#use of cell culture in cancer research

[kosheeka]

Role of Tissue Culture in the Study of Cancer

For the case of primary cancer cell cultures, fresh surgically resected tissue is used to develop ex vivo cell populations.  While the most widely used culture method for studying cancer, especially in preclinical assays employs the use of immortalized cell lines. However, the process of transformation makes the accuracy of these models questionable, and hence, whether the actual cancer behavior is represented by these models becomes a question.

[reality-detective]

“I gathered all vaccine ingredients into a list and contacted Poison Control. After intros and such, and asking to speak with someone tenured and knowledgeable, this is the gist of that conversation.

Me: My question to you is how are these ingredients categorized? As benign or poison? (I ran a few ingredients, formaldehyde, Tween 80, mercury, aluminum, phenoxyethanol, potassium phosphate, sodium phosphate, sorbitol, etc.)

He: Well, that's quite a list... But I'd have to easily say that they're all toxic to humans... Used in fertilizers... Pesticides... To stop the heart... To preserve a dead body... They're registered with us in different categories, but pretty much poisons. Why?

Me: If I were deliberately to feed or inject my child with these ingredients often, as a schedule, obviously I'd put my daughter in harm's way... But what would legally happen to me?

He: Odd question... But you'd likely be charged with criminal negligence... perhaps with intent to kill... and of course child abuse... Your child would be taken away from you... Do you know of someone's who's doing this to their child? This is criminal...

Me: An industry... These are the ingredients used in vaccines... With binding agents to make sure the body won't flush these out... To keep the antibody levels up indefinitely...

The man was beside himself. He asked if I would email him all this information. He wanted to share it with his adult kids who are parents. He was horrified and felt awful he didn't know... his kids are vaccinated and they have health issues...”

~  By  Iris Figueroa

Here are just SOME vaccine ingredients present in routine vaccines:

◾️Formaldehyde/Formalin - Highly toxic systematic poison and carcinogen.

◾️Betapropiolactone - Toxic chemical and carcinogen. May cause death/permanant injury after very short exposure to small quantities. Corrosive chemical.

◾️Hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide - May cause damage to the liver, cardiovascular system, and central nervous system. May cause reproductive effects and birth defects.

◾️Aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate, and aluminum salts - Neurotoxin. Carries risk for long term brain inflammation/swelling, neurological disorders, autoimmune disease, Alzheimer's, dementia, and autism. It penetrates the brain where it persists indefinitely.

◾️Thimerosal (mercury) - Neurotoxin. Induces cellular damage, reduces oxidation-reduction activity, cellular degeneration, and cell death. Linked to neurological disorders, Alzheimer's, dementia, and autism.

◾️Polysorbate 80 & 20 - Trespasses the Blood-Brain Barrier and carries with it aluminum, thimerosal, and viruses; allowing it to enter the brain.

◾️Glutaraldehyde - Toxic chemical used as a disinfectant for heat sensitive medical equipment.

◾️Fetal Bovine Serum - Harvested from bovine (cow) fetuses taken from pregnant cows before slaughter.

◾️Human Diploid Fibroblast Cells - aborted fetal cells. Foreign DNA has the ability to interact with our own.

◾️African Green Monkey Kidney Cells - Can carry the SV-40 cancer-causing virus that has already tainted about 30 million Americans.

◾️Acetone - Can cause kidney, liver, and nerve damage.

◾️E.Coli - Yes, you read that right.

◾️DNA from porcine (pig) Circovirus type-1

◾️Human embryonic lung cell cultures (from aborted fetuses)

You can view all of these ingredients on the CDCs website: 👇

You are always welcome to do your own research, in fact I encourage you to do so. 🤔

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Week - June 6, 2023

1. Biden orders 20-year ban on oil, gas drilling around tribal site in New Mexico

Hundreds of square miles in New Mexico will be withdrawn from further oil and gas production for the next 20 years on the outskirts of Chaco Culture National Historical Park that tribal communities consider sacred, the Biden administration ordered Friday.

The new order from Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland applies to public lands and associated mineral rights within a 10-mile (16-kilometer) radius of the park. It does not apply to entities that are privately, state- or tribal-owned. Existing leases won’t be impacted either.

2. Groundbreaking Israeli cancer treatment has 90% success rate

An experimental treatment developed at Israel's Hadassah-University Medical Center has a 90% success rate at bringing patients with multiple myeloma into remission.

The treatment is based on genetic engineering technology. They have used a genetic engineering technology called CAR-T, or Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapy, which boosts the patient’s own immune system to destroy the cancer. More than 90% of the 74 patients treated at Hadassah went into complete remission, the oncologists said.

3. Federal Judge Makes History in Holding That Border Searches of Cell Phones Require a Warrant

With United States v. Smith, a district court judge in New York made history by being the first court to rule that a warrant is required for a cell phone search at the border, “absent exigent circumstances”. For a century, the Supreme Court has recognized a border search exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement.

4. Indigenous-led bison repopulation projects are helping the animal thrive again in Alberta

Indigenous-led efforts are reintroducing bison to their ancestral lands in Alberta, bringing back an iconic species that was nearly extinct. These reintroduction projects, such as the one led by the Tsuut'ina Nation, have witnessed the positive impact on the bison population and the surrounding wildlife.

The historical decline of bison numbers was due to overhunting and government policies that forced Indigenous peoples onto reserves. These initiatives aim to restore ecological integrity while fostering spiritual and cultural connections with the land and animals. Successful results have been observed in projects like Banff National Park, where the bison population has grown from 16 to nearly 100, providing inspiration for future wilding efforts.

5. Breakthrough in disease affecting one in nine women

Sydney researchers have made a world-first leap forward that could change the treatment of endometriosis and improve the health of women living with the painful and debilitating disease. Researchers from Sydney's Royal Hospital for Women have grown tissue from every known type of endometriosis, observing changes and comparing how they respond to treatments.

It means researchers will be able to vary treatments from different types of endometriosis, determining whether a woman will need fertility treatments.

6. Latvia just elected the first openly gay head of state in Europe

The country’s parliament elected Edgars Rinkēvičs to be its next president, Reuters reported prime minister Krišjānis Kariņš saying.

Rinkēvičs publicly came out as gay in November 2014, posting on Twitter: “I proudly announce I am gay… Good luck all of you.” In a second tweet at the time, he spoke about improving the legal status of same-sex relationships, saying Latvia needed to create a legal framework for all kinds of partnerships.

7. France bans short haul flights

The introduction of France’s short-haul flight ban has renewed calls for Europe to cut down on journeys that could be made by train. Last week France officially introduced its ban on short-haul flights.

The final version of the law means that journeys which can be taken in under 2.5 hours by train can’t be taken by plane. There also needs to be enough trains throughout the day that travellers can spend at least eight hours at their destination.

