News on Facebook for more pro-life news and commentary!


newspunch--2019-01-06--Top Scientists Lab Shut Down Following Bombshell Vaccine Discovery

Top Scientists’ Lab Shut Down Following Bombshell Vaccine Discovery

Police have raided the laboratory of two world renowned scientists who recently discovered evidence of nanoparticles polluting nearly every major vaccine.  Dr. Antonietta Gatti and her husband Dr. Stefano Montanari founded an Italian laboratory called Nano-diagnostics for the evaluation of the pathological tissues of patients.  Collective-evolution.com reports: Recently, the Italian police raided their home, the police took all  digital assets that were owned by the the two nanopathologists, including 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 should have started, healthcare agencies would have become involved and vaccine safety policies would have come under intense scrutiny, but that never happened.  Below is a recent interview with the two, done by Surêté Vaccins, the quick description of the video reads,  “Two italian researchers have found nanoparticles are polluting almost all vaccines. The small size of these particles allow them to enter our cells and have a permanent inflammatory effect. Mrs Gatti was about to testify in parliament enquiry on vaccine damages of italian military courses but both researches have been raided by police and all their material has been taken away.”  Nano particles are very small bits of matter, and they can enter into the human body, as the pair of scientist discovered in the 90’s. This is why we have so much published research linking various chemical products, like cleaning agents, to the destruction of human health. These nano particles are produced by waste incinerators, car traffic, and many other different ways. Because they float in the air, we can inhale them, which means they enter our lungs and then enter into the blood within minutes. This leads to a number of problems. These particles are carried by the blood to every district of the body, as they explain in the video below. When they enter into the tissues, the body cannot get rid of them, and so those particles stay there forever and are the cause of various diseases we see today.  They explain how they’ve been analyzing and studying vaccines for the past 15 years.  “Both vaccine and the tissue, which was hit by the particles contained in the vaccines, because we  discovered that those vaccines were polluted by particles, those particles were contained equally in the vaccine and in the tissue, so we started to analyze vaccines.”  They go on to explain, with regards to their most recent vaccine study linked above,  “After a while, an Italian University sent us a student for her thesis, and we analyzed 19 different vaccines with her, finding all of them polluted by micro and nano particles. Then we went on analyzing them and now we analyzed about 30 vaccines with many samples of each vaccine, and, we discovered that they were all polluted…”  When all said and done, they analyzed 44 different vaccines. All of them contained these harmful particles, which are foreign bodies entering into the body. Whenever this happens, the body has a reaction, and it’s not good.  “Those foreign bodies, those particles, are like a bullet. If I shoot somebody, and that bullet makes a hole in the heart, it’s not very important if the bullet was made of stainless steel, of titatium, of iron whatever, what’s important is that that they punched a whole in the heart.”  In it, they talk a little bit about the study and what’s currently going on.  This Is Simply The Truth About Modern Day Science That Continues To Be Ignored  There are three quotes I love to use to illustrate best what I’m trying to get across here,  In the case of medicine, a lot of information has emerged showing just how much corruption really goes on in the industry. The Editors-in-Chiefs of several major medical journals have been quite blunt, with perhaps one of the best examples coming from Dr. Richard Horton, the current Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet, who says:  “The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue.”  Dr. Marcia Angell, a physician and longtime Editor-in-Chief of the New England Medical Journal (NEMJ), also considered one of the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals in the world, alongside The Lancet, has said that:  “It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.”  John Ioannidis, an epidemiologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, published an article titled “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False,” which subsequently became the most widely accessed article in the history of the Public Library of Science (PLoS). (source)  Here is another great quote by Arnold Seymour Relman (1923-2014), Harvard professor of medicine and former Editor-in-Chief of The New England Medical Journal:  “The medical profession is being bought by the pharmaceutical industry, not only in terms of the practice of medicine, but also in terms of teaching and research. The academic institutions of this country are allowing themselves to be the paid agents of the pharmaceutical industry. I think it’s disgraceful.”  In 2016, a group of scientists in 2016 at the CDC named, SPIDER (Scientists Preserving Integrity, Diligence and Ethics), put out a list of complaints in the form of a letter to the CDC’s Chief of Staff, where they say,  “It appears that our mission is being influenced and shaped by outside parties and rogue interests… and Congressional intent for our agency is being circumvented by some of our leaders. What concerns us most, is that it is becoming the norm and not the rare exception.”  This was covered by several activists, from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to another article from the Huffington Post, but unfortunately it received little to no mainstream media attention.  Shortly before this, and perhaps even more shockingly, is the whistleblower testimony from a senior CDC scientist, who has authored multiple commonly cited studies that show no link whatsoever between the MMR vaccine and autism. In fact, one of his studies, published in 2004, is the most commonly cited study used to debunk the link between the MMR vaccine and autism.  His name is Dr. William Thompson, and he bravely told the world that it was “the lowest point” in his career that he “went along with that paper.” He said that the authors “didn’t report significant findings” and that he is “completely ashamed” of what he did, that he was “complicit and went along with this, and that he regrets that he has “been part of the problem.” (source)(source)(source)  Here is an official statement from Dr. Thompson describing the situation in his own words. This is perhaps the best source of information regrading this matter.  These are a few examples out out of many.


rferl--2019-01-09--International Doping Inspectors To Return To Moscow For Lab Data

International doping inspectors are set to return to Russia in a second attempt to obtain test samples of Russian athletes from a Moscow laboratory.  The January 9 visit by experts from the World Anti-Doping Agency comes nine days after Moscow officials failed to meet an initial deadline to hand over data from the Russian Anti-Doping Agency's lab.  That failure led to calls for the country to be suspended from global sporting competition.  During the earlier visit, Russian officials declined to turn over data, saying the WADA inspectors' technical equipment was incompatible with Russia systems.  The Russian agency, known as RUSADA, was stripped of its accreditation in 2015 after a WADA-commissioned report found evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russian track and field and other sports.  The report cast a shadow over the 2014 Sochi Olympics.  RUSADA was conditionally reinstated in September following a three-year suspension, a move that was widely criticized by members of the anti-doping movement.


rferl--2019-12-21--Russia Denies Lab Data It Gave To World Anti-Doping Agency Was Tampered With

