#Cell Reports Physical Science

[pillarsalt]

hi! i was wondering your opinions on how hrt affects the body? i hold a lot of radfem beliefs but i am trans (taking testosterone). would being a woman to you have to be completely about chromosomes? for example, trans men years on T do not have the same genetic makeup as cis women. same with trans women on E, their genetic makeup would be very different to cis men, and would more correlate to cis women. does this factor in who you consider female/male or having experience as women?

Hi there, thanks for reaching out.

Firstly, I think you may be a bit confused. Taking exogenous hormones does not affect your genetic makeup. Your dna will stay the same unless you're exposed to something extreme like radiation - this is a good thing because dna mutation is bad for you and causes cancer! Your genetic sex is immutable, a person with XY chromosomes cannot have their dna altered to have XX chromosomes instead.

Hormones will affect the expression of your genes, for example turning on facial hair production in women who are taking testosterone. This is why those patterns of facial hair, even in women, differ from person to person. The genes for it were already there, but hormone replacement therapy uses the endocrine system to change what signals get sent to your genes to tell them what features to express.

Beyond chemically induced genetic expression, there are particular physical features in males that do not occur in males, and vice versa. This is a feature of the /ancient/ evolution of sexual reproduction. Despite the variety of metaphysical beliefs about identity and personhood, the truth is that humans evolved to reproduce between two sexes, and human beings cannot change sex. Every cell of your body has your sex encoded within it. This affects us physically in many ways. I and most feminists believe that this fact should be irrelevant to any person's ability to pursue their passion, be themselves, and love who they love. Even so, recognition of biological sex is something important. This is really critical in a medical context. For example: men who receive a blood transfusion from a pregnant or recently pregnant woman have an increased risk of death by transfusion-related lung injury. Another example: tracheostomy tubes differ in size depending on sex due to dimorphism in average tracheal diameter. A women who is reported as a male risks considerable injury by having a male sized tracheostomy tube forced into her windpipe. A considerable amount of medications differ in dose effectiveness and side effects based on biological sex. Something as straightforward as a heart attack has different symptoms depending on if the patient is female or male. Denial of biological sex is dangerous, and as it stands, medical science has not advanced enough to change the biological sex of an individual. If you are born male, you will stay male for your entire life. You say that a transwoman who has taken estrogen is more genetically similar to a woman, I'm sorry but that simply isn't true. A male person will always be more genetically similar to other males than to a female person.

Determination of sex is very simple, it's about the easiest genetic test to do. They have kits for high school classrooms to try out ffs. We need to leave the "meaningful sex change is possible through medical intervention" thing in the past, all we accomplish with that is giving people false hope and an unattainable goal to fixate on. Sex is real and immutable, I wish it didn't matter, but it does.

And why it matters is, maleness and femaleness have become inseparable from certain stereotypes and assigned qualities by societies in human history. Overwhelmingly, the male people subjugate the female people. Since men, male humans, discovered womens' ability to give birth could be taken advantage of, it was capitalized upon. And this is the foundation of patriarchal society. Religions were founded to justify this as the will of god. To deny that women have historically been persecuted due to their sex is, well, misogynistic. There is no "woman feeling" that makes us targets for child marriages, FGM, trafficking/prostitution, and other horrors from the minute we're born and even before. No, it's the sex we were born with that makes the world think it can decide our fate. In fact, the way that people treat male children differently from female children is so different so early, that we are genuinely unable to study human behaviour unaffected by gendered expectations. This is what feminists are talking about when they discuss "socialization". There is not a single man on the planet who knows exactly what it's like to see the world from a woman's eyes, no matter how feminine that man is. Womanhood isn't something you can achieve or acquire through effort: you were either born a woman or you weren't, just like you were either born with detached earlobes or not. It's so simple.

All that to get to my final point: Yes, I believe the definition of womanhood comes down to biology, because anything beyond that is a meaningless stereotype. Women can do anything, be anyone, look any way they want, go through any experience they do. The one thing they have in common is that they are female adult human beings. There is not way to fail at being a woman or do it wrong, you just are. Womanhood is the experience of having been a female person in this world, and nothing else. There are certain things only female human beings need, like abortion and female contraceptive rights, access to spaces where we can be safe from our subjugators (male human beings), and the ability to define ourselves and fight for our collective rights.

(At this point you may object and point out that male people who identify as trans women are also subject to violence and scorn from men: unfortunately that is often the case, but this does not make male people who identify as women, well, female. We need solutions for them that do not involve requiring women to sacrifice our comfort and safety for the sake of a particular subset of men, because of the inherent risks involved and the fact that women do not owe men anything even when those men have it bad.)

One last thing: my opinion is that prescribing exogenous cross-sex hormones is unethical (so are all elective cosmetic medical procedures but that's a post for a different day). I understand the distress that gender dysphoria inflicts on people, however the ill effects of hrt are too numerous to condone. The huge increase in risk of stroke with estrogen, heart disease and uterine atrophy with testosterone, and the way that trans medicine studies are notorious for losing followup with patients after a year or less... it's short sighted and frankly, financially motivated. The amount of trans patients who are prescribed hormones without access to an endocrinologist, it's honestly infuriating. People deserve the best care possible, not lab rat bullshit where they cut you loose when it's not working out. I won't judge anyone for what they do to themselves to cope with distress, but I want everyone, especially girls, to be aware of the lifetime effects medical decisions may have, and that you also can find happiness within yourself without hurting your body.

Thanks again for your question, be well ✌️

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Researchers discover new mechanism to cool buildings while saving energy

With temperatures rising globally, the need for more sustainable cooling options is also growing. Researchers at UCLA and their colleagues have now found an affordable and scalable process to cool buildings in the summer and heat them in the winter. Led by Aaswath Raman, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, the research team recently published a study in Cell Reports Physical Science detailing a new method to manipulate the movement of radiant heat through common building materials to optimize thermal management. Radiant heat, which is felt whenever a hot surface warms our bodies and homes and is carried by electromagnetic waves, travels across the entire broadband spectrum at ground level between buildings and their environments, such as streets and neighboring structures. On the other hand, heat moves between buildings and the sky in a much narrower portion of the infrared spectrum known as the atmospheric transmission window. The difference in how radiant heat travels between buildings and the sky versus the ground has long presented a challenge to cooling buildings with less skyward-facing surfaces. These buildings have been hard to cool in the summer as they retain heat from the ground and neighboring walls when the outside temperature is high. They are equally difficult to warm in wintertime as the outdoor temperature drops and the buildings lose heat.

Read more.

[mindblowingscience]

University of Central Florida College of Medicine researcher Renee Fleeman is on a mission to kill drug-resistant bacteria, and her latest study has identified a therapy that can penetrate the slime that such infections use to protect themselves from antibiotics. In a study published in Cell Reports Physical Science, Fleeman showed that an antimicrobial peptide from cows has potential for treating incurable infections from the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Continue Reading.

[wumblr]

cell reports physical science

[junosmindpalace]

Hey please may I ask for dr.stone Gen and Hyoga with a s/o who got badly injured, then being protective perhaps ❣️

thank you for your request! manga spoilers for hyoga’s part- i hope that’s alright!

warnings: blood, stabbing

Though impressed by Gen’s betrayal of the Tsukasa Empire, Hyoga wouldn't allow him to get away with it. He needed to be reminded of the might they had, that they were no fools.

And so when he remembers a comment Gen had made about a certain villager when reporting back to the Tsukasa Empire, he immediately knows how he wants to deliver that reminder.

