Renewables firms to compete for £10m Saltire Prize

BBC News, 28 August 2012

Related Stories 

• Prize for 'sea snake' inventor
• Saltire prize for 'Duck' inventor

ScottishPower Renewables' project
 will use the HS1000 tidal turbine

Four renewable energy companies which will compete for the £10m Saltire Prize have been named by Scottish ministers.

The competition was set up to encourage the development of wave and tidal energy devices in Scottish waters.

ScottishPower Renewables, Aquamarine Power, Pelamis Wave Power and MeyGen will each attempt to produce the most electricity over a two-year period, using only the power of the sea.

Projects will be launched off Lewis, in the Pentland Firth and Orkney waters.

The latest phase of the contest will run until 2017.

The announcement was made by Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in Orkney, where members of the Scottish Cabinet will meet on Wednesday.

Ms Sturgeon also announced plans for a Saltire Prize-sponsored doctorate to study how marine energy projects can maximise economic energy production while protecting the environment.

SALTIRE PRIZE COMPETITORS

MeyGen's tidal energy project in the
Pentland  Firth will initially consist of
six tidal turbines

Pelamis' wave power device at Farr 
Point will  use the motion of waves
to generate electricity

Aquamarine's Oyster wave energy
converter is  to be deployed off the
Isle of Lewis

ScottishPower Renewables want to
create a tidal  energy project off the
 north coast of Caithness

She said: "With the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney hosting an array of devices, we should not lose sight of how far this vibrant young industry has come in recent years.

"The Saltire Prize sets a considerable challenge to competitors - reflecting the huge potential of harnessing marine energy.

"The four competitors have stepped up to the challenge, and in so doing can drive each other still further and faster forward, towards the goal of large-scale commercial electricity generation from the power of the world's seas and oceans."

MeyGen's chief executive, Dan Pearson, said: "The bar set by the Scottish government for this prestigious award is a high one. The challenge requires highly efficient devices, and a high level of resource and robust technical capability that is comparable to conventional renewable energy power stations."

Hornung Pedersen, the boss of the Edinburgh-based firm Pelamis, said: "Pelamis was delighted to be the first official applicant for the Saltire Prize and we're working intensively to deliver the robust commercial technology required to win it, and through that the compelling 'win-win' of renewable energy generation and industrial opportunity that this sector represents for Scotland."

Aquamarine Power chief executive, Martin McAdam, said the prize would act as a "global catalyst... bringing together the best brains and financial muscle to crack one of the great challenges of our age".

Alan Mortimer, head of innovation at ScottishPower Renewables, said: "The demonstration projects being developed now will be crucial in helping us achieve larger commercial projects."

As well as announcing the doctorate and the companies vying for the Saltire Prize, Ms Sturgeon also launched a junior Saltire Prize photography competition called The Power of the Sea, with renowned Scots photographer David Eustace among the judges.

And funding of £2.5m was pledged for a £9.2m pier plan for Stromness on Orkney.

The Copland's Dock development will see construction of a new 100m pier and associated access road.

Related Articles:

Orkney, leader in green energy, launches wave power competition

Giant tidal turbine 'performing well' in tests off Orkney

Isle of Wight Council to invest in tidal power

Prehistoric Tiny Bugs Found Trapped In Amber

Associated Press, Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer, Aug 27, 2012

AP Photo/A. Schmdt

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Scientists have found three well preserved ancient insects frozen in amber - and time - in what is Earth's oldest bug trap.

The discoveries of amber-encased insects in Italy may sound like something out of "Jurassic Park" but these bugs are even older than that. They are about 230 million years old, which puts them in the Triassic time period, and about 100 million years older than what had been the previously known oldest critters trapped in fossilized tree resin, or amber.

Gooey tree resin is like sap but without water and can't be diluted.

Researchers painstakingly examined 70,000 droplets of amber found in northeastern Italy. Stuck in them were two microscopic mites and much of one fly. The mites are too small to be seen with the naked eye and the fly is a tad tinier than a fruit fly, researchers say.

The discovery was reported Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

While older insects have been found in rock fossils, these are different because they are not compressed and better preserved, said study lead author David Grimaldi, curator of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. And you can see more detail, he said.

""That's the great thing about amber. You can make this incredible detailed comparison with living species." Grimaldi said.

And when Grimaldi compared the ancient mites to their modern day descendants, he was surprised about how similar they are. Except for difference in the mouth and fewer legs, "they're dead ringers for (modern) gall mites," he said. The modern ones can be found in bubbles or galls on plant leaves.

And that's surprising because the world itself has changed a lot from when these bugs were alive. Back then, there was only one giant continent, some early primitive dinosaurs and no flower plants. Mites now live on flowering plants, but their ancient relatives must have stayed on trees, Grimaldi said.