Russia's Investigative Committee has concluded that all materials submitted to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) this year regarding athletes' drug tests were genuine, contrary to WADA's determination that the copy it received of a database from Russia's national drug-testing laboratory was intentionally altered.  WADA's finding was key to its December 9 decision to declare the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) noncompliant, and to ban Russia from major international sporting competitions for four years.  Russia is currently considering an appeal of the ban and is weighing its legal options.  The database, which includes Russian athletes' blood-test results and other information stored by the national anti-doping laboratory in Moscow, is at the center of the exposure of Russia's state-sponsored doping program.  The program was revealed when whistle-blower Grigory Rodchenkov, who formerly headed the Moscow lab and was one of the architects of Russia's elaborate doping and cheating system dating back to 2014, provided a copy of his lab's database.  Extracting a second copy of the database as well as samples from the laboratory was a major condition set by WADA when it reinstated RUSADA in September 2018 following earlier sanctions. The lab samples had been stored and sealed off by Russia's Investigative Committee as part of its probe into Rodchenkov.  Russia was given a deadline of December 31, 2018, to hand the data over, but missed the deadline. In mid-January, WADA did receive a copy of the database, but a review of the information revealed "inconsistencies" that required clarification. In April, Russia allowed WADA to retrieve all blood samples from the lab and provided answers to WADA investigators' questions.  "The investigation carried out a comprehensive computer-technical forensic examination of copies of the transferred electronic files, the results of which made a conclusion about their authenticity, as well as the absence of distortions of the original file structure of the test results of Russian athletes," Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said on December 21.  Russian authorities have claimed that the database was intentionally accessed and altered by Rodchenkov as part of a criminal conspiracy and have previously argued that the differences between the two database copies were the result of the lab's database system malfunctioning.  Lawyers for Rodchenkov -- who currently lives under witness protection in the United States, where he fled in 2016 after handing over the database -- have said that Russia's efforts to falsify data given to WADA is part of a "predictable and deplorable policy of deception."  On December 21, Investigative Committee spokeswoman Petrenko repeated the Russian allegations against Rodchenkov, adding that the "truth of the information" contained in the lab data provided by the whistle-blower "has not been determined."  In issuing its ban on December 9, WADA stated that the data it received from Moscow was "neither complete nor fully authentic."  Some data was "removed, others altered and, in some cases, system messages were fabricated in an effort to hamper the work of WADA investigators," the world doping watchdog said. "In addition, measures were taken to conceal these manipulations by back-dating of computer systems and data files in an attempt to make it appear that the Moscow data had been in their current state since 2015."  The ban imposed by WADA on December 9 was just the latest punitive action taken against Russian sport related to the exposure of the state-sponsored doping program, which Russia has never acknowledged.  Team Russia was barred from competing at major sports competitions, including the 2016 Olympic Games and the 2018 Winter Olympics. It now stands to be left out of the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020 along with other major events.


sottnet--2019-01-09--There were only technical issues Kremlin says Russia WADA reach agreement on lab data

'There were only technical issues': Kremlin says Russia & WADA reach agreement on lab data

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says the Russian sports authorities and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have reached agreement on accessing data from a Moscow laboratory.WADA officials arrived in Moscow on Wednesday in an attempt to finally extract data from the lab, which was named as a condition in reinstating the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) in September after a three-year suspension."Basically, the Moscow laboratory data was ready for extraction during WADA's previous visit," Peskov said, TASS reported "Our sports bodies remain in contact with WADA representatives. They have reached understanding [on general issues] and continue working in close cooperation," he added.The failure to retrieve the data sparkled a wave of criticism, with some international organizations accusing the body of being "played" by Russia after the end-of-year deadline to extract the information was missed.Access to the laboratory was a key factor in restoring RUSADA to compliance status, with WADA having emphasizing it could suspend the body again if deadlines were not met.WADA's Compliance Review Committee is due to meet on January 14 to discuss the situation surrounding RUSADA.


sottnet--2019-09-10--MIT Media Lab director resigns in wake of institutes hidden financial ties to Epstein

MIT Media Lab director resigns in wake of institute's hidden financial ties to Epstein

To awaken is difficult to do, as sapiens is submitted to a cosmic hypnotic influence which is the universal energy of creation; and if this were not enough, each individual, when he does not like the reality of life or is not satisfied with himself, dreams of himself and the world in a manner ideal for himself.


sputnik--2019-01-09--US NSA Uses Kaspersky Lab to Catch Hacker Then Bans Firm in Return - Reports

Not only is the exposure of Martin’s theft believed to be the largest breach of classified material in US history, but the exposure took place at a time when the FBI was conducting an investigation of Kaspersky, which eventually led to a ban on Kaspersky Lab products in US government computers, the report said.  The report surmised that Kaspersky Lab’s ability to catch Martin, a former NSA contractor, casts doubt on US ability to protect its own computers, especially because Martin was able to steal an estimated 50 terabytes of data from the NSA and other government agencies undetected over a two-decade period.  The theft included some of the NSA’s most sophisticated and sensitive hacking tools, which were stolen despite a scramble to upgrade computer security following leaks by another NSA contractor, Edward Snowden, three years earlier, the report explained.  Martin, who is set to go to trial in June, was arrested August 27, 2016, following a search of his home shortly after Kaspersky Lab turned its material over to the NSA. He was indicted in February 2017.  Ironically, the exposure of Martin occurred at a time when the FBI was engaged in an aggressive, behind-the-scenes campaign to discredit the company and get its software banned from US government computers on national security grounds. A ban on Kaspersky Lab products was announced the following year.  Kaspersky Lab insists it operates independently and transparently and has repeatedly denied having ever worked for any government or engaged in espionage.


sputnik--2019-08-08--Boris Johnson to Fund 250m Artificial Intelligence NHS X Lab Amid No-Deal Brexit Campaign

Boris Johnson to Fund £250m Artificial Intelligence 'NHS X' Lab Amid No-Deal Brexit Campaign

UK prime minister Boris Johnson has announced his cabinet will invest in a new national AI lab, NHS X, aimed at “freeing up staff care for patients”.  The British PM said that his announcement was “not just about the future of care” and would also "boost the frontline by automating admin tasks and freeing up staff to care for patients.”  His task was also to "ensure the NHS has the funding” it needed to “make a real difference to the lives of staff and patients”, Mr Johnson said.  “Transforming care through artificial intelligence is a perfect illustration of that," he added.  UK health secretary Matt Hancock added that the UK was “on the cusp of a huge health tech revolution” that could “transform [the] patient experience by making the NHS a truly predictive, preventive and personalised health and care service”.  Mr Hancock added: "I am determined to bring the benefits of technology to patients and staff, so the impact of our NHS Long Term Plan and this immediate, multimillion pound cash injection are felt by all. It’s part of our mission to make the NHS the best it can be.  NHS England CEO Simon Stevens backed the move, stating that using “carefully-targeted” AI was “another step in the right direction” for Britain’s healthcare services, adding that it should help “personalise NHS screening and treatments for cancer, eye disease” and others, as well as “freeing up staff time”.  “Our new NHS AI Lab will ensure the benefits of NHS data and innovation are fully harnessed for patients in this country," Mr Stevens added.  But the Health Service Journal has said that the NHS would not use the investments until 2021.  The news comes after Mr Johnson pledged £1.8bn to building and refurbishing hospitals, with health experts blasting the pledge as a “drop in the ocean” and Labour MPs slamming the move as money being used from existing healthcare budgets.  While the Tory government had promised in the past a £20bn yearly injection into the NHS, which had been made by former UK prime minister Theresa May's government with aims to boost public healthcare by 2023.  Mr Johnson had also pledged an additional £350m a year to health services, arguing that it was being sent instead to pay the European Union, as well as a major shake-up of NHS pension rules earlier this week aimed at stopping senior doctors from refusing shifts in order to avoid tax contribution penalties.


sputnik--2019-09-06--Indian Scientists Fabricate Nano-chip Made from Lab Waste for Diagnosis of Diseases

