June 09, 2021
For my climate nerd friends: My comments on the new Santer et al. study which was widely (mis-) reported as dissing our satellite-based
Executive Summary
A new paper by Santer et al.
in Journal of Climate shows that observed trends during 1988-2019 in
sea surface temperature [SST], tropospheric temperature [TLT and TMT],
and total tropospheric water vapor [TWV] are generally inconsistent, by
varying amounts, with climate model trends over the same period. The
study uses ratios between observed trends in these variables to explore
how well the ratios match model expectations, with the presumption that
the models provide "truth†in such comparisons. Special emphasis is
placed on the inconsistency between TWV moistening rates and the
satellite tropospheric temperature warming rates: the total water vapor
has risen faster than one would expect for the weak rate of
satellite-observed tropospheric warming (but both are still less than
the average climate model trends in either CMIP5 or CMIP6).
While the paper itself does not single out the tropospheric temperatures as being in error, widespread reporting of the paper used the same biased headline, for instance this from DailyMail.com: "Satellites may have been underestimating the planet’s warming for decadesâ€. The reporting largely ignored the bulk of what was in the paper, which was much less critical of the satellite temperature trends, and which should have been more newsworthy. For example: (1) SST warming is shown in the paper to be well below climate model expectations from both CMIP5 and CMIP6, which one might expect could have been a major conclusion; (2) the possibility that the satellite-based TWV is rising too rapidly (admitted in the paper, and addressed below), and especially (3) the possibility that TWV is not a good proxy anyway for mid- and upper-tropospheric warming (discussed below).
As others have shown, free-tropospheric vapor (not well captured by TWV) would be the proper proxy for free-tropospheric warming, and the fact that climate models maintain constant relative humidity with altitude during warming is not based upon basic physical processes (as the authors imply), but instead upon arbitrary moistening assumptions implicit in model convective parameterizations. Observational evidence is shown that free-tropospheric humidity does not increase with tropospheric temperature as much as in the GFDL climate model. Thus, weak tropospheric warming measured by satellites could be evidence of weak water vapor feedback in the free troposphere, which in turn could explain the weaker than (model) expected surface warming. A potential reason for a high bias in TWV trends is also addressed, which is consistent with the other variables’ trend behavior.
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Have intellectual and moral integrity declined to a point in America where people will say anything, no matter how absurd, as long as it’s "woke� A good indication the answer is "yes†is the June 6 edition of The 11th Hour with Brian Williams, on which the following words were heard:
"Who is Antifa? They stormed the beaches of Normandy, parachuted into the French countryside, and gave their lives to face down and fight back against fascism.â€
MSNBC & Brian Williams Dishonor D-Day Soldiers by Labeling Them "Antifaâ€
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I was discussing government funding of science and pointed out the government took over most science funding in the latter 20th century. This is a distillation of a couple of comments I left on a Facebook friend's wall:
The government took over most science funding in the late '70's, which happened to coincide with the rise of global warming alarmism (after the failure of global cooling). The science of climatology was a small branch of meteorology at the time. It grew into a major discipline, overshadowing meteorology thanks to the gobs of money flowing in. Who was going to kill the golden goose by saying climate change isn't a problem? Every institution doing research would cut anyone who dared say it loose, and the alarmists got into positions of authority everywhere because they could bring home the bacon. He who pays the bills is the boss, and for a generation the Federal Government has been the sugar daddy. It's little wonder science has become so politicized. They are giving their paymasters the results desired in return for cash.
It started during the Cold War. The Feds had been increasingly involved in science funding to guarantee we did not fall behind the Soviets, and Jimmy Carter took over a huge block of it with his Department of Energy and other initiatives.
I don't have a link specifically about it, but here are two that might have something (I didn't have a chance to open them as I'm using my old computer.) https://www.science20.com/news_articles/boom_and_bust_government_takes_over_science_funding_becomes_prone_bubble_formation-125040 and https://www.science20.com/news_articles/boom_and_bust_government_takes_over_science_funding_becomes_prone_bubble_formation-125040
Most science in America is funded by government grants these days. https://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/who_pays through the National Science Foundation or the National Institute for Health or NASA or NOAA or other such entities. That didn't used to be the case; much of the science was funded by Foundations and corporate interests in the past. If I have time I'll research it better for you; It always takes a lot of digging trying to find this sort of info on the search engines, largely because they don't want people to realize that things used to be different.
