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NASA Arsenic Life Paper Is Fraud?

Thursday, December 09, 2010 – by Staff Report

"This Paper Should Not Have Been Published" ... Scientists see fatal flaws in the NASA study of arsenic-based life ... On Thursday, Dec. 2, Rosie Redfield sat down to read a new paper called "A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus." ... Redfield, a microbiology professor at the University of British Columbia, had been hearing rumors about the papers for days beforehand. ... As soon Redfield started to read the paper, she was shocked. "I was outraged at how bad the science was," she told me. – Slate

Dominant Social Theme: What? Anything NASA announces is the truth. You can take it to the bank.

Free-Market Analysis: NASA is at it again; exaggerating results to make a point. We've speculated it has to with funding. The days of wine and roses are over even in Washington DC and NASA – one of Washington's largest white elephants – is no doubt trying to raise its profile.

Enter the Internet as always. In the 20th century, such a strategy might have worked. It would likely have been difficult to get out the word about NASA's apparent deception. But in the 21st century, NASA is exposed in days. Redfield (see article excerpted above) was not even the first to be suspicious about NASA's announcement. Here at the Bell, we commented on the paper right-off-the-bat, finding a skeptical item posted on a website called "Scienceblog," as follows:

"Oh, great. I get to be the wet blanket ... I finally got the paper from Science, and I'm sorry to let you all down, but it's ... an extremophile bacterium that can be coaxed into subsisting arsenic for phosphorus in some of its basic biochemistry. It's perfectly reasonable and interesting work in its own right, but it's not radical, it's not particularly surprising, and it's especially not extraterrestrial. It's the kind of thing that will get a sentence or three in biochemistry textbooks in the future."

You can see the full Bell article here: Costly Promotions of the Military.

At the time, we didn't get into the other issue: Space aliens. We're generally suspicious of extra-terrestrial news stories (as regular readers know) because elite publications seem to be far more hospitable to them than they used to be. We've written numerous articles about this phenomenon, and the NASA announcement fit right into that pattern.

Yes, it seems almost like a ... promotion. As if the powers-that-be are using the mainstream press (which they control in our opinion) to prime the pump as regards some kind of space-alien meme. We recently came across a mainstream AP article that reignited our suspicions:

Evidence for ET is mounting daily, but not proven ... Lately, a handful of new discoveries make it seem more likely that we are not alone – that there is life somewhere else in the universe. In the past several days, scientists have reported there are three times as many stars as they previously thought. Another group of researchers discovered a microbe can live on arsenic, expanding our understanding of how life can thrive under the harshest environments. And earlier this year, astronomers for the first time said they'd found a potentially habitable planet. ...

What last week's findings did was both increase the number of potential homes for life and broaden the definition of what life is. That means the probability for alien life is higher than ever before, agree 10 scientists interviewed by The Associated Press. Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute in California, ticks off the astronomical findings about planet abundance and Earthbound discoveries about life's hardiness. "All of these have gone in the direction of encouraging life out there and they didn't have to."

See, there are plenty of articles floating around the blogosphere on the questionable nature of the NASA press release. But that's not what the AP story focuses on. Instead it is a summary of "news reports" about the feasibility of alien life and UFOs. It could just as easily have been a story debunking NASA's ridiculous announcement about arsenic-based life; but we won't hold our collective breath.

We've explained our suspicions about this seeming elite promotion plenty of times. The Anglo-American elite is all about social (mind) control through the use of dominant and sub dominant social themes – for more on this, read Anthony Wile's High Alert. These memes are used to frighten the middle class (mostly) into giving up wealth and power to globalist institutions the very same elite has created. And this smells like a dominant social theme to us. And then there is this from the Straits Times a few days ago:

WikiLeaks may release 'UFO' files ... WikiLeaks has unreleased documents about UFO, sparking concerns about the existence of the second form of life ... In the short question-and-answer session, Assange talked about WikiLeaks' future course of action and vision, as well as the alleged threat to his life. He also indicated that WikiLeaks has unreleased documents about UFO, sparking concerns about the existence of the second form of life.