The human body has enzymes like catalase and peroxide which can convert hydrogen peroxide into non-harmful entities. But an imbalance in metabolic processes in diseases such as neurodegenerative disorders, cancer, inflammation, diabetes and cardiovascular disease can lead to an over-production of hydrogen peroxide in the body.  Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology in Guwahati have fabricated a nano-chip from laboratory waste that can sense hydrogen peroxide and can help in diagnosing progression in several such diseases.  Although enzyme-peroxidase based methods exist to detect hydrogen peroxide, they are cumbersome and costly due to the use of sophisticated instruments, the need for trained personnel, multistep protocols, and the short shelf life of enzymes. The nano-chip fabricated by the team of scientists is enzyme-free and can be used for hydrogen peroxide detection.  Researchers used peroxidase activity of gold to detect hydrogen peroxide, and plated gold on indium tin oxide plate which is used to perform scanning electron microscopy in laboratories which is then discarded after one use.  Following on from this, a process known as sputtering, in which fast ions of metal are bombarded onto a metal surface to make waves - was performed on a gold plated chip which creates more surface area for hydrogen peroxide detection. The chip was tested using electron microscopy and its effectiveness in detecting hydrogen peroxide in human blood samples was assessed.  “The sensor development process is time saving requiring just 30 minutes for the sensor chip fabrication from raw materials, which can be reused for several times without losing the efficiency,” Dr. Pranjal Chandra, leader of the research team told India Science Wire.  The nano-chip can detect extremely low levels of hydrogen peroxide and takes less than a second for detection. The presence of other substances in blood such as glucose, citric acid, ascorbic acid, uric acid etc. does not hinder the detection of hydrogen peroxide. The chip stays stable for use for up to 12 weeks.  “Future work can be directed towards the development of a handheld device integrated with an interface like a mobile phone based on the sensing principle and the prototype demonstrated in our work. The system can also be tested for hydrogen-peroxide detection in various other clinically important samples such as serum, urine, tear, and in related industries,” added Dr. Chandra.


sputnik--2019-12-07--Olympic Summit Demands 'Toughest Sanctions' Over Moscow Lab Data Manipulation

The summit participants also expressed serious concerns over the growing politicization of sport, such as boycotts, resistance by organizers to raise certain flags at ceremonies and the withholding of visas to athletes.  The doping data is said to have been manipulated before it was transferred to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in January 2019 as part of a deal that saw Russia reinstated last year.


tass--2019-05-21--Multipurpose lab module Nauka to be launched to ISS in autumn 2020 source

Multipurpose lab module Nauka to be launched to ISS in autumn 2020 — source

### The Proton Rocket  © Mikhail Dzhiaparidze/TASS  MOSCOW, May 21. /TASS/. Multipurpose laboratory module Nauka will be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in the autumn of 2020 at the earliest, a source in the space rocket industry told TASS.  "The Nauka module will be launched at the end of October or November 2020 at the earliest," the source said. He added that the module will be delivered to the orbit by a Proton-M carrier rocket.  The source noted that "the relevant decree was signed by Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin."  The Nauka module is currently at the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. In October 2019, after a round of trials, the module will be transferred to the Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia. In July 2020, the module will be delivered to the Baikonur spaceport.  In other media


tass--2019-07-25--Mobile ecology lab begins working in Northern nature reserve

MURMANSK, July 25. /TASS/. A mobile laboratory, installed onto a KAMAZ truck, began working at the Pasvik Nature Reserve in the Murmansk Region. Press service of the Nornickel Company, which had invested in the lab, said the equipment onboard will be used for scientific research and ecology monitoring.  "The only mobile laboratory in Russia’s North-West has begun working in the Pasvik Nature Reserve," the press service told TASS on Wednesday.  The vehicle, which is adjusted to work in the Arctic region, can cross rivers or rocky tundra, can move off-road. It is equipped with a GPS navigator; up-to-date camera traps are set for certain intervals. The lab has equipment to study the air, soils and water.  The laboratory has onboard fridges to keep collected material. The lab will be used both inside the nature park and in the Kola Peninsula’s other districts for other projects, including for international projects.  "The vehicle is comfortable for long-term accommodation - researchers would be able to sleep there, to cook; there is an electricity generator onboard," the nature reserve’s deputy director, Tatiana Snegiryova, told TASS. "Most importantly, it is safe to be inside it in the wild nature conditions, unlike it is in tents."  According to the official, the eco-truck is made in Russia, while the equipment originates from many countries.  The scientists have begun seasonal studies in the nature reserve. They will take samples of soil, water, will study air conditions, will review the bear population and will make a film about animals. They will study the animals and birds, listed on the Red Data Book, and in early September they will register bird’s seasonal migration.  "This summer, we have organized already a few trips to the territory’s remote parts and have collected samples of the nature’s unique diversity," the reserve’s expert Natalya Polikarpova said. "A car with research equipment means we can cover big distances, thus we use more effectively the day light and the region’s summer climate conditions."  In August, the lab will work on two international projects under the Kolarctic Cross Border Cooperation 2014-2020 Program, which features Russia, Sweden, Norway and Finland. One of the projects is ReARK (Ecological Restoration of Arctic Rivers) - to monitor various rivers, from Nordland to Kola Peninsula, and to give recommendations regarding ecological restoration and maintaining their biology diversity.  The second project - Phenomena of Arctic Nature - will include work to organize a series of nature exhibitions at visitor centers of three countries: Finland, Norway and Russia. The expositions will present the northern region’s heritage and will favor ecology tourism in those countries.  "Implementation of such projects would have been impossible without support from big businesses, interested in sustainable development, in keeping the natural diversity and caring for future generations," the nature reserve’s Director Vladimir Chizhov said. "The reserve has been in cooperation with Nornickel for a few years, and jointly we have implemented several unique projects to study the nature."  Back in 2017, a new visitor center opened in the Nickel settlement at the border with Norway. The center is an international dialogue platform for Russia, Norway and Finland. Investments in the 800-square-meter center made 70 million rubles ($11 million).  Nornickel’s Kola MMC in the Murmansk Region cooperates with another big nature reserve - the Lapland Biosphere Reserve. Joint projects are underway there for a few decades already.  According to Director of the Green Patrol non-governmental organization Roman Pukalov, tests at areas neighboring Nornickel’s assets show the stable ecology situation. "The Murmansk Region has been approaching our rating’s green scale, and those, of course, are results of joint efforts by ecologists, local communities and industrial giants," he said.  The Pasvik Nature Reserve was organized in July, 1992. It is home for rare species of flora and fauna, which are in the Russian Red Book and on the IUCN (the International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species.  The nature reserve participates in the Russian-Norwegian intergovernmental environmental commission, the Russian-Finnish commission on transboundary waters, an intergovernmental working group on environment, and in the EUROPARC Federation.


thedailyecho--2019-07-02--Southampton infection lab to tackle new strains of bacteria that cant be treated with antibiotics

Southampton infection lab to tackle new strains of bacteria that can't be treated with antibiotics

