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Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

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Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

I find this to be absolutely fascinating: First Genetic Results From Scott Kelly's Year In Space Reveal DNA Mysteries

Thankfully, astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly have willingly volunteered themselves as test subjects for NASA, which has been studying the pair since they’ve returned from their respective voyages in space: the identical twin brothers are the subject of a 10-part investigation to understand the impact of space travel on the body. Researchers collected blood samples and other biological materials while the twins were both on Earth and in orbit, and are now comparing them for the aptly-named Twins Study.
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While the full results of the Twins Study probably won’t be released for another year or two, the first findings are now in. Samples taken before, during and after Scott Kelly’s most recent mission—in which he spent 340 days in space—“reveal[ed] changes in gene expression, DNA methylation and other biological markers,” Nature reports. According to the team of scientists leading the study, these changes are “likely to be attributable” to Scott’s lengthy stay in space. The team presented their preliminary findings on January 26th at a meeting of scientists working in NASA’s Human Research Program in Galveston, Texas.

“The greatest importance of the study is to show that we can do it,” team member Andrew Feinberg, a geneticist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, said. “I don’t think people realized it would be so easy to do genomics on astronauts in space.”
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As identical twins, the brothers are genetically very similar. However, researchers found that while he was in orbit, Scott’s telomeres—the caps on the ends of chromosomes—grew longer than his twin brother’s. Though Scott’s telomeres returned to their pre-flight lengths shortly after he returned to Earth, these results were totally unexpected, since telomeres naturally shrink over the course of one’s life, and the stresses of spaceflight are supposed to accelerate this. At least that was the idea.

“That is exactly the opposite of what we thought,” Susan Bailey, a radiation biologist at Colorado State University, told Nature.
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“It’s important to appreciate that telomere lengthening is not always a good thing, as telomere lengthening is also associated with some disease processes and pathologies,” Charles told Gizmodo. “That is not the case in this instance, however.”
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Another mystery in these results involves DNA methylation—a process in which methyl groups are added to DNA molecules to control gene expression. Researchers found that this process decreased while Scott was in orbit, but increased in Mark over the same period of time.

“Methylation is how the gene turns off the sections that do not need to be copied,” Charles told Gizmodo. “Measuring changes in methylation is a way to document how active the gene is in different circumstances and to determine which sections of the gene are not being read and transcribed because the body does not need the proteins encoded in those sections. These measurements help us understand how the body responds to spaceflight factors at the level of the gene.”

Scientists observed more dramatic shifts in gene expression in Scott, who has spent more time in space—520 days total—than his brother. These shifts could be attributed to the harsh conditions (e.g. eating freeze-dried food, changes in sleep patterns, exposure to microgravity.) Now, the researchers will turn their attention to nailing down what exactly is causing molecular changes to occur.
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Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

So I was in the grocery store the other day, and FlagDUDETTE wanted to go down the cereal aisle. They were running a sale on Honey Bunches of Oats. I had seen it earlier in the week, but didn't get any because the boxes were marked as having GMOs. OK, so you do something not very good, but I'll at least give you that you're honest about it. So we look at the boxes a little closer, and one of the models of the brand is marked as being gluten free. I look closer at the boxes, and it's the only one that isn't marked as having GMOs.

Perhaps the "gluten allergies" that a number of people have aren't actually gluten allergies, but allergies to the genetically modified poison being placed into the food. This is not to say, of course, that some people don't truly have issues with gluten (and food allergies is something taken very seriously in the Flag household), but I do wonder if there is some mis-diagnosis hiding the globalists poisoning the food supply...
 
Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

Boo.

Here is Plait's first post on the new site. I trust him to keep delivering great smart posts, but SyFyWire looks like Us magazine for nerds.

He's gone from Cosmos to Cosmo.
 
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Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/donald-trump-space-war-234829

I have significant issues with this plan, though I applaud the interest in expanding NASA (though that's not entirely what they're proposing)

The Trump administration is considering a bold and controversial vision for the U.S. space program that calls for a "rapid and affordable" return to the moon by 2020, the construction of privately operated space stations and the redirection of NASA's mission to "the large-scale economic development of space," according to internal documents obtained by POLITICO.
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It's a colossally bad idea to allow private development on extraterrestrial planets. Everything needs to be an international consortium that transcends politics, profit, and ownership. The horror that would come out of countries trying to claim land on the moon is terrifying. Do we really want to have wars over land and resources on the moon and other planets?

God this is a bad idea.
 
Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

It's an awful idea, but it's inevitable. The first battle will probably be fought over Antarctica though.
 
Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

What resources?

Look - I'm all for space exploration but do we really need to colonize Planet Zeb-2d in the Colossus System at the cost of $500 quadrillion to live a life in a 100x100 bubble? Why are we in such a hurry to get out anyway?

I'm not talking about The Rapture when I say this but we're *****ed before we ever have the capacity to do anything on a level worth doing. What am I missing here?
 
Re: Science: Vaccines Work, GMOs Are Safe, Everything is a Chemical

dxmnkd316 said:
It's a colossally bad idea to allow private development on extraterrestrial planets. Everything needs to be an international consortium that transcends politics, profit, and ownership. The horror that would come out of countries trying to claim land on the moon is terrifying. Do we really want to have wars over land and resources on the moon and other planets?
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We may need to go this direction. It's not optimal, but it will get us the tech faster. I'm not so interested in the rest of the Sol system -- there's nowhere to live in this neighborhood except Earth. But if we wait for governments (and taxpayers) to get us FTL and exoplanet settlement, we'll never get there.

OTOH, let the pigs see fortunes, and let the dogs have their wars, and let the sheep be exploited for the former and die for the latter. Capitalism and militarism drive technology. Once that tech has been financed, we can skim the humans and light off to someplace the animals won't ever find us. And without us they'll destroy themselves in a few centuries and be back to agrarianism, or maybe even the trees.

This is a long game: 500-1000 years. We have somehow managed to live among the pig sties, dog runs, and sheep farms for 5000 years of civilization. We're approaching our ability to get free of them, but we still need them for roughly another millennium. Patience.
 
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