By the late '70's the Feds were funding 70% of all scientific research in America. The U.S. government spends $160 billion on research, for example,,.
While spending is down in recent years, it is still largely a government controlled enterprise. According to the AAAS https://www.bu.edu/articles/2015/funding-for-scientific-research/ "Gloria Waters, vice president and associate provost for research, says finding funding sources other than the federal government has become "a top priority†of the University" So funding is the top priority - and when government wants certain results who is going to buck them?
Anyway, hope that helps. I had to do some quick searches (I don't have time to spend on it this morning as I have a doctor's appointment.)
Oh, one more thing Doug Thorbern; everyone remembers Eisenhower's Farewell Address where he warned about the "Military-Industrial complex" but most people have never read the speech or what he was saying. He was warning against Big Tech back then, as we were already funding research and development with taxpayer money and Ike saw this relationship between government and big tech as a very dangerous path. It was happening even than, and it only got worse over time.
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Yesterday I had to go to an orthopedic surgeon to be treated for trigger finger. This is a form of tendonitis that effects one or more of the fingers of the hand, leading to pain and a swelling nodule on the hand and an inability to open and close the finger.
For the last year I have been doing what I have secretly wanted - given everyone the finger! My left middle finger was permanently distended into a flip of the bird and I've enjoyed every moment of it! (I am a bit of a curmudgeon.)
It's meant I had to physically move the finger when typing, for example, and had to physically move it to open when I was done!
I've been treating it with ibuprofen which has kept the pain under control. My doctor recommended me to an orthopedic surgeon, but due to circumstances I've been putting it off for months.
So yesterday was the big day.
I have to say, I was impressed. They took me with no wait, and saw me almost immediately. I first saw the resident, who gave it a quick once-over and advised me of my options; either a cortisone shot or surgery. He told me a cortisone shot would probably only be a temporary fix and I might well still have to have surgery, but not necessarily. Given my circumstances these days I opted for the shot.
The ripest cheese of the medical staff came in to do the procedure personally, and there was no pain. He said to call back if it comes back and we can look at surgery then.
By late afternoon the nodule was shrunken down and while the finger is still stiff (they said it would take a few days) I can see it is healing up. One more thing that has gone my way!
I also suffer from diabetes and have for almost three decades. Normally it gets worse over time, and I had seen a steady erosion of my health from it fro years. But strangely enough I'm doing much better. The doctors have cut my insulin intake several times now and I feel pretty gosh-darn good. I could not have gotten the steroid shot if my diabetes had been in poor control.
I have basically done nothing to deserve this mercy. No lifestyle changes, unless you count the changes that have occurred from my having to be the one to actually prepare the food (which has basically meant picking up carry out from the local restaurants around here or eating prepackaged dinners from the local Schnucks Market kindly provided by the Pink Ribbon Girls.) I guess God just figured he had put enough on my plate.
Even my heart failure, which was really acting up as I hadn't been able to follow my low sodium diet in this crisis (my wife has been ill) has improved immensely with an increase in lasix. Everything seems to be coming up roses these days.
There is plenty to bemoan in this life; one must take the time to be grateful when given good things. Right now the Good Lord is blessing me and I am grateful.
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June 07, 2021
Guatemala's President Blames Biden for Border Crisis as Protesters Tell Kamala Harris "Trump Won"
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From Gaddafi's speech at the 64th UN General Assembly, NYC, 2009😱
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Anthony Fauci is the Dr. Evil of medicine, according to the Federalist. He's a comic book villain, a Dr. Octavius hell-bent on his own power and research.
From the article:
His deceit is just one aspect that conforms to the villain archetype in literature. There’s a poetic injustice in his story arc that would be hard for a novelist to top.