SOUTHAMPTON researchers have been given a huge boost in their life-saving battle to tackle antibiotic- resistant bacteria.  They have secured £2.8m for a dedicated infection lab.  The overuse of antibiotics means they are becoming less effective and has led to the emergence of strains of bacteria that have become immune to treatment, known as antimicrobial resistance.  More than 5,000 people in the UK die from these infections every year – with concerns new strains of bacteria may emerge that cannot be treated by any existing antibiotics.  University Hospital Southampton and the University of Southampton’s Global Network for Anti-Microbial Resistance and Infection Prevention (UoS NAMRIP) are set to develop state-of-the-art research facilities to tackle that threat on the frontline.  “These bacteria have worked the current drugs out and they will do the same again,” said Professor Robert Read, director of the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre and lead on the funding bid.  “We have to keep finding new ways in, fast, but developing completely new treatments like ours will need completely new resources like this lab.  “By bridging the gap between experimental antimicrobial studies in our NIHR Clinical Research Facility, the UoS-based National Biofilm Innovation Centre and the clinical frontline it will speed up access to, and development of, new treatments.”  Southampton is already at the forefront of world-leading clinical research in infectious diseases through developments such as genetically-modified ‘friendly’ bacteria that can protect against meningitis.  The £2.8 million funding is part of a £32 million package awarded to 10 sites nationally by the Department of Health and Social Care as part of its 20-year vision and five-year national plan on antimicrobial resistance.


thedcclothesline--2019-04-01--Disturbing Cases Show the US Govt is Still Conducting Secret Experiments and WE are the Lab Rats

The U.S. government, in its pursuit of so-called monsters, has itself become a monster.  This is not a new development, nor is it a revelation.  This is a government that has in recent decades unleashed untold horrors upon the world—including its own citizenry—in the name of global conquest, the acquisition of greater wealth, scientific experimentation, and technological advances, all packaged in the guise of the greater good.  Mind you, there is no greater good when the government is involved. There is only greater greed for money and power.  Unfortunately, the public has become so easily distracted by the political spectacle coming out of Washington, DC, that they are altogether oblivious to the grisly experiments, barbaric behavior and inhumane conditions that have become synonymous with the U.S. government.  These horrors are being meted out against humans and animals alike.  It’s heartbreaking enough when you hear about police shooting family dogs that pose no threat—beloved pets that are “guilty” of little more than barking, or wagging a tag, or racing towards them in greeting—at an alarming rate somewhere in the vicinity of 500 dogs a day.  What I’m about to share goes beyond heartbreaking to horrifying.  For instance, did you know that the U.S. government has been buying hundreds of dogs and cats from “Asian meat markets” as part of a gruesome experiment into food-borne illnesses? The cannibalistic experiments involve killing cats and dogs purchased from Colombia, Brazil, Vietnam, China and Ethiopia, and then feeding the dead remains to laboratory kittens, bred in government laboratories for the express purpose of being infected with a disease and then killed.  It gets more gruesome.  The Department of Veterans Affairs has been removing parts of dogs’ brains to see how it affects their breathing; applying electrodes to dogs’ spinal cords (before and after severing them) to see how it impacts their cough reflexes; and implanting pacemakers in dogs’ hearts and then inducing them to have heart attacks (before draining their blood). All of the laboratory dogs are killed during the course of these experiments.  It’s not just animals that are being treated like lab rats by government agencies.  “We the people” have also become the police state’s guinea pigs: to be caged, branded, experimented upon without our knowledge or consent, and then conveniently discarded and left to suffer from the after-effects.  Back in 2017, FEMA “inadvertently” exposed nearly 10,000 firefighters, paramedics and other responders to a deadly form of ricin during simulated bioterrorism response sessions. In 2015, it was discovered that an Army lab had been “mistakenly” shipping deadly anthrax to labs and defense contractors for a decade.  While these particular incidents have been dismissed as “accidents,” you don’t have to dig very deep or go very back in the nation’s history to uncover numerous cases in which the government deliberately conducted secret experiments on an unsuspecting populace—citizens and noncitizens alike—making healthy people sick by spraying them with chemicals, injecting them with infectious diseases and exposing them to airborne toxins.  At the time, the government reasoned that it was legitimate to experiment on people who did not have full rights in society such as prisoners, mental patients, and poor blacks.  In Alabama, for example, 600 black men with syphilis were allowed to suffer without proper medical treatment in order to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis. In California, older prisoners had testicles from livestock and from recently executed convicts implanted in them to test their virility. In Connecticut, mental patients were injected with hepatitis.  In Maryland, sleeping prisoners had a pandemic flu virus sprayed up their noses. In Georgia, two dozen “volunteering” prison inmates had gonorrhea bacteria pumped directly into their urinary tracts through the penis. In Michigan, male patients at an insane asylum were exposed to the flu after first being injected with an experimental flu vaccine. In Minnesota, 11 public service employee “volunteers” were injected with malaria, then starved for five days.  In New York, dying patients had cancer cells introduced into their systems. In Ohio, over 100 inmates were injected with live cancer cells. Also in New York, prisoners at a reformatory prison were also split into two groups to determine how a deadly stomach virus was spread: the first group was made to swallow an unfiltered stool suspension, while the second group merely breathed in germs sprayed into the air. And in Staten Island, children with mental retardation were given hepatitis orally and by injection to see if they could then be cured.  As the Associated Press reports, “The late 1940s and 1950s saw huge growth in the U.S. pharmaceutical and health care industries, accompanied by a boom in prisoner experiments funded by both the government and corporations. By the 1960s, at least half the states allowed prisoners to be used as medical guinea pigs … because they were cheaper than chimpanzees.”  Moreover, “Some of these studies, mostly from the 1940s to the ’60s, apparently were never covered by news media. Others were reported at the time, but the focus was on the promise of enduring new cures, while glossing over how test subjects were treated.”  How many government incursions into our freedoms have been blacked out, buried under “entertainment” news headlines, or spun in such a way as to suggest that anyone voicing a word of caution is paranoid or conspiratorial?  Unfortunately, these incidents are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the atrocities the government has inflicted on an unsuspecting populace in the name of secret experimentation.  For instance, there was the U.S. military’s secret race-based testing of mustard gas on more than 60,000 enlisted men. As NPR reports, “All of the World War II experiments with mustard gas were done in secret and weren’t recorded on the subjects’ official military records. Most do not have proof of what they went through. They received no follow-up health care or monitoring of any kind. And they were sworn to secrecy about the tests under threat of dishonorable discharge and military prison time, leaving some unable to receive adequate medical treatment for their injuries, because they couldn’t tell doctors what happened to them.”  And then there was the CIA’s MKULTRA program in which hundreds of unsuspecting American civilians and military personnel were dosed with LSD, some having the hallucinogenic drug slipped into their drinks at the beach, in city bars, at restaurants. As Time reports, “before the documentation and other facts of the program were made public, those who talked of it were frequently dismissed as being psychotic.”  Now one might argue that this is all ancient history and that the government today is different from the government of yesteryear, but has the U.S. government really changed?  Has the government become any more humane, any more respectful of the rights of the citizenry?  Has it become any more transparent or willing to abide by the rule of law? Has it become any more truthful about its activities? Has it become any more cognizant of its appointed role as a guardian of our rights?  Or has the government simply hunkered down and hidden its nefarious acts and dastardly experiments under layers of secrecy, legalism and obfuscations? Has it not become wilier, more slippery, more difficult to pin down?  Having mastered the Orwellian art of Doublespeak and followed the Huxleyan blueprint for distraction and diversion, are we not dealing with a government that is simply craftier and more conniving that it used to be?  Consider this: after revelations about the government’s experiments spanning the 20th century spawned outrage, the government began looking for human guinea pigs in other countries, where “clinical trials could be done more cheaply and with fewer rules.”  In Guatemala, prisoners and patients at a mental hospital were infected with syphilis, “apparently to test whether penicillin could prevent some sexually transmitted disease.” In Uganda, U.S.-funded doctors “failed to give the AIDS drug AZT to all the HIV-infected pregnant women in a study… even though it would have protected their newborns.” Meanwhile, in Nigeria, children with meningitis were used to test an antibiotic named Trovan. Eleven children died and many others were left disabled.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Case in point: back in 2016, it was announced that scientists working for the Department of Homeland Security would begin releasing various gases and particles on crowded subway platforms as part of an experiment aimed at testing bioterror airflow in New York subways.  The government insisted that the gases released into the subways by the DHS were nontoxic and did not pose a health risk. It’s in our best interests, they said, to understand how quickly a chemical or biological terrorist attack might spread. And look how cool the technology is—said the government cheerleaders—that scientists can use something called DNATrax to track the movement of microscopic substances in air and food. (Imagine the kinds of surveillance that could be carried out by the government using trackable airborne microscopic substances you breathe in or ingest.)  Mind you, this is the same government that in 1949 sprayed bacteria into the Pentagon’s air handling system, then the world’s largest office building. In 1950, special ops forces sprayed bacteria from Navy ships off the coast of Norfolk and San Francisco, in the latter case exposing all of the city’s 800,000 residents.  In 1953, government operatives staged “mock” anthrax attacks on St. Louis, Minneapolis, and Winnipegusing generators placed on top of cars. Local governments were reportedly told that “‘invisible smokescreen[s]’ were being deployed to mask the city on enemy radar.” Later experiments covered territory as wide-ranging as Ohio to Texas and Michigan to Kansas.  In 1965, the government’s experiments in bioterror took aim at Washington’s National Airport, followed by a 1966 experiment in which army scientists exposed a million subway NYC passengers to airborne bacteria that causes food poisoning.  And this is the same government that has taken every bit of technology sold to us as being in our best interests—GPS devices, surveillance, nonlethal weapons, etc.—and used it against us, to track, control and trap us.  So, no, I don’t think the government’s ethics have changed much over the years. It’s just taken its nefarious programs undercover.