As if the situation couldn’t have gotten any worse with Hyoga’s attack on the Kingdom of Science, he revealed that his ambush was merely a distraction as his right hand Homura set fire to Ishigami Village. To deal the final blow on not only the double crosser himself but the rest of the villagers, Hyoga caught you when you were off guard staring in horror at the sight of your home being burned down and stabbed you with his spear. As the others dealt with fending off Homura, Hyoga and his men, Gen and the other villagers stayed behind to help tend to your massive stab wound. Suika had run off in an effort to lure the group away from the village, giving the villagers the opportunity to take care of you without having to be on guard. Senku called out some instructions to Gen on how to help with your wound until he got back before running off after Suika with Kohaku. Through shaky hands, Gen immediately got to work. 

He was relieved when Senku later did a proper assessment of your condition and assured him that you’d eventually recover. Though horribly wounded, your condition was similar to Gen’s from when he’d been stabbed. 

Gen knew better than anyone the pain you were in, being victim of one of Hyoga’s spear assaults himself. It was tremendous, and you were weak in every sense. Just watching you in your frail state made all those feelings wash over him again, and his guilt was just as immense.  

He watches you throughout your entire recovery. When you manage to feel well enough to talk, he talks your ear off. He tries to take your mind off your inability to move and redirect your focus to more lighthearted matters, whether it be the Kingdom of Science’s progress in creating cell phones or his magic tricks. Gen’s company helped you pass the time instead of spending it basking in your agony. 

When you’re entirely healed, he teaches you some of his own tricks to self defense, such as his fake blood bags, to help keep you even the slightest bit safer in the future. He’s nervous to have you involved in any battles after that, especially against the Tsukasa Empire, but he knows it's unavoidable and that you’ll want to fight. So though he can’t physically protect you himself, he does what he can to keep you safe in the ways he knows how. 

In future conflicts, despite his fear, he still puts a protective arm in front of you and tries at all cost to manipulate the battle away from you, so you could stay clear of danger for as long as he could control it.

The Kingdom of Science was backed into a corner- or so the enemy thought. It just so happened that Senku purposely chose the room Hyoga was being held in on the Perseus, and he just so happened to have the last remainder of revival fluid to use on him. Being in the tricky situation they were in, Senku was left with no other option. 

As Hyoga emerged from his stone stature and took hold of Kinro’s spear, he surveyed his new surroundings. He quickly understood the dilemma the Kingdom of Science faced and searched for you within the panicked group. His eyes landed on yours, shocked and doubtful, with the slightest sliver of guilt. From the very beginning you had sided with Senku, disgusted over your friend’s cruel vision for the new world and what he was willing to do to bring it to fruition. Having to help take down someone you were so close to hurt your heart, but for the sake of others, you did what had to be done. On the surface, it was as if Hyoga had no room in his seemingly miniscule heart for you anymore, but your dedication was true and your means of protecting others impressive. 

Which is why when he was torn between siding with Moz or the Kingdom of Science, his eyes settled on you almost tauntingly, cold steel gaze pinning a sort of blame on you. 

But then his eyes trailed downward.

You were hunched over and holding your shoulder with your opposite hand, blood seeping down your arm and all over your fingers and the palm of your hand. You looked tired, presumably from the excessive loss of blood and the need to keep moving in order to stay safe. Yet you stood with your friends once again, not letting yourself submit to Moz’s wrath. 

And so Hyoga lunged forward with the golden spear toward Moz, and a fierce battle between the two spearsmen ensued. Senku’s risky “wild card” paid off in the end, as Hyoga was eventually able to bring Moz to his knees and force him to surrender.

His strength and skill is just as admirable as ever, was your final thought before the loss of blood caused you to pass out near the end of the battle. 

When you woke, you were met with the sound of incoherent talking and the familiar walls of the Perseus bunker. You slowly blinked as your eyes adjusted to the sight of Senku and Hyoga talking over your body, serious looks etched into their faces and tones as you started to comprehend their words.

“...no longer has any affiliation with me. Even then, your Kingdom of Science wouldn’t resort to such violent means.”

“And we have no way of knowing you won’t do the same.”

“I see aiding you in your battle was a mistake.”

As you shifted in your bed, both pairs of eyes snapped toward you in surprise. Hyoga’s eyes widened at the same time Senku smirked. “Good morning, sleeping beauty. Feeling well rested?” 

You yelped as you attempted to prop yourself up on your injured arm, and Hyoga quickly forced you back to lie down. “Think before you act, you fool.” 

His sharp gaze returned to Senku as he narrowed his eyes. “I will look over Y/N alongside you. Whether I have your permission or not doesn’t matter to me.”

Senku shrugged. “I have no problem with that so long as you’re serious.” 

An agreement was reached. Hyoga would take over Senku’s place in monitoring your recovery in order for Senku to focus on the next steps the Kingdom of Science should take. Like that, Hyoga had joined the Kingdom of Science. 

You did a lot of catching up while under his care. What had you been doing while he was petrified? What was the Kingdom of Science working toward now? What other injuries had you sustained? Why the hell weren’t you more careful? There was a conflicting mix between care and resentment in his questions and comments, the contrast between each putting you on edge. You didn’t know exactly where you stood with Hyoga, and his dual responses made it difficult to deduct where he stood on the matter.

It had to be somewhere neutral, because why else would he be so insistent on looking out for you? Why would he constantly put you down for your mistake if there wasn’t some part of him that still cared about you? Why was he so quick to shield you from the other members of the Kingdom of Science? Why did his eyes hold such strong resentment when you told him of the way Moz hurt you? 

In a strange way, you almost felt the need to thank Moz, because you were able to reunite with an old friend and rekindle feelings of something more.

[mortumslab]

My first attempt at Fanfic for the Fallen Hero universe. I am a science nerd in healthcare, so I'd like to try the first Dr. Halabi note as a SOAP (physician) note at Dr. Mortum's facility for my Sidestep (Arya).

Arya, as Retribution, is an anarchist set on justice and has been revealed to the Rangers, but Sky-Raider got her out before any of the Rangers could make a move.

__________________________

Note: These records are for internal use ONLY. Disclosure of these forms will be met with swift recourse.

Date: 5-10-21 

Facility: Mortum Site 01

Patient #: 2344

Patient Name: Arya Skovsgaard

Gender: Female (She/Her)

Attending: Dr. Halabi, MD

CC: Traumatic MVA

HPI:

Arya Skovsgaard is a 30 y.o. AFAB transferred to Site 01 two days following a motor vehicle accident. Per LDPD reports, the patient was restrained, and airbags were deployed. The patient appeared to be driving down the opposite lane on a two-lane highway and struck an oncoming truck. The larger truck was undamaged, but the vehicle the patient was driving was no longer operable. The patient is a known telepath (T12345678), Alpha level. She is known to be capable of operating other individuals through telepathy. The patient was transferred from the care of the Los Diabolos’ Rangers prior to arrival at Site 01. Previous to this, they were at Memorial Hospital under the care of another, unknown physician, wherein lower extremity injuries were treated. The patient chart was consulted prior to transfer. During their stay at this facility, the patient was discharged to inpatient care with a bilateral tibial fracture along the mid-diaphyseal line and a right femoral fracture at the mid-epiphyseal line. Lastly, physicians at the Ranger facility note left SI joint disjunction. It is not known if the accident was intentional, but the Ranger discharge notes allude to this as a possibility. For this reason, the patient will be under constant security detail. 

HPI is incomplete due to the current AMS.