Derek Briggs, director of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History and who wasn't part of the research, called the bugs' discovery tantalizing, adding that it could help researchers further understand how life evolved on land.

Related Articles:

"Clarification of the timing of Creation" – Aug 12, 2012 (a message from Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - New

"The Big Picture - You Are Not Alone" - (a message from Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll

"Spiritual Logic" - Oct 15, 2011 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) 
(Subjects: Benevolent Design, Channelling, Holy scriptures, Higher self, (Old) Souls, Universes, Big Bang, Galaxy/Solar system build for life, Astronomy, Life on Earth tried to start 5 times/ 5th time life started, Large Animals/No Humans,  Asteroid belt, 7 Sisters / 100.000 year ago Pleiadian Brothers and Sisters seeded Humans on earth, DNA, Humans Ascensiont with Pleiadian DNA, Lemuria (Hawaii),21-12-2012, 26.000 years cycle, 1987 - Harmonic convergence (11:11), Shift of Human Consciousness, Gaia, The Humanization of God, 1991 Russia falls, 1994 started 36 years galactic window (Presession), Mid point on 21-12-2012, Lemuria (Hawaii) center of the Earth time,  Love (Mother & Child),  Religion, Higher self, Global Unity,..... etc.)

"The Big Picture - You Are Not Alone" - (a message from Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

Kryon.com

This live channelling was Given in Patagonia South America on the Patagonia Kryon Cruise. February, 2012

Lee Carroll

To help the reader, this channelling has been revisited [by Lee and Kryon] to provide even clearer understanding. Often what happens live has implied energy within it, which carries a kind of communication that the printed page does not. So enjoy this enhanced message given on the Kryon Patagonia Cruise 2012.

Greetings again, dear ones, I am Kryon of Magnetic Service. Once again we discuss with you that the magnetics are changing and not in a simple way. It's not in a way that your science will see, but a profound one that affects your very DNA. It is the end of what you would call the adventure. It is the beginning of what we would call the grand adventure. This channelling will be packed full of information that some of you have heard before and some have not.

My partner has been giving these messages for 22 years so that we could sit here together now and talk about possibilities. I wish to give you yet again the history of Earth and the history of humanity in a simple way that is not complex. It will be something that you can see in a capsulated form, a condensed form, and you will understand it better.

Thirteen billion years ago, all of this began. My partner told you today that the Cave of Creation existed when the earth was formed. It is a quantum event. It [the Cave of Creation] was there. You were there. I [Kryon] was there. We watched the earth form and we saw the potentials begin to exist. And here, dear ones, is information you really need to know: You didn't sit around just watching this planet develop. How do I say this to you? Don't you find it odd that all of Human civilization has seemingly happened in the last moment of Earth's existence? All of those billions of years, the development of life on Earth, the many times life started and stopped, yet Humans were not here. Don't you find it odd that your development was at the last possible moment of this? Large mammals were here millions of years ago, but you were not. Your science does not see this as odd, for they have nothing to compare it to. Instead, they just look at it as the way things took place. We call it planned synchronicity.

In order for me to give you this information properly, I have to give you yet again the creation story. You weren't just watching back then. Every single one of you was participating somewhere else. This is not the first planet you have been on, but then you knew that, didn't you?

However, this information about other existence is not in your current Akashic history, for the DNA Akash is Earth-based only. So any remembrance is supposition and intuition and that which you would get from the Higher-Self and not your DNA. Your DNA is Earth-based DNA with one change, and that is where we get into the creation story yet again.

The Overview

Now let me take you back only a billion years. You are in this galaxy back then, and we admonish you not to look out of this galaxy for any of your history. Each galaxy has its own spiritual plan and that affects each galaxy's physics. That is why science is able to see different kinds of physics in the Universe and they don't understand why. Stay in your galaxy for this examination. At this point, if I told you that consciousness defines physics, you might not understand. So let's just leave it at that.

Let me take you to a planet that is going through what you're going through. Four billion years ago, yours was simply cooling off. Life hadn't really begun as you know it. Oh, the seeds were there, but that's all. Life as you know it really hadn't begun at all. But other places in the galaxy, there were already sophisticated groups taking hold that were Humanoid – Human types. They look like you, for this is the plan. That was four billion years ago when life began on their planet, very different than your time line.

A billion years ago, they went through a change and they went through a shift, and they had free choice. Back then, they were the only planet that did in their time, and eventually they went through a metamorphosis of consciousness.