We mentioned the WikiLeaks/UFO story recently and it was right in line with our thinking that WikiLeaks itself might be a promotion of sorts. Much of what WikiLeaks has leaked seems to us to comfort the Anglosphere (including Israel) while discomfiting the enemies or quasi-enemies of the West – specifically countries like Iran, China and Pakistan.

Conclusion: The jury is likely still out on WikiLeaks, but we feel on much firmer ground in making our points about NASA. Whatever NASA announces these days within a scientific context ought to be looked at skeptically – as a budgetary promotion. Especially if it has to do with alien life forms.




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  Posted by Srividya on 01/30/11 03:14 AM

I think it is not fraud bec this scientist are well educated then the other normal man we must praise them we shouldn't discourage them this invention not only this all scientific invention's are true.
Nowadays we can't leave any seconds without the invention's for example like ELECTRICITY. Not only that they have proved the invention. Can you prove that this invention is fraud. Because i am a biochemist student and i won't accept this. This invention is TRUE.

  Posted by Zenbillioniare on 12/11/10 04:13 AM

@ Weeble

"they are especially blinded by science. "

Indeed, most of us are. Science is nothing more than a pragmatic philosophy and religion is philosophy ergo science is a pragmatic religion. I fully support the separation of church and state, therefore I believe state funded science needs to be abolished.

(Waves hands and wanders off stage left in a blinding flash and puff of smoke...)

  Posted by Weeble on 12/10/10 09:05 PM

@ Zenbillionaire

"it amazes me the Bell hasn't attracted its share of "contributors". "

That is because they don't know what the heck you guys are talking about. In fact, they are especially blinded by science.

Click to view link

And that is my Uncle, Magnus Pyke [ Click to view link ]

SCIENCE!

  Posted by Ethnic Dish on 12/10/10 09:04 PM

4 movies about WikiLeaks??!! Already? That strikes me as peculiar, indeed. In fact, Hollywood seems very eager to push power elite themes. There's another global warming movie that just came out ("Cool It", which points out that the GW debate is driven by fear rather than facts but holds on to the basic premise that GW is happening).

There's always a movie glorifying the CIA in some manner (even RED, which is a pretty silly movie, paints the CIA in a "aw shucks, ain't they somethin" kind of manner). Then there's this whole slew of alien movies coming out " most of them portray the visitors as aggressors (the kind of ETs that we would need our global leaders to protect us from).

Click to view link
Click to view link
Click to view link

So many messages. So many memes!!

Reply from The Daily Bell

Wow, thanks.

  Posted by Zenbillionaire on 12/10/10 03:51 PM

@ John Danforth

"Consider things like 'trans fats'. Remember when butter was bad for you, and you were supposed to eat tubs of trans fats instead for your heart health? Eggs?"

Two of my personal favorite examples. We must know the same people?

This is another area of communication that has already seen improvement with growth of the internet, though the threat to its truth telling has already formed. I don't know if you've read any of my open challenges to the AGW theorists, but the original was published on a web site that received a fair readership.

While the majority of people who commented on the article raised either expressed reasoned skepticism of my thesis or open support of it, a very vocal minority (a single person near as I could tell) who fancied himself a master of trash mouth rhetoric managed to dominate the thread and chase away any who attempted real debate on the subject. It was a story I've seen played out many times on the internet and frankly it amazes me the Bell hasn't attracted its share of "contributors".

This forum proves, at least for a time, that the Internet can help expose charlatans in the scientific community and its important to recall that was one of its design purposes. I hope the Bell continues to take its responsibilities with the seriousness it has in the past.

I understand your comments on the politicization of "government science" and I agree. I think I've mentioned that I once worked for NASA. The worst of the whole lot where the ones who worked directly for the agency, but there were outstanding counter examples, Charles Townes was one who impressed me personally.

  Posted by John Danforth on 12/10/10 09:21 AM

@Zen,

Public funding of science has resulted in the inevitable politicization of science. Which is a nice way of saying they have destroyed the epistemology of science. Which is a nice way of saying that most information coming from 'science' is apt to be riddled with lies to support the official dogma of the day.

