FTW - February 14, 2002 -- How many microbiologists does it take to change a light bulb?
Whatever you think the answer may be, change that light bulb soon. Microbiologists are dropping like flies.
In the two-week period from December 12, 2001 through December 23, 2001, five world-class microbiologists in different parts of the world were reported dead. Four undoubtedly died of "unnatural" causes, while the fifth's death is quite questionable.
In the ten weeks prior to December 12, 2001, two additional microbiologists were killed, and possibly another five. The period also saw the deaths of three Israelis holding high-level positions in either medical research or public health.
On December 10, 2001, Dr. David Schwartz, 57, was found murdered in his rural home in Loudon County, Virginia.
On December 12, 2001, Dr. Benito Que was found comatose in the street near the laboratory where he worked at the University of Miami Medical School.
On December 14, 2001, Set Van Nguyen was found dead in the airlock entrance to the walk-in refrigerator in the laboratory he worked at in Victoria State, Australia.
On November 16, 2001, Dr. Don C. Wiley, 57, vanished, and his abandoned rental car was found on the Hernando de Soto Bridge outside Memphis, TN.
And on December 23, 2001, Dr. Vladimir Pasechnik, 64, was found dead in Wiltshire, England, a village near his home.
Before these deaths, on October 4, 2001, a commercial jetliner traveling from Israel to Novosibirsk, Siberia was shot down over the Black Sea by an "errant" Ukrainian surface-to-air missile, killing all on board. The missile was over 100 miles off-course. Despite early news stories reporting it as a charter, the flight (Air Sibir 1812) was a regularly scheduled flight. According to several press reports, including a 12/05/01 article by Barry Chamish and one on 1/13/02 by Jim Rarey (both available at www.rense.com), the plane is believed by many in Israel to have had as many as four or five passengers who were microbiologists. Both Israel and Novosibirsk are homes for cutting-edge microbiological research. Novosibirsk is known as the scientific capital of Siberia. There are over 50 research facilities there, and 13 full universities for a population of only 2.5 million people.
At about the time of the Black Sea crash, Israeli journalists had been sounding the alarm that two Israeli microbiologists had been murdered, allegedly by terrorists. On November 24, 2001 a Swissair flight from Berlin to Zurich crashed on its landing approach. 9 passengers did survive the November 24, 2001 Swissair crash outside Zurich. Killed in the crash, the head of the Hematology department at Israel's Ichilov Hospital, as well as directors of the Tel Aviv Public Health Department and Hebrew University School of Medicine. They were the only Israelis on the flight. The names of those killed, as reported in a subsequent Israeli news story but not matched to their job titles, were Avishai Berkman, Amiramp Eldor and Yaacov Matzner.
Besides all being microbiologists, the five scientists who died within two weeks of each other pose severe problems with "official" explanations of their deaths. And four of the five were doing virtually identical research; research that has global political and financial significance.
Dr. Robert M. Schwartz was a founding member of the Virginia Biotechnology Association, and the Executive Director of Research and Development at Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology. He was extremely well respected in biophysics, and regarded as an authority on DNA sequencing. Co-workers became concerned when he didn't show up at his office, and he was later found dead at home. Loudon County Sheriff's officials said he was "apparently" stabbed. It has been theorized that Dr. Schwartz may have interrupted a burglary in progress. Nothing, however, has indicated that investigators found evidence of unauthorized entry, or anything missing. An adult and two teen-agers have been arrested in the case. The three are said to have a fascination with both swords and Satanism, and the murder may have been part of a ritual. The Loudon County Sheriff Criminal Investigation Division will not release any additional information on the case, which remains open.
Dr. Benito Que was found comatose on a street in Miami, FL. He had left his job at a research laboratory at the University of Miami Medical School, apparently heading for his Ford Explorer parked on NW 10th Ave. The Miami Herald, in its only story on Dr. Que, referred to the death as an "incident", and quoted Miami police as saying his death may have been the result of a mugging. Police made this statement despite saying there was a lack of visible trauma to Dr. Que's body. Among Dr. Que's friends and family there is firm belief that Dr. Que was attacked by four men, at least one of whom had a baseball bat. Dr. Que's death has now been officially ruled "natural", caused by cardiac arrest. Both the Dade County medical examiner and the Miami Police will not comment on the case, saying it is closed. The public relations office at the University of Miami Medical School says only that Dr. Que was a cell biologist, involved in oncology research in the hematology department.