----

That's it for this week :)

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[reasonsforhope]

Researchers from Western and Brown University have made groundbreaking progress towards identifying the root cause and potential therapy for preeclampsia.

The pregnancy complication affects up to eight per cent of pregnancies globally and is the leading cause of maternal and fetal mortality due to premature delivery, complications with the placenta and lack of oxygen.

The research, led by Drs. Kun Ping Lu and Xiao Zhen Zhou at Western, and Drs. Surendra Sharma and Sukanta Jash at Brown, has identified a toxic protein, cis P-tau, in the blood and placenta of preeclampsia patients.

According to the study published in Nature Communications, cis P-tau is a central circulating driver of preeclampsia – a “troublemaker” that plays a major role in causing the deadly complication...

“The root cause of preeclampsia has (so far) remained unknown, and without a known cause there has been no cure. Preterm delivery is the only life-saving measure,” said Lu, professor of biochemistry and oncology at  Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry...

“Our study identifies cis P-tau as a crucial culprit and biomarker for preeclampsia. It can be used for early diagnosis of the complication and is a crucial therapeutic target,” said Sharma...

Until now, cis P-tau was mainly associated with neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and stroke. This association was discovered by Lu and Zhou in 2015 as a result of their decades of research on the role of tau protein in cancer and Alzheimer’s.

An antibody developed by Zhou in 2012 to target only the toxic protein while leaving its healthy counterpart unscathed is currently undergoing clinical trials in human patients suffering from TBI and Alzheimer’s Disease. The antibody has shown promising results in animal models and human cell cultures in treating the brain conditions.

The researchers were curious whether the same antibody could work as a potential treatment for preeclampsia. Upon testing the antibody in mouse models they found astonishing results.

“In this study, we found the cis P-tau antibody efficiently depleted the toxic protein in the blood and placenta, and corrected all features associated with preeclampsia in mice. Clinical features of preeclampsia, like elevated blood pressure, excessive protein in urine and fetal growth restriction, among others, were eliminated and pregnancy was normal,” said Sharma.

Sharma and his team at Brown have been working on developing an assay for early detection of preeclampsia and therapies to treat the condition. He believes the findings of this study have brought them closer to their goal...

“The results have far-reaching implications. This could revolutionize how we understand and treat a range of conditions, from pregnancy-related issues to brain disorders,” said Lu.

-via India Education Diary, September 22, 2023

[mindblowingscience]

Using a technique that has shown promise in targeting cancer tumors, researchers have found a way to deploy a molecular “warhead” that can annihilate the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. Tested in cell cultures using the Borrelia burgdoferi bacterium, the approach holds the potential to target not only bacteria, but also fungi such as yeast and viruses. The findings appear in the journal Cell Chemical Biology. “This transport mechanism gets internalized in the bacterium and brings in a molecule that causes what we’ve described as a berserker reaction—a programmed death response,” says Timothy Haystead, professor in the pharmacology and cancer biology department at Duke University. “It wipes out the bacteria—sterilizes the culture with a single dose of light. And then when you look at what occurs with electron microscopy, you see the collapse of the chromosome.”

Continue Reading.

[zenithabovemarshland]

Just thinking aloud about fame, celebrity, and Pluto in Aquarius...

When Britney Spears was released from the conservatorship there were posts about how it's likely Britney might not be as internet-literate or socially appropriate as we'd like her to be, considering everything she went through. The posts encouraged others to be patient and understanding, and not to cancel her if she happens to make any mistakes.

Just now I saw a similar point about Gypsy Rose Blanchard. Now that she's released she intends to make herself very public online, but her entire life (32 years) has been spent in either one prison or the other. There are concerns for how she might adjust to the internet we know today, seeing as how she likely didn't get the opportunity to grow alongside social media the way the rest of us did.

In the 2024 Year Ahead Forecast from The Astrology Podcast they brought up the Pluto in Leo generation, and how that period of time and that generation relate to the making of our concept of "celebrity". They're also the generation that are holding on to power (like the presidents of the USA). Pluto in Leo gen is also unique because it's one of the only Pluto generations that is likely to live to their Pluto opposition, which is happening now. With this Pluto opposition, the pod talked about how the idea of who gets to be in power is likely to change. As well as our concept and relationship with "celebrities".

In 1991, Pluto in Scorpio (square to Pluto in Leo, if it matters. Whether it matters is still something I'm exploring here), Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's. I'm not actually sure how public illness was allowed to be previous to that. I just remember growing up how Michael J. Fox was something of a special case, and his celebrity status helped make massive leaps in awareness and research for Parkinson's.

Hollywood became big in the 1920's, when Pluto was in Cancer. While Pluto has been in the opposite sign, Capricorn, I feel like I've heard about a million celebrities coming out with illness. Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Bruce Willis. Recently, Celine Dion. If you Google it, there are lists of dozens of celebrities with chronic illnesses. Not to mention mental illness, which has become that much more public.

My feeling at this point is that there are themes of privacy, hidden and internal illness, and representation here that we've seen getting dug up from the Pluto in Cancer era. True crime stories from old Hollywood, being open about mental illness, exposing how child talents have been exploited by the industry, and of course, hidden afflictions to celebrities are changes we've seen around fame through the trine, Pluto in Scorpio, and opposition, Pluto in Capricorn.

Most obviously, though, who gets to be famous has changed the most in the last 20 years. It used to be only special, hand-picked people who got to be famous. Now it could be anybody with a cell phone.

I think of this blog post on the Aries Point by Ace (AliceSparklyKat), where they talk about how the angular points seem to manifest. They've noticed that celebrities whose Sun is at 0 degrees Cancer seem to be regarded as chameleon-like in their nationality, form, or culture, and those with 0 degrees Capricorn seem to be known for a peak example for one nationality, form, or culture. I wonder if this can be seen in this shift to influencer culture, particularly in the rhetoric that celebrities until now have been made to represent everybody. But now, after Pluto in Capricorn, we are much more aware of the consequences of not having fair representation of more nuanced, individual experiences. At first it was all about art and talent. Now, it's about the hard tacks of who gets what job and why, and the consequences of story. Very Cancer to Capricorn opposition coded.

Anyway, I feel like I've noticed a lot of celebrities becoming ill in the past, and now I feel like I'm seeing some "taboo" issues come up in influencer culture. I'm wondering about how this could be gearing us up for Pluto in Aquarius.

What do you think??? I really want to hear your thoughts!

[fourovcups]

I've been reading Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire as research for a project of mine, and it has certainly been an experience.

Desert Solitaire was one of these titles I'd heard bandied about in American nature literature growing up (the kind of thing teachers recommended once you finished Hatchet), but I don't here his work mentioned as much anymore. I recently re-encountered the title on a literal ecofascist reading list. While Abbey doesn't sound like an ecofascist himself, I can easily see why nature Nazis like him.