ROS:

Patient arrived to facility in a state of alterted mental status leading to an incomplete ROS

Head: Positive for trauma

ENT: Negative for dental trauma

MSK: Grossly apparent damage to bilateral lower extremities

Integumentary: Positive for abrasions, lacerations, ecchymosis

Psych: Altered mental status

Neuro: Loss of consciousness

Physical Exam:

Physical exam from Dr. Petroza at time of surgery and reconstruction is included as a separate document. Below is Dr. Halabi’s secondary PE upon admission to Site 01.

Head: Trauma noted to bilateral orbitals. Ecchymosis around orbitals with classic appearance of trauma.

Neck: No trauma noted

Lymph: No abormalities noted.

Musculoskeletal: See diagram. Dr. Petroza and team applied bilateral leg casting to patient from femural head distally to ankle. Difficult to assess. Otherwise noted 

CV: No murmurs, rubs, gallops. Normal rate, rhythm. 

Respiratory: Some wheezing. Imaging from Ranger HQ shows no pneumothorax. Brusing to ribs, possibly due to CPR on scene.

GU: No abnormalities noted

Integumentary: Diffuse ecchymosis and bruising to regions visible, patient has [REDACTED] on skin noting them to be [REDACTED].

Psych: Unable to assess

Neuro: Unable to assess. Known telepath.

Assessment:

Agreement with prior disagnosis of bilateral tibial fracture along the mid-diaphsyeal line and right femoral fracture at the mid-epiphyseal line with protrusion from the medial right femur and bilateral media tibia.

Dipostion:

Inpatient discharge.

Progress notes:

5-20-21

2320: Call recieved that patient is en route.

5-21-21

0023: Patient arrives to Site 01.

0024: Dr. Halabi, attending, in room and performing phyical exam. 

0100: Patient woke briefly and [REDACTED] attacked them - they were removed from the premises. Security was tightened on the room.

0300: Patient awakens and requests food. Dr. Mortum in room and discussion plan with patient.

0800: Phone call received on patients cell phone from number listed “Julia.” Voicemail left. 

TRANSCRIPTION: “Arya, I know you’re out there. I… I’m glad. We’ll talk when you’re ready. I know you don’t want me to be around for this - but we need to talk. I want to help. I had some time to think… you might not have gone about this in the way I would have expected, but I think you have the right idea. Please call me. I love you.”

0830: Patient requesting discharge to their home. The Site will send her with an escort.

Electronic Signature:

Dr. Halabi, MD

This report is to remain within Site 01. If it is found outside of these servers, it should be destroyed, and the aforementioned party should be warned.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

My name is Dr Jill Simons. I'm a board-certified pediatrician and the executive director for the American College of Pediatricians. Today I'm here alongside my colleagues representing the Coalition of co-signers of the Doctors Protecting Children Declaration. Our coalition consists of physicians together with nurses, behavioral health clinicians, other health professionals, scientists, researchers and public health and policy professionals. And we have serious concerns about the physical and mental health effects of the current protocols promoted for the care of children and adolescents in the United States who express discomfort with their biological sex.

This declaration was authored by the American College of Pediatricians, but really it was developed from the expertise of hundreds of doctors researchers and other healthcare workers and leaders wh, for years have been sounding the alarm on the harmful protocols that continue to be promoted by the medical organizations in the United States. Despite recent revelations from the leaked WPATH Files and the recent release of the final report from the Cass Review, these medical organizations have not changed course.

So, we are calling on these medical organizations of the United States, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Endocrine Society, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry to follow the science and their European colleagues and immediately stop the promotion of social affirmation, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for children and adolescents who experience distress over their biological sex.

In our declaration, we affirm that sex is a dimorphic, innate trait defined in relation to an organism's biological role in reproduction: male and female this genetic signature is present in every nucleated somatic cell in the body and is not altered by drugs or surgical interventions. Consideration of these innate differences is critical to the practice of good medicine and to the development of sound policy for children and adults alike. Medical decision-making should be based upon an individual's biological sex. It should respect biological reality and the dignity of the person by compassionately addressing the whole person.

We are here defying the claims made by these medical organizations in the US that those of us who are concerned are a minority and that their protocols are consensus. They are not consensus, and we are speaking in a loud unified voice: enough.

[ Full press conference: https://youtu.be/C2tU90XPFlg ]

--

Doctors Protecting Children Declaration

As physicians, together with nurses, psychotherapists and behavioral health clinicians, other health professionals, scientists, researchers, and public health and policy professionals, we have serious concerns about the physical and mental health effects of the current protocols promoted for the care of children and adolescents in the United States who express discomfort with their biological sex.

We affirm:

1. Sex is a dimorphic, innate trait defined in relation to an organism’s biological role in reproduction. In humans, primary sex determination occurs at fertilization and is directed by a complement of sex determining genes on the X and Y chromosomes.  This genetic signature is present in every nucleated somatic cell in the body and is not altered by drugs or surgical interventions

2. Consideration of these innate differences is critical to the practice of good medicine and to the development of sound public policy for children and adults alike.

3. Gender ideology, the view that sex (male and female) is inadequate and that humans need to be further categorized based on an individual’s thoughts and feelings described as “gender identity” or “gender expression”, does not accommodate the reality of these innate sex differences. This leads to the inaccurate view that children can be born in the wrong body. Gender ideology seeks to affirm thoughts, feelings and beliefs, with puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries that harm healthy bodies, rather than affirm biological reality.

4. Medical decision making should not be based upon an individual’s thoughts and feelings, as in “gender identity” or “gender expression”, but rather should be based upon an individual’s biological sex. Medical decision making should respect biological reality and the dignity of the person by compassionately addressing the whole person.

We recognize:

1. Most children and adolescents whose thoughts and feelings do not align with their biological sex will resolve those mental incongruencies after experiencing the normal developmental process of puberty.

Desistance is the norm without affirmation as documented by Zucker in his article “The Myth of Peristence”. (1) Zucker, KJ. The myth of persistence: Response to “A critical commentary on follow-up studies and ‘desistance’ theories about transgender and gender nonconforming children” by Temple Newhook et al. International Journal of Transgenderism. 2018: 19(2), 231–245. Published online May 29, 2018.http://doi.org/10.1080/15532739.2018.1468293 [1]

In the “largest sample to date of boys clinic-referred for gender dysphoria,” there was a desistance rate of 87.8%. (2) Singh D, Bradley SJ and Zucker KJ. A Follow-Up Study of Boys With Gender Identity Disorder. Front Psychiatry. 2021;12:632784. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.632784

The pro-affirmation Endocrine Society Guidelines (2017) admit: “…the GD/gender incongruence of a minority of prepubertal children appears to persist in adolescence.” (3) Hembree, W., Cohen-Kettenis PT, Gooren L, et al. Endocrine treatment of gender-dysphoric/gender-incongruent persons: An Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2017; 102:1–35.

A longitudinal study from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands followed 2772 adolescents (recruited from a psychiatric clinic) from age 11 years through 22 – 26 years. “In early adolescence 11% of participants reported gender non- contentedness. The prevalence decreased with age and was 4% at the last follow-up (around age 26).” Even in this psychiatric patient study group for which interventions were not addressed, but “gender affirmation” is most likely, gender non-contentedness (essentially gender noncongruence) decreased substantially from early adolescence to young adulthood.(4) Rawee P, Rosmalen JGM, Kalverdiijk L and Burke SM. Development of gender non-contentedness during adolescence and early adulthood. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 2024; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-024-02817-5

2. Responsible informed consent is not possible in light of extremely limited long-term follow-up studies of interventions, and the immature, often impulsive, nature of the adolescent brain. The adolescent brain’s prefrontal cortex is immature and is limited in its ability to strategize, problem solve and make emotionally laden decisions that have life-long consequences.[2]

3. Sex-trait modification or “Gender affirming” clinics in the United States base their treatments upon the “Standards of Care” developed by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). However, the foundation of WPATH guidelines is demonstrably flawed and pediatric patients can be harmed when subjected to those protocols.