theguardianuk--2019-08-24--Mutant sheep are being bred in lab to fight lethal child brain disease

Scientists have created a flock of sheep that carry the gene for a lethal inherited brain disorder in humans. The condition, Batten disease, usually starts in childhood and is invariably fatal, often within a few years of diagnosis.  The project, which is designed to test treatments for the disease, is based at Edinburgh University’s Roslin Institute, where cloning techniques were used to create Dolly the sheep in 1996. The scientists acknowledge that the approach could be controversial as it involves creating animals programmed to die, but stress that their aim is to alleviate human suffering.  “We have deliberately re-created the condition in a large mammal because sheep have a brain of a similar size and complexity to that of a child,” said Tom Wishart, project leader. “That means treatments we test on them are much more likely to be relevant to humans than those tested only on cell cultures or mice and rats.”  In the UK, Batten disease affects between 100 and 150 children and young adults. It is inherited from two symptomless parents who each carry a rare recessive gene mutation. That mutation interferes with the operation of lysosomes, which act as the waste disposal systems for cells. Children who carry two copies of the faulty gene begin to suffer loss of vision, impaired cognition and mobility problems. Seizures and early death follow. “It is devastating for families,” Wishart said.  There are several types of Batten disease, he added. “One of the more rapid types is CLN1, and that’s what we have recreated in our sheep.”  The Roslin scientists used the gene-editing technique Crispr-Cas9 to create the faulty CLN1 gene in the sheep. “We collected sheep embryos from the abattoir,” Wishart said. “Then we fertilised them and added Crispr reagents to alter their genetic structure before implanting the embryos into a surrogate sheep’s uterus.”  Three sheep were born that each possessed two copies of the CLN1 gene with the same mutation found in affected humans. They began to show many symptoms of Batten disease, including changes in behaviour and brain size. “The progress of the disease in sheep closely resembled its development in children,” said Wishart. “That was crucial for it showed we had created an accurate model of Batten disease.”  Other sheep were engineered to carry only a single copy of the gene. “These are symptomless carriers, like the parents of Batten disease children,” said Wishart. “From these we can breed sheep that have two faulty copies of the CLN1 gene. These will go on to develop a disease like those children, and will be the ones to test our therapies.”  Researchers are working on several treatments, including gene therapy in which healthy genes are delivered by viruses to replace mutated versions. Many of these techniques are being developed using cell culture and research on mice and rats.  “These studies are crucial in making basic discoveries,” said Wishart. “But if we do not use these few larger animals in refining those discoveries, all that early work could be wasted.  “It is a terrible necessity – to reproduce such a condition. However, we are talking about using maybe only 10 or so animals for this research with the ultimate aim of finding treatments that could add years to the lives of young patients.  “Unlike humans, we can study sheep before their outward symptoms develop to gain new understanding of how the disease unfolds. This knowledge will be invaluable.”


usnews--2019-12-09--Massachusetts Lab to Pay $26M for Scheme With Texas Doctors

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Boston Heart Diagnostics Corporation agreed to pay nearly $27 million to settle claims that it allegedly paid doctors in Texas and waived patient co-payments in exchange for lab tests it then billed to federal healthcare programs, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.  The $26.7 settlement with the Framingham, Massachusetts, company reached last month resolves allegations that Boston Heart provided doctors at small hospitals in Texas with in-office dietitians, paid processing and handling fees and waived patient co-payments and deductibles in exchange for referrals for laboratory testing, said McGregor Scott, the United States Attorney for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.  This settlement also resolves allegations that the clinical diagnostics company conspired from 2015 to 2017 with the hospitals, and others, to submit outpatient claims for individuals who were not, in fact, hospital outpatients.  “This office will continue to take all appropriate action to prevent improper inducements that can corrupt the integrity of physician decision-making,” Scott said.  The allegations were made in two separate cases by whistle-blowers who went to federal officials in California and the District of Columbia. Whistleblowers Chris Riedel and Claudia Bradshaw will receive approximately $4.36 million of the settlement, he said.  Boston Heart Diagnostics President Patrick Noland said in a Nov. 26 statement the company agreed to the settlement without admitting liability and highlighted that "there were no claims that individual patients were harmed as a result of the alleged conduct."  Noland, who took over the leadership at Boston Heart in 2017, said that since the claims were made, the company has new leadership committed to compliance with all federal and state laws, regulations and rules .  “Boston Heart is a very different organization today compared to what it was then and up to two and a half years ago,'' he said.  Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


fortune--2019-03-01--Microsoft Built a Chat Bot to Match Patients to Clinical Trials