Set Van Nguyen was found dead at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization's animal diseases facility in Geelong, Australia. He had worked there 15 years. In January, 2001, the magazine Nature published information that two scientists at this facility, using genetic manipulation and DNA sequencing, had created an incredibly virulent form of mousepox, a cousin of smallpox. The researchers were extremely concerned that if similar manipulation could be done to smallpox, a terrifying weapon could be unleashed.
According to Victoria Police, Nguyen died after entering a refrigerated storage facility. "He did not know the room was full of deadly gas which had leaked from a liquid nitrogen cooling system, Unable to breathe, Mr. Nguyen collapsed and died" says the official report.
Nitrogen is not a "deadly" gas, and is a part of the air. An extreme over-abundance of nitrogen in one's immediate atmosphere would gradually cause shortness of breath, lightheadedness, and fatigue; conditions a biologist would certainly recognize. Additionally, a nitrogen leak in a laboratory's refrigerator system sufficient to fill the room with nitrogen would set off gas system alarms, and would be so massive as to cause complete failure of the refrigeration system, causing the temperature to rise, also setting off alarms that every one of these systems is equipped with as a standard safety procedure.
A MEMPHIS MYSTERY
Dr. Don C. Wiley, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Harvard University, was one of the most prominent microbiologists in the world. He had won many of the field's most prestigious awards, including the 1995 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for work that could make anti-viral vaccines a reality. He was heavily involved in research on DNA sequencing, and was last seen at around midnight on December 16, leaving the St. Jude's Children's Research Advisory Dinner at The Peabody Hotel in Memphis, TN. Associates attending the dinner said he showed no signs of intoxication, and no one has admitted to drinking with him.
His rented Mitsubishi Galant was found about four hours later, abandoned on a bridge across the Mississippi River, headed towards Arkansas. Keys were in the ignition, the gas tank full, but the hazard flashers had not been turned on. Wiley's body was found on December 20, snagged on a tree along the Mississippi River in Vidalia, LA, 300 miles south of Memphis. During this four-day period Dr. Wiley's death was handled as a "missing person" case and police did no forensic examinations.
Early reports about Wiley's disappearance made no mention of paint marks on his car, or a missing hubcap which turned up in subsequent reports. The type of accident needed to knock off the hubcaps (actually a complete wheel cover) used on recent model Galants would have caused marked damage to the sheet metal on either side of the wheel, and probably the wheel itself. No body or wheel damage to the car has been reported.
Wiley's car was found about a five minute drive from the hotel where he was last seen. There is a four-hour period in his evening that cannot be accounted for. There is also no explanation as to why he would have been headed into Arkansas late at night. Dr. Wiley was staying at his father's home in Memphis.
The Hernando de Soto Bridge carries Interstate 40 out of Memphis, across the Mississippi River into Arkansas. It was early Sunday morning (or late Saturday night depending on your point of view) in one of America's premier music and nightclub towns. The traffic on the bridge was reduced to a single lane in each direction. This would have caused all eastbound traffic out of Saturday-night, Christmas-season Memphis to slow down and travel in one lane. Anything in the other two closed lanes would have been plainly obvious to every passing person. There are no known witnesses to Dr. Don Wiley stopping his car on the bridge.
On January 14, 2002 (over three weeks later) Shelby County Medical Examiner O.C. Smith announced that his department had ruled Dr. Wiley's death to be "accidental"; the result of massive injuries suffered in a fall from the Hernando de Soto Bridge. Smith said there were paint marks on Wiley's rental car similar to the paint used on construction signs on the bridge, and that the car's right front hubcap was missing. There has been no report as to which construction signs Dr. Wiley hit. There is also no explanation as to why this evidence did not move the Memphis police to consider possibilities other than "missing person."