They no longer welcome the attention of being watched. They release peer-reviewed you-know-what and rely on a pliant press to parrot the sensationalized wonder-of-the-day, in order to get attention for more funding. It's not just global warming. Consider things like 'trans fats'. Remember when butter was bad for you, and you were supposed to eat tubs of trans fats instead for your heart health? Eggs? And so on.

The paranoid among us might easily conclude that the whole scene is a coordinated effort to discredit the field entirely. At least that has been the effect. The few real scientists I've corresponded with chafe under the political control where they work, chained with golden handcuffs from going elsewhere to do something productive. To me, that means they are neutralized.

  Posted by Zenbillionaire on 12/10/10 02:26 AM

@ John Danforth

"...they have constructed a tortuously beautiful and wonderfully serpentine set of justifications. The call it Dark Matter."

---

Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away

-- Antigonish, Hughes Mearns, 1899

  Posted by Zenbillionaire on 12/10/10 02:06 AM

@ DB

"Whatever NASA announces these days within a scientific context ought to be looked at skeptically"

Can we perhaps broaden this? All science should be looked at skeptically, not just NASA. Skepticism is the foundation of scientific method. I don't intend to be mean when I say you are drawing attention to the obvious because I know you understand what you are doing, but there may be readers out there who would be led to think NASA is a "culprit" to be watched. Not so! Every scientist needs to be watched like a hawk, and they welcome the attention. The scientific community is different from the political and financial community in that respect. Where it differs is in its pursuit of transparency, the idea that science must be reproducible by others, that methods and procedures must be recorded clearly.

I'd urge you to resist attacking NASA individually or science in general for this transgression. You should instead celebrate the rapid discovery of the error if in fact one has been made. That is the virtue of science and scientific discourse.

  Posted by John Danforth on 12/09/10 11:37 PM

Note to self:

Never read enterprise software advertisements on acid.

  Posted by AmanfromMars on 12/09/10 11:15 PM

Man is a real slow learner, isn't he, for it is not as if he hasn't been here before and been advised of his position/situation.

[blockquote]All You Need Is Love lyrics
Songwriters: Mccartney, Paul; Lennon, John;

(Love, love, love)
(Love, love, love)
(Love, love, love)

There's nothing you can do that can't be done
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy

There's nothing you can make that can't me made
No one you can save that can't be saved
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time
It's easy

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

(Love, love, love)
(Love, love, love)
(Love, love, love)

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

There's nothing you can know that isn't known
Nothing you can see that isn't shown
There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be
It's easy

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

All you need is love, all together now
All you need is love, everybody
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

Love is all you need
Love is all you need
Love is all you need
... [/blockquote]

  Posted by AmanfromMars on 12/09/10 11:02 PM

"He has blown up like the Beatles and Lady Gaga. It is almost impossible for this to happen unless the establishment has "chosen"to do so. Fact. No one gets this kind of coverage without a reason." ..... Reply from the Daily Bell.

Crikey, DB, that is an odd bipolar thing to say whenever it is more a case of the fuses being lit.

The establishment must surely be realising by now that [almost] anything is possible and the choices made to happen are not always, or are no longer, exclusively theirs. And speculation on who and/or on what would be drivering what is essentially a Virtual Machine [whether in AI or not] just buries/embeds the Meme deeper and more securely into the System, even as IT may reveal tangents exploring vulnerabilities and/or opportunities, which are always just a subject/object of semantic interpretation and ZerodDay Trade Analysis.

Is this .... Click to view link .... the establishment's doing? Something they are choosing to happen? Or is it/IT a NeuReal Virtual World Order System of Future Operands for Absolute Power with Fabulous Controls, for the former without the latter in the hands/hearts and minds of Minions is a Demonic Recipe for Disaster and Serial Disruption for the Assured Accompaniment and Delivery of Anarchy, is it not?

Do you believe that to ask the question implies the possibility and probability of a positive answer and thus would the posit above be more true than false?