The book chronicles Abbey's time as a seasonal park ranger at the Arches National Monument in Utah There is a kind of uncertainty and inconsistency in the way he writes, even in the way he acts towards his surroundings in the desert. Silent Spring had only been published a few years before Solitaire was, and the eco-cultural revolution was not yet in full swing. Abbey writes lovingly about his desert environment. He describes in stunning detail, for example, the everyday beauty of a bumblebee alighting on a cactus flower, and decries the reckless "development" initiatives of the Bureau of Public Roads. But on the next page, he will say something like this: "...it's a foolish, simple-minded rationalism which denies any form of emotion to all animals but man and his dog. This is no more justified than the Moslems are in denying souls to women." Sure dude. Okay, fine, he was writing in the sixties. Some insensitivity is par for the course. But then, after pages and pages of decrying humans driving desert flora and fauna towards extinction, he describes with glee an instance where he stones a rabbit to death for no apparent reason.

It's a bizarre passage, and shows Abbey at his most unhinged. He describes the rabbit as "cowardly" for running away from threats, unlike the brave mountain lion, who stands and fights. He throws the stone and hits the rabbit's head: "He crumples, there's the usual gushing of blood, etc.," and the creature is dead. "I continue my walk with a new, augmented cheerfulness which is hard to understand but unmistakable [...] I try but cannot feel any sense of guilt." Reflecting on the incident, he concludes that his killing of the rabbit has made him a part of the desert, a membership bought by killing or being killed, being "predator or prey". Even so, he decides not to eat the rabbit, which he says is probably diseased anyway. He also describes using his walking stick to crush and stir up an ant colony, also without any reason beyond not liking ants. "Don't actually care for ants. Neurotic little pismires." These are far from the only times that Abbey violates his personal philosophy of reverence for all living creatures.

It's clear that Edward Abbey came to Arches National Monument already dissatisfied with the outside world, and with some authority issues to boot (some quick googling on his background shows two demotions as a military police officer for clashing with higher-ups). The freedom of the desert, its simplicity and balance, is a significant part of what makes it appeal to him. But its harshness, the hostility of its sandstorms and lurking rattlesnakes, draws him in just as much.

Edward Abbey is not an ecofascist. If anything, his ill-defined political beliefs can be vaguely defined as anarchistic, if they can be defined at all. Deleuze and Guattari write in A Thousand Plateaus that fascism is "a cancerous body rather than a totalitarian organism". It is fluid, mutable. Sometimes it lies latent, benign; at other times it rushes outward, colonizing piecemeal and erratically, in "flows capable of suffusing every kind of cell". Elements of Abbey, and of Desert Solitaire, contain such microfascisms.

Let's turn back to the linchpin of it all: the killing of the rabbit, which he sees as a joyous, cosmic act; one that links him into a (circular? pyramidal?) chain of being he was previously alienated from, in the atomized world of civilization. His joy is only augmented when he realizes he is not guilty for killing the rabbit. In per-modern hunting customs across the world, the taking of animal life is never free and unmediated. Thanks may be given to the spirit of the animal itself, or to the unseen powers that led the hunter to their quarry. Naturally, the sacrifice of an animal to a god was just that: for a god, not the human involved. What Abbey describes in the killing of the rabbit is something utterly different.

In Federico Finchelstein's Fascist Mythologies, Finchelstein says that in fascism, "consciousness was not a repression of inwardness (as Freud understood the workings of the Ego and the Id) but its actual distillation. [...] [Fascist consciousness] was not contemplative but similar to that of a sublime sensation of ecstasy."

The fascist subject is most "conscious" precisely when they loose themselves in the ecstatic abandon of the act. Such fascist consciousness is the foundation of the free, easy violence it facilitates.

When Abbey describes casting the stone at the rabbit, it is in a Meursault-like twilight of awareness. He sets up the encounter as a game, one in which he is a scientist experimenting on a rabbit that has been "volunteered" to him, and whose death is justifiable through its natural cowardice. He hardly realizes that the action he is carrying out, and when the rabbit dies he is shocked out of his reverie for a moment.

"For a moment I am shocked by my deed [...] but shock is succeeded by a mild elation."

For Abbey, primordial violence is what at last allows him union with the sacred world of the desert.

"No longer do I feel so isolated from the sparse and furtive life around me, a stranger from another world. I have entered into this one. We are kindred all of us [...] Long live diversity, long live the Earth!"

By carrying out this act of bare violence, Abbey frees himself from the civilized world and achieves union with the world of Nature, in which violence is a simple act: one that creates its own order rather than supporting existing ones. It is this union that, while the moment lasts, allows him to rejoice in his newfound "innocence and power".

That is where I will leave things for now. There are other, more overt themes that Abbey explores that are the chief reason Desert Solitaire appeals to many ecofascists, such as its characterizations of industrial society and "Progress". Abbey's later work, such as The Monkey Wrench Gang, set even more explicit examples of direct action and sabotage that inspired right-wing accelerationists as well as left-wing environmental activists. This is my first long-ish post; if you're interested in these kinds of posts on ecofascism and ecocriticism, let me know and I might make more in the future.

[gayhenrycreel]

okay i filled out a google doc survey of aro experiences in the queer community and at the end i kinda went on a commie rant, so this is it copy pasted. (yes my mutuals, im aware as i reread this that this sounds like the blorbos 4.07 monologue)

i want people to know that no one should ever be in a relationship just because they want to be considered normal. alloros included. the relationship hierarchy hurts everyone.

hierarchy has always been the problem. its time that people start realising that we are all equals, and the idea of any particular thing being inherently better than another is the basis for amatonormativity, homophobia, racism, transphobia, misogyny, eugenics, and ultimately fascism. "superiority" does not exist.

even the natural world is negatively affected by human ideas of hierarchy. conservation efforts are for animals, occasionally plants, and never for fungi. fungi are barely even researched properly compared to other clades. how many fungi have gone extinct without anyone knowing, because no one cares?

this affects humans directly. penicillin comes from a fungus. hallucinigenic mushrooms can treat anxiety, depression, adhd, and even ptsd. lions mane contains biochemicals that prevent cell death, which means (and research is ongoing) it could slow aging, lead to longer lives, and quite significantly, prevent dementia.

those are just known fungi. imagine how many are out there that could save lives that are endangered and dying, but no one cares to save them because they are small and not very noticeable. theres an antioxidant thats exclusively found in fungi. that means it too could prevent cell damage, such as those that cause cancer.

if i were to get into human prejudice this would go on forever. hierarchy kills. it destroys entire species, cultures, lives. the solution to defeating amatonormativity is to remove hierarchy.