Exponentially it seemed they changed, and it took only a thousand years to go from full corporeal to an enlightened form. Only a thousand years and they became mostly quantum thinkers. Life was divine and defined separately and differently for them, for they had discovered the quantum parts of life within them. Everything changed. They didn't die, and according to the plan, at a certain point in time in their futures, they would then "seed" another planet with their evolved DNA. When that planet was ready, they would seed their knowledge of light and dark and divine intuition, and so they did so, on a planet very far from yours. It was a planet in the Seven Sisters constellation that became what you now know as the home of the Pleiadians. This, then, was the beginning of the Pleiadian civilization. That is how the Pleiadians started, from others who seeded them with the DNA of awareness.

Millions of years later, you had Humanoid forms moving into ascension within the Seven Sisters. I'm giving you the history of the galaxy, not the history of life. It's the history of divinity, all being affected by the center and all in an entangled quantum state. All this was with free choice.

Your Story

Several hundred thousand years ago, Humans began to form into the Human that you recognize today. That's just yesterday. Don't confuse this with Human development. You have had that going on for a very long time. But the DNA that is within your body is not the DNA that developed naturally on the planet. Yours is outside of the system of Earth-based evolutionary processes, and the scientists are starting to see this. The "missing link" that they speak of is not Human.

So again, we tell you that the ones who came to help seed you approximately 100,000 to 200,000 Earth years ago were the Pleiadians who had gone into graduate status and who had changed consciousness. They had become quantum with free choice, and you have parts of their DNA within you.

New information for you: The seeding process was not a one-time event. This is why we give you these large sections of time where the Pleiadians worked with you. It was done over time and in many places. It was not all simultaneous, and this was for reasons that will remain unknown to you for now, but will later explain why you will find other Human types that now are extinct. Now you only have one Human type, and that is counterintuitive to all mammal development on the planet. This was a design, and it took more than 100,000 years to create this for humanity as you know it.

It's your Human bias that has the creation story of the knowledge of light and dark being given to Humans in one day in a garden involving a talking snake and other mythology. Spiritual logic should tell you that these stories are simply metaphors of a real truth, that indeed there was a major shift of consciousness, but over a longer period of time and not instantly. The same mythology has the earth created in seven days. However, this only represents a numerological truth [7 is the number of divinity], meaning that there was a divine design in the creation of the planet. It's time to start using spiritual logic within the teachings you have about spiritual history, for the revelations will be wonderful and lead to fuller understanding.

Now, what really is in your DNA? It's the Pleiadians' code, and it's the ones before them, and even the ones before them. You can't remember it, for that is not the set-up. The system is that your Akashic record is only from Earth, but your "divine remembrance" will take you back to the beginning, where system after system after system created that which you see as the divinity within the galaxy and the Universe.

Who are they? They're your "divine" parents. They're the seed divinity in you and they visit here. They're not all Pleiadians, did you know that? Instead, they're from all over the galaxy. You see, they also represent the seeds of the Pleiadians, and they keep you safe. You wouldn't have it any other way, would you? "Safe from what?" you might ask.

The Bubble of Safety

Your Universe is teeming with life. Only a relative few planets over millions of years have made it to a place where they have "creator DNA" in their corporeal bodies. Some were seeded and never made it. Some are now dead. Some are technically advanced, but have no spark of divinity at all. So while a planet is "deciding," it is kept safe from other life that might interfere.

You're surrounded by divine beings who keep you safe and will continue while this planet of only free choice – the only one at the moment – makes its decision. You're turning the corner of consciousness and they all know it, for they've all been through it and they remember it. Oh dear ones, consciousness is volatile! You've seen it change so slowly, but it's about to change faster. It's not going to take generations and generations as in the past. Instead, you're going to see real-time changes. Humans won't wait to have children for them to grow up and have children.

Keeping you safe is done quantumly and at a 3D distance. But you have to ask the question, "With all this life in the galaxy and how old they are [potential for advanced science and travel], why don't the ETs just land and announce themselves? They have been here for hundreds of years!" The answer is proof of what we say. They know that you are "hands off" and they only come and go with marginal disturbance to Earth.

Faster Consciousness Shift

You think science has gone fast in the last 100 years? Watch what happens with a consciousness shift. The old energy on the planet is going to fight to the death. Many will check out. That is to say that many will die who cannot cross the bridge of consciousness. As the earth takes on a new energy, the old energy will not seem appropriate. Human nature has shifted greatly in the last centuries. You see that, do you not? How many of you are saying, "Well, after lunch we're going to sacrifice a virgin to the volcano?" You laugh and say, "Well Kryon, that's something they did in the old ages." No it isn't! In terms of a civilization timeline, it's something you did yesterday. But you're not doing it today, are you? So how do you see that? What is your perception of that specific procedure? You would say, "It's barbaric, unconscionable, out of integrity of Human Beings, and no longer acceptable."