The two Dutch studies that form the foundation for treatment guidelines as documented in the WPATH “Standards of Care” guidelines version 7 (SOC 7) had serious flaws.[3]

These studies did show that the appearance of secondary sex characteristics in adolescents and young adults could be changed by hormonal and surgical interventions, but they failed to demonstrate meaningful long-term improvement in psychological well-being.

Scientific concerns with these studies also include a lack of a control group, small sample sizes, significant numbers of patients lost to follow up, and the elimination of patients who experienced significant mental illness from entering the studies.

It is concerning that the Dutch studies did not address complications and adverse outcome in the adolescent cohort that underwent transition. These complications included new onset diabetes, obesity and one death.[4]

4. There is now sufficient research to further demonstrate the failure of the WPATH, American Academy of Pediatrics and Endocrine Society protocols.

The Cass Review was released on April 10, 2024, as an “independent review of gender identity services for children and young people”. The following points are from Cass’s final report:[5]

Commissioned by the National Health Service (NHS) England, and chaired by Dr. Hilary Cass, the 388-page report utilized systematic reviews, qualitative and quantitative research, as well as focus groups, roundtables and interviews with international clinicians and policy makers.

As part of the evaluation, they reviewed the research on social transition, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones.

Social transition

“The systematic review showed no clear evidence that social transition in childhood has any positive or negative mental health outcomes, and relatively weak evidence for any effect in adolescence.

However, those who had socially transitioned at an earlier age and/or prior to being seen in clinic were more likely to proceed to a medical pathway.”

Puberty blockers

“The systematic review undertaken by the University of York found multiple studies demonstrating that puberty blockers exert their intended effect in suppressing puberty, and also that bone density is compromised during puberty suppression. However, no changes in gender dysphoria or body satisfaction were demonstrated [emphasis added].”

“There was insufficient/inconsistent evidence about the effects of puberty suppression on psychological or psychosocial wellbeing, cognitive development, cardio-metabolic risk or fertility.”

“Moreover, given that the vast majority of young people started on puberty blockers proceed from puberty blockers to masculinizing/ feminizing hormones, there is no evidence that puberty blockers buy time to think, and some concern that they may change the trajectory of psychosexual and gender identity development.”

Cross-sex hormones

“The University of York carried out a systematic review of outcomes of masculinising/feminising hormones.” They concluded, “There is a lack of high-quality research assessing the outcomes of hormone interventions in adolescents with gender dysphoria/incongruence, and few studies that undertake long-term follow-up. No conclusions can be drawn about the effect on gender dysphoria, body satisfaction, psychosocial health, cognitive development, or fertility.”

“Uncertainty remains about the outcomes for height/growth, cardio-metabolic and bone health.”

The Cass Review further stated, “Assessing whether a hormone pathway is indicated is challenging. A formal diagnosis of gender dysphoria is frequently cited as a prerequisite for accessing hormone treatment. However, it is not reliably predictive of whether that young person will have longstanding gender incongruence in the future, or whether medical intervention will be the best option for them.”

A 2024 German systematic review on the evidence for use of puberty blockers (PB) and cross-sex hormones (CSH) in minors with gender dysphoria (GD) also found “The available evidence on the use of PB and CSH in minors with GD is very limited and based on only a few studies with small numbers, and these studies have problematic methodology and quality. There also is a lack of adequate and meaningful long-term studies. Current evidence doesn’t suggest that GD symptoms and mental health significantly improve when PB or CSH are used in minors with GD.”[6]  

5. There are serious long-term risks associated with the use of social transition, puberty blockers, masculinizing or feminizing hormones, and surgeries, not the least of which is potential sterility.

Youth who are socially affirmed are more likely to progress to using puberty blockers and cross-sex (masculinizing or feminizing) hormones.

“Social transition is associated with the persistence of gender dysphoria as a child progresses into adolescence.”[7]

“Gender social transition of prepubertal children will increase dramatically the rate of gender dysphoria persistence when compared to follow-up studies of children with gender dysphoria who did not receive this type of psychosocial intervention and, oddly enough, might be characterized as iatrogenic.”[8]

Puberty blockers permanently disrupt physical, cognitive, emotional and social development.

Side effects listed in the Lupron package insert include emotional lability, worsening psychological illness, low bone density, impaired memory, and the rare side-effect of pseudotumor cerebri (brain swelling).[9]

A coalition of physicians and medical organizations from around the world submitted a petition to the Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requesting urgent action be taken to eliminate the off-label use of GnRH (growth hormone) agonists in children.[10]

Testosterone use in females and estrogen use in males are associated with dangerous health risks across the lifespan including, but not limited to, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, heart attacks, blood clots, stroke, diabetes, and cancer.[xi],[12]

Genital surgeries affect future fertility and reproduction.

6. A report from Environmental Progress released on March 4, 2024, entitled “The WPATH Files” revealed “widespread medical malpractice on children and vulnerable adults at global transgender healthcare authority.”[13]

“The WPATH Files reveal that the organization does not meet the standards of evidence-based medicine, and members frequently discuss improvising treatments as they go along.”

“Members are fully aware that children and adolescents cannot comprehend the lifelong consequences of ‘gender-affirming care’ and, in some cases due to poor health literacy, neither can their parents.”

In addition, developmentally challenged and mentally ill individuals were being encouraged to “transition”, and treatments were often improvised.

7. Evidence-based medical research now demonstrates there is little to no benefit from any or all suggested “gender affirming” interventions for adolescents experiencing Gender Dysphoria. Social “affirmation”, puberty blockers, masculinizing or feminizing hormones, and surgeries, individually or in combination, do not appear to improve long-term mental health of the adolescents, including suicide risk.[14]

8. Psychotherapy for underlying mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and autism, as well as prior emotional trauma or abuse should be the first line of treatment for these vulnerable children experiencing discomfort with their biological sex.

9. England, Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland have all recognized the scientific research demonstrating that the social, hormonal and surgical interventions are not only unhelpful but are harmful. So, these European countries have paused protocols and are instead focusing on evaluating and treating the underlying and preceding mental health concerns.

10. Other medical organizations are adhering to the evidence-based medicine documented in the Cass Review Final Report.

The constitution of the National Health Service in England will be updated to state, “We are defining sex as biological sex.”[15]

The European Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry issued a document titled “ESCAP statement on the care for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria: an urgent need for safeguarding clinical, scientific, and ethical standards.”

In this paper, they stated, “The standards of evidence-based medicine must ensure the best and safest possible care for each individual in this highly vulnerable group of children and adolescents. As such, ESCAP calls for healthcare providers not to promote experimental and unnecessarily invasive treatments with unproven psycho-social effects and, therefore, to adhere to the “primum-nil-nocere” (first, do no harm) principle”.[16]

11. Health care professionals around the world are also acknowledging the urgent need to protect children from harmful “gender-affirming” interventions.