this would also solve infinite other problems. we could no longer have to work our asses off for the profit of billionares. we would use resources when we need them, not for some hypothetical world where they might be bought on mass. no one needs a billion iphones. the slaves who make them certainly dont.

things should be produced when they are actually in demand, not just so elon can get money he will never use. that money could go to education, science, sustainable energy, medicine, conservation, and literally billions of people who are starving because elon and bezos want to think about their sci fi fantasys that they do not allow to become reality by not bloody paying their slaves, as well as hoarding money that could be used by places that could legitimately get people to mars like nasa.

elon works closely with nasa, but nasa cant afford to pay their own scientists. many of nasas workers hate spacex. one even quit over it. there are so many people who could help humanity, who could invent cures for AIDS, vaccines for deadly diseases, better solar panels, solutions for space junk, more efficient farming, more nutritious native plants that people have harvested for centuries before colonizers decided nutrient poor cabbage is better than the vitamin rich indigenous vegetables.

like seriously, there are so many plants that indigenous societies have been eating for thousands of years that the world just doesn't know about anymore.

the wider queer community could do a lot for arospecs by taking off the hierarchy glasses. we all need to take off the hierarchy glasses. its killing the world.

[cartermagazine]

Today In History

Henrietta Lacks born August 1, 1920 was an African-American woman whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized human cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research.

In 1951, young Henrietta Lacks was a mother of five — visited The Johns Hopkins Hospital complaining of vaginal bleeding. Upon examination, renowned gynecologist Dr. Howard Jones discovered a large, malignant tumor on her cervix. At the time, The Johns Hopkins Hospital was one of only a few hospitals to treat poor African-Americans.

As medical records show, Mrs. Lacks began undergoing radium treatments for her cervical cancer. This was the best medical treatment available at the time for this terrible disease. A sample of her cancer cells retrieved during a biopsy were sent to Dr. George Gey's nearby tissue lab. For years, Dr. Gey, a prominent cancer and virus researcher, had been collecting cells from all patients - regardless of their race or socioeconomic status - who came to The Johns Hopkins Hospital with cervical cancer, but each sample quickly died in Dr. Gey’s lab. What Dr. Gey would soon discover was that Mrs. Lacks’ cells were unlike any of the others he had ever seen: where other cells would die, Mrs. Lacks' cells doubled every 20 to 24 hours.

As was then the practice, no consent was required to culture the cells obtained from Lacks's treatment. Neither she nor her family were compensated for the extraction or use of the HeLa cells.

Even though some information about the origins of HeLa's immortalized cell lines was known to researchers after 1970, the Lacks family was not made aware of the line's existence until 1975. With knowledge of the cell line's genetic provenance becoming public, its use for medical research and for commercial purposes continues to raise concerns about privacy and patients' rights.

CARTER™️ Magazine carter-mag.com #wherehistoryandhiphopmeet #historyandhiphop365 #cartermagazine #carter #henriettalacks #blackhistorymonth #blackhistory #history #staywoke

[aressida]

Wrote a long one cos the in law family wanted him to take the flu shot, I said no.

"Dear Family, Friends, and Medical Professionals,

I am writing to share some thoughts and questions about vaccines, particularly in light of recent developments.

Do we believe that vaccines are the ultimate solution in medicine?

It is commonly known that influenza vaccines are reformulated each season due to the virus’s constant mutation, making it challenging to predict and protect against new strains accurately.

Is it true that these vaccines bypass the liver’s natural filtration system, potentially causing a shock to our bodies?

How should we classify these ingredients—as toxic or benign?

Here are just some vaccine ingredients, and these are being injected into your body and into your children’s bodies if you choose to vaccinate:

– Formaldehyde/Formalin – Highly toxic systemic poison and carcinogen.

– Betapropiolactone – Toxic chemical and carcinogen. May cause death or permanent injury after very short exposure to small quantities. Corrosive chemical.

– Hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide – May cause damage to the liver, cardiovascular system, and central nervous system. May cause reproductive effects and birth defects.

– Aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate, and aluminum salts – Neurotoxin. Carries risk for long-term brain inflammation/swelling, neurological disorders, autoimmune disease, Alzheimer’s, dementia, and autism. It penetrates the brain where it persists indefinitely.

– Thimerosal (mercury) – Neurotoxin. Induces cellular damage, reduces oxidation-reduction activity, cellular degeneration, and cell death. Linked to neurological disorders, Alzheimer’s, dementia, and autism.

– Polysorbate 80 & 20 – Trespasses the blood-brain barrier and carries with it aluminum, thimerosal, and viruses; allowing them to enter the brain.

– Glutaraldehyde – Toxic chemical used as a disinfectant for heat-sensitive medical equipment.

– Fetal Bovine Serum – Harvested from bovine (cow) fetuses taken from pregnant cows before slaughter.

– Human Diploid Fibroblast Cells – Aborted fetal cells. Foreign DNA has the ability to interact with our own.

– African Green Monkey Kidney Cells – Can carry the SV-40 cancer-causing virus that has already tainted about 30 million Americans.

– Acetone – Can cause kidney, liver, and nerve damage.

– E. Coli – Yes, you read that right.

– DNA from porcine (pig) Circovirus type-1

– Human embryonic lung cell cultures (from aborted fetuses)

You can view all of these ingredients on the CDC’s website. I encourage everyone to do their own research. Look up the MSDS on these chemicals. Read the thousands of peer-reviewed studies that have evaluated the biological consequences these chemicals can have on the body, especially when being injected.

Injecting foreign substances directly into the bloodstream—viruses, toxins, and proteins—has been linked to various diseases and disorders. These include conditions like atypical measles, cancer, leukemia, multiple sclerosis, and even SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).

Conditions like Addison’s disease, anaphylactic shock, arthritis, asthma, asymptomatic COVID-19, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy, facial paralysis, fibromyalgia, fetal distress syndrome, foreign body embolism, genital herpes, hepatitis, hyperthyroidism, inflammatory bowel disease, jugular vein embolism, lung abscess, lupus, meningitis, MERS-CoV test positive, migraine-triggered seizures, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, multiple sclerosis, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, pneumonia, stiff leg syndrome, stiff person syndrome, stillbirth, sudden heart attack, sudden respiratory failure, type 1 diabetes, uterine rupture, viral bronchitis—and much more.

This does not mean everyone will experience these reactions, but a significant number of test subjects have experienced one or more.

It is more than enough evidence to show that vaccine mandates are completely anti-scientific.

How can you make an informed decision if you do not have all the information?

We have also seen a shift where flu vaccines are now mRNA-based. But does a "vaccine" really prevent a virus or its recurrence as we expect it to?

The annual flu shot is, at best, a partial defense, aimed at last year’s strain. Does it truly help against the ever-mutating new flu, or is it just a temporary fix?

