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British scientists say the country's progressive environment has led to many firsts, such as the first test-tube baby and the world's first cloned animal.
Creating hybrid embryos involves injecting an empty cow or rabbit egg with human DNA.
A burst of electricity is then used to "trick" the egg into dividing regularly, so that it becomes a very early embryo from which stem cells can be extracted.
BUSH: A hopeful society has institutions of science and medicine that do not cut ethical corners and that recognize the matchless value of every life.
Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research: human cloning in all its forms; creating or implanting embryos for experiments; creating human-animal hybrids; and buying, selling or patenting human embryos.
Human life is a gift from our creator, and that gift should never be discarded, devalued or put up for sale.
At the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has an important job.
We work to protect farm animals, farmers and ranchers, the nation's farm economy and export markets... and your food supply.
Plum Island is located off the northeastern tip of New York's Long Island. USDA activities at Plum Island are carried out by scientists and veterinarians with the department's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
Originally posted by 1 7 7 6
Nothing has escaped, my butt. It's pretty well known that Lyme disease came from Plum Island.
Originally posted by 1 7 7 6
Nothing has escaped, my butt. It's pretty well known that Lyme disease came from Plum Island.
DHS took over responsibility for Plum Island from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2002. In a fact sheet issued last week, the department said the 50-year-old lab is "nearing the end of its lifecycle" and will be replaced by a new National Bio and Agro-defense Facility (NBAF) with a stronger focus on bioterrorism. DHS is launching a study to determine the facility's mission, its preferred location, and whether it needs a biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) lab, the highest level of biological containment. The study should be completed by 2006, and the facility could open in 2011.
Few contest that the dilapidated complex at Plum Island needs an extreme makeover. But adding a BSL-4 facility, or moving it, is controversial. Because most of the diseases studied there--such as foot-and-mouth disease and classical swine fever--don't infect humans, the lab operates at BSL-3 plus, which resembles BSL-4 except that researchers don't wear space suits. Scientists have long argued that the U.S. needs a BSL-4 facility for agricultural diseases to allow the study of agents, such as the Nipah and Hendra viruses, that sicken farm animals as well as humans.
Originally posted by 1 7 7 6
Nothing has escaped, my butt. It's pretty well known that Lyme disease came from Plum Island.
The foul-smelling, decomposing corpse weighed 1800 kg and was about 10 m long. According to the crew, the creature had a one and a half meter long neck, four large, reddish fins and a tail about two meters long. It lacked a dorsal fin. No internal organs remained, but flesh and fat was somewhat intact (Sjögren, 1980 and Welfare & Fairley, 1981).
Discovery
On April 25, 1977, the Japanese trawler Zuiyo Maru, sailing east of Christchurch, New Zealand, caught a strange, unknown creature in the trawl. The crew was convinced it was an unidentified animal (Bord, 1990), but despite the potential biological significance of the curious discovery, the captain, Akira Tanaka, decided to dump the carcass into the ocean again so not to risk spoiling the caught fish. However, before that, some photos and sketches were taken of the creature, nick-named "Nessie" by the crew, measurements were taken and some samples of skeleton, skin and fins were collected for further analysis by experts in Japan. The discovery resulted in immense commotion and "plesiosaur-craze" in Japan, and the shipping company ordered all its boats to try to relocate the dumped corpse again, but with no apparent success. (Sjögren, 1980).
Originally posted by testrat
So at least they are admitting that the facility is run downed and a upgrade is necessary.
One person in Mekoryuk – Nunivak Island’s only village – thinks the smooth-skinned corpse might be the beast, the qaqrat, rumored about in local legend.
Others have speculated the body was of a walrus, an elephant seal, a small whale, or a dolphin.
The whereabouts of the carcass, whether any samples were taken, or even if it has been revisited and bones gathered, are all unknowns.