In a letter to the British newspaper, The Guardian, sixteen psychologists, some of whom worked at the Tavistock Center for Gender Identity Development Service, acknowledged the role clinical psychologists played in placing children on an “irreversible medical pathway that in most cases was inappropriate.”[17]

In the United States, a group of psychiatrists, physicians and other health care workers wrote an open Letter to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), calling on the APA to explain why it glaringly ignored many scientific developments in gender-related care and to consider its responsibility to promote and protect patients’ safety, mental and physical health.[18]

12. Despite all the above evidence that gender affirming treatments are not only unhelpful, but are harmful, and despite the knowledge that the adolescent brain is immature, professional medical organizations in the United States continue to promote these interventions. Further, they state that legislation to protect children from harmful interventions is dangerous since it interferes with necessary medical care for children and adolescents.

The American Psychological Association states it is the largest association of psychologists worldwide. The organization released a policy statement in February 2024 stating, “The APA opposes state bans on gender-affirming care, which are contrary to the principles of evidence-based healthcare, human rights, and social justice.”[19]

The Endocrine Society responded to the Cass Review by reaffirming their stance. “We stand firm in our support of gender-affirming care…. NHS England’s recent report, the Cass Review, does not contain any new research that would contradict the recommendations made in our Clinical Practice Guideline on gender-affirming care.”[20]

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Board of Directors in August 2023, voted to reaffirm their 2018 policy statement on gender-affirming care. They did decide to authorize a systematic review but only because they were concerned “about restrictions to access to health care with bans on gender-affirming care in more than 20 states.”[21]

Of note, Dr. Hilary Cass called out the AAP for “holding on to a position that is now demonstrated to be out of date by multiple systematic reviews.”[22]

In Conclusion

Therefore, given the recent research and the revelations of the harmful approach advocated by WPATH and its followers in the United States, we, the undersigned, call upon the medical professional organizations of the United States, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the  Endocrine Society, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry to follow the science and their European professional colleagues and immediately stop the promotion of social affirmation, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for children and adolescents who experience distress over their biological sex.  Instead, these organizations should recommend comprehensive evaluations and therapies aimed at identifying and addressing underlying psychological co-morbidities and neurodiversity that often predispose to and accompany gender dysphoria. We also encourage the physicians who are members of these professional organizations to contact their leadership and urge them to adhere to the evidence-based research now available.

[crimson-dahliaa]

Research Report: Dissecting Misteln’s Crude Techniques and Proposing Superior Methods

Subject: Revisiting the Brain’s Role in Aging and the Path to True Immortality Quick glossary:

Neuromodulation: A therapeutic technique that involves directly altering the activity of the nervous system using electrical, chemical, or magnetic stimulation. Neuromodulation can target specific brain areas to enhance or suppress neural activity, often used to treat neurological conditions or influence cognitive functions.

Nanotechnology: A field of science and engineering focused on manipulating matter at the atomic or molecular level, typically at scales of less than 100 nanometers. In medicine, nanotechnology is used to develop tools like drug-delivery systems and microscopic devices that can repair cells or alter biological processes with extreme precision.

Biophysical Mapping: A process of creating detailed maps of biological systems, often using advanced imaging techniques, to understand the physical and functional structures of cells, tissues, or organs. In brain research, biophysical mapping refers to charting neural connections and activity patterns to study how different parts of the brain work together.

Misteln’s research presents a deeply flawed approach to understanding the brain’s involvement in the aging process. Her belief that the brain functions as a biological clock, slowly winding down until death, may have been compelling to her, but to anyone with real expertise, it’s clear her methods were laughably crude. Her entire premise relies on an imagined "biological timer" that determines when the body will deteriorate, a concept that might appeal to the untrained mind, but falls apart under any serious scrutiny.

Misteln’s ideas never reached beyond the surface of the problem. Her attempts to understand the brain’s role in aging were clumsy at best, constrained by a lack of real education in neurology. She relied on theories built on outdated principles, never bothering to dig deeper into the actual workings of the neural networks she claimed to control. The crude nature of her experiments is reflected in her surgical techniques — if one could even call them that. Misteln’s approach was little more than exploratory mutilation, leaving her subjects with irreversible damage rather than any meaningful insight.

Misteln’s Crudeness and My Proposed Refinement

Her most laughable failure was her belief that the brain could simply be "altered" to achieve immortality through physical removal of a so-called "kill switch." Misteln's tools were primitive, and her methods were barely worthy of a beginner. She approached the brain as if it were a mechanical device, expecting to find a single point to snip and sever. Her surgery relied on brute force, attempting to cut away at complex neural structures in search of this mythical switch.

Where Misteln’s techniques were barbaric, I intend to advance with precision. Instead of recklessly cutting through delicate structures, I will employ advanced neuromodulation techniques — methods Misteln was barely aware existed. By using targeted stimulation and high-resolution brain mapping, I will isolate specific areas responsible for cognitive decline and systematically repair them without the unnecessary destruction that Misteln left in her wake. My methods are rooted in modern science, utilizing nanotechnology and gene editing, two areas Misteln was clearly too ignorant to explore.

Vision for Improvement

Misteln’s attempts to manipulate the brain relied on sheer guesswork, and her results reflect that. Her failures are evident in the remains of her patients — twisted experiments, barely human by the time she was done with them. This was the result of her crude understanding of neuroanatomy. Her approach was essentially like using a sledgehammer to perform delicate surgery. The fact that she even referred to her methods as “scientific” is an insult to the field.

I, on the other hand, will not be so careless. My methods will involve sophisticated biophysical mapping, using real-time neural tracking to adjust individual synaptic pathways. By leveraging computational modeling, I can predict and prevent cognitive decay before it ever begins. Instead of trying to remove a mythical “kill switch,” I will modify the brain’s aging mechanisms at the molecular level, carefully reconstructing the networks that Misteln thought could simply be severed.

Misteln was barely educated, grasping at theories with the understanding of an amateur. She viewed immortality as something to be “cut out,” rather than something to be fostered through careful enhancement. She was playing at science, pretending she could achieve real results with brute force and guesswork. Her tools were as primitive as her thinking — and her failures were inevitable.

My approach will revolutionize what she could not even begin to grasp. With access to the proper tools and a mind grounded in real science, I will succeed where Misteln faltered. Her crudeness and ignorance left her fumbling in the dark, but with my expertise, immortality will no longer be a distant dream, but an achievable reality.

Dr. Ougai Suiren Lead Researcher, Bleeding Heart Orphanage

@tilskkarishma

Can you tell biology and this kinda stuff is my favorite?

[jcmarchi]

New transistor’s superlative properties could have broad electronics applications

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/new-transistors-superlative-properties-could-have-broad-electronics-applications/

New transistor’s superlative properties could have broad electronics applications

In 2021, a team led by MIT physicists reported creating a new ultrathin ferroelectric material, or one where positive and negative charges separate into different layers. At the time they noted the material’s potential for applications in computer memory and much more. Now the same core team and colleagues — including two from the lab next door — have built a transistor with that material and shown that its properties are so useful that it could change the world of electronics.

Although the team’s results are based on a single transistor in the lab, “in several aspects its properties already meet or exceed industry standards” for the ferroelectric transistors produced today, says Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics, who led the work with professor of physics Raymond Ashoori. Both are also affiliated with the Materials Research Laboratory.

“In my lab we primarily do fundamental physics. This is one of the first, and perhaps most dramatic, examples of how very basic science has led to something that could have a major impact on applications,” Jarillo-Herrero says.

Says Ashoori, “When I think of my whole career in physics, this is the work that I think 10 to 20 years from now could change the world.”

Among the new transistor’s superlative properties:

It can switch between positive and negative charges — essentially the ones and zeros of digital information — at very high speeds, on nanosecond time scales. (A nanosecond is a billionth of a second.)

It is extremely tough. After 100 billion switches it still worked with no signs of degradation.

