Free Republic

Imagine that I’m a mad scientist (or perhaps just a geneticist who doesn’t blink an eye while fiddling with nature’s design) and I want to see what happens when I introduce substantial genetic changes into a chimpanzee.In my experimentation, I double the chimp’s height, change it’s hair color to yellow, induce mutations to change eye color, give it the ability to see better at night, increase muscle strength in its lower body so that it can jump long distances, and several dozen other changes. The end result looks different, acts different, has changes in physiology, its capacity to tolerate heat,...

Meat could be used in 3D printing to produce a soft food with specific nutrients and suitable for people who have problems with chewing or swallowing. By using a meat extract as ink, layer-by-layer, a food could be created that is as soft as butter and like meat, packed with nutrients. Meat and Livestock Australia was alerted to the possibility of red meat three-dimensional printing after seeing it done with chicken meat in Germany. The research, development and marketing body has investigated a way to turn every last bit of meat from the bone into a high value product and...

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress Summary How It All Goes Down Book 1: That Dinkum Thinkum Manuel Garcia O'Kelly-Davis, or Mannie for short, goes on a routine computer repair job… only to learn that the super computer has gained self-awareness. It's just another day in a science fiction world, really. Mannie befriends the personality—naming it Mike—and helps it gain an understanding of human behavior. To this end, Mike requests Mannie bring a recorder to a "Sons of Revolution" rally.When the Warden's bodyguard busts in to arrest everybody, Mannie helps revolutionary Wyoming Knott escape, and like all classic heroes, he gets dragged...

It’s supposed to be the most fundamental constant in physics, but the speed of light may not always have been the same. This twist on a controversial idea could overturn our standard cosmological wisdom. In 1998, Joao Magueijo at Imperial College London, proposed that the speed of light might vary, to solve what cosmologists call the horizon problem. This says that the universe reached a uniform temperature long before heat-carrying photons, which travel at the speed of light, had time to reach all corners of the universe. The standard way to explain this conundrum is an idea called inflation, which...

* Salk Institute scientists have used new technique to cure rats' blindness * It is the first time anyone has edited DNA in eyes, heart, brain or liver * These organs' cells rarely divide, making them very difficult to penetrate * So far the most advanced method is called CRISPR, which can edit skin and gut genes - it was tested yesterday by Chinese scientists * But Salk's study has been hailed as biggest leap in DNA research to date Scientists have discovered how to edit DNA to repair 'broken genes' to cure incurable diseases - and potentially extend human...

You’ve seen the story multiple times already: a Christian baker declines to cater a gay wedding, and gets sued in the process. The most publicized came out of Oregon, where the bakery Sweet Cakes by Melissa chose not to bake a wedding for a same-sex wedding. Rachel Bowman-Cryer and her mother visited Sweet Cakes planning to order a wedding cake. Bowman-Cryer had purchased a cake previously from the Kleins for her mother’s sixth wedding. Bowman-Cryer wanted to have the same cake she had purchased for her mother. That’s when Aaron Klein asked what the name of the bride and groom...

The demand for body organs to be used for transplantation is undoubtedly very high. In fact, US Department of Health and Human Services statistics show that in the U.S., there are currently 119,966 people that need an organ transplant to live. However, there only have been 11,777 organ donors as of October 2016. Another morbid fact that society faces today is that more and more evidence of organ trafficking is being exposed, with reports that some of these body organs like kidneys and livers sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars in the black market. There is a need obviously...

William Mason -- Unknown Genius, Gunsmith, Inventor Dear Friends, Every once in a while, I'll find someone who really needs to be talked about. And as my regular readers already know, I talk a lot about the real Old West and those who have contributed significantly to our history. And yes, as most of you know, I like talking about people who are not very well known. Yes, the unsung heroes, lawmen, great inventors, the pioneers who have taken a back seat to the more glamorized individuals made famous in Dime Novels, and later Hollywood. As for great American...