Under his directorship, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases funded the EcoHealth Alliance, which funneled $600,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the lab now under scrutiny for leaking SARS-COV-2, to study coronaviruses in bats.
While Fauci maintains NAIAD never funded the dangerous gain-of-function studies that appear to be potentially involved in COVID’s origin, the U.S. State Department said in January that WIV was indeed conducting gain-of-function research. In 2012, Fauci defended this "risky†type of research, involving increasing the transmissibility or severity of a disease in humans, that he knew might spark a pandemic.
He stated it was a risk worth taking even though it was a "valid concern†that "someone somewhere might attempt to replicate these experiments sloppily.†This same man oversaw an organization that funded an institute conducting gain-of-function research in a lower-safety BLS-2 lab – the equivalent of a "standard U.S. dentist’s office,†according to molecular biologist Richard Ebright.
How would a novelist juice up a story to breathtaking levels of scandal from this point? Why not promote the antagonist to trusted White House advisor and national spokesperson for "what is safe†and "what needs to be done†so that he, having promoted and potentially funded the kind of research that may have produced this global scourge, has the ear of the most powerful person in the world and as much airtime on major networks as he wants to push junk science COVID-19 safety-ism on 330 million people?
Such a character wouldn’t be a true arch-villain if the real-world stakes were anything less than dire. On Fauci’s insistence, governors stripped their citizens of fundamental rights with draconian stay-home orders and punishingly arbitrary "phases†to return to normal.
The policies Fauci pushed night and day for months destroyed millions of livelihoods, ensured a year of lost education especially for underprivileged kids, killed about 200,000 businesses, caused an alarming drop in critical blood donations, and bears much of the blame for who thousands of additional lives lost by overdose (up 42 percent in 2020) and increased refusal to seek medical care due to concern about contracting COVID-19.
It would be a missed opportunity, of course, not to write in such an antagonist’s effusive praise for another major villain in a powerful government role: an equally egotistical liar almost as gifted at gaslighting who ordered COVID-19-positive patients to be admitted to nursing homes, leading to a probable 1,000 more deaths. Naturally, he’d tell the public Cuomo’s New York, which seeded most of COVID-19’s spread through the United States, "did it correctly.â€
To round out the profile of a power-craven political climber pushing restrictions and guidelines that keep him in a strong position of influence, a writer might include a sense of superiority so potent he couldn’t hide his condescension for the members of Congress he’s accountable to, who dare demand a straight answer. It might look something like this, or this.
He needs a ten gallon hat and a black cape and handle-bar mustache.
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25% fewer covid deaths in Alameda County than false #s they've been giving!
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Very interesting! I'm surprised they haven't used those photos when Trump was in office to claim mistreatment of immigrant children...
The bizarre history of the baby cage, 1934-1948
Dangling "baby cages†came into vogue after they were invented in 1922, but their origins really began with the 1884 book The Care and Feeding of Children, by Dr. Luther Emmett Holt. In his book, Emmett carefully describes how babies need to be "airedâ€. "Fresh air is required to renew and purify the blood, and this is just as necessary for health and growth as proper food,†he wrote. "The appetite is improved, the digestion is better, the cheeks become red, and all signs of health are seen.â€
Essentially, the thinking was that this was part of a process to toughen up the babies, and make them better able to withstand common colds. It was believed that exposing infants to cold temperatures—both outside and through cold-water bathing—would grant them a certain immunity to catching minor illnesses.
While physicians such as Dr. Luther Emmett Holt advised simply placing an infant’s basket near an open window, some parents took it a step further. Eleanor Roosevelt, who by her own admission "knew absolutely nothing about handling or feeding a baby,†bought a chicken-wire cage after the birth of her daughter Anna. She hung it out the window of her New York City apartment and placed Anna inside for her naps — until a concerned neighbor threatened to report her to the authorities.
The first commercial patent for a baby cage was filed in 1922 by Emma Read of Spokane, Washington. The cages became popular in London in the 1930s among apartment dwellers without access to backyards.
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Stanford Epidemiologist Claims Fauci's Credibility Completely Shot
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June 06, 2021
For those wondering what actually happened in Tulsa, here are the facts ...
