LiveScience.com - Controversial New Idea: Nerves Transmit Sound, Not Electricity

Controversial New Idea: Nerves Transmit Sound, Not Electricity
By Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Managing Editor
posted: 14 March, 2007
1:00 pm ET


Nerves transmit sound waves through your body, not electrical pulses, according to a controversial new study that tries to explain the longstanding mystery of how anesthetics work.

Textbooks say nerves use electrical impulses to transmit signals from the brain to the point of action, be it to wag a finger or blink an eye.

'But for us as physicists, this cannot be the explanation,' says Thomas Heimburg, a Copenhagen University researcher whose expertise is in the intersection of biology and physics. 'The physical laws of thermodynamics tell us that electrical impulses must produce heat as they travel along the nerve, but experiments find that no such heat is produced.'

The textbooks are not likely to be rewritten anytime soon, however.

Roderic Eckenhoff, a researcher in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, called the sound pulse idea interesting. 'But an enormous burden of proof exists and they have a very long way to go to beat electricity,' he said.


Nerves transmit sound waves through your body, not electrical pulses, according to a controversial new study that tries to explain the longstanding mystery of how anesthetics work.

Textbooks say nerves use electrical impulses to transmit signals from the brain to the point of action, be it to wag a finger or blink an eye.

"But for us as physicists, this cannot be the explanation," says Thomas Heimburg, a Copenhagen University researcher whose expertise is in the intersection of biology and physics. "The physical laws of thermodynamics tell us that electrical impulses must produce heat as they travel along the nerve, but experiments find that no such heat is produced."

The textbooks are not likely to be rewritten anytime soon, however.

Roderic Eckenhoff, a researcher in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, called the sound pulse idea interesting. "But an enormous burden of proof exists and they have a very long way to go to beat electricity," he said.

The olive oil clue

Nerves are wrapped in a membrane of lipids and proteins. Biology textbooks say a pulse is sent from one end of the nerve to the other with the help of electrically charged salts that pass through ion channels in the membrane. But the lack of heat generation contradicts the molecular biological theory of an electrical impulse produced by chemical processes, says Heimburg, who co-authored the new study with Copenhagen University theoretical physicist Andrew Jackson.

Instead, nerve pulses can be explained much more simply as a mechanical pulse of sound, Heimburg and Jackson argue. Their idea will be published in the Biophysical Journal.

Normally, sound propagates as a wave that spreads out and becomes weaker and weaker. But in certain conditions, sound can be made to travel without spreading and therefore it retains its intensity.

The lipids in a nerve membrane are similar to olive oil, the scientists explain. And the membrane has a freezing point that is precisely suited to the propagation of these concentrated sound pulses"

Urban farms take root

Good people doing it right again!!!!


"What's going on is quite a phenomenon,' said Kami Pothukuchi, a Wayne State University professor specializing in urban planning and food systems. 'You have a community that needs access to fresh food, and you have open land. The two are coming together.'

The number of community and family gardens and individuals raising crops for sale in the city has jumped from 80 in 2004 to 302 in 2006, according to The Greening of Detroit, a nonprofit group that creates public gardens and plants trees.

The total is projected to jump another 25 percent this year.

'The economy is ideal for this,' said Michael Score, who works for the Michigan State University Extension Service, which finds ways to bring crops to market.

The downturn in Michigan's job market -- the city of Detroit has an unemployment rate of about 15 percent -- means people are looking to eat affordably and to generate income, he said.

Detroit provides a perfect setting for urban gardening.

In a city of roughly 880,000 people, there are just two large-scale grocery stores. Because public transportation is not always convenient, and an estimated 37 percent of residents live below the federal poverty threshold, most people shop at small independent stores that charge more and are more likely to have a meager produce selection."

Fwd: Response to your recent comments

Mel_Martinez@martinez.senate.gov wrote:

Subject: Response to your recent comments
From: Mel_Martinez@martinez.senate.gov
To: stars2man@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 10:45:39 -0400

Below is a response to the recent comments I received from you:


Dear Mr. Weaver:

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns over the sale of cloned animal products. I appreciate hearing from you and would like to take this opportunity to respond.

On December 28, 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a draft risk assessment which found that meat and milk from cloned cattle, pigs, and goats and their offspring are as safe to eat as those of conventionally bred animals. It is my understanding that the assessment was peer reviewed by a group of independent scientific experts in cloning and animal health, and its primary conclusion regarding the safety of cloned food was in keeping with the findings of the National Academies of Sciences.

According to the FDA, they have yet to make a decision requiring the labeling of food products from cloned animals. In addition, the draft assessment specifically differentiated between genetic engineering, which involves altering, adding or deleting DNA, and cloning, which does not change the genetic sequence.