How many years ago did a technically advanced civilization on your planet gather and cheer to watch Humans be devoured by animals or fight to the death? Measure the time and you will realize that it wasn't that long ago. Their theatres are still standing! So, how do you feel about that?

There's going to come a time when you look at this planet and war will be exactly like these examples. The idea of killing another Human Being for any reason will seem barbaric and not appropriate for any Human to do. Many will laugh at this, since they will say, "That's naive, Kryon. It's Human nature, and it's a survival instinct." That's what's going to change, dear ones. You are about to experience a quantum renaissance of thinking. This is difficult to explain, but Human Beings are missing something that's intrinsic, something that should be there and you're not even aware of it. It's missing, but you don't know it since you never have had it.New Intuitive Inheritance

Let me point something out. Those of you who know about the animal kingdom stand amazed at something called "animal instinct." A prairie mammal will drop a baby and that calf will come out of its mother aware. Within hours, it will be running with the herd. It will instinctively know who its enemies are, what plants are poisonous, and where the water is. It even knows the "language" of the herd. Don't you find that interesting? The Human child has zero instinct, except where to find immediate milk, and has to learn everything from nothing. It must learn how to eat, how to hold things, where the danger is, and language! Humans come out with nothing and they start over – every single time. You don't know this is odd, since it's all you ever had. You will say that that's because of the complexity of the Human brain. No, it isn't! It's because you weren't ready for it to be any different, and this is what's changing.

I want you to envision something with me. A Human baby is born and it knows everything at an instinct level. It's walking and talking within two years; it has wisdom and it doesn't have to be taught everything. It learns to read and see languages within months because it has what we would call quantum Human instinct. This baby has something that you don't even recognize you should have!

Now, tell me, if this happens can you see what might happen to the Human race? Exponential advancement in wisdom. What the parents have learned will pass to the child at birth, more than Akashic inheritance or chemical inheritance. This will be the inheritance of wisdom and instinct. And we've never talked about that until now. But we will again.

It's a quantum event. The creation story had you seeded by the Pleiadians more than 100,000 years ago. That's who they are, for they went through this. They have the same attributes of their history that you do, yours. Did you know that the creation stories on your planets are all similar? Even your major religions have a spiritual event taking place in your history, where Human Beings who look just like you received the knowledge of God. Notice: It's not ones who are cavemen, but instead ones who look just like you [modern Humans]. In your religions, it took place in a metaphoric garden, which is the earth, and Humans were given the knowledge of polarity [light and dark]. That's what the Pleiadians did all over the earth.

Lemurians

The Lemurian energy is the one seed-group that was totally isolated. You might even say it's the one where the Pleiadians came first. Because Lemuria was a mountain island [Hawaii], it survived in a form that was purer than others. Even the most remote groups on the earth had room to spread out [land], and that created variety of thought. But Lemuria was the same for thousands of years, making it one of the most long-lived civilizations in history and almost totally lost to science. We have given you their history before.

Therefore, the Lemurians carry the oldest Akash for an old soul and part of the system of spiritual seeding back then was that it was an avenue for only new souls to come in. Only a few of the Lemurian priests had a past-life in Lemuria, and most were women. Almost all the Lemurians were new to the planet. This was a major Earth-soul creating process, which is only now having results.

Dear ones, this was your fifth time to work the "enlightenment puzzle." You had four other opportunities that didn't get past this stage. However, this one has a potential that will survive. It's 2012 and the energy of it coordinates with the Galactic Alignment. This time fractal was seen as a major potential and even the prophecies of the ancients saw you going through this. Now you are beginning to do it. Even 50 years ago, this potential was not solid, for your fifth time might have been your last, for the old energy is strong and the idea of Humans destroying everything was a real possibility. Those who read this know what I'm talking about. Now even that has changed, if you noticed.

The Future

Some have asked, "Well Kryon, what is the future going to be like? What kinds of science will we have? If this is all true about our evolvement, what can we expect?"

I want to go back to your great grandparents for a moment. How would you explain the Internet to them when they had no concept of the computer? How do you explain a fast car to someone who has not invented the wheel? What is a runway-control system used for when there is no Human flight yet?

I cannot explain what's coming, since you do not have the concepts of what will happen in between now and then. Imagine information that occurs where if one knows it, all know it. Can you imagine quantum instinct? What is learned by one Human Being is learned instantly by all. If you can even start to imagine such a thing, you have an inkling of what is coming. It doesn't change choice. It changes wisdom.

There'll come a time when physics and science meld with consciousness. It is then that you'll realize that what the Creator gave you comes in a perfect package. It's not in boxes where Humans separate it and study in different buildings, but one that comes together where all things relate and fit nicely inside a puzzle of energy.