My concern is that this mindset—that a vaccine is a quick fix for everything—is flawed. The immune system may struggle to handle these types of agents, leading to breakthrough infections and potentially higher mortality rates.

For those who are vaccinated, I respect your choice. I simply ask for the same respect in return for my decision not to vaccinate. My reasons are personal and grounded in a belief that the government should not dictate my health choices and my family's.

Have you heard about Pfizer’s side effects?

Have you read the Pfizer documentation? Ask yourself if a drug with 32 pages of side effects is right for you.

The list of potential vaccine side effects released by Pfizer is alarming, ranging from autoimmune disorders to serious conditions like multiple organ dysfunction and sudden respiratory failure. Yet, this information was kept under wraps and only recently made public. Shouldn’t we be informed of the risks?

Do we even know the medium- or long-term effects of these vaccines?

Are they still in clinical trials? Is there a control group? What about Antibody-Dependent Enhancement (ADE) – has it been adequately tested? And why are ingredients like formaldehyde and mercury, known toxins, included in these vaccines?

Do you truly think this vaccine is 100% safe?

Transparency is crucial.

How can we make informed decisions if we are not given all the information?

We must ask ourselves, do we trust the pharmaceutical companies and their relationships with organizations like the CDC and FDA?

The FDA requested 75 years to release data on the Pfizer vaccine—why? Why did it take only 108 days to approve this vaccine, yet it supposedly requires decades to fully understand its effects?

Do you believe that SARS-CoV-2 has been isolated?

How well-informed are you about the CDC, FDA, pharmaceutical companies, and their donors? Do you think their qualifications are reliable?

These are important questions that deserve honest discussions. And, I believe it is crucial to acknowledge the existence of these alternative perspectives and engage in open discussions to gain a more comprehensive understanding.

Our health and freedom are at stake, and I urge everyone to think critically and seek out all the information before making decisions.

Thank you for taking the time to consider these points."

[womeninfictionandirl]

Dr. Jane Cooke Wright by The Covatar

Jane Cooke Wright (also known as "Jane Jones") (November 20, 1919 – February 19, 2013) was a pioneering cancer researcher and surgeon noted for her contributions to chemotherapy. In particular, Wright is credited with developing the technique of using human tissue culture rather than laboratory mice to test the effects of potential drugs on cancer cells. She also pioneered the use of the drug methotrexate to treat breast cancer and skin cancer.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Biotechnology and the future of humanity

Animals Are Commodities Too

Under slavery human individuals are owned, are property. Under capitalism workers aren’t owned but they have to sell their labour/time/creativity because capitalists own everything (land, the means of production, transport and communication etc) that would enable people to live outside of wage labour and the market place. Now, instead of individuals owning non-human animals as part of their subsistence, corporations are claiming the right to ‘own’ whole species of animals. This process of patenting life can be traced back to the 1980 US Supreme Court ruling, which stated that a GM bacterium (modified to digest oil) could be patented. Not just that one bacterium of course but the whole, created species. In 1985 the US Patent and Trademark Office ruled that GM plants, seeds and plant tissues could be patented. Now the corporations can demand royalties and licence payments every time farmers use those plants or seeds. Monsanto holds a patent on (i.e. owns and rents out) all GM cotton and soya. Patents have been granted on biological characteristics of plants as well. For example, a patent has been issued to Sungene for a variety of sunflower that has a high oleic acid content. But the patent covers the characteristic as well as the genes that code for it, so any plant breeder who achieves the same result by traditional methods could be sued.

In 1987 animals joined the biotech market place when a Harvard biologist patented ‘oncomouse’, a GM organism (mouse) predisposed to develop cancer for use in medical ‘research’. By 1997 40 GM ‘species’ of animal had been patented, including turkey, nematodes, mice and rabbits. Hundreds of other patents are pending on pigs, cows, fish, sheep and monkeys among others. In 1976 a leukaemia patient named John Moore had his cancerous spleen removed under surgery at the University of California. Without his knowledge or consent some of the cells from his spleen were cultured and found to produce a protein which could be used in the manufacture of anti-cancer drugs. The estimated value of this cell-line to the pharmaceutical industry is $3 billion. In 1984 the California Supreme Court ruled that he was not entitled to any of these profits.

A US company called Biocyte holds a patent on (owns) all umbilical cord cells. Systemix Inc has a patent on (owns) all human bone marrow stem cells, these being the progenitors of all cells in the blood. The worldwide market for cell lines and tissue cultures was estimated to be worth $426.7 million to the corporations in 1996. Not only cells but also fragments of DNA can be patented (owned) in this way. Incyte, for example, has applied for patents on 1.2 million fragments of human DNA. The logic of this is that ‘genes for’ particular diseases such as cystic fibrosis, diabetes, various cancers etc could become the property of pharmaceutical companies who could then make huge profits on tests for such genes and genebased therapies. There is no space here to get into a lengthy criticism of the reductionist idea that individual genes simply map onto well-defined physical traits underlying the whole theory and practice of GM. It’s enough to say that research into patenting (owning), for example, a supposed’ breast cancer gene’ is of little benefit to humanity if it is true, as some scientists have estimated, that 90% of breast cancers are unrelated to genetics but are triggered by environmental pollution, diet and lifestyle factors. So what’s new? Capitalism, indeed class-society in general, always seizes the living and turns it into profit and power, declares ownership where previously there was only life: from the enclosure of the commons to the seizing of millions of human beings from Africa to be slaves to the current looting of tropical biodiversity for use in the biotech labs.

[aangussca]

Art Week Workshop: Nature prints with Keg de Souza (12.9.24)

Description of session

"Plants have always moved over and between land masses, transported both intentionally and inadvertently from their native lands to new ones. This spread of plants has accelerated over the past few hundred years through colonial expansion, massively altering ecosystems.

We will begin by wandering the university gardens to gather weeds. These specimens will serve as a starting point to return to the printmedia room to print, research and discuss how the movement of plants has left lasting impacts, many of which have propelled us towards climate crisis."

Short summary of Keg de Souza's practice (with link to portfolio)

Goan heritage (from the Goa state in India)

Politics of space (architecture, colonialism, displacement, culture, etc.) - e.g. Abundance: Fruit of the Sea, Bounty of the Mountain (2016) and Impossible Utopia (2011)

Botany/landscapes in relation to global/colonial histories (documented in herbariums and other botanical archives), as well as the impacts these histories have (e.g. "trauma of the landscape") - e.g. If a coconut falls (2024) and Monumental as Anything (2023)

EDIT (OCTOBER 2024) - Here's a link to more detail on her practice and her works:

Process and research (with images)

We collected a number of plants (mostly weeds) in a hidden garden on campus.

