Michael Jackson’s ‘pioneer vision of cloning,’

After fielding numerous inquiries about the possible cloning of Michael Jackson, Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, head of Clonaid, today reaffirmed the company’s policy of strictly respecting the privacy of each of its patients.

“Clonaid prides itself on never releasing the identity of the numerous individuals who have been cloned in the past six years,” Boisselier said. “Even if that policy has been at the cost of my reputation, it’s important for us that the celebrities and other interested parties contacting us know they won’t be betrayed.”

Boisselier expressed admiration for Michael Jackson as an artist and also commended his courage in expressing support for human cloning at a time when it was getting much negative publicity in the press.

“Michael was a visionary who wasn’t afraid to embrace new technologies,” she said. “I’m glad his interest in cloning is being revealed now, since he was a pioneer in his views about it back in 2002 and his fans ought to know about it.”

“Human cloning is still making headlines six years after the birth of the first clone child,” Boisselier added. “But even if the media still present it as being too controversial, the public is much less afraid of it than it was initially. People have gotten used to the idea to the point where many see it as highly desirable. ”

She said that although the Clonaid team has received cloning requests from around the world, a surprisingly large number come from the Los Angeles/Hollywood area.

“Artists welcome our technology and have given us tremendous encouragement,” Boisselier noted. “Thanks to them, the public is getting more accustomed to the idea and hopefully the bans will soon be removed.”

She said Clonaid’s sister company, Stemaid, has launched an anti-aging program using stem cells derived from clone embryos.

“This development is also getting a good reception in the artists’ community,” she said.

Flying car

The flying car is on its way. An American company Terrafugia Transition, based near Boston, is set to unveil the dual-purpose car-cum-plane vehicle called 'The Flying Car' as early as 2011. The two-seater vehicle can let you fly if you wish to avoid the congested city traffic.

If you want to drive on the road, just touch the road. The vehicle will fold up its wings in 30 seconds and transform itself into a car.

"The Flying Car" can travel up to 725 kilometres in the air at a speed of more than 115 kilometres per hour.

Fuelled by gasoline, it has front wheel drive on the road and a propeller for flight.

With its wings folded, it can be parked in your ordinary car garage.

Its initial cost is expected to be around $200,000 (nearly Rs.1 crore), says the company which has already orders for 60 vehicles.

The CEO of the company told Canadian TV (CTV) network here that they have successfully test-flown "The Flying Car" as many as 28 times.

The tests have shown that the vehicle can drive, fly and switch from being a plane to a car in just 30 seconds.

"It (testing) has been very successful," Carl Dietrich, co-founder and CEO of Terrafugia, told the television network.

" We have got a very good handling vehicle and our test pilot said that the flights were just remarkably unremarkable - it just flies like a really nice, little airplane,” he said.

He said this miracle vehicle will ease problems for pilots who currently face problems like weather which sometimes doesn't allow them to take off or land.

"This vehicle allows a pilot any time, if the weather changes, to divert to the nearest airport, fold up their wings and drive safely under the weather."

"The Transition (the name for "The Flying Car" is not designed to replace the automobile. However, it will solve transportation issues for a variety of circumstances,” company vice president Richard Gersh said.

Asked whether the vehicle will be mass produced one day, he said: "That is certainly a possibility, but a number of years away."

He said the vehicle will be able travel on ordinary roads.

"Our depositors represent a wide-cross section in terms of age, interests, and intended use of the vehicle. We have deposits from both experienced pilots and non-pilots who intend to earn their Sport Pilot certificate," said the vice president of Terrafugia.

Curing infection with megnetism

An exciting new development on the horizon uses iron oxide beads coated with antibodies to seek out and trap bacteria or fungi causing infections. The beads are very fine, having the thickness one-hundreth of that of the human hair, and they are injected into the blood stream of patients. A dialysis like machine employs an an electronic to pull out the beads, along with the disease causing bacteria or fungi stuck to the antibodies on the beads, from the blood into the saline solution

About 80% of the disease causing agents are thus removed, making it much easier to tackle the rest with drugs.

The treatment is thought to be particularly useful when wounds become septic, and organ failures can take place before the drugs have a chance to act. A large number of sepsis related deaths occur each year. Animals trial taking place currently under the supervision of "Prof. Don-Ingber" at the Harvard medical school and Children's Hospital will be followed by human trials. The technique also has the potential of removing cancer cells or harvesting stem cells.

