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Two Chinese nationals have been charged with allegedly smuggling into the U.S. a fungus called "Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon," the Justice Department said Tuesday. Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, citizens of the People’s Republic of China, were allegedly receiving Chinese government funding for their research, some of which at the University of Michigan, the Justice Department said.

A group of isolated researchers has been stranded for months on end in the most inhospitable environment – until one of the team members goes rogue, sexually harassing and eventually threatening to kill a female colleague. That could be the plot of a successful thriller or horror film. Still, unfortunately, this is reportedly what’s happening in real life to a group of South African scientists trapped in the tiny Sanae IV base in Antarctica. The story broke in the outer world because a member of the research station sent out an email to a major newspaper pleading for rescue after...

Senate Democrats are very worried about just one Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) aide set to gain access to an IRS system after the Biden administration authorized 53 researchers and student volunteers – and hundreds of additional individuals – to access unmasked IRS data, an inspector general report detailed in September. The contradiction underscores the political success of DOGE’s initiative to cut waste, fraud, and abuse. Not only is the Trump administration seeking to save taxpayers money, but it is also forcing Democrats into a corner to presumably support waste, fraud, and abuse. Democrat Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Elizabeth...

Artificial intelligence systems are training themselves to do all sorts of things that they were never intended to do. They are literally teaching themselves new languages, they are training themselves to become “proficient in research-grade chemistry without ever being taught it” and they have learned to “lie and manipulate humans for their own advantage”. So what happens when these super-intelligent entities become powerful enough to start exerting control over the world around them? And what happens if these super-intelligent entities start merging with spiritual entities? In fact, could it be possible that there is evidence that this is already happening?

We’re barking up the wrong trees. A new study reveals that a majority of the 7 million trees in New York City are emitting “volatile compounds” that do more harm than good for our air quality — especially during scorching heat. “We’re all for planting more trees. They bring so many good things,” said study coauthor Róisín Commane, an atmospheric chemist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “But if we’re not careful, we could make air quality worse.” The arbors in question include oaks and sweetgums which produce high volumes of a chemical composition called isoprenes — and they’re rooted...

Republican lawmakers advanced a bill Wednesday that would ban funding of research labs controlled by North Korea, China, and other adversarial nations. Democrats say the move will put America’s national security at risk... To Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, led by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.), these measures unravel "the hard-fought credibility and influence the United States has earned as a global leader," the lawmakers said in a press release Wednesday. "The bill threatens our national security and puts the American people and global health at risk," the Democrats added. DeLauro accused Republicans during a markup hearing Wednesday of...

Former National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Disease (NAIAD) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci and a dozen other directors of the National Institutes for Health (NIH) appear not to have been legally appointed to their offices, according to a year-long investigation by House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans. Mr. Fauci and the others were to serve five-year terms, beginning not later than Dec. 13, 2021, but repeated requests since March 2022 to Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra by the committee for documents verifying the appointments were delayed or ignored, according to GOP committee aides speaking on background. Because...

The Office of the Inspector General dropped a new report about the relationship between the National Institutes of Health, the EcoHealth Alliance, and the facilities that received grants from the organization.The contents do not reflect well on either the NIH or the EcoHealth Alliance. They were playing with fire, knew it, and failed to ensure that safety was front and center when messing with microbes.The report is entitled quite sexily: THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH AND ECOHEALTH ALLIANCE DID NOT EFFECTIVELY MONITOR AWARDS AND SUBAWARDS, RESULTING IN MISSED OPPORTUNITIES TO OVERSEE RESEARCH AND OTHER DEFICIENCIES.Catchy title, as you would expect...

I viewed and recorded all five hours of U.S. Senator Ron Johnson's very well done panel discussion entitled, COVID-19: A SECOND OPINION, today, January 24, 2022, 9:00am to 2:00pm Eastern. I believe the education herein is of particular importance to us all. Please listen for the section (near the end) on the effect vaccines can have on reproduction, especially on the female ovaries, and women in their menopausal state. Do you want healthy children and grandchildren? I viewed the live video myself in real time (Monday, January 24, 2022 9am to 2pm) and produced a separate audio recording. I produced...