A chat bot that began as a hackathon project at Microsoft’s lab in Israel makes it easier for sick patients to find clinical trials that could provide otherwise unavailable medicines and therapies.  The Clinical Trials Bot lets patients and doctors search for studies related to a disease and then answer a succession of text questions. The bot then suggests links to trials that best match the patients’ needs. Drugmakers can also use it to find test subjects.  Microsoft won’t release the bot as its own product. Instead, the software giant is talking to pharmaceutical companies that it hopes will use the bot to find trial participants, while pitching it to other partners that could turn the technology into a tool for patients, said Hadas Bitran, group manager of Microsoft Healthcare Israel. Bitran declined to name possible partners because no deals have been agreed yet.  The project is part of a larger Microsoft (msft) health care bot initiative that’s helped partners build automatic chat programs for things like triaging patients and answering questions about insurance benefits. The clinical trials bot was accepted as part of the U.S. White House Presidential Innovation Fellows program and Bitran showed it on Thursday at a closed door event at the White House. She will demonstrate the tech publicly on Friday during a session at the U.S. Census Bureau.  Half of all clinical trials for new drugs and therapies never reach the number of patients needed to start, and many others are delayed for the same reason, Bitran said. Meanwhile patients, sometimes desperately sick, find it hard to comb through the roughly 50,000 trials worldwide and their arcane and lengthy criteria—typically 20 to 30 factors. Even doctors struggle to search quickly on behalf of patients, Bitran said.  “It was a big passion project for everyone involved,” Bitran said. “We heard stories of families who would sit for days and days looking at the trials.”  The technology uses a form of artificial intelligence called machine reading to ingest the selection criteria for each clinical trial. It uses this data to decide which questions to ask patients and how to match their answers to suitable trials.  Here’s how it works for patients: They type in a search, such as “trials for a 52-year old California female with breast cancer.” The bot responds with questions such as whether the patient had chemotherapy for metastatic disease—a cancer that has spread—and how far the patient can travel. It offers five choices that describe the patient’s current health and ability to be active and care for herself. As the patient selects from the multiple-choice answers, the software generates the next question and refines the list of available trials.


breitbart--2019-10-12--Researchers Say Cancer Vaccine Shows Promise in Early Clinical Trials

A new cancer vaccine has given researchers hope after it removed cancer cells in a patient with breast cancer.  Dr. Saranya Chumsri, an oncologist at the Mayo Clinic, said the vaccine is “supposed to stimulate a patient’s own immune response so that the immune cells like t-cells would go in and attack the cancer.”  In March, Florida resident Lee Mercker was diagnosed with the early stages of “DCIS stage zero” breast cancer, which meant the disease had not spread.  “I’m an exercise fanatic, I eat right. But it just can knock on anybody’s door,” said Mercker, who was the first person to participate in the clinical trial.  She said doctors performed a series of checks before administering the vaccine during the 12-week trial at the clinic in Jacksonville.  “They always took your blood, you had a physical, they’d make your shot right there on the spot for you,” she said. “It was three shots, all in a row, alternating arms, four shots, two weeks apart.”  Chumsri stated the vaccine is designed to mirror other routine shots. “It’s supposed to be just off the shelf, kind of similar to when you get the flu shot or pneumonia shot,” the oncologist noted.  However, as a part of the trial, Mercker was required to have a mastectomy.  “That is the only way we know that everything was removed properly,” Chumsri said.  In April, researchers began working on another cancer vaccine that is said to harness the power of the immune system to destroy cancer cells by injecting the medicine directly into the tumor.  “We’re injecting two immune stimulants right into one single tumor,” said Dr. Joshua Brody, director of the Lymphoma Immunotherapy Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. “We inject one tumor and we see all of the other tumors just melt away.”  Reports said that eight out of eleven lymphoma patients who participated in a clinical trial of the vaccine experienced partial or complete destruction of the tumor.  “We’re trying to teach the immune system to get rid of the thing even after you’ve already got the problem,” Brody said.


instapundit--2019-01-02--FASTER PLEASE Cancer drug extends life expectancy in clinical trials for patients with lung cance

FASTER, PLEASE:  Cancer drug extends life expectancy in clinical trials for patients with lung cance…

FASTER, PLEASE: Cancer drug extends life expectancy in clinical trials for patients with lung cancer.


liveaction--2019-06-26--Trojan horse New TelAbortion abortion pill clinical trial skirts FDA regulations

Trojan horse: New ‘TelAbortion’ abortion pill clinical trial skirts FDA regulations

Is a ‘TelAbortion’ (telemedicine abortion pill) FDA clinical trial actually a Trojan horse intended to skirt important abortion pill safety requirements put in place under the FDA? Live Action News has been analyzing the effort to expand abortion, and has documented the various abortion pill collaborators working behind the scenes on various clinical trials, studies (read more here) and funding streams, which all happen to be closely connected. In addition, Live Action News has documented the push for illegal dispensing of the dangerous pills and the effort to discredit abortion pill reversal. Now, we’ve analyzed changes reported under the Direct-To-Consumer protocol (pills sent via mail after a TelAbortion or telemedicine interview) and are seeing that FDA regulations are being skirted in the name of continually broadening “clinical trials.”  The FDA currently requires Mifeprex to be placed under a safety system called REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy), which is a “safety strategy to manage a known or potential serious risk associated with a medicine and to enable patients to have continued access to such medicines by managing their safe use.”  Under the REMS Program, the FDA states, “Mifeprex and the approved generic version of Mifeprex”…  Without REMS, abortion pills could be ordered online, picked up at any pharmacy, and prescribed by any health care provider.  In theory, clinical trials are used to test a specific drug and hopefully alleviate safety issues that arise. But with expansion of this abortion pill clinical trial there is a growing concern it is less of a clinical trial and more of a permanent way to skirt the FDA’s REMS system. In fact, a recent interview with the co-leader of this Gynuity sponsored trial, Erica Chong, by the online media group Fast Company, noted, “The hope is to get enough providers on board so TelAbortion can eventually go from research study to full-blown service.”  The TelAbortion clinical trial was announced in 2015. When the (then cohort) clinical trial began recruiting in 2016, they anticipated an enrollment of 50 participants with eligibility ages between (believe it or not) 11 to 50 years old and an estimated completion that same year.  In 2016, there were only two locations for the trial listed, as seen in the screen below.  However, as of the date of this article (June 2019) the now defined “case-only” (instead of “cohort”) clinical trial currently intends to enroll 1,000 participants with age eligibility as young as 10 years old. Why Gynuity Health Projects moved the recruitment age even lower is not stated, but this is concerning, given past abuses by abortion facilities and Planned Parenthood centers’ failure to report child sexual abuse, along with potential violations of parental consent and notification laws in certain states.  In addition to those changes, the completion date continues to be pushed out, and is currently set for June of 2020. There is also a growing list of locations (see below), enabling the abortion pill to be dispensed even more widely, without existing REMS safety requirements.  In other words, the study just keeps getting bigger and broader, with no FDA safety requirements in place.  In some cases, TelAbortion providers are physically located in one state but licensed in another, which allows them to reach clients there as well…. TelAbortion obviously cannot expand into states where telemedicine abortion is illegal, but one workaround Chong is exploring is to introduce the program in neighboring states. “If we can get into a neighboring state, it’s possible for a woman in Texas, for example, to maybe cross the border into New Mexico,” Chong says. “She can have her consult there, and then pick up her package at a Fedex office that’s holding the package for her, or something like that.”  These kind of “workarounds” to intentionally bypass existing laws and safety regulations are clearly not the intention of any FDA clinical trial.  Abortion generally is not without complication or risks. Recently, the FDA updated its adverse effects reports through 2018, revealing 24 deaths of women associated with the abortion pill since it’s  September 2000 approval.  To date, the report documents nearly 4,200 reported adverse effects, including hospitalization and other serious complications. But under 2016 changes, the drug’s manufacturer, DANCO, no longer has to report non-fatal adverse effects, so we can only imagine what the number really is.  “Like” Live Action News on Facebook for more pro-life news and commentary!