Mr. Smith theorizes that Wiley pulled over to the outermost lane of the bridge (that lane being closed at the time) to inspect the damage to his car. Smith's subsequent explanation for the fall requires several other things to have occurred simultaneously:
· Dr. Wiley had to have had one of the two or three seizures he has per year due to a rare seizure disorder known only to family and close friends, that seizure being brought on by use of alcohol earlier that evening;
· A passing truck creating a huge blast of wind, roadway bounce due to heavy traffic; and, · Dr. Wiley had to be standing right at the edge of the guard rail which, because of Wiley's 6' 3" height, would have come only to his mid-thigh.
These conditions would have put Wiley's center of gravity above the rail, and the seizure would have caused him to lose balance as the truck created the bounce and blast, causing him to fall off the bridge.
First off, I thought I read he went off the old bridge, next you go west to leave Memphis.
Memphis is on the east bank of the river.
I am going to have to break down and drive the 20 miles or so from my home to the bridge and look at that rail. My recollection is that the rail is CHEST HIGH to a 6' tall man. Thigh-high would make it, what? Maybe 3 feet at the MOST? That's ludicrous. A three foot tall rail on a bridge a hundred feet above the mighty Mississippi? Admittedly, there is LITTLE foot traffic, but nonetheless, there is a sidewalk for pedestrian traffic, and it would have a railing of adequate height. Heck---I'll go measure it soon; my new grandson lives (with his mom and dad) only maybe five miles or so from the river there.
It's one little overreach like this that makes it impossible for me to forward this to my microbioligist friend. Any chemical concentration that can kill you is "TOXIC." Air is 80% nitrogen. Flush it with more than that and you'll silently asphyxiate. Many telecom lines are pressurized with nitrogen, too, and if they leak into a small space--and you breathe it--you'll be dead before you know it. Plain old water is toxic too if you drink too much of it!
This could be part of a nefarious plot, but people can easily die from nitrogen poisoning. "The bends" are pretty ugly, too. Also nitrogen induced.
Leni
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
The Mirror
February 13, 2002, Wednesday
NEWS; Pg. 4
RIDDLE OF DEAD DOC
Aidan Mcgurran
THE half-naked body of a leading university scientist has been found at his home. Police discovered Dr Ian Langford's body under a chair.
His terraced house had been ransacked.
A colleague of 40-year-old Dr Langford, at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, said: "He was a brilliant academic."
Norfolk police said: "The death is being treated as suspicious."
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
Guardian Home Pages, Pg. 8The Guardian (London)
February 13, 2002
In brief: Inquiry into scientist's death
Police are investigating the death of research scientist Ian Langford, 40, a senior fellow at East Anglia University, who was found naked from the waist down and wedged under a chair at his blood-spattered home.
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
Press Association
February 13, 2002, WednesdayPOLICE RULE OUT FOUL PLAY OVER SCIENTIST'S DEATH
Brian Farmer PA News
Detectives today said that they had ruled out the possibility that a scientist whose body was found at his home died as a result of foul play.
Ian Langford, 40, a senior researcher in the field of environmental risk at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, was found dead at his home in Norwich late on Monday.
A spokeswoman for Norfolk police today said that following post mortem tests police had decided that Dr Langford's death was not suspicious. It is understood that Dr Langford had wounds on his body.
Officers are now believed to be working on the theory that the injuries were either self-inflicted or sustained accidentally.
The spokeswoman said a report would be prepared for the coroner.
The university paid tribute to Dr Langford, who was said to be outstanding in his field.
Professor Kerry Turner, director of the University's Centre for Social and Economic Research in the Global Environment, said: "We are all very shocked by this appalling news.
"Ian was without doubt, one of Europe's leading experts on environmental risk, specialising in links between human health and environmental risk.
"He was one of the most brilliant colleagues I have ever had, both as an individual researcher and as a team player.
"He will be greatly missed at UEA."
Dr Langford, who was based in Professor Turner's department, is understood to have worked at the university for about eight years.
His death is the latest in a series of tragedies to have hit the university in the past two years.
Critically acclaimed author Professor W G Sebald died in a road accident in December, literary critic and English professor Lorna Sage died in January last year after a long illness, and in November 2000 novelist and American Studies Professor Sir Malcolm Bradbury died at the age of 68, also after a long illness.
I think you mean well, but it is tinfoil.