And for those wondering, yes, Biden is stoking racial hatred to benefit the Democrats.
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An interesting publication here, from the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK, regarding how they plan to waste vast quantities of taxpayer money in responding to the hallucinated planetary climate crisis.
Notably it starts with a quote from Greta Thunberg. (More likely a quote from Greta Thunberg's parents/handlers which was also quoted at some point by Greta Thunberg.)
In this section that I have picked out, they explain that distress related to the climate is to be treated as a "functional" response, rather than a mental disorder.
It is not made clear what precise function such distress serves.
The paper as a whole offers a window into a world in which the psychiatrists themselves have gone mad.
If you actually did have a mental condition and needed help, then I'd strongly recommend staying well away from lunatics such as these.
Here is the disturbing paper: https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/docs/default-source/improving-care/better-mh-policy/position-statements/position-statement-ps03-21-climate-and-ecological-emergencies-2021.pdf
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June 05, 2021
Rats are actually kind of cute. It's the plague and rabies that I find objectionable.
I was at the Ozark Hilton once and a mouse ran out from under my futon, right between my legs. Almost immediately a rat bounded out after him! Right between my legs. I guess they eat mice.
Also, once when I was there I picked up a roll of tarpaper and felt a furry head. My tactile senses made me think of my cat Goccia, and I stroked the head before realizing my mistake. A big rat popped out, in a state of clear bafflement at being so tenderly treated by some big critter like me! It might have saved me from getting bitten.
Hat tip: Jennifer Vandover
Magawa the Hero Rat Retires from Job Detecting Land Mines
I also suffered heart failure and I wonder if it wasn't from my intimate contact with mice and rats at the Ozark Hilton.
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These are scenes I witnessed as a child growing up in Hong Kong at the time. It went on well beyond 1961. Shanty towns of escaped refugees were commonplace in 1966 when we returned to the UK.
The Forgotten Great Chinese Famine of 1959-61
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Here is an article about the Chauvin appeal. Read it and decide for yourself.
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Quote of the day. Matt Taibbi responds to the authoritarian leftist media who complain that he and other liberals appear on conservative media (because conservative media are willing to air diverse points of view while the corporate establishment left is only willing to air the official dogma of the ruling class.)
"The truth is, Trump
conservatives and ACLU-raised liberals like myself, Greenwald, and
millions of others do have real common cause, against an epistemic
revolution taking hold in America’s political and media elite. The
traditional liberal approach to the search for truth, which stresses
skepticism and free-flowing debate, is giving way to a reactionary
movement that Plato himself would have loved, one that believes
knowledge is too dangerous for the rabble and must be tightly regulated
by a priesthood of "experts.†It’s anti-democratic
Tim adds:
One of the prime differences between liberals and conservatives is our view of reason and intellect. Liberals have always held an elitist view, and worship at the feet of "experts" on the theory that they are more knowledgeable and should be believed. Conservatives have generally held to the idea of collective wisdom,that the more minds working on a problem the better. Ours takes the position that an expert is merely a person who says he is and has some sort of degree or other credential, but is not necessarily any more fit or insightful to give an opinion than anyone else. The Progressive worldview revolves around the ideas of a technocracy, and Plato did Mankind a huge disservice with The Republic by hatching up the terrible idea of a "Philosopher King". In point of fact separating the rulers from the advisers is the best policy; to acquire vast amounts of knowledge in any field necessitates deep study which means shorting understanding in other areas. A true leader is a bit of a dilletant; he knows a little on a lot of subjects and has people to go in-depth for him when he needs it. Putting the scientist or the academic in charge always winds up disastrous; they have a lot of theory but no practical understanding.
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Carney draws inspiration from, among others, Marx, Engels and Lenin,
but the agenda he promotes differs from Marxism in two key respects.
First, the private sector is not to be expropriated but made a
"partner†in reshaping the economy and society. Second, it does not
make a promise to make the lives of ordinary people better, but worse.
