A University of Oregon research team has found that evolution can never go backwards, because the paths to the genes once present in our ancestors are forever blocked. The findings -- the result of the first rigorous study of reverse evolution at the molecular level -- appear in the Sept. 24 issue of Nature. The team used computational reconstruction of ancestral gene sequences, DNA synthesis, protein engineering and X-ray crystallography to resurrect and manipulate the gene for a key hormone receptor as it existed in our earliest vertebrate ancestors more than 400 million years ago. They found that over a rapid period of time, five random mutations made subtle modifications in the protein's structure that were utterly incompatible with the receptor's primordial form.
The discovery of evolutionary bridge burning implies that today's versions of life on Earth may be neither ideal nor inevitable, said Joe Thornton, a professor in the UO's Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
"Evolutionary biologists have long been fascinated by whether evolution can go backwards," Thornton said, "but the issue has remained unresolved because we seldom know exactly what features our ancestors had, or the mechanisms by which they evolved into their modern forms. We solved those problems by studying the problem at the molecular level, where we can resurrect ancestral proteins as they existed long ago and use molecular manipulations to dissect the evolutionary process in both forward and reverse directions."
Thornton's team, which included UO research scientist Jamie Bridgham and collaborator Eric A. Ortlund, a biochemist at Atlanta's Emory University, focused on the evolution of a protein called the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), which binds the hormone cortisol and regulates the stress response, immunity, metabolism and behavior in humans and other vertebrates.
"This fascinating study highlights the value of studying evolutionary processes," said Irene Eckstrand, who oversees evolution grants at the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences. "By showing how molecular structures are finely tuned by evolution, Dr. Thornton's research will have a broad impact on basic and applied sciences, including the design of drugs that target specific proteins."
In previous work, Thornton's group showed that the first GR evolved more than 400 millions ago from an ancestral protein that was also sensitive to the hormone aldosterone. They then identified seven ancient mutations that together caused the receptor to evolve its new specificity for cortisol.
Once Thornton's team knew how the GR's modern function evolved, they wondered if it could be returned to its ancestral function. So they resurrected the GR as it existed soon after cortisol specificity first evolved -- in the common ancestor of humans and all other vertebrates with bones -- and then reversed the seven key mutations by manipulating its DNA sequence.
'We expected to get a promiscuous receptor just like the GR's ancestor, but instead we got a completely dead, non-functional protein," Thornton said. "Apparently other mutations that occurred during early GR evolution acted as a sort of evolutionary ratchet, rendering the protein unable to tolerate the ancestral features that had existed just a short time earlier."
To identify the mutations, Thornton's team prepared crystals of resurrected ancient GR proteins and took them to the particle accelerator at the Advanced Photon Source outside Chicago, where they used powerful X-rays to determine the protein's atomic structure before and after the shift in function. By comparing the precise atomic maps of each protein, they identified five specific mutations in the later version of the GR that clashed with the architecture of the earlier protein.
"Suppose you're redecorating your bedroom -- first you move the bed, then you put the dresser where the bed used to be," Thornton said. "If you decide you want to move the bed back, you can't do it unless you get that dresser out of the way first. The restrictive mutations in the GR prevented evolutionary reversal in the same way."
When Thornton's group set the five mutations back to their ancestral state, the protein could now tolerate having the seven key changes reversed, which then transformed it into a promiscuous receptor just like the its ancestor.
Despite their powerful role as a ratchet preventing reversal, the five restrictive mutations had little or no direct effect on the protein's function when they occurred. And although they must be reversed before the protein can tolerate the ancestral state, reversing them first does absolutely nothing to enhance the ancestral function. "This means that even if the ancestral function were suddenly to become optimal again, there's no way natural selection could drive the protein directly back to its ancestral form," Thornton said.
GR's evolutionary irreversibility suggests that the molecules that drive our biology today may not be inevitable products of the evolutionary process. "In the GR's case, restrictive mutations erased the conditions that previously opened up the ancestral form as an evolutionary possibility. It's likely that throughout history other kinds of restrictive mutations have taken place, closing off innumerable trajectories that evolution might otherwise have taken," Thornton speculated.
"If we could wind back the clock and allow history to unfold again, different sets of mutations, apparently inconsequential at the time, would almost certainly occur, opening up some potential paths and blocking others -- including the one that leads to the present that actually evolved in our world," he said. "If what we observed in GR evolution is a general phenomenon, then the biology we have is just one of many possible rolls of the evolutionary dice."
1 Department of Electronics and Intelligent Systems, Tohoku Institute of Technology, Sendai, Japan, 2 Department of Systems Biology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto, Japan, 3 Department of Brain Science, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan
The human body literally glimmers. The intensity of the light emitted by the body is 1000 times lower than the sensitivity of our naked eyes. Ultraweak photon emission is known as the energy released as light through the changes in energy metabolism. We successfully imaged the diurnal change of this ultraweak photon emission with an improved highly sensitive imaging system using cryogenic charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. We found that the human body directly and rhythmically emits light. The diurnal changes in photon emission might be linked to changes in energy metabolism.