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, has asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to explain why prosecutors have dropped a series of cases connected with the Justice Department’s (DOJ) clampdown on Chinese espionage.In July, federal prosecutors filed motions to dismiss charges against six Chinese researchers who had been accused of hiding their ties to Chinese institutions or the Chinese military. The DOJ said at the time that “recent developments” in those cases had prompted the department to “re-evaluate these prosecutions,” stating that the dismissals were made “in the interest of justice.”However, other reports have suggested...

This will disappear 21 minute video raising serious questions I don't have an answer so I post it for others

Beijing is threatening to take Americans in China hostage if the Department of Justice doesn’t drop its prosecution of several Chinese research scientists arrested on U.S. soil this year, according to a report on Saturday. Chinese government officials have repeatedly warned their U.S. counterparts that Americans in China face being detained if its demands are not met, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. The drastic action — dubbed “hostage diplomacy” — would be in retaliation for the arrests of at least five Chinese military-affiliated scholars visiting American universities to conduct research. The scientists were charged...

Six researchers who resigned last month from Florida’s Moffitt Cancer Center admitted to opening secret bank accounts in China to hide millions that they received from China’s Thousand Talents programme, say the preliminary findings of an internal investigation. Among the six were Alan List, Moffitt’s president and chief executive officer, and the centre’s director, Thomas Sellers. They are the latest and most senior researchers to lose their jobs in a nationwide hunt for academics suspected of working for China, in what US authorities claim is an organised attempt to steal intellectual property. At least 200 people are being investigated at...

Nanofabbed bots are small enough to be delivered via syringe, raising all sorts of fantastic voyage possibilities. Nick Carne reports. How do you build a very big army of very small robots? Start with a 10-centimetre silicon wafer. That’s what engineers from the University of Pennsylvania in the US did to create a million of them in just a few weeks using nanofabrication techniques borrowed from the semiconductor industry. Each robot is wirelessly powered, able to walk and survive harsh environments, and tiny enough to be injected through an ordinary hypodermic needle, which opens up all manner of possibilities. "When...

Full Title: Terrifying insights into climate change could build legislative momentum for emissions cuts, researchers argue New research in climate science indicates that extreme events, such as heat waves, the collapse of major ice sheets, and mass extinctions are becoming dramatically more probable. Though cuts in rising emissions appear unlikely with the stalled 2015 Paris agreement, University of California San Diego scientists argue that new developments present an opportunity to shift the politics around climate change. For the first time, scientists can make a strong case that no one is exempt from the extreme and immediate risks posed by a...

A leading researcher on a ridiculed taxpayer-funded study of duck penises is now using her expertise on orca whales and is going to the "March for Science" to protest budget cuts. Patricia Brennan, a visiting lecturer at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, worked on the duck penis study that received $384,949 from the National Science Foundation, a grant that was funded through the 2009 stimulus package. The study looked at the differences in the corkscrew-shaped penises of ducks.

Oversight: A federal agency keeps stonewalling congressional efforts to access its internal communications. What's the problem here? If the agency's global warming claim was honestly arrived at, just turn over the documents.

Stop being so judgmental. Sociology researchers are now insisting that we as a society start accepting people who choose to “identify as real vampires” — so that they can be open about the fact that they’re vampires without having to worry about facing discrimination from people who might think that that’s weird. The study, titled “Do We Always Practice What We Preach? Real Vampires’ Fears of Coming out of the Coffin to Social Workers and Helping Professionals” was conducted by researchers from Idaho State University and College of the Canyons and the Center for Positive Sexuality in Los Angeles. “Most...

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM/AP) – Nine earthquakes, three of them greater than a 3.0 in magnitude, rocked the DFW area on Tuesday afternoon and into early Wednesday, knocking items off of walls, causing cracks to appear in ceilings and generally rattling nerves across the region. “Shook my whole house!” said CBS 11 News viewer Aprille Maganda from her home in the Las Colinas area of Irving.

An experimental Ebola vaccine appears safe and triggered signs of immune protection in the first 20 volunteers to test it, U.S. researchers reported Wednesday. The vaccine is designed to spur the immune system's production of anti-Ebola antibodies, and people developed them within four weeks of getting the shots at the National Institutes of Health. Half of the test group received a higher-dose shot, and those people produced more antibodies, said the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Some people also developed a different set of virus-fighting immune cells, named T cells, the study found.