A dangerous and deadly bacteria has been released from a high-security laboratory in Louisiana.
The release of Burkholderia pseudomallei from the Tulane National Primate Research Center has been the subject of investigations by multiple federal and state organizations but none has been able to explain the cause of the release or even how much bacteria has contaminated the land in the area.
The lab, 35 miles north of New Orleans, is just the latest safety breach at some of the biggest laboratories in the nation.
“The fact that they can’t identify how this release occurred is very concerning,” Richard Ebright, a biosafety expert from Rutgers University, told USA Today.
The scientists at the lab say that four monkeys that were never used in the experiments have been confirmed to have exposure to the virus. A federal investigator became ill after visiting the facility and tested positive for the virus. The scientist will make a full recovery.
“We’re taking this extraordinarily seriously. It’s very disturbing to us,” said Andrew Lackner, director of the Tulane primate center. “Right from the beginning we’ve spent an enormous amount of time trying to figure out how this could have happened.”
Lackner says there is no public health threat.
British scientists say they have found the key to stopping Alzheimer’s disease in the early stages.
The study at Cambridge University could lead to a “statin-like” drug that could be prescribed to stop dementia.
The scientists found a naturally occurring molecule that slows down the formation of plaque in the brain. The plaques are closely connected to memory loss and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
“This is the starting point for finding a drug that stops Alzheimer’s disease in its tracks. It might be used when the first symptoms appear. But another potential approach is that people would take it as a preventative drug,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Samuel Cohen.
The molecules that slow the plaque are Brichos, a family of proteins that naturally exist in human lungs. Testing in mice showed the molecules stick to fibrils and stop them from forming more plaques.
“There may well be lots of other molecules like this – we just have not been looking until now because it was not clear what to look for,” Dr. Cohen said.
“People could take them in their 60s to stop these proteins grouping together, well before the symptoms appear, which would reduce the risk of developing the devastating effects of this disease.”
A Gallup survey finds that many Americans are not happy with the current laws regarding abortion in the nation and those who are dissatisfied want stricter laws by a 2-1 margin.
The poll showed that only 34 percent of Americans are satisfied with current abortion law. That’s the lowest since Gallup began polling on the question.
Almost half, 48 percent, are dissatisfied with current policies. Twenty-four percent want stricter laws while the remaining 24 percent was split evenly between keeping the laws the same despite their dissatisfaction and making abortion easier to obtain.
Those polled who identified as Republicans showed the greatest level of increasing dissatisfaction with abortion laws. Satisfaction with the laws has fallen from 42 percent to 26 percent in the last three years.
Democrats and independent voters have stayed roughly the same when it came to their satisfaction levels. However, among independents, the dissatisfied would like to see stricter laws by a margin of 25 to 9 percent.
The polling had a margin of error of four percentage points.
A Christian persecution watchdog group announced that the level of Christian persecution last year was the highest worldwide since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Open Doors USA said that 2014 was far more violent than 2013 and that it was the worst year of persecution since the group started tracking violence against Christians 24 years ago.
“Perhaps most chilling is the fact that all the factors, all of the issues that made this a violent year for Christian persecution are still in place,” said David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors, at the press conference.
“During the past reporting period we can confirm that 4,344 people were executed or murdered for their faith in Jesus Christ. Over twice that of the previous reporting period.”
The comments from Curry came as Open Doors USA released their annual list of the countries where Christian persecution is the highest.
North Korea maintains the number one spot for the thirteenth year in a row.
Somalia, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, Eritrea, and Nigeria round out the top 10.
Africa had the most countries on the list and Islamic terrorism was the driving force in 40 of 50 nations.
Scientists have used the cells from aborted babies to create a mouse that has a brain that is “half human.”
“Researchers took the immature glial cells from donated human fetuses and injected them into mouse pups,” the New Scientist reports. “The cells developed into star-shaped glial cells known as astrocytes. 300,000 human cells were injected into each mouse, but 12 months later that number had increased to 12 million. The mouse’s own glial cells had been driven out by human astrocytes which are up to 20 times larger than those in mice.”
The scientists would not confirm that the tissue used came from aborted children.
The reports say that the “half human” mice showed significantly higher intelligence than their all mouse counterparts.
The scientists said they had considered using monkeys for the tests but stayed with mice “due to ethical concerns.”