After choosing the ones we liked to use for our print, we rolled ink onto the plants and printed them onto paper to create a monoprint (NOTE: I WILL DEFINITELY CONSIDER THIS PROCESS FOR A FUTURE WORK).

Some of the plants I found that I could identify: Euphorbia peplus (Petty Spurge), Nandina domestica (Heavenly Bamboo), Cyclospermum Leptophyllum (Marsh Parlsey), Youngia japonica (Oriental False Hawksbeard), Epilobium ciliatum (Fringed Willow-herb)

Interestingly, after some research, I learnt that all of these plants either have been used or are being researched for their medicinal properties.

Petty Spurge: Has been historically used to treat warts and other skin conditions, and has recently been researched for its cytotoxic (toxic to cells) properties in treating non-melanoma skin cancers.

Marsh Parsley: Has been researched for antibacterial and antimicrobial properties.

Heavenly Bamboo: Antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties for treating colds, asthma and other respiratory conditions in traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine.

Oriental False Hawksbeard: Used for treating fever, snakebites, coughs and colds, shingles, sore throat and diarrhoea in traditional Chinese medicine (and for treating wounds, and preventing the formation of kidney stones in traditional Bangladeshi medicine) - recent research has also found antiviral properties in treating respiratory conditions like RSV.

Fringed Willow-herb (not used in monoprints out of fear that the flowers would get damaged in their already delicate state - perhaps I could try a technique not too dissimilar to the Japanese printing technique gyotaku): Used to treat infected skin sores, hip and back pain, and diarrhoea and other gastrointestinal problems by some Indigenous American groups.

Final prints

Row 1-2: Ghosts of a Herbarium: Euphorbia peplus (Petty Spurge) and Cyclospermum Leptophyllum (Marsh Parsley)

Row 3-5: Ghosts of a Herbarium: Sprig of Nandina domestica (Heavenly Bamboo) embraced by Cyclospermum Leptophyllum (Marsh Parlsey) and Youngia japonica (Oriental False Hawksbeard)

Row 6: Both monoprints alongside each other

[shadowisles-writes]

Peer Pressure (Part 1) [Elucien]

I don’t usually give into peer pressure

But I’ll give into yours

A/N: Here is my contribution to the first part of the third writing circle. A massive thank you to everyone participating, this is the biggest one yet and we have more ships than ever. You can find everyone’s work in this masterlist, make sure to go show some love!

Big thank you to @headcanonheadcase for listening to all my thoughts and for the beta on this <3

Word count: 3117

Read on AO3

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Elain sprayed 70% ethanol into her biosafety hood and wiped it clean from right to left. No one had used it since she did earlier this morning, but you could never clean too much in a cell culture room. The air flow had been on for over five minutes, progressively filtering the air inside the hood so that she could start working without risking contaminating her cultures.

A water bath set to 37°C warmed her solutions while she began filling the hood with material. Pipettes, tips and petri dishes all got sprayed with ethanol before finding their place on the metal. Elain hummed to herself as she worked, she’d done this a hundred times and barely needed to think.

Clean to the right, dirty to the left. It was the policy in her university’s lab. Technically, everyone cleaned the hood before and after using it, but in the interest of sanity (nothing made Elain more crazy than someone’s sloppy work resulting in contamination in her experiments) they all placed their clean material to the right, and anything that was used and to be discarded moved to the left.

Human cells were kept at 37°C in the incubator to her right. The HeLa cell line came from a woman named Henrietta Lacks, someone Elain made sure her interns remembered as she never got the credit she deserved. After being diagnosed with cancer in the 1950s, the immortal cells from Henrietta’s tumor were taken and kept by researchers, without her knowledge or consent of course.

It had been legal at the time, but Elain—and every biologist she knew—still thought it was awful. Yet, they had been used over and over in medical research, and after so many years Elain had no better model for her experiments than this immortal cell line.

They required a bit of maintenance, but after a year of working with them Elain could practically do that in her sleep. She ran through the motions of a passage in no time and placed her new petri dishes on her shelf in the incubator.

Everything that was single use and had touched cells under the hood got discarded in the autoclave bag, and Elain quickly finished cleaning up after herself. Out of the room and with her gloves off, she finally got the chance to check the time on her phone.

It was still the middle of the afternoon, but there was only so much work she could do in the lab. This had been the last task Elain could think of before she was forced to get back to the small office she shared with a couple of other students to sit in front of her laptop. Now, she had no other choice but to work on analyzing her data.

The office was exceedingly gray apart from a few pictures she and the other girls had stuck on the wall in front of their desks. It was no surprise they would rather sit anywhere else on campus, and usually Elain did too, but this time she couldn’t afford a distraction.

It took all of her focus and three youtube videos for her to give up on statistics and bury her face in her hands. Why in the world had she avoided statistics after the second year of her undergrad? She remembered next to nothing about basic statistics, and what she could recall wasn’t even relevant to what she had to do for her current dataset. She was going to have to teach herself how to do this, and it was going to be painful.

Elain could always, of course, ask her supervisor. She just didn’t want to deal with the embarrassment of announcing she wasn’t capable of doing her own statistics because she’d been too lazy to take an advanced class during her undergrad.

The two girls she shared the office with would be no help, one was in the last year of her PhD and always hiding in the library to finish writing her thesis while the other was in her third year and always running around the lab to run as many experiments as she could. Neither had time to help her, or even liked statistics to begin with. No one became a biologist to analyze data, it was all about the lab work.

It was only then that it struck her. Some insane people did become biologists for the data, and she knew of exactly one in this department. While everyone else spent the majority of their time in the lab and made plans to hang out while they were there, Lucien Vanserra was somewhat excluded as he analyzed metaproteomics data.

He wasn’t the friendliest man Elain had ever met, he had his own office and was always hiding in there, but he’d been kind the few times they had interacted. He was the only person who might have the time and skill to help her.

Closing her laptop, Elain pushed her chair back and made her way down the corridor to find him. Lucien’s office was a mirror of hers a few doors down. The only reason he didn’t have to share it was that no one else became a biologist to spend the five years of their PhD running numbers.

“Hi,” she popped her head in after knocking. “Do you have a minute?”

“Sure,” Lucien pushed his chair back slightly to angle himself towards her and hid the tabs he was working on.

Somehow, Elain was too stuck remembering how handsome he was to get inside and speak. His office was just as gray and sad as hers, but his red hair was so pretty it filled the room with color. Russet eyes remained trained on her, just a shade lighter than his brown, flawless skin. His cheekbones were defined without making his face angular, though his jawline was something straight out of a magazine.

Elain was staring at his full, perfect lips when he awkwardly cleared his throat and she remembered what she was here for.

“Right,” she stepped in to let the door fall shut and helped herself to one of the free chairs to sit beside him. “I’m just starting to analyze some of my data, and I was hoping you could give me a hand with statistics, if you have the time.”