"Conflicted." That's the word political scientist Helmut Norpoth used to describe his current lot in life, one that finds his professional credibility intertwined with a politician who appears to have less and less of it: Donald J. Trump. With mind-boggling confidence, Norpoth's "Primary Model," his heretofore successful election forecast system, projects Trump to win the presidential election in less than two weeks. The model puts the odds of this above 87 percent. And despite a blizzard of public polls to the contrary, Norpoth isn't hedging his bet. Instead, with invocations of "Dewey Beats Truman," he's calling into question the consensus...

Todd Orr Relied on Bear Spray instead of the Pistol he had with him While discussing the effectiveness of pistols to defend against bear attacks, a consistent theme is the claim that pistols are not effective, are difficult to use, and that many more people who use handguns are badly mauled than use pistols successfully. I tried to recall an incident where someone used a pistol in defense against a bear, where it did not work.  I could not remember one, so I posted this request in response to the claim. From freerepublic.com: “Actually, there are legions of people...

"[Three-dimensional] printing brings something to magnet design which we could previously only dream of," said researcher Dieter Süss. VIENNA, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- From a technological perspective, making a powerful magnet is no problem. Precisely controlling the shape of magnet's magnetic field, however, has proven difficult -- until now. Engineers at TU Wien have for the first time designed and produced magnets using a 3D printer. The method offers scientists newfound control over the size and shape of the magnetic field, allowing them to produce magnets that better meet the needs of a range of technologies. "The strength of a...

From chisumatic.mee.nu: "37 Steven DenBeste has passed away. I just received a call from his brother. I have no other details. Posted by: The Brickmuppet at October 24, 2016 08:58 AM (KicmI)"

It keeps being said that US intel says Wikileaks is from Russian hackers. The article at https://www.threatconnect.com/blog/does-a-bear-leak-in-the-woods/ gives some of the "evidence". I know nothing about this, but if some Freepers with knowledge could weigh in on the validity of this assessment I would appreciate it. Please use language appropriate for a computer idiot. =)

Researchers at Penn State, the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company have developed methods to control defects in two-dimensional materials, such as graphene, that may lead to improved membranes for water desalination, energy storage, sensing or advanced protective coatings. For a two-dimensional, one-atom-thick material like graphene, defects such as small cracks or holes can make a big difference in performance. Usually, these defects are considered undesirable. But if the defects can be controlled, they can be used to engineer new, desirable properties into the material. "As long as you can control defects, you...

The perfect storm for a humanitarian and public health disaster is brewing in the U.S. and the mainstream media is largely ignoring it. It’s the politically incorrect elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. With the influx of well over one million new persons each year not born in the U.S, diseases that rarely occurred or were eliminated have begun to re-emerge, putting all Americans at risk. Breitbart reports, “Until recently, most Americans believed these diseases were gone from our shores for good. But a politicized public health system and a rise in the subsidized migration...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Low-income families who want to visit the Science Museum of Virginia will now get to do it at a fraction of the cost. Local media outlets report that the museum will charge an exhibit admission fee of $1 per child and $2 per adult to families who have an Electronic Benefit Transfer card. If they pay an additional $1, they can watch a movie in the museum's Dome Theatre. EBT cards are used by low-income families to pay for things like groceries....

The downturn in the accuracy of polling seems to have picked up steam in 2012, after major pollsters Rasmussen (which is right-leaning) and Gallup (which is not) showed that Republican challenger Mitt Romney would best incumbent President Barack Obama. Obviously, Romney did not win, and Gallup ended up holding a news conference about the errors in its polling and correcting its methodology. Gallup listed four reasons why its polls were so wrong, including the way it weighted white respondents and categorized likely voters. Not every pollster was wrong about the 2012 election. The Real Clear Politics average ended up being...

No link at source. Question: Regarding long term storage of gasoline are there any stabilizer alternatives other than Stabil? What was used prior to Stabil? Does non-ethanol Gasoline keep longer than the ethanol type? Google has a mess of stuff that mostly circled back to Stabil. Thank-you for helping.

Let's move to Mars You may have noticed in recent news headlines, one company “here” is getting sued by the government “there” for multi-billions and another company “there” is getting sued for similar billions by the government “here.” Is it just a coincidence or something of a “tit-for-tat” game? Frankly, I’m not sure. Perhaps each side has some legitimate reasons to complain.