"The academics are dangerous, because they know they can't compete with real world practioners. They seek control because they have little worth otherwise." .... Posted by Dogwood on 12/9/2010 5:15:09 PM

You may like to refine that crude supply, Dogwood, [to reflect the New Virtualisation and AIRealities] to more accurately deliver the flow which reveals that academics can be more than just dangerous whenever they compete with real world practitioners, which they invariably always can, and will, and do do. It is as well though to remember, so that one never forgets, that just as is the case in any discipline/walk of life, will there be an academic hierarchy of peers, with some being considerably smarter than Others and that allows for their Orders to Lead with Others Following.

  Posted by IndianaJohn on 12/09/10 08:48 PM

Can I add this to the discussion; Click to view link

  Posted by Darkaeye on 12/09/10 07:56 PM

I have a fridge magnet that emphatically states "If it walks out of the fridge on its own, set it free".

If the scientists at NASA are serious about discovering new alien life forms, I'd suggest they start in my refrigerator where leftovers time = fantastic biology experiment.

  Posted by Howard Bernbaum on 12/09/10 05:31 PM

Again I hesitate to share my thoughts.

I echo your statements about NASA. I have worked for more than one NASA contractor and in each case the experience was so deplorable I terminated my employment one way or another.

With Lockheed I resigned my position in five weeks and it would have been four if not for the absence of the individual I nominally reported to. The conditions were so lacking in professionalism I refused to be a party to it.

On the subject of UFOs, I was as skeptical as you. But then I saw one. As an engineer, I believe my powers of perception and objectivity are sharper than most. What I saw hovering over my house was no conventional vehicle. Further it was classical UFO shape and I could make out occupants in the clear dome topping the vehicle.

Distance prevented me from distinguishing details. After hovering for a time, it traveled west then north and accelerated to a velocity faster than any jet. Then it vanished. That was the only time I witnessed such a phenomena. I have reconstructed that viewing mentally many times and am convinced what I saw was not of this planet.

There have been many reports regarding UFO's over the centuries. I suggest a rereading of Ezekial in the Old Testament. What did the author of that chapter think Ezekial saw?

Sorry. UFO's are one subject that remain on the table. Maybe yes, maybe no. A real world contact would put the subject to rest.

Reply from The Daily Bell

Thanks for sharing Howard. Anyone is welcome to suggest anything on these boards without fear of mockery or attack.

Having said this Howard we only want to add: What a stupid sucker you are to believe in UFOs; your mother must have raised you wrong; maybe you are an only child and didn't get any attention when you were young; what are you a retard? You believe in UFOs, your IQ must be in the single digits; Can't believe you actually admitted to seeing a UFO; you call yourself a scientist? What a dingbat you are ...

Just kidding :-)

We have thought long and hard about UFOs - all us elves. We do continue to believe they are an elite promotion - but certainly there is the chance that UFOs are in fact alien space craft. Anything is possible ... And here you say you saw one yourself and are convinced ...

But ... are you sure the UFO you saw couldn't have been created with extant, human technology?

Just a thought.

And don't take our teasing the wrong way!

Thanks for writing.

  Posted by Dogwood on 12/09/10 05:15 PM

My first thought when I heard about this was, the academics need to call this alien because it didn't fit their models...

Just like BP capping the well didn't fit their models, or subprime CDOs blowing up didn't fit their models...

The academics are dangerous, because they know they can't compete with real world practioners. They seek control because they have little worth otherwise.

  Posted by TeresaE on 12/09/10 04:59 PM

@Silverlady.

I like you already. I, too, had read that article and it chilled me to the bone. How many times have we played with Mother Nature, just to have it backfire and damage us. Many times our cures turn out to be much worse than the disease itself.

NASA, after the recent (or soon) closure of the shuttle program, and off shoring of the jobs and knowledge to Russia (of all places), has to quickly find a reason to be relevant. Relevance to the complex/matrix, it now seems, is the only thing that matters because it most definitely keeps the public funds flowing.