It may take a thousand years, as it did to the ones who seeded the Pleiadians and those who seeded the ones before them. We speak in odd terms here, using Earth years. We also have not defined how long "crossing the bridge to enlightenment" is or how long "crossing the bridge to quantum existence" is. But in general, the civilizations of the past took 1,000 Earth years to go from old energy to new. But it took many times that to go to a quantum corporeal existence. Don't try to figure it all out, since your process may be faster or slower. We just give you this information to show you that it's slower than you like. But this is the beginning.

You Are Your Own Seeds

The earth was waiting for you. The cave of creation, the crystals, were all ready for you. The potentials of each life were there, for your soul energy was upon them. But make no mistake, your soul energy was invested in the ones who seeded you and in the ones who seeded them. They are you. This is confusing in 3D, for many of them are still watching you, but since you have part of their quantum DNA, part of you is still with them. Don't try to analyze this quite yet.

You didn't sit around watching the earth being created, dear ones. You were busy doing on other planets what you are doing here. There is no remembrance of that, only potential instinct. The ones who sit in the room and who listen to my voice or read these words have all gone through this before.

So, dear Human Being, in closing I say these things to you: You sit in a perfect place. You sit next to others who have been through what you've been through. It is time to solve the petty problems of humanity, of walking from place to place with aches and pains of your body. It's time to solve the uncertainties of the psychology [mental anguish], for these things will not serve you. You're turning a corner, a slow one to some, that will one day be looked at as the major shift of humanity for the earth. This is the beginning of it.

Let me take you forward 100 to 200 years: Let's sit in a room together. You're going to look different. Things will be very different, but you'll be here because that's what you do. [This is Kryon's description of you in your next lifetime or beyond.] Sometimes the Human Being asks, "How many lifetimes do I have left?" [Kryon smile] You should instead be asking, "How many Earth-lifetimes do I have left?" [Kryon bigger smile]. How many times can you do this, dear ones?

The system's goal is to raise the vibration of the galaxy and be surrounded by planets that have ascended and passed the energy to one another. Soon you'll do the same for others and, you guessed it, you'll do it again there. Right now, life is beginning on another planet far from here. Another Cave of Creation is starting to be formed. It's getting ready for you! [Kryon laugh] Are you tired yet? Dear family, you are eternal and there's a system, and it's beautiful. When you are not here, you understand it fully and participate without question.

You stand at a point of change. Go from this place and understand the profundity of this time. Pay attention to the changes in the sky for they have been foretold [the weather]. Do not fear the change before you.

You're never alone.

And so it is.

KRYON

Related Articles:

"The Big Picture - You Are Not Alone" - (Voice message from Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

"The Timing of Creation"– Aug  12, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

“Time to Say Goodbye” - Sarah Brightman & Andrea Bocelli (+Kryon Channellings)


Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram


"NEW COMMUNICATIONS WITH SPIRIT" – Aug 5, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

"Spiritual Logic" - Oct 15, 2011 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) 
(Subjects: Benevolent Design, Channelling, Holy scriptures, Higher self, (Old) Souls, Universes, Big Bang, Galaxy/Solar system build for life, Astronomy, Life on Earth tried to start 5 times/ 5th time life started, Large Animals/No Humans,  Asteroid belt, 7 Sisters / 100.000 year ago Pleiadian Brothers and Sisters seeded Humans on earth, DNA, Humans Ascensiont with Pleiadian DNA, Lemuria (Hawaii),21-12-2012, 26.000 years cycle, 1987 - Harmonic convergence (11:11), Shift of Human Consciousness, Gaia, The Humanization of God, 1991 Russia falls, 1994 started 36 years galactic window (Presession), Mid point on 21-12-2012, Lemuria (Hawaii) center of the Earth time,  Love (Mother & Child),  Religion, Higher self, Global Unity,..... etc.)

Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram

ExtremeTech, by Sebastian Anthony on August 17, 2012

A bioengineer and geneticist at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have successfully stored 5.5 petabits of data — around 700 terabytes — in a single gram of DNA, smashing the previous DNA data density record by a thousand times.

The work, carried out by George Church and Sri Kosuri, basically treats DNA as just another digital storage device. Instead of binary data being encoded as magnetic regions on a hard drive platter, strands of DNA that store 96 bits are synthesized, with each of the bases (TGAC) representing a binary value (T and G = 1, A and C = 0).

To read the data stored in DNA, you simply sequence it — just as if you were sequencing the human genome — and convert each of the TGAC bases back into binary. To aid with sequencing, each strand of DNA has a 19-bit address block at the start (the red bits in the image below) — so a whole vat of DNA can be sequenced out of order, and then sorted into usable data using the addresses.