The material behind the magic is only billionths of a meter thick, one of the thinnest of its kind in the world. That, in turn, could allow for much denser computer memory storage. It could also lead to much more energy-efficient transistors because the voltage required for switching scales with material thickness. (Ultrathin equals ultralow voltages.)

The work is reported in a recent issue of Science. The co-first authors of the paper are Kenji Yasuda, now an assistant professor at Cornell University, and Evan Zalys-Geller, now at Atom Computing. Additional authors are Xirui Wang, an MIT graduate student in physics; Daniel Bennett and Efthimios Kaxiras of Harvard University; Suraj S. Cheema, an assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and an affiliate of the Research Laboratory of Electronics; and Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi of the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan.

What they did

In a ferroelectric material, positive and negative charges spontaneously head to different sides, or poles. Upon the application of an external electric field, those charges switch sides, reversing the polarization. Switching the polarization can be used to encode digital information, and that information will be nonvolatile, or stable over time. It won’t change unless an electric field is applied. For a ferroelectric to have broad application to electronics, all of this needs to happen at room temperature.

The new ferroelectric material reported in Science in 2021 is based on atomically thin sheets of boron nitride that are stacked parallel to each other, a configuration that doesn’t exist in nature. In bulk boron nitride, the individual layers of boron nitride are instead rotated by 180 degrees.

It turns out that when an electric field is applied to this parallel stacked configuration, one layer of the new boron nitride material slides over the other, slightly changing the positions of the boron and nitrogen atoms. For example, imagine that each of your hands is composed of only one layer of cells. The new phenomenon is akin to pressing your hands together then slightly shifting one above the other.

“So the miracle is that by sliding the two layers a few angstroms, you end up with radically different electronics,” says Ashoori. The diameter of an atom is about 1 angstrom.

Another miracle: “nothing wears out in the sliding,” Ashoori continues. That’s why the new transistor could be switched 100 billion times without degrading. Compare that to the memory in a flash drive made with conventional materials. “Each time you write and erase a flash memory, you get some degradation,” says Ashoori. “Over time, it wears out, which means that you have to use some very sophisticated methods for distributing where you’re reading and writing on the chip.” The new material could make those steps obsolete.

A collaborative effort

Yasuda, the co-first author of the current Science paper, applauds the collaborations involved in the work. Among them, “we [Jarillo-Herrero’s team] made the material and, together with Ray [Ashoori] and [co-first author] Evan [Zalys-Geller], we measured its characteristics in detail. That was very exciting.” Says Ashoori, “many of the techniques in my lab just naturally applied to work that was going on in the lab next door. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Ashoori notes that “there’s a lot of interesting physics behind this” that could be explored. For example, “if you think about the two layers sliding past each other, where does that sliding start?” In addition, says Yasuda, could the ferroelectricity be triggered with something other than electricity, like an optical pulse? And is there a fundamental limit to the amount of switches the material can make?

Challenges remain. For example, the current way of producing the new ferroelectrics is difficult and not conducive to mass manufacturing. “We made a single transistor as a demonstration. If people could grow these materials on the wafer scale, we could create many, many more,” says Yasuda. He notes that different groups are already working to that end.

Concludes Ashoori, “There are a few problems. But if you solve them, this material fits in so many ways into potential future electronics. It’s very exciting.”

This work was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office, the MIT/Microsystems Technology Laboratories Samsung Semiconductor Research Fund, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Ramon Areces Foundation, the Basic Energy Sciences program of the U.S. Department of Energy, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan.

[highestoctanegarbage]

"I was unsure what the effects of water was going to have on the leaf but overall, it is still science"

"This proves that science can be tested with anything. That is what makes it science!"

"Osmosis is a physical phenomenon that's been used since early mankind"

"This is very impactful to humans because we are made up of cells and molecules, and it is constantly going on in our body right now as you read this"

As per popular demand, here are some of the masterpieces that my students included in their lab reports. Enjoy.

[totallynormalalec]

When a smeet hatches, they are giving a PAK designated to a random class, or whatever class is in demand. Each class is represented by a color and each PAK is specialized to the tools and information needed for that class. There has been multiple instances throughout Irken history that an Irken has transferred to a different class from which they were born into, but the PAK is still a way of designating what kind of tools and info they possess.

PAK Tools

•Four mechanical, spider like legs which can be used as

• A quick and versatile mode of transportation

• Laser cutters/laser blast

• Shield generator

• Laser gun

•Audio and Video commucator

•Portible container

•Levitation system

•Jet pack

•Invisible bubble helmet (space travel)

•Binocular helmet with night vision

•Small robotic arm

•Organ harvesting device

•Ray gun

The PAK contains all of the Irkens knowledge, effectively serving as an auxiliary brain, and holds a great array of wepons/tools. It also contains the hosts personality, charging cell, atmospheric prosesr and a handy auto reset button that will reactivate an Irken if they suffer a fetal injury. It also seems to be able to heal the host more quickly then it would naturally.

If a PAK is separated from its host, it will soon begin to seek out another, though it will at first attempt to reconnect with its original Irken owner

If the PAK attaches to another organism it will slowly kill the organism and take over if the organism can't remove it in 10 minutes.

Combat Division

Invader Class

Trained in covert ops, Invaders are tasked with going undercover to enemy planets and blending in with the native inhabitants in order to prepare it for conquest by the Irken Armada.

Milliary Class

The Irkens programmed for the military make up the majority of the Irken Armada. They are trained to be the soldiers on the front line in battle wether that be on land sea or space

Wepon Class

Battle seems to be a hobby to the Irken race. And working in close correspondence with the Innovations Class, the Wepons Class specializes in the building and development of the technology of the Irken military offense. If the Military Class uses it in battle, the Weapons Class built it

Research & Analysis Devision

Life Sciences Class

They specialize in all the non mechanical factors of Irken life like biology,systematics and agriculture

Physical Sciences Class

Irkens of the Physical Science Class are the ones that crunch the numbers of life and the math of how things work. Their specialists include the studies of space, sound, motion and best of all quantum physics

Explorer Class

The Irkens programmed into the Explorer Class don't see Irk much after their initial training. Their job is braving the frontiers of space, mapping and scoping out the far universe and reporting their findings back to the tallest

Engineering Division

Medical Class

Seeing how the PAK is the Irken life force, highly trained medical technicians are needed to maintain and repair them. They work in close correspondence with the Life Sciences Class, but those in the Medical Class truly know the ins, outs, and facets of the PAK and how it works. They're the primary class in production of every new PAK.

Innovations Class

Those in the Innovations Class are essentially the inverters and artists of the Irken race. They design and build everything from cruisers to robo technics to the structure capsules used by the Invader Class to establish their secret bases.

Communications Class

They are the Irkens behind every visual and aural form of communication used by the Irken Empire. Not only do they build the equipment they also operate the Communication Center on both Irk and the Massive alike.

All information was taken from different sources on the internet. I just compiled it into a list -Alec

[sanctaignorantia]

I'll throw in an interesting tidbit about the spiritual things that surround me. This doesn't just fit into one religion because it's seen by various fields of study, so there can be variations according to cultures and sciences.

But how are cords seen from a spiritual point of view and how is this present in Death Stranding? Let's see…

We know from the spiritist view that when we go on astral journeys (our spirit "detaches" itself from the material body) we are still connected to it through a cord. So there are two types of cord here. One is extremely strong and resistant and the other is more or less fleeting.