“Well, I don’t know how much data you have but I can probably help.” Lucien moved his keyboard to the side and pushed his monitor back slightly to make space for her laptop.

“Thank you so much. I guess it’s not much compared to what you’re used to,” Elain typed in her password and let him look at her excel file. “But I’ve never had to do this before, so I’m lost.”

He hummed to acknowledge he heard her, but his eyes were already scanning the numbers, figuring out how she built her table and how many variables she had before he looked at her again. “What am I looking at exactly?”

“That’s the data from my immunofluorescence,” Elain let him scroll through the rest of the table. “Basically, I did different treatments on my cells, then I fixed them on a slide and added a primary antibody to detect the protein I’m interested in. My secondary antibody is fluorescent, it detects the primary, so the intensity of the fluorescence detected by the microscope correlates to the concentration of my target protein.”

“Alright, so that’s your intensity,” he used the mousepad to point to some numbers. “And that’s your treatments? And you’ve already built some graphs?” He switched between the pages to look at them.

“Yeah, I know which treatment increases the protein concentration the most,” Elain had made the graphs pretty, adjusting the colors so that they’d fit the theme of the poster she was meant to present at a conference in just a few weeks. “But I don’t know if any of it is significant.”

“Right. So you need me to tell you which tests to run?”

Lucien looked at her like it was obvious—which it probably was to him. Her cheeks flushed, though she at least knew the answer to that after her reading and the videos she’d watched.

“No, I read up on that, tried to revive some memories from second year biostatistics. What I’m struggling with is R.” Just speaking the name of the program was enough to make her cringe. R was the most widely used program for statistics, and yet she had no idea how to do anything with it.

It was all it took for Lucien to pinpoint her problem. “You can’t code.”

“I can’t code.” Elain confirmed. “I’d really appreciate it if you could show me just for one dataset, and then I’ll use that as a template for the rest by myself.”

“It shouldn’t be too long, we could do it now,” Lucien agreed, emailing himself her file so that he could open it on his own computer. “You’ve used R before, right?”

“I used SPSS,” Elain made a face that told Lucien everything else he needed to know.

A class on R was enough to know how to run basic tests, it introduced just enough coding for it to make sense, but SPSS didn’t make you code for anything. If that was all she had ever used, she wouldn’t even know how to import her data into R.

“Alright, it might take longer than I thought,” Lucien said. “Maybe we can take some time tomorrow? I have a meeting in the morning and I need to finish a quick presentation for it. I could help you after lunch, if that works for you.”

“Yes, of course, whatever’s best for you.” Elain promptly nodded and reached for her laptop to get out of his hair. “Thank you so much Lucien.”

“Happy to help.”

.

Lucien took the next afternoon to help her, and the next, and the next. By Thursday, Elain’s brain had melted into a pile of goo and she was sure Lucien had to be sick of her. On top of everything he had shown her, she had spent her mornings trying to understand the next steps by herself only to find herself inevitably stuck.

“Fuck this,” Elain swore, dropping her head to her desk. She let out a loud groan to calm down, then straightened her back, took a deep breath and went back to staring at her screen. She deflated like a balloon on her exhale, the jumble of lines of codes making no more sense to her than it had in the past hour.

A knock came on her door, and Elain prayed it was someone coming to crash in her office to procrastinate so she could use it as an excuse to stop working. Lucien opened the door instead, an easy smile on his face.

“Hey, do you need me today?”

“Yes please,” Elain didn’t hesitate to say. He walked right in and stole a chair to sit beside her. “You’re an angel.”

“It’s no big deal,” Lucien ducked his head, a couple of strands of hair falling in his face. The rest was held back by a claw clip, and Elain thought of how unfair it was that every style suited him so well when she typically hated men with hair this long. “It’s this one, isn’t it?” Lucien pointed to one of the lines he had added to her code yesterday.

“Yes,” Elain sighed and tore her eyes away from him to focus. “I’ve been losing my mind for an hour, I think.”

“When we’re done you need to go get fresh air or do something fun, no one learning how to do this can do it all at once,” Lucien reached for the laptop, and Elain pushed it toward him.

“Well lucky for me there’s a party downstairs tonight with some dangerously cheap tequila.”

On campus parties organized by the science departments were very… unique. The space they had for it was large, but there were never enough students to fill it, which always made things awkward. Pair that with a student’s spotify staying open on a laptop for anyone to add songs to as the main source of music and it wasn’t hard to imagine how much anyone would cringe on a night like this.

Luckily, undergrads were just there to fill the space and grad students stuck together to drink and forget their work without having to go through the effort of dragging themselves to a bar or club. Elain had been roped in at the start of her first year, and she rarely missed those occasions anymore.

“Ah, sounds fun.” Lucien’s voice came out flat, his lie obvious.

“Are you coming?” Elain tried anyway. She’d been wrong in thinking he wasn’t friendly before she asked him for help, Lucien was lovely and easy to be around, and she was sure the only reason he was always working by himself was that no one else ever remembered to invite him.

“I don’t think so.”

“Why not?” Elain pressed, pushing her laptop back so he couldn’t use it as a crutch? “You should,”

Lucien sighed and looked at her. “There’s always a weird theme, I’m not dressed for it.” The sanitized excuse would have worked on anyone else, but she wasn’t ready to give up.

“Neither am I, for now.” Elain was in a plain pastel pink t-shirt and light blue jeans. Nothing about it screamed themed party, but she’d make it work. “I brought accessories, and you don’t need to fit the theme to come.”

Surely he knew that last part. Except… maybe he didn’t, and Elain gasped before she spoke again. “Lucien. Have you never been to any of these?”

“Guess not,”

“You’re in your third year!” She exclaimed. “How is that even possible?”

A shrug, then a helpless look towards Elain’s laptop as if the lines of code on the screen could save him. “I’m not that close with everyone else in the labs.”

“Well, neither was I until my first campus party.” Elain reasoned, toning her excitement down to plead with him. “Please come, I’ll be there, and it’ll be fun.”

Lucien, like the responsible man he was, pulled her work back within comfortable reach so they could get to the end of it. “We can finish this, and then I’ll think about it.”

“How much thinking will you need?”

“You’re not going to focus until I say yes, are you?” Lucien gave her a look, his head tilted as he read the expressions on her face. Elain kept her mouth shut and bit back a smile, her eyes full of hope. “Fine,” he caved too easily. “What’s the theme this time?”

“Tropical. I have hair pins with seashells on them and I bought this coconut shaped cup,” Elain opened one of her drawers. “Lucky for you, it came with a matching pineapple.”

“Of course it did.”

.

A very unproductive work session later, Lucien had fully given in for the party and Elain was rummaging through her things to accessorize them both. In an effort to get in the mood, Lucien was already sipping water from his pineapple and he’d stuck one of the seashell bobby pins in his hair.