Scientists have been eyeing up DNA as a potential storage medium for a long time, for three very good reasons: It’s incredibly dense (you can store one bit per base, and a base is only a few atoms large); it’s volumetric (beaker) rather than planar (hard disk); and it’s incredibly stable — where other bleeding-edge storage mediums need to be kept in sub-zero vacuums, DNA can survive for hundreds of thousands of years in a box in your garage.

It is only with recent advances in microfluidics and labs-on-a-chip that synthesizing and sequencing DNA has become an everyday task, though. While it took years for the original Human Genome Project to analyze a single human genome (some 3 billion DNA base pairs), modern lab equipment with microfluidic chips can do it in hours. Now this isn’t to say that Church and Kosuri’s DNA storage is fast — but it’s fast enough for very-long-term archival.

Just think about it for a moment: One gram of DNA can store 700 terabytes of data. That’s 14,000 50-gigabyte Blu-ray discs… in a droplet of DNA that would fit on the tip of your pinky. To store the same kind of data on hard drives — the densest storage medium in use today — you’d need 233 3TB drives, weighing a total of 151 kilos. In Church and Kosuri’s case, they have successfully stored around 700 kilobytes of data in DNA — Church’s latest book, in fact — and proceeded to make 70 billion copies (which they claim, jokingly, makes it the best-selling book of all time!) totaling 44 petabytes of data stored.

Looking forward, they foresee a world where biological storage would allow us to record anything and everything without reservation. Today, we wouldn’t dream of blanketing every square meter of Earth with cameras, and recording every moment for all eternity/human posterity — we simply don’t have the storage capacity. There is a reason that backed up data is usually only kept for a few weeks or months — it just isn’t feasible to have warehouses full of hard drives, which could fail at any time. If the entirety of human knowledge — every book, uttered word, and funny cat video — can be stored in a few hundred kilos of DNA, though… well, it might just be possible to record everything (hello, police state!)

It’s also worth noting that it’s possible to store data in the DNA of living cells — though only for a short time. Storing data in your skin would be a fantastic way of transferring data securely…

Read: Biological computer can decrypt images stored in DNA, Living organ-on-a-chipcould soon replace animal testing

Research paper: DOI: 10.1126/science.1226355

Related Article

"The Quantum Factor" – Apr 10, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Galaxies, Universe, Intelligent design, Benevolent design, Aliens, Nikola Tesla (Quantum energy), Inter-Planetary Travel, DNA, Genes, Stem Cells, Cells, Rejuvenation, Shift of Human Consciousness, Spontaneous Remission, Religion, Dictators, Africa, China, Nuclear Power, Sustainable Development, Animals, Global Unity.. etc.) - (Text Version)

"..... DNA - A Quantum Force 

Now let me take you to the very small. Over a decade ago, Vladimir Poponin, a Russian scientist, used light in an experiment with one molecule of DNA. Through this experiment, he discovered a multidimensional field around DNA. Light patterned itself into a mathematical equation [sine wave] when DNA was present. He discovered that DNA had a quantum field. Not only that, it was a quantum field somehow filled with information. How else could the field pattern light into a sine wave? Now, this came from a quantum biologist, not Kryon. Yet there are many who doubt this experiment ever happened, since it shows something that no Human expected. There are those who simply don't wish to look at the fact that real quantum biologists did a real experiment! They chose to relegate all that information to the new age and not to science. It's always interesting what Humans do with science, isn't it? If it doesn't fit the 3D model of their reality, then they deny it exists.

When the full Human genome was transcribed, every single chemical in it was seen. The numbers are shocking, for in a molecule that is so small you cannot see it without an electron microscope, there are more than 3 billion chemicals! The double helix is more complex than you know. This molecule is small enough to be qualified to be in a quantum state, and Vladimir Poponin showed that it actually had a field around it, even a single DNA molecule.

Those who did the Human Genome Project wanted to know how the 3 billion chemicals of DNA create more than 26,000 genes of the Human body. By the way, there are more genes than that, but I'm using the scientists' numbers, not mine. So this is what they were interested in. They did not see DNA in a quantum state. They were not looking for that, even though the very science of DNA shouts with logic that it has to be quantum. They weren't looking for that. Instead, they counted chemicals and looked for codes, and they found them in a very odd arrangement.

They discovered that of the 3 billion chemicals in the DNA double helix, all the genes were being created in the protein-encoded parts of DNA. Three and a half percent of DNA was creating all the genes. More than 90% of the chemical makeup of DNA seemed to be random. It did absolutely nothing - that they could see or understand. Even to this day, science does not see the obvious, that the 90% is quantum and the 3.5% is linear.