-> Silver Cord - also called fluidic loop or astral cord. It is made up of a semi-material substance that connects and keeps the psychosoma or perispirit connected to the physical body or soma. Each cell of the spiritual body is linked to the corresponding cell of the physical body; however, when these bodies dissociate through unfolding or projection, the subtle elements of the psychosoma form a kind of appendage, which is called the silver cord. At the moment of physical death or disincarnation, it is definitively broken, while during the process of unfolding or projection of the incarnate consciousness, it is what maintains the connection between the spiritual body and the physical one, preventing the death of the latter and keeping both not only connected, but in constant communication. Anatomically, the silver cord is elastic, with variable density and diameter. It is formed at the moment of conception and spends most of its time collected or shrunk in the intimacy of the physical cells.

-> Golden Cord - also called the extraphysical umbilical cord. It is an extraphysical organ that connects the psychosoma to the mental body and is responsible for higher-level energy transfers. It is responsible for the information and mentalizations carried out from the mental body towards the psychosomatic body, which is lower in vibration. It has survived the biological shocks and clashes of disincarnation and reincarnation over the millennia. It has a physical and extraphysical role, as it participates in the paraphysiology of the psychosomatic body and the physiology of the physical body.

source

[image taken from the internet, not mine]

And then, when we go to Repatriate in DS, we know where to find Sam's physical body because we are guided by the golden cord.

Things sometimes get confusing because we have 7 bodies and they all have their functions, but let's keep in mind the idea of the astral body and the material body.

I'm going to explain the interpretation of the 7 bodies and the levels of action of each of them, but we don't need to get too attached to this because it's not something seen (literally) in Death Stranding like the golden cord (or other cords/connections).

I've taken this information from a book I own. The visions explained here are reports of the author's clairvoyant experience.

#1) The Etheric Body

-> First layer -> "Ether", intermediate state between energy and the matter:

Note: the circles around the body are the seven main chakras, including the vortices at the head and base of the body.

It is made up of tiny lines of energy "like a glowing web of light rays" similar to the lines on a television screen. It has the same structure as the physical body and includes all the anatomical parts and organs. The etheric body consists of a defined structure of lines of force, or energy matrix, on which the physical matter of the body's tissues is molded and fixed. The physical tissues only exist as such because of the vital field that sustains them; and for this very reason, the body, which precedes the body, is not the result of this body. Note: the color of this body can vary between blue and grey.

#2) The Emotional Body

-> Second layer -> It is associated with feelings

Its colors can vary from bright light matrices to dark and cloudy ones, depending on the clarity or confusion of the feelings or the energy that produces them. Clear and highly activated feelings, such as love, emotion, joy or anger, are bright and clear; confused feelings are dark and cloudy (it's basically a thermometer).

#3) The Mental Body

-> Third layer

It extends beyond the emotional body and is made up of even finer substances associated with thoughts and mental processes. The mental body is also structured. It contains the structure of our ideas. Almost all yellow, within it you can see thought forms, which look like bubbles of varying brightness and shape. These thought forms have additional, overlapping colors that actually emanate from the emotional level. The color represents the emotion, linked to the thought form. The clearer and more well-formed the idea, the clearer and more well-formed the thought form associated with that idea. (Have you heard that sometimes thoughts take shape? I think that's where it comes from...)

At this point we can say that the 3 lower auric layers (etheric, emotional and mental) are associated with energies related to the physical world and metabolize them, while the 3 upper auric layers (astral, celestial and keteric) metabolize energies related to the spiritual world. The fourth layer (astral), linked to the heart chakra, is the transforming crucible through which all the energy that goes from one world to the other passes. In other words, spiritual energy needs to pass through the fire of the heart to be transformed into the lower physical energies, and the physical energies (of the three lower auric layers) need to pass through the transforming fire of the heart to become spiritual energies.

The fourth layer is associated with love and is the door through which we can enter the other states of reality. Each layer above the third is an entire layer of reality, with beings, forms and personal functions that go beyond what we normally describe as human.

(Do you remember Heartman's studies on how the Egyptians believed that the spirit was connected to the brain and/or the heart? That's the way to go. The heart is one of the paths. It's one of the bridges.)

#4) The Astral Level | Astral Body

It is amorphous and made up of clouds of a more beautiful color than those of the emotional body. It usually has more colors, but they are generally imbued with the light of love. When people fall in love, you can see beautiful rainbows of pink light between their hearts. When people establish relationships with each other, they create cords from the chakras that connect them. Such cords exist on many levels of the auric field in addition to the astral one. The longer and deeper the relationship, the more numerous and stronger the cords. (This is where things get very Death Stranding...) When relationships end, these cords are torn, often causing great suffering. The "healing" period of a relationship, as a rule, is a period in which the cords in the lower levels of the field are disconnected and re-rooted within the self.

#5) The Etheric Level | Standard Etheric Body (author's designation)

The author gave it this name because this body contains all the forms that exist on the physical plane in heliographic or standardized form, as if it were the negative of a photograph. In this way, the standard etheric level of the aura creates an empty space, or negative, in which the first level, or etheric level, of the aura can exist. The etheric pattern is the pattern for the etheric body, which then forms the grid structure on which the physical body grows. The standard etheric level of the universal energy field contains all the forms that exist on the physical plane, except for the standard level. These forms exist in negative space, creating an empty space in which the etheric grid structure grows and upon which all physical manifestation exists. (works as our " blueprint")

#6) The Celestial Body

-> Sixth layer -> Emotional level of the Spiritual Plane

This is the level through which we experience spiritual ecstasy and we can achieve this through meditation and many other forms of transformation work. It is the point where we know our connection with the whole universe, when we see the light and love in everything that exists. It is the connection and recognition with "God". (I put it this way because god has many interpretations)

#7) The Standard Keteric Body or Causal Body

-> Seventh level -> Mental level of the spiritual plane

When we raise our consciousness to the seventh level of the aura, we know that we identify with the Creator. The external form is the oval shape of the aura body and contains all the auric bodies associated with the individual's current incarnation. In addition, this plane contains the tracks of past lives within the eggshell. The Keteric level is the last auric level of the spiritual plane. It contains the plane of life and is the last level directly related to this incarnation. Beyond this level is the Cosmic Plane, the plane that cannot be experienced from the limiting point of view of a single incarnation.

source

So in a nutshell I'd say: YES! Death Stranding looks like a great walking simulator and (ironically enough) it would never make me think about the things that shape it. :)

[materialsscienceandengineering]

An enzyme used in laundry detergent can recycle single-use plastics within 24 hours

Scientists at King's College London have developed an innovative solution for recycling single-use bioplastics commonly used in disposable items such as coffee cups and food containers. The novel method of chemical recycling, published in Cell Reports Physical Science, uses enzymes typically found in biological laundry detergents to "depolymerize"—or break down—landfill-bound bioplastics. Rapidly converting the items into soluble fragments within just 24 hours, the process achieves full degradation of the bioplastic polylactic acid (PLA). The approach is 84 times faster than the 12-week-long industrial composting process used for recycling bioplastic materials. This discovery offers a widespread recycling solution for single-use PLA plastics, as the team of chemists at King's found that in a further 24 hours at a temperature of 90°C, the bioplastics break down into their chemical building blocks. Once converted into monomers—single molecules—the materials can be turned into equally high-quality plastic for multiple reuse.

Read more.