“We can do better than that,” Elain’s curls had been pulled back slightly, uncovering her face, and it was now time for her to focus on Lucien’s hair. “Can I braid your hair?”

“Does it look like I know how to say no to you?” He lifted his pineapple and earned a grin.

“I’ll be quick.” Elain promised as she took the claw clip out of his hair.

Long strands of red hair cascaded down his back. What she guessed was usually straight, maybe slightly wavy, was now stuck in the shape it’d be held in all day. She brushed it gently, but it was barely tangled. Whatever products he used on his hair, they were perfect for him.

“Tell me if I pull too hard,” Elain parted a few strands near his temple and made quick work of braiding toward the back of his head.

Lucien didn’t say a word as she worked, closing his eyes and letting her use hair ties and pins until she was satisfied. Her fingers were used to the motions, she had grown up with two sisters and while they weren’t close anymore, there was a time when the three of them would spend the entire afternoon braiding each other’s hair in complicated updos.

“There,” Elain tucked the last strand away with her last seashell pin. “No more excuses, you fit the theme now.”

“Thank you,” Lucien opened his phone’s camera to check her work, and he could find no flaw in it.

He would have never done something like this himself—the style was more feminine than what he was used to—but it looked beautiful.

“Where are the girls from your office?”

“They’re not coming,” Elain applied a quick layer of pink lip gloss. “Emily is too busy finishing her thesis, and Mara is always with her boyfriend when she’s not in the lab.”

“Do you have one?” Lucien asked, making her frown.

“One what?”

“Boyfriend—or girlfriend, I guess,” he got up from his chair and busied himself with twirling the straw of his pineapple cup.

The coconut looked ridiculous in Elain’s hands, it was too big for her to comfortably hold in one hand, and the pineapple was a little bigger. Somehow, Lucien’s hands still dwarfed it.

“No,” Elain looked away from his hands and shrugged. “What about you?” She added innocently, as if she wasn’t burning to know if he had a girlfriend. It also wouldn’t shock her if Lucien was far too handsome and smart to be straight.

“No girlfriend,” he provided simply before he switched the subject. “Where’s everyone else?”

“They went out to get food. You’d know if you ever checked the group,” Elain waved the messenger chat in front of him. “You’ve been in it for ages, you know?”

“I might have muted that,” Lucien looked almost apologetic. Truth was he didn’t feel included whenever they invited everyone for plans and the more he waited to show up, the less welcome he felt.

“Fair enough, it gets annoying.” She moved on to grab her office keys, slipped her phone in her back pocket and grabbed her coconut. “Ready? There should be enough people now that it won’t be awkward,”

“Isn’t awkward the point of this whole thing?”

“Just be patient, it’ll be great when the alcohol kicks in.” Elain seemed to be buzzing now, the excitement of the party starting to show.

“This is going to be a disaster,” Lucien stepped out of the office first.

Elain only grinned. “Exactly.”

.

Please reblog and let me know your thoughts &lt;3

[hhbluedynamite]

A Change to My TADC AU

Remember my SuperStars AU?

I'm changing it a bit.

It still takes place in the real world, but it has a premise that is inspired by the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit. In that living amongst humans are digital life forms...so I guess a mix of the aforementioned movie and Digimon.

As for how this is possible...Just think of the Digimon franchise. Some events occurred decades ago that blurred the line between two dimensions -- the Human World and the Digital World.

From here, digital lifeforms took form and after many years of confusion and fear (not unlike what happened in the history of MHA), the humans and Avatars (as they are called) learned to co-exist.

So now, for some Intel.

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Setting

While the Avatar population is small (like it takes a single fraction of the global population) and somewhat spread out around the world, most of the AUs setting takes place in a large city in the US.

I can't think of a name for the city yet (the placeholder is Automatropolis and it is cringe), but it is divided into districts.

One such district is called the Avatar District, where most of the Avatar population resides and sorta acts as a tourist destination. Humans are able to enter the District if they please, usually for the experience of Avatar culture.

Its also the home of the Amazing Digital Circus Gameplex...think Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex.

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Four Types of Avatars

There are four types of Avatars in the AU.

NPC (Non-Player Character)

The generic looking, poseable mannequins you see in the canon series. They don't have distinguishable personalities, acting more like androids and just...existing. They are treated more like a servant class (think of Pearls in Steven Universe), even by their own kind.

APD (Artificial Player Drone)

What an NPC can become when exposed to enough stimuli. They are given unique appearances and personalities and autonomy similar to that of humans. They can have jobs if they are able and don't require sleep or food. They don't have any unique abilities, but can be given some with the right programming. Examples would be Gummigoo, Loolilalu, and even Bubble.

AIA (Artificial Intelligence Administrator)

Avatars with greater power over their digital abilities, harboring power beyond Avatars lower than them. Caine, now back to being an AI for this AU, is a AIA. An APD can become a AIA with the right programming.

AHO (Avatars of Human Origin)

Now, we are getting into something interesting. During the same event that brought the Avatars, cases of humans turning into Avatars have been reported. Through some research, it is revealed that everyone is carrying a 'virus' or nanites in their bodies that are causing these transformations. Such transformation is permanent and will cause the AHO to forget their names and appearance and any direct mention of their human identity is lost to them, thus sorta 'killing' the original human identity (even though most of their personality and memories remain intact). This is what most of the cast is, of course. Despite their new digital bodies, they still require food and sleep. They can't die from lack of either, but they can still experience hunger and tiredness. Note: Not every carrier will become an Avatar. It's like how any cell has the potential to become cancerous, but not everyone has cancer cells. The transformations can happen by natural means or enforced (usually by an outside source).

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I do like this idea more. It's still going to be called SuperStars, as the main cast works that the Gameplex. They also still have fighting capabilities as the Abstract is still a problem.

[iamam411]

What field of biology are you in? And what’s the latest tea in that field??!

at the moment, cancer research. would not recommend, overall. in terms of the current news, the last few years have been massive for breakthroughs, pancreatic cancer will finally have combination therapies soon, blood cancers are now treatable by both chemotherapies and immunotherapies, 2024 has seen a ton of "impossible" breakthroughs made.

In terms of "tea" as in like, drama, the research community is currently split down the middle 50/50 on whether all cancers are actually self repairing or fed by the stem cells of a person's body. one side says that stem says are like an extra, because they can't be cultured and studied so easily, but the other (my institute, for example) believe that cancer can't be truly cured unless the cancer stem cell population is killed. so its a little uneasy writing reports and reviews, you can't be sure what position each researcher takes.

generally, any time someone brings up drugs and big Pharma that's about the public's perception of Biology, whereas within biology the disagreements are always about what exactly can be known from the models we use, which just creates endless drama Dx