Today, your quantum physicists are often dealing with ten dimensions plus time (11 dimensions) in the most popular kind of multi-dimensional physics, string theory. If you began to ask them about what this all looks like, they would say the words, "chaos" and "random patterning." For this is the way that quantum fields work. They are filled with potentials instead of absolutes, and they vary depending on many factors... including Human consciousness. Someday there will be the realization there is a strong possibility that DNA, although a biological molecule, is in a quantum state. This will break the rules of "size" in a quantum state. For it actually is "mostly quantum," and even affects the spin of the atoms that enter its field. Then the next obvious question will occur: "What information is in the ninety percent of DNA that is quantum?"

Now we get to the core truth, don't we? So I will tell you. The ninety percent of DNA which is quantum, is filled with information, both esoteric and timeless. It is a quantum blueprint for everything you are and have been since you arrived on the planet the first time. DNA contains instruction sets for your life; everything from your full Akashic Record - every single lifetime you have had - to the benevolent creator's fingerprint within the seeds of creation itself. Every single talent you ever had is there, even if you don't have any of those today... the record is there. Every predisposition of weakness and strength are there. Biologically, every single instruction to every single stem cell is there.

Did you ever wonder where stem cells get their "information" to make the Human Being? It's in the 90% of your DNA, and it's all quantum. Why do some quantum DNA contain instructions to create weaker bodies? Why is it that some predispositions for disease are there? Now I'm giving you this information so that you will understand something that is coming next... perhaps the most important biological attribute ever presented. ..."

"NEW COMMUNICATIONS WITH SPIRIT" – Aug 5, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - New

Tree rings prove climate kept getting colder

Deutsche Welle, 18 August 2012

Tree rings retain information about temperature, moisture, volcano eruptions and forest fires. Researchers have managed to reconstruct the climate of the last 2000 years and found it kept getting colder until 1900.

Each year, between spring and fall, cells divide under a tree's bark and a growth ring emerges. Every ring contains information for climate researchers because no two rings are the same. In warm temperatures, trees grow faster than if it's cold. Trees will grow less in dry climate than in wet periods.

These differences are particularly obvious in trees that grow close to the tree line, like in high mountains.

"Trees can't grow beyond the upper timber limit because it's too cold there. Cold years usually become materialize in narrow growth rings. This pattern is repeated not just in one, but in several trees that grow close to the tree line," explained Jan Esper, the head of the tree ring research section at Mainz University. His field of research is called dendrochronology.

Finland's high north is home to a climatic border area which makes for ideal research conditions for dendrochronologists because they can analyze more than living trees there. Dead wood also keeps the information, making it some sort of a mini climate archive.

"There are many shallow lakes in Finland. If trees fall into a lake they are conserved in great shape for thousands of years," Esper said. With the help of Finnish trees, he and his team reconstructed the climate of the past 2000 years.

Markus Kochbeck demonstrating how to take a wood sample with a core drill

Tree sampling is hard work

Markus Kochbeck, head of the research laboratory in Mainz, put a core drill onto a tree trunk to take a sample. The drill resembled a tube and was turned manually. With the help of a lance, the drill core was pushed out of the tube afterwards. The drill core looked like a striped pencil and was about half a centimeter wide. Every ring marked one year in the tree's life. Kochbeck then glued the drill core onto a wooden board and smoothed it out with a special plane giving it a smooth surface and made all of the rings visible.

The drill core was then put under a stereo microscope which was attached to a so-called x-table. "The table is equipped with an electronic system", Kochbeck explained, "and we measure the rings with the help of the table movements." This enabled the scientists to draw up a curve, with the years on the x-axis and the tree ring width on the y-axis, measured in millimeters.

From microscope to computer

The researchers would draw up one curve per drill core and then overlap many of them - at least 100 - with the help of a computer program. By looking at succinct years - years with particularly low temperatures that made for particularly narrow rings - the team was able to assign dates to the tree samples. Since the researchers analyzed many trees from different periods, they were able to develop a constant timeline. Life cycles of some trees have to overlap by a few decades in order to do so. That's how the researchers discovered similarities between trees of different ages.

A researcher measuring the layers of a drill core and analyzing
 their density with an x-ray device.

Most similarities were found by looking at the coldest years in history because the rings were particularly narrow then. "We then try and overlap the curves," said Kochbeck, adding that the work was done visually on the computer or mathematically with the help of correlation.

Using the same method, Finnish researchers have managed to look back some 7000 years. Jan Esper and his team only looked back 2000 years, but by using an additional technology, they were able to make their findings even more precise.

Apart from looking at the width of the growth rings, the researchers also measured the density of cells in the wood, using a special x-ray machine. "We measured the width of the cells in the last or the penultimate row of cells in a growth ring. The width of a cell wall is a better indicator for summer temperatures," he said.