Carney’s Brave New World will be one of severely constrained choice,
less flying, less meat, more inconvenience and more poverty: "Assets
will be stranded, used gasoline powered cars will be unsaleable,
inefficient properties will be unrentable,†he promises.
The
agenda’s objectives are in fact already being enforced, not primarily
by legislation but by the application of non-governmenta
Carney’s Agenda is promoted
by the United Nations and other international bureaucracies and a vast
and ever-growing array of non-governmenta
Tin adds:
Corporatism was the Nazi economic model. National Socialism has "private" companies that are wholly at the service of the rulers in a Fascist economic model. And Fascism was indeed socialism. The Bolsheviks had a saying "First Brown then Red"; they rightly understood National Socialism to be the stepping stone to Communism.
Oh, and Carney is your typically arrogant poseur. He does not understand the difference between intelligence, knowledge, and wisdom. He sorely lack wisdom but thinks his intellect so vast he is wise. That is the modern problem; the technocrats and bureaucrats all fancy themselves Solomons when in fact they are all Ichobods (the Hebrew word for fool).
And Carney equates climate change with Covid. To an extent I agree; they are both certainly trumped up theoretical models, neither of which actually were anywhere near as bad as the predictions. One must wonder if we had left society alone would the Covid have been any worse? Sometimes the best medicine is doing nothing. Zachary Taylor's doctors killed the President, for example. Taylor was wearing a heavy frock coat at a Fourth of July celebration and he became overheated. His doctors decided he needed more nourishment and so made him drink milk (when he needed good old H2O). When he failed to get better they decided to let his blood. If they would just have let the man cool down in the shade and drink a little water he wouldn't have died. Our response to Covid was much like that, and certainly our response to "climate change" is even more so. If Covid teaches us anything it is to be suspicious of pompous fools who tell us they know what is best.
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People just don't reason logically anymore.
I joined a discussion on Facebook about the idea of putting cameras in public school classrooms. A fellow named Tim objected:
So yes, webcams are means to life, property, and happiness, but *forcing* it is an initiation of force. In proper regards to law enforcement and classrooms, one votes at the poll and with their dollar respectively. There is no initiation of force then because law enforcement members and teachers join voluntarily.
Carolyn replied:
Facebook Tim responded:
I get it; we don't want our jobs to become all intrusive and violate our basic rights to privacy, but that doesn't mean we can't supervise what our employees are doing, especially with our children. Parents have the fundamental right to decide what is being taught to their kids, and that means they have a right to know what the teachers are doing in the classroom. Resisting that is prima facia evidence of wrongdoing, in my humble opinion. An honest person doesn't have something to hide where their work is concerned. It would be different if we were prying into something that did not involve their employment, like their private lives, but this is directly related to their work. If this is somehow a violation of their privacy, isn't it equally true that scholastic standards are an equal violation? Isn't a quota for a worker a violation? You are arguing for a kind of radical autonomy that cannot exist in the workplace.
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I was just thinking about the 2 plus year ban on Donald Trump by Facebook.
Now Facebook owns social media these days; a true monopoly. Where are the Trust Busters?
The Progressive movement was proud as peacocks about trust busting but now are happy with a Facebook monopoly. They broke up AT and T for far less; ATT didn't ban people from using telephones for saying something they didn't like. If they DID cut someone off (almost always for non-payment) that person could still use a pay phone or a friend's phone. Facebook tries to deny even that to someone they decide is a non-person.
And to pull that crap on the President of the United States is astonishing arrogance, monstrous arrogance. If there is any proof Facebook needs to be broken up it is that. It should also be treated as a publisher rather than a simple bulletin board.
This ban goes through the next election by a happy coincidence!
If they are going to try to manipulate public opinion by suppressing opinion they do not agree with, they have to face the consequences. I would add that Facebook has more users than the Catholic Church has worshipers.
And, unlike Catholicism which must compete with a multitude of other religions, Facebook has no real competition, and when it does it either buys them or crushes them (as they did to Parler).
Facebook and Google and the other tech giants are not capitalists and the arguments for free market decision making do not apply. These are companies working hand-in-glove with the U.S. government, most especially with the national security apparatus (such as the NSA). Google got it's start, for instance, with seed money from the CIA. I rather suspect the same is true of Facebook. Certainly Peter Thiel, one of the early major investors in Facebook, had CIA ties.