Everywhere we turn these over-educated connected are working hard to "fix" something. Scary that it seems most of their fixes turn into our bigger problems.

  Posted by Regulat For Safety on 12/09/10 04:50 PM

Regarding MSM's comment
".........However I have not seen you post any compelling argument advancing that view."

OK, maybe not compelling, but it makes more sense (to me anyway) that the true purpose of Wikileaks is to open the door for internet censorship which is, no doubt, a priority with the elite powers. It could (I suppose) be contrued as an unintended consequence but (as DB points out) why all the publicity for something that is supposedly so objectionable? I would say they are building the case for regulating the internet. I think this is what DB has been shouting from the rooftops.

Reply from The Daily Bell

See tomorrow's Bell.

  Posted by Silver Lady on 12/09/10 03:13 PM

NASA may actually be accurate in stating a bacteria feeds off of arsenic, but inaccurate as to where it was discovered.

Not long ago Dr. Craig Venter, of Synthetic Genomics Inc. & J.Craig Venter Institute, created a synthetic bacteria. It has been nicknamed Synthia. Here is the disturbing article:
Click to view link

It states, "At the top of his (Venter's) wish list are bugs capable of producing clean biofuels and of sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Other possibilities include designer microbes that can mop up oil slicks or generate huge quantities of drugs, including the flu vaccine." Synthia is US Patent: 20070122826 & WIPO #: 2007047148

The U.N. expounds on the marvels of this patent in a document : Click to view link (gets really good on page 28!)

All of the funding for this came from Synthetic Genomics Inc.. Now, BP, bragging BP sometimes stand for Beyond Petroleum, has a sizable equity position and alliance with Synthetic Genomics.

Synthia's cousin was soon created: a synthetic bacteria that could eat hydrocarbons and survive the cold water depths, where the lakes of oil and tar now sit, so it could degrade it faster than any known natural bacteria. Then in the journal "Science", Terry Hazen from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory discovered in late May through early June 2010 that "a previously unknown species of cold-water hydrocarbon-eating bacteria have been feasting on the underwater oil plumes degrading them at accelerated rates."

BP and Synthetic Genomics scientists had already created self-replicating bacteria "wherein the assembled DNA molecule is a [synthetic] genome" back in 2007. BP is trying to fool Mother Nature and it may backfire. A good movie to watch all the way through "THE GULF BLUE PLAGUE: IT'S NOT WISE TO FOOL MOTHER NATURE" Click to view link In the end, it talks about Synthetic Genomics' new patent using this bacteria, which is anti-biotic resistant, in flu vaccines! What?

Click to view link

How does arsenic tie in with this? The Gulf of Mexico is loaded with it! According to Imperial College London in an early 2010 study, arsenic is a poisonous chemical element that is present in crude oil. High levels of arsenic in seawater can enable the toxin to enter the food chain and disrupt the photosynthesis process in marine plants. This increases the potential for genetic alterations which have been proven to cause birth defects and behavioral changes in all aquatic life. It can also kill animals, such as birds that feed on sea creatures affected by arsenic.

Click to view link

Click to view link

So here we possibly have an unknown bacteria (synthetic) that can thrive in arsenic. What does the U.N. have to do with it? Is NASA involved/a U.N. puppet? Is the Gulf being used as an incubator? More research is needed to fully be able to connect the dots. It certainly has the makings of another conspiracy of global proportions.

  Posted by MSM on 12/09/10 02:43 PM

@DB

Sorry, I didn't say you don't oppose militarism. I know you sincerely do. And it's *possible* for wikileaks to have some kind of connection to the establishment. However I have not seen you post any compelling argument advancing that view.

Reply from The Daily Bell

He has blown up like the Beatles and Lady Gaga. It is almost impossible for this to happen unless the establishment has "chosen"to do so. Fact. No one gets this kind of coverage without a reason.

  Posted by Bill on 12/09/10 01:02 PM

White Elephant but a tiny one compared to the USA Military-Industrial Complex. Actually Eisenhower wrote Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex but his speech editor deleted Congressional.

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