Under regulations established by the United States Department of Agriculture, the FDA is seeking comments from the public until April 2, 2007 (90 days). To submit electronic comments on the three documents, visit http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/oc/dockets/comments/commentdocket.cfm?AGENCY=FDA. Written comments may be sent to: Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD, 20852. Comments must be received by April 2, 2007, and should include the docket number 2003N-0573. For more information, visit http://www.fda.gov/cvm/CloneRiskAssessment.htm.

Again, thank you for contacting me. If you have any additional questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me. In addition, for more information about issues and activities important to Florida, please sign up for my weekly newsletter at http://martinez.senate.gov.

Sincerely,

Mel Martinez
United States Senator


**Note: PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS E-MAIL. If you would like to reply to this message, please contact me through my website at http://martinez.senate.gov.

What's At Stake: Stop Meat and Milk From Clones!

Eeeek this is freaky... now I know I'm stuck being vegetarian!!!
No more Ice Cream either!!!

"What's At Stake?
Stop Meat and Milk From Clones!

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is poised to lift a voluntary moratorium on the sale of meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring. In January, the agency issued a draft risk assessment and other documents to defend its assertion regarding the safety of these products.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has joined many others in opposing the sale of meat and milk from clones in our food supply, particularly when the FDA currently has no plans to require products from clones to be labeled. Dr. Margaret Mellon, director of UCS's Food and Environment Program, said in a statement: 'If consumers aren't going to be told if their meat is from a clone, the FDA has to be certain that meat is safe.'

This move by the FDA comes despite widespread opposition to the practice of cloning animals that are part of our food supply. A 2006 survey by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology found that 64 percent of consumers are uncomfortable with animal cloning."

Strong Suspicions of Toxicity in One GMO Corn

Yea, big surprise... pollution in our feed stock...

"Strong Suspicions of Toxicity in One GMO Corn
By Stèphane Foucart
Le Monde

Tuesday 13 March 2007

Allowed to go on the market in France and Europe, MON 863, a transgenic corn invented by Monsanto, has been at the center of a controversy over its innocuousness for over two years (April 23rd, 2004, Le Monde). These debates could resume after the March 13th publication in 'Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology' of a study suggesting this genetically modified organism (GMO) is toxic to the liver and kidneys.

According to this work, consumption of MON 863 corn disturbs numerous biological parameters in rats to a greater or lesser extent: weight of the kidneys, weight of the liver, the level of reticulocytes (new red blood cells), the level of triglycerides, etc. Urinary chemistry is also changed, with reductions in excreted sodium and phosphorus going as high as 35 percent. The effects vary with the sex of the animals. 'Female rats exhibit an increase in blood fat and sugar levels, and an increase in body weight - all associated with greater hepatic sensitivity,' says Mr. Sèralini, principal author of this study and, moreover, president of the Research Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (Criigen). 'Among males, the impact is"

The New Age

Have you ever wondered when the "New Age" started? Believe it or not, it dates back to the late 1800s, a period of intense spiritual activity in Western
Neptune, ruler of spirituality and psychic phenomena, had just been discovered. Coincidence? Of the many innovations that came out of this extraordinary period was the combination of astrology with Tarot. Today, the connection between the two is a given, and there's no doubt that their divination power is vastly increased when they are used together.

WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: Food is Power

Yes POWER is right... they American Machine takes over the water supplies, uses all their chemicals to destroy all the seeds and foods outside of their control and then pumps their "patented" seeds and GMO's into the counties so you can only eat and survive by buying from a multinational corporation that has taken over...


WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: Food is Power: "“Forum on Food Sovereignty” near Bamako, Mali. For the first time, the world’s largest social movements working on behalf of food producers throughout the world have gathered to discuss the idea of food sovereignty. The organizers include international social movements of peasants, women, fisherfolk, environmentalists, and consumers.

Most of the focus of the forum has been conversation, discussing what the delegates represented here are fighting for, what they’re fighting against, and to set an agenda for the next five to ten years for collective, global campaigns. The gathered groups will also develop position papers on themes ranging from trade and local commerce, to resource rights and urban-consumer partnerships, from production models and appropriate technologies to bilateral and multinational trade policies.

Ultimately, this alliance plans to share these position papers with networks in their home countries as well as heads of state, the United Nations, the FAO, and development bodies.

I’ve been here for a few days now and have been continually amazed by the feat to pull this event off. In rural West Africa, the organizers were able to create a village for more than 600 delegates, from scratch, using mostly local materials and mostly local labor. As one of the org"