The Centers for Disease Control has reported that over 200 babies are aborted for every 1,000 that are born in America.
Roughly one abortion for every five live births.
The report covers all 50 states for the year 2011. The study found that 730,322 women killed their babies via abortion that year. A study released by Planned Parenthood that year celebrated their ending the lives of 333,964 babies…meaning that the organization killed over 46% of the children who died via abortion.
“Among the 37 areas that reported by marital status for 2011, 14.5% of all women who obtained an abortion were married and 85.5% were unmarried,” the report states. “The abortion ratio was 43 abortions per 1,000 live births for married women and 373 abortions per 1,000 live births for unmarried women.”
The study also showed a shocking amount of teenagers are ending up pregnant and seeking abortions.
“In 2011, adolescents aged … 15–19 years accounted for … 13.5% of all abortions,” it said, “and had abortion rates of … 10.5 abortions per 1,000 adolescents aged … 15–19 years.”
The study did not include the number of women who died in 2011 from obtaining an abortion.
A new study from LifeWay shows almost a quarter of American families have sought help from church food pantries to meet their needs.
The survey of 1,158 families found that 22 percent have “relied on a church program to feed their families.” Only 26 percent of those families were churchgoers and only one third said they were Christians.
“There is an abundance of food in the U.S., but plenty of people still go hungry,” LifeWay Research vice president Scott McConnell said.
The food bank network Feeding America said that 50 million Americans struggle to put food on the table.
“Many churches respond by faithfully following the biblical principle of being open handed to the poor and needy by maintaining well-stocked food pantries to share,” McConnell said.
A new study at Johns Hopkins says a virus that infects human brains has been discovered and the virus lowers human intelligence.
The algae virus impacts cognitive functions including visual process and special awareness according to a report in the Independent UK newspaper.
The study by scientists at Johns Hopkins and the University of Nebraska started completely by accident during an investigation into throat microbes. The DNA of virus that infects green algae was found in the throats of healthy individuals.
“This is a striking example showing that the ‘innocuous’ microorganisms we carry can affect behavior and cognition,” Dr. Robert Yolken told the Independent.
In the study, 40 people in 90 tested positive for the algae virus. All 40 of the positive subjects scored lower on tests to measure speed and accuracy of visual processing. They also had lower attention spans.
The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A new study on the Ebola virus says that if temperatures are close to freezing such as in the winter months the virus can live for two months outside of the body.
The study showed the virus lived over seven weeks on glass surfaces at temperatures around 39 degrees. The UK’s Defense Science and Technology Laboratory found the Zaire strain of the virus could live 50 days on glass surfaces.
The tests were reportedly carried out before the current outbreak, in 2010, but the results had not been released to the public.
‘This study has demonstrated that filoviruses are able to survive and remain infectious, for extended periods when suspended within liquid and dried onto surfaces,’ explained the researchers to the Daily Mail. ‘Data from this study extend the knowledge on the survival of filoviruses under different conditions and provide a basis with which to inform risk assessments and manage exposure.’
The CDC has said the virus can live for hours on doorknobs or other dry surfaces and they reiterated the importance of using an alcohol based hand sanitizer and to not touch any surface that may have come in contact with someone who has Ebola.
Pro-life leaders are raising the alarm regarding the “Ice Bucket Challenge” that has raised millions of dollars for the ALS Association.
The ALS Association supports destruction of human embryos so they can be used in research.
“It is noble to combat a deadly disease, and the ice bucket challenge definitely puts a fun spin on philanthropic efforts. That’s why it’s such a shame that the ALS Association, while striving to save some people, chooses to support research that thrives from experimenting on and killing tiny, innocent human beings,” Lila Rose, president of the pro-life advocacy group Live Action, said in a statement.
“Embryonic stem cell research, which requires the destruction of pre-born people, is inherently unethical and a violation of fundamental human rights, and even materialists must admit that promises of its benefits have failed to deliver. There is no good reason to condone this practice; in fact, all it does is taint the ALS Association, whom I’d otherwise be happy to support.”
The Catholic Church has also come out against the challenge on the sole basis that the ALS Association endorses embryonic stem cell research.
Father Michael Duffy suggests that as an alternative, Christians give to the John Paul II Medical Research Institute because they do research without using embryonic stem cells.