naturalnews--2019-03-12--Why the vaccine industry REFUSES to conduct clinical trials using a genuine placebo control group

(Natural News) The next time someone tries to tell you that the science is “settled” on vaccine safety and effectiveness, you might want to bring up the fact that the alleged “science” upon which the vaccination house of cards was, and is still being, built is fundamentally flawed at its very core.  Truth be told, there isn’t a single vaccine study out there – at least not one that the establishment has ever conducted or referenced in support of government vaccination programs – that’s ever compared a CDC-approved vaccine to an actual inert placebo.  Instead, the vaccine industry tests its vaccines against “controls” that contain all of the same chemicals and ingredients as the vaccines themselves, minus the viral and/or bacterial components that function as these vaccines’ active ingredients.  As the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) revealed in a recent statement on “Federal Vaccine Mandates,” official vaccine studies basically compare toxic injections to other toxic injections, which is how they’re able to come to false conclusions of “safe and effective.”  Furthermore, these same studies fail to compare the outcomes of vaccinated versus unvaccinated, the excuse being that it would be “unethical” and “immoral” to deprive some children of “life-saving” vaccines.  For more vaccine-related news, be sure to check out Vaccines.news.  So how safe are vaccines, really? According to the AAPS, we really can’t say because there have been no “rigorous safety studies of sufficient power to rule out a much higher risk of complications … for vaccines.”  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.  In other words, real-life safety studies on vaccines don’t exist, despite the mainstream sentiment that all vaccines have been fully vetted for safety and effectiveness.  “Such studies would require an adequate number of subjects, a long duration (years, not days), an unvaccinated control group (‘placebo’ must be truly inactive such as saline, not the adjuvant or everything-but-the-intended-antigen), and consideration of all adverse health events (including neurodevelopment disorders),” the AAPS admits, in no uncertain terms.  What’s basically going on with vaccine “science” is vaccine companies are cheating by comparing a given vaccine to another vaccine, rather than to a true, saline-based placebo. Vaccine studies are also designed to compared vaccinated people to other vaccinated people, rather than to a true control group of unvaccinated people.  The end result is that Big Pharma and Big Vaccine get the results they desire: basically the “scientific” illusion propagated to the masses that all vaccines are 100 percent safe and effective all the time.  “This is their way of hiding the true effects of the toxic ingredients in vaccines,” says Mike Adams, the Health Ranger. “They refuse to use saline solutions as the placebo because then the toxic effects of the adjuvants would be obvious in the experiment group.”  The federal government is fully aware of this vaccine fraud, which is why it set up the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VCIP), a “no-fault” system that shields the vaccine industry from all liability while quietly paying off those who’ve been injured or killed by vaccines.  “Manufacturers are virtually immune from product liability, so the incentive to develop safer products is much diminished,” says the AAPS.  “Manufacturers may even refuse to make available a product believed to be safer, such as monovalent measles vaccine in preference to MMR (measles-mumps-rubella). Consumer refusal is the only incentive to do better.”  Be sure to read the full “Statement on Federal Vaccine Mandates” from the AAPS at this link.  To learn more about the ridiculous vaccine “courts” and how they’re used as cover for the vaccine industry fraud, visit VaccineCourtNews.com.


npr--2019-10-11--Canada's Decision To Make Public More Clinical Trial Data Puts Pressure On FDA