In fact, where in the past the government had to find ways to twist information out of people, with social media and search engines people were quite eager to give it. And Facebook makes it's money by sellling your data. How much of it goes to the National Security Agency? The CIA?
And yet the Progressives refuse to consider trust busting here. What we are witnessing is the merger of tyrannical government and mega-corporations in a fascist style entity. Instead of socialism imposed by a powerful government we are seeing corporations impose socialism on a subservient government. Or at least impose it's will on a subservient government. Funny; I remember when the Left was the ones who worried about Corporatism.
America had a multiplicity of institutions that have disappeared in the last fifty years. Nobody joins social clubs like the Elks or the Optimists anymore. The Boy Scouts have pretty much committed Hari Kari. The Churches are now feeble and hold little sway over the minds of the public. All that is left is the internet and other electronic media. And all of that is controlled by forces aligned with statism and collectivism. And Big Tech keeps gobbling up any new voices, like Ms. Packman gobbling up the little balls. No emperor or king ever had the kind of power over the human mind that Big Tech now enjoyys. Emperors and kings only ruled by force of arms; Big Tech rules by the force of information.
And they won't allow anyone to get out of line. Almost everyone I know on Facebook has been suspended at some point, without even being told what it was they did that was a violation of the rules. There is no transparency or fairness; these tech people are pimply-faced immature tyrants, and they are going to pay everyone back! It's Revenge of the Nerds writ titanic!
Chicago is known for corrupt politics and the Daley Machine which stole election on a regular basis. Why? Because Chicago was a booming city and the Capone mob basically took it over. Yes, it was corrupt before Capone, but it was so because crime was rampant for a long time. And the fact it was on Lake Michigan and had access to shipping from Canada during Prohibition made it a prime place for criminal activity. The result was organized crime ruled Chicago and largely still does. Saul Alinsky, the famous author of Rules for Radicals which so influenced both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, came from Capone's mob (he was Frank Nitty's assistant.) IF Chicago is a cautionary tale about the domination of a strong-arming commercial power taking over, what does that tell us about Silicon Valley? They are the true Mafia, with the power to crush those who displease them.
It's time for some trust-busting, if you ask me.
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June 04, 2021
The Cancer Moonshot May Have Just Taken Off Thanks to a Light-Activated 'Trojan Horse' Miracle Drug
Read the rest here: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/stacey-lennox/2021/06/03/the-cancer-moonshot-may-have-just-taken-off-thanks-to-a-light-activated-trojan-horse-miracle-drug-n1451828Scottish researchers at the University of Edinburgh have tested a "Trojan Horse†drug that can kill cancer cells and bacterial cells without damaging nearby tissues. Because cancer cells need to consume high amounts of food for energy to continue to reproduce, these researchers decided to target their eating habits, with very encouraging results:
Scientists at the University of Edinburgh combined the tiny cancer-killing molecule SeNBD with a chemical food compound to trick malignant cells into ingesting it.
The peer-reviewed experimental study was carried out on zebrafish and human cells, but researchers say more studies are needed to confirm if it is a safe and swift method of treating early stage cancer and drug-resistant bacteria.
The team combined a tiny cancer-killing molecule SeNBD and a chemical food compound that the insatiable cancer cells enjoy, creating a "metabolic warhead.†The combination prevents the cancer cells from identifying the threat and readily ingesting the SeNBD that seeks to destroy them in studies done to date. The deadly molecule is also a light-activated photosensitizer. This quality means it goes to work when a surgeon quite literally turns it on. Pretty ironic, given the media freak-out when President Trump posited that UV light might be a treatment for some illnesses.
The light-activated nature of the molecule may allow for unparalleled precision in treating tumors. It will permit surgeons to precisely place the poisoned food in the area where the cancer cells exist and activate them to work in the cancer cells they light up. Any of the medication that migrates into nearby tissues will not be activated, reducing the therapy’s impact on healthy cells.
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