[mindblowingscience]

Imagine the possibility of life forms on other planets that don't resemble any on Earth. What might they look like, and why would they be so different? Juan Pérez-Mercader says it may be possible and the answer may be that they developed from a different type of chemistry. For more than 10 years, the senior research fellow in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences and the Origins of Life Initiative at Harvard has studied how to produce synthetic living systems—without relying on biochemistry, or the chemistry that has enabled life on Earth. "We have been trying to build a non-biochemical system, which unaided is capable of executing the essential properties common to all natural living systems," Pérez-Mercader explained. The Pérez-Mercader lab's latest study, published last month in Cell Reports Physical Science, even finds such a system engaged in what Charles Darwin called "the struggle for life." The paper features Pérez-Mercader with co-authors Sai Krishna Katla and Chenyu Lin describing how they created two synthetic models (or "species") and observed the ensuing competition between them.

Continue Reading

[lunarsilkscreen]

Why isn't Cloud a Soldier Class Sin-ra Militant?

There's a theory that despite being the only [Test Subject] to avoid absorption into the [Sephiroth Collective] that he didn't make Soldier because he was [Weak of Will].

This couldn't be further from the truth. In reality; Cloud was recognized by several Soldier Class fighters as being worthy of going up in the ranks. The reason he didn't is because of what happened before he ever had a chance to promote.

Our last known contact and assignment given to Cloud, he is assigned to shadow one of the strongest known Soldier (and Cloud's childhood hero) Sephiroth. Part of this assignment was to keep his identity secret from the people in his home town. Unbeknownst to Cloud; he is being put through the paces of adversity to see exactly how he would respond when put through challenging scenarios that challenge not only himself physically, but mentally and spiritually.

A kind of training that every [Soldier Class] fighter has had up to this point. And Cloud, he passed with flying colors. Despite believing that the organization had passed him up for this [Great Honor].

So much so that he gives his life for his home town, and Shinra from the domestic terrorist that Shinra accidentally created in Sephiroth. This is unknown to Shinra as a whole, because Chief Scientist [Hojo] had been performing secret experiments that went unchecked. Because of Hojo's track record in achieving results in the [Soldier] program, the rest of the directors thought little of it.

And because Hojo viewed [Sephiroth] as his own son AND crowning achievement, he sought to copy that success. Shinra Directors, not as well versed in the actual science assumed that this would be good for the company as a whole. Despite it taking an [Extreme] mental toll on our top [Security Forces].

In hindsight; this was an obvious flaw in our [National Security].

Hojo was able to take advantage of the chaos at [Nibelheim] to fake the deaths of several [Security Officers] including [Soldier Class] Sephiroth, Zack, and [Candidate] Cloud. He subsequently held them captive at one of Shinra's underground testing facilities, against theirs (and official Shinra orders) will.

Director Rufus didn't believe that Sephiroth or Cloud was still alive until he recognized both of them when his father [Late Former Director Shinra] was killed. He had a hunch that Cloud {Claiming to be Soldier} was a part of this, but upon seeing the murder weapon a [Masamune Replica] could not tell if this was a dead man framing another dead man for murder; or something else entirely.

Director Rufus, being entirely capable of fighting on a similar level to a [Soldier Class] fighter ascertained that this was in fact, most-likely, Former [Soldier Candidate] Cloud.

He seemed fairly certain that Cloud was not responsible for his father's death. However; that could be because Rufus did not care that his father had passed. Director Rufus Shinra had this to say about his engagement with the terrorist Cloud;

"Our combat was more like a game. Kind of like we were both in each other's way of something far more important. To be honest; I think that both of us were relieved to have this {talking about the combat} to do instead of the more important thing."

We believe that [Former Soldier Candidate] Cloud, because of his ties with the eco-terrorist group Avalanche has cut all ties with Shinra, and should be approached with extreme caution. We can reasonably gauge that Cloud is somewhere between Class 3 and Class 1 Soldier after reports from some of our top field agents. But we cannot precisely ascertain exactly how strong of a combatant he is.

Reports collected from interviews with people known to have encountered Cloud suggest that he is no more than a Mercenary who is currently being used by the [Avalanche] terror-cell. With many reliable sources explaining that Cloud had many other odd-jobs, and was repeatedly spoken ill-of by known Avalanche Agents, both publicly and privately.

This suggests that there is a reasonable certainty to re-recruit cloud in the future after the current chaos is concluded and a restructuring has taken place. Doing so could prove extremely beneficial for the future [Soldier] training regiments, and Midgar as a whole; seeing as how Cloud has become a kind of [Hometown Legend] in his own right; despite probably not knowing it himself.

[theshapeshifter100]

ALTR 04859

Listen alright no one who’s done these knows who the hell I am but damn it if I don’t enjoy a fun writing concept. I believe @tracobuttons started this

---

ALTR 04859 was first spotted in late 2017, and evaded capture for a full year before being brought into IRIS custody. No harm came to IRIS operatives during this time, although some were throughly embarrassed.

ALTR 04859 has the standard form is a stocky humanoid female standing at 155cm with blonde hair. Whether this is her original form is unclear, as the primary ability of this ALTR is the ability to change form.

There appears to be a preference for canid, lagomorph, feline and raptor forms. There is no known pattern to why she shifts to these forms. Upon being questioned, ALTR 04859 merely shrugged and stated ‘because I feel like it’.

In human form, ALTR 04859 is fidgety, particularly with her hands. A foam stress ball has been provided and was gleefully received. In other forms she displays similar behaviour through other means, such as tail swishing and wing flapping, but the stress ball is still used. It has has to be replaced three separate times at time of writing.

When left alone, ALTR 04859 will sing, no matter what form she has taken. Observers greatly dislike when she does this in the form of a cat, or a fox. However, being prohibited from singing caused an increase in stress, so ALTR 04859 was merely advised not to sing in such forms, and has so far cooperated.

Intelligence appears to be on the same level as an average human, and retains the same cognition and awareness no matter the form taken.

ALTR 04859 displayed recognition when some other ALTRs were described, but claims to have never interacted with them. The Watchr cameras told us that she was being truthful.

The one known exception is ALTR 0899, whom ALTR 04859 appears to enjoy the company of greatly. The two ALTRs are not to be left unsupervised with each other, and given their propensity to mimic each other when changing form, measures are to be taken to ensure the correct ALTR is returned to the correct cell.

A steady supply of fiction books is to be maintained in order to distract ALTR 04859 and lower stress. ALTR 04859 has expressed great enjoyment of certain tropes found in fantasy and science fiction novels, although has also stated a great distaste of the romance genre, and romantic plot lines in general. Despite IRIS’s best efforts, there are a limited number of titles that fit those requirements, but there has yet to be any great discontent over the matter.

Despite clear curiosity, and potential pleading, ALTR 04859 is not allowed any non-fictional resources we have about magic.

Whilst in IRIS custody ALTR 04859 appears mostly calm, and sometimes amused. There is the concern that ALTR 04859 will attempt to escape using her ability, and while many security measures have been put in place, we are not yet certain of her full capabilities. It is unlikely that ALTR 04859 will display them willingly.

Future tests of ALTR 04859′s abilities are still under board consideration.

There is to be constant monitoring of ALTR 04859′s cell and any new forms shown are to be reported immediately. She is to be allowed supervised exercise in an enclosed space once a week, and if well behaved, is allowed light training with the guards. ALTR 04859 appears to have some level of skill in unarmed combat, but is not allowed to properly train, in case physical restraint is required. Under no circumstances allow ALTR 04859 to know of the location of IRIS’s weapons stores, let alone allow her to use them, no matter of assurances that she ‘just wants to look’.

In the event of escape, food is one potential non-violent method of recovery, as ALTR 04859 appears to have trouble turning down food. Sweet food and chocolate are recommended, however given the clear preference for predator forms, having meat on hand is also recommended