Canada's Decision To Make Public More Clinical Trial Data Puts Pressure On FDA  Last March, Canada's department of health changed the way it handles the huge amount of data that companies submit when seeking approval for a new drug, biological treatment, or medical device — or a new use for an existing one. For the first time, Health Canada is making large chunks of this information publicly available after it approves or rejects applications.  Within 120 days of a decision, Health Canada will post clinical study reports on a new government online portal, starting with drugs that contain novel active ingredients and adding devices and other drugs over a four-year phase-in period. These company-generated documents, often running more than 1,000 pages, summarize the methods, goals, and results of clinical trials, which test the safety and efficacy of promising medical interventions. The reports play an important role in helping regulators make their decisions, along with other information, such as raw data about individual patients in clinical trials.  So far, Health Canada has posted reports for four newly approved drugs — one to treat plaque psoriasis in adults, two to treat two different types of skin cancer, and the fourth for advanced hormone-related breast cancer — and is preparing to release reports for another 13 drugs and three medical devices approved or rejected since March.  Canada's move follows a similar policy enacted four years ago by the European Medicines Agency of the European Union. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, on the other hand, continues to treat this information as confidential to companies and rarely makes it public.  The argument for more transparency  Transparency advocates say clinical study reports need to be made public in order to understand how regulators make decisions and to independently assess the safety and efficacy of a drug or device. They also say the reports provide medical societies with more thorough data to establish guidelines for a treatment's use, and to determine whether articles about clinical trials published in medical journals — a key source of information for clinicians and medical societies — are accurate.  "Sometimes regulators miss things that have been hidden in those clinical study reports," says Matthew Herder, director of the Health Law Institute at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. "Regulators often face resource constraints, they have deadlines, other priorities."  Last year, for example, Canadian researchers used a clinical study report and other previously non-public information from a clinical trial to call into question the efficacy of Diclectin (known as Diclegis in the United States), a commonly prescribed drug to treat nausea and vomiting in pregnancy. The team had requested the information from Health Canada under an older policy, which required researchers to sign a confidentiality agreement and keep the underlying data secret when they published their results. (It "had a chilling effect," Herder says of the now-discontinued policy, and not many researchers made requests.)  Duchesnay, the Quebec-based manufacturer of Diclectin, defended the drug, and the Canadian and American professional societies of obstetricians and gynecologists continue to recommend it. Yet the new analysis gave pause to the College of Family Physicians of Canada, which had previously published two articles recommending Diclectin's use in its medical journal, Canadian Family Physician. The organization took the unusual step in January of publishing a correction, which criticized the independence and accuracy of the two earlier articles. And, citing the new research, it advised physicians to use caution when interpreting recommendations for the drug's use.  Herder and other lawyers and independent researchers who want to see greater transparency in medical research are urging the FDA to follow the example of Canada and the E.U., but without success thus far. To date, the European program, which has been in effect since 2016, has posted clinical study reports for 132 medicinal products whose applications were submitted after January 2015.  Canadian and European regulators lead the way  It is important to have multiple regulators making the data public, says Peter Doshi, an associate editor at the BMJ, an international medical journal, and an associate professor of pharmaceutical health services research at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. As it stands now, "If FDA approves first, which often it does, we won't know anything until Health Canada or the EMA makes a decision," says Doshi. "And not every drug, device, biologic out there is going to be approved by these other regulators or even submitted to these other markets."  In addition, redundancy lessens the impact if one regulator changes policy. The EMA, for example, earlier this year moved its operations from London to Amsterdam because of Britain's anticipated exit from the European Union. Clinical data publication "was one of the activities suspended until we are more settled in Amsterdam," says Anne-Sophie Henry-Eude, head of documents access and clinical data publication. No date has yet been announced for its resumption.  Sandy Walsh, a spokesperson for the FDA, says the agency does not have the same freedom as Canadian and European regulators to release clinical study reports. "U.S. laws on disclosure of trade secret, confidential commercial information, and personal privacy information differ from those governing EMA and Health Canada's disclosure of clinical study reports," she wrote in an email.  Some legal experts argue the FDA has more flexibility than it acknowledges. Federal agencies are "entitled to substantial deference" in determining "what constitutes confidential commercial information," Amy Kapczynski, a Yale law professor and a co-director of the university's Collaboration for Research Integrity and Transparency, in The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics.  In response to an interview request sent to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Megan Van Etten, the trade group's senior director for public affairs, emailed a statement expressing concern from the industry that Health Canada's new regulations "could discourage investment in biomedical research by revealing confidential commercial information."  Joseph Ross, an associate professor of medicine and public health at Yale University and a co-director, along with Kapczynski and others, of CRIT, maintains that clinical study reports contain little information that companies need to keep secret, and that any such information could be redacted before release. A 2015 report by the Institute of Medicine, now known as the National Academy of Medicine, also called for the FDA to release redacted clinical study reports.  That is the strategy of Health Canada, which discusses possible redactions with the manufacturer. "Health Canada retains the final decision on what information is redacted and published," Geoffroy Legault-Thivierge, a spokesperson, wrote in an email.  So does the EMA, which goes through a similar negotiating process with manufacturers. "We often are in disagreement but at least there is a dialogue," says Henry-Eude. The EMA might agree to redact manufacturing details, for example.  Researchers who independently re-evaluate drugs say the reports are critical because the data they need is not readily available in medical journal articles. One analysis showed that only about half of clinical trials examined were written up in journals in a timely fashion and a third went unpublished. And when articles are published, they contain much less data than the reports, says Tom Jefferson, an epidemiologist based in Rome who works with Cochrane, an international collaboration of researchers who conduct and publish reviews of the scientific evidence for medical treatments.  In addition, "journal articles emphasize benefits and underplay or, in some cases, even ignore harms" that can be found in the clinical study report data, says Jefferson. An analysis by experts at the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care in Cologne, Germany, found "considerable" bias in how patient outcomes were reported in journal articles and other publicly available sources. Public access to clinical study reports can shine a light on such discrepancies.  The FDA has flirted in the past with releasing clinical study reports to the public. In January 2018, it launched a pilot program to post portions of reports for up to nine recently approved drugs if the drug companies would agree.  "We're committed to enhancing transparency about the work we do at the FDA," commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who resigned in March, said at the time.  But only Janssen Biotech, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, volunteered, and its prostate cancer drug Erleada is the lone entry. In June, the FDA announced it is considering shifting its focus from the pilot program to another designed to better communicate the analyses of FDA experts who review drug applications, which the agency has been making public for approved medicinal products since 2012.  But these analyses by FDA reviewers are no substitute for the actual clinical study reports, says Doshi. The reviews reflect "an FDA scientist's take on the sponsor's application," he said. "Without the clinical study report, somebody like me is largely deprived of looking at the underlying data and developing my own take."  Independent researchers like those who took a hard look at Diclectin also want access to clinical study reports connected to regulatory decisions made before the European and Canadian portals were opened.  Since 2010, the EMA has been providing researchers and others with access to clinical study reports for such legacy drugs upon request, while Health Canada is even more transparent, posting requested clinical study reports for drugs and devices approved or rejected before March to its new online portal for anyone to see. So far, 12 information packages are available for older drugs and devices and 11 more requests are being processed.  The FDA has, on occasion, provided reports in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, but researchers seeking this information typically invest "a tremendous amount of time and effort," says Ross. For example, a Yale Law School clinic sued the FDA on behalf of two public health advocacy groups after the agency said it could take years to respond to their FOIA request for clinical trial data for two hepatitis C drugs. In 2017, it won the case and the groups received the data, which they are currently evaluating.  The FDA does not keep track of how many clinical study reports it has released through FOIA, says Walsh. But Doshi and others say such releases are rare, and usually a result of lawsuits or the threat of legal action. In 2011, Doshi requested clinical study reports for Tamiflu, an antiviral medication used to treat the flu. "Eight years later, I think those requests are still alive," he says now. "I don't remember getting a denial. They just sit."  Outside researchers can appeal to companies directly for access to clinical study reports. At least 24 of PhRMA's 35-member companies have signed on to its six-year-old principles for "responsible clinical trial data sharing," committing to the release of synopses of clinical study reports for approved medicines and to considering requests for data and the full reports from "qualified" medical and scientific researchers who submit research proposals.  But researchers are concerned they won't be granted access if companies are not comfortable or sympathetic to their proposals, says Herder. And the companies control the amount of redaction.  The British-based pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has gone further than most in providing public access to its data. In 2013, the company began posting clinical study reports through its own online portal, Clinical Study Register, which is open to the public. "We have published over 2,500 clinical study reports and nearly 6,000 summaries of results — both positive and negative — from our trials on Clinical Study Register," Andrew Freeman, director and head of medical policy, said in an emailed statement. "GSK is leading the industry in transparency."  Even so, GSK controls the level of redaction, says Jefferson of Cochrane, who tried to use clinical study reports posted on the company's portal for a systematic review of HPV vaccines. "Important aspects, for instance the narratives of serious adverse events — those are all blocked out. Big black boxes," he says. "So they are of moderate use."  Meanwhile, many researchers do not realize that Health Canada and the EMA are making clinical study reports available. An online survey of 160 researchers around the world who conduct systematic reviews found that 133 "had never considered accessing regulatory data" and 117 of those 133 "were not aware (or were unsure) of where to access such material." They continue to rely on the limited data in journal articles and other published literature, says Herder of Dalhousie University.  "Transparency is wonderful in theory but unless people actually do the work of getting data and independently analyzing it, transparency is window dressing," he says.  Barbara Mantel is a New York-based reporter who writes about health care and other social issues.  This story was produced by Undark, a nonprofit, editorially independent digital magazine exploring the intersection of science and society.