Controlling Robots by thought.

Honda has developed a special hat which, when worn, can control the movements of robots just by thought! The hat is in the form of skullcap that has highly sensitives electrodes fitted in it, which detect the electrical signals from the brain as well as the blood flow. The information is transmitted to the robot, which recognizes the intension of the person wearing the hat and act accordingly. This mind reading hat uses remote sensing sensors so that no surgical implants are needed.

'Immortal' human cells

Is it possible for cells that make up your body to continue to live and proliferate long after you have died? Indeed it is!

One striking example is that of Hela cells, so many named because they were taken from the cervix of a 31 year old African-American lady , Henrietta lacks in 1951 without her permission when she died of cervical cancer. These cells are still alive and kicking today. Some 50 millions metric tons (!) of the living cells have been produced in laboratories all over the world, and over 60,000 studies using them published on a wide range of such topics as ageing, cancer, cellular effects of working in sewers, mosquito mating.

What is so special about these cells is that they multiply abnormally rapidly as compare to other cancer cells, which make them very useful in research. The children of Henrietta Lacks first received the shocking news that their mother was 'alive' in form of these cells in 1973. By then the 'Hela' cells had been taken to outer space and spread worldwide, even contaminating many experiments as far as Russia, because of their extraordinary proliferation abilities.

Henrietta lacks live on in form of her living body cells. Her 'Hela' cells continue to benefit virology, biotechnology and medical research.

Wind energy from oceans

You have noticed when you visited the sea side that usually there is a strong wind blowing. The sea can, therefore, be an excellent choice for installing floating wind mils for several reasons. The wind speed are generally generated than on land, floating wind mils do not consume valuable land that can be use of agricultural or construction, and they do not bother resident unhappy with wind farms blocking their views.

The new technology has been applied on the sea about six miles off the cost of Norway. This has resulted in the installation of a 2.3 megawatt turbine, weighing 152 tones, on a floating platform which is tied to ocean floor by cables to avoid excessive turbulence. The project "Hywind" has been implemented by the Norwegian energy giant state oil, and the first floating wind turbine was installed in September last year. It will be tested over a 2 year period and then commercial floating wind farm will be installed on oceans.

The world energy consumption is mainly from oil (37 percent), coal (25 percent), gas (23- percent), nuclear (6 percent) and hydro (3 percent). Wind accounts for only 0.3 percent and solar heat only 0.5 percent of the total energy consumption. With the development of new technologies, renewable energy based on sun and wind are likely to contribute increasingly to the world energy profiles.

Energy from the sun

The sun bathes our plant with a huge amount of energy, about 85,000 terawatts, each year. Our annual consumption of energy, by comparison is only about 16 terawatts. This means that the sun provides about 5,000 times more energy than the world needs today. It seems silly, Therefore, that we are polluting our planet by burning fossil fuels where as so much abundant energy from the sun is largely going waste. This situation is now beginning to change rapidly and new technologies are emerging that the country where is shortage of electricity needs to make use of.

Solar cells are normally made of silicon wafers. These crystal line materials have achieved a commercial efficiency of 22 percent but the solar panels made from them are expensive. and largely suitable for remote areas where the grid system can not provide cheaper electricity. Thin-film solar cells produced from amorphous, nano-crystalline and some other form of silicon by chemical vapor deposition, have efficiencies of about nine percent, but they can be produced at one-fifth the cost and their efficiencies are improving rapidly.

However the most attractive form of solar energy involves the simple use of thousand of mirrors that can focus the energy of the sun on boilers located on towers. The steam generated by this energy from this 'Concentrating solar power' (CST) technology is heated to a temperature of up to 850 Fahrenheit, and used to drive turbines that generate electricity.

Google has funded a five megawatt facility near Los Angeles that involves 24,000 mirrors arranged in arrays on 20 acres of land. They are controlled by computers that focus the sun light on to the boilers. It is expected that the use of CST technology will double energy 16 months worldwide, increasing from 457 megawatts in 2007 to 6,400 megawatts by 2012.

The countries that have abundant sunshine and an acute shortage of electricity must use it.