Romans had it 0.6 degrees warmer

According to the measurements findings, temperatures dropped continuously in the 2000 years before the year 1900, around the time the Industrial Revolution began, by about 0.3 degrees Celsius (2.44 degrees Fahrenheit) per 1000 years. The researchers didn't consider the time after 1900 for their measurements because of the new phenomenon impacting on climate research, the rise in greenhouse gases.

Trees can tell us something about the past - and possibly about the future

 The Finnish tree rings also had something to tell about other climate events. The climate curves gave information about volcano eruptions, because in the wake of these events, temperatures generally drop by about 0.7 degrees Celsius. Warm and cold periods can also be identified this way. During Roman times, temperatures were very high. The same goes for the so-called Medieval Climate Optimum, a warm period in the Middle Ages. This was followed by a colder phase, the so-called small ice age. In the second decade, temperatures started rising again.

Today, climate modelers who try and predict the climate of the future could potentially also benefit from the results of the research. The data stems from a time when there was little CO2 in the atmosphere. And so, the trees can tell researchers something about natural climate change - with no human impact.

Poo power celebrated as solar toilet wins sanitation prize

Human waste attracts less funding than other development projects but Reinvent the Toilet challenge recognises that better hygiene can cut healthcare costs and prevent early deaths

guardian.co.uk, Mark Tran, Wednesday 15 August 2012

A solar powered toilet designed by the California Institute of Technology for
 the Reinvent the Toilet challenge. Photograph: Michael Hanson/Gates Foundation

A solar powered toilet that breaks down water and human waste into hydrogen gas for use in fuel cells has won first prize in a competition for next-generation toilets to improve sanitation in the developing world.

The California Institute of Technology in the US received the $100,000 (£64,000) first prize for its design. Loughborough University in the UK took the $60,000 second prize for a toilet that produces biological charcoal, minerals and clean water, and Canada's University of Toronto came third, winning $40,000 for a toilet that sanitises faeces and urine, and recovers resources and clean water.

The winners took part in a Reinvent the Toilet challenge set by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which asked designers to break with a sanitation model that has changed little since it was developed by Alexander Cummings more than 200 years ago. It is a model that depends on piped water, sewer or electrical connections that poor countries can ill afford.

A year ago, the Gates Foundation issued a challenge to universities to design toilets that can capture and process waste without piped waster and transform human waste into useful resources such as energy and water. 

"Imagine what's possible if we continue to collaborate, stimulate new investment in this sector, and apply our ingenuity in the years ahead," said Bill Gates as he announced the winners on Tuesday in Seattle, Washington state. "Many of these innovations will not only revolutionise sanitation in the developing world, but also help transform our dependence on traditional flush toilets in wealthy nations."

Sanitation and hygiene are the laggards in the millennium development goals (MDGs) of reducing extreme poverty. Basic sanitation, covering toilets, latrines, handwashing and waste, is not an MDG but a target under MDG seven on ensuring environmental sustainability.

Sanitation and hygiene have been the poor cousins in the global water, sanitation and hygiene work and programmes, outfunded by as much as 13 to one, even though most water-related diseases are really sanitation-related diseases.

In March, the UN announced that the world had reached the goal of halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water, well ahead of the 2015 deadline. However, the world is still far from meeting the MDG target for sanitation, and is unlikely to do so by 2015.

Only 63% of the world population has access to improved sanitation, a figure projected to increase to only 67% by 2015, well below the 75% target in the MDGs. Currently 2.5 billion people lack access to an "improved sanitation facility", which hygienically separates human waste from human contact.

As Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, has acknowledged, sanitation is a sensitive and unpopular subject. It is not a high-profile issue, although the UN declared access to water and sanitation a fundamental right in 2010 and there is a UN rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation.

At the current rate, the world will miss the sanitation MDG target by 13 percentage points, meaning there will be 2.6 billion people without access to improved sanitation, according to the 2010 report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Unicef joint monitoring programme for water supply and sanitation (pdf). If things carry on as they are, the MDG target will not be met until 2049.

As many as 1.2 billion people practice what the UN describes as "open defecation". They go to the toilet behind bushes, in fields, in plastic bags or along railway tracks. The practice poses particular problems for women and girls, who can be subject to physical and verbal abuse or humiliation.

According to the WHO, improved sanitation delivers up to $9 in social and economic benefits for every $1 invested because it increases productivity, reduces healthcare costs, and prevents illness, disability, and early death.

The Gates Foundation is spending about $80m a year on water, sanitation and hygiene, according to Reuters. The $370m it has committed so far is a small portion of its development funding. Since 1994, the foundation has handed out, or is committed to, more than $26bn in grants.

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Bill Gates looks to new toilets to improve world sanitation