Citation: Kobayashi M, Kikuchi D, Okamura H (2009) Imaging of Ultraweak Spontaneous Photon Emission from Human Body Displaying Diurnal Rhythm. PLoS ONE 4(7): e6256. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006256
Editor: Joseph Najbauer, City of Hope Medical Center, United States of America
Received: March 4, 2009; Accepted: June 11, 2009; Published: July 16, 2009
Copyright: © 2009 Kobayashi et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: This work was supported in part by The Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (M.K) and The Special Promotion Funds (H.O) from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
* E-mail: masaki@tohtech.ac.jp (MK); okamurah@pharm.kyoto-u.ac.jp (HO)
Bioluminescence, which is weak but visible, is sometimes produced in living organisms, such as fireflies or jellyfish, as the result of specialized enzymatic reactions that require adenosine triphosphate. However, virtually all living organisms emit extremely weak light, spontaneously without external photoexcitation [1]. This biophoton emission is categorized in different phenomena of light emission from bioluminescence, and is believed to be a by-product of biochemical reactions in which excited molecules are produced from bioenergetic processes that involves active oxygen species [1], [2]. Human body is glimmering with light of intensity weaker than 1/1000 times the sensitivity of naked eyes [3], [4]. By using a sensitive charge-coupled-device (CCD) camera with the ability to detect light at the level of a single photon, we succeeded in imaging the spontaneous photon emission from human bodies [3].
Previously, for obtaining an image, it took more than 1 hour of acquisition, which is practically impossible for the analysis of physiologically relevant biophoton emission. By improving the CCD camera and lens system, here we have succeeded in obtaining clear images using a short exposure time, comparable with the analysis of physiological phenomena. Since metabolic rates are known to change in a circadian fashion [5], [6], we investigated the temporal variations of biophoton emission across the day from healthy human body.
A cooled CCD camera operated at −120°C with slow scanning mode read-out was used with a specially designed high-throughput lens system. The camera was placed in a light-tight room in complete darkness (schematic illustration of the experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1A). Five healthy male volunteers, in their 20′s, were subjected to normal light-dark conditions and allowed to sleep from 0:00–7:00. On the days of photon imaging, volunteers were kept in a room (400 lux) adjacent to the dark room. For imaging purposes, the body surface was wiped and the subject was left 15 minutes in the dark room for dark adaptation, after which the naked subject in sitting position was exposed for 20 minutes to the CCD camera. Measurements were carried out in every 3 hours from 10:00 to 22:00 and continued for 3 days. Just before and after the measurements, the surface body (thermography) and oral temperature were taken. Saliva was also collected after the photon measurements for the analysis of cortisol level as a biomarker of endogenous circadian rhythms. Temporal variation of photon emission intensity was calculated from image data with extraction of the face and body intensity.
A. Schematic illustration of experimental setup. B–F. Images of ultraweak photon emission from human body. B. Image of the subject under light illumination. C. Image at 10:10. D. Image at 13:10. E. Image at 16:10. F. Image at 19:10. G. Image at 22:10 with a calibration bar which indicates the estimated radiation intensity expressed by photon number per unit of time per unit of skin surface. H. Daily rhythm of photon emission from face and body from 5 volunteers. Significant difference from the photon emission at 10:00 AM (n = 15, Mean±SD; **P<0.01, href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0006256#pone-0006256-g001" target="_blank">Fig. 1B–G.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006256.g001The daily variation of photon emission is shown in Fig. 1B–G. In all images, photon emission intensity from the face was higher than from the body. Moreover, photon emission intensity from the face was not homogeneous: the central area around the mouth and the cheeks was higher than the lateral area and the orbits. Furthermore, the photon emission intensity on the face and upper body appeared to display time-dependent changes. We plotted total photon emission intensity over the body and face against time, averaged across the 5 volunteers (Fig. 1H). Photon emission was weak in the morning, increased in the afternoon and peaked in the late afternoon (ca 16:00) (one way ANOVA, F4,74 = 4.10, P<0.005). href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0006256#pone.0006256.s001" target="_blank">Figure S1). Photon emission formed a peak at late afternoon, then gradually decreased and stayed low at 1:00–7:00 AM in a constantly exposed light condition (400 lux), indicating the diurnal rhythm of photon might be caused by endogenous circadian mechanism.
Ultraweak biophoton emission was completely different from thermographic images showing surface temperature (Fig.1I). High photon emission were detected from the cheeks, followed by the upper neck and the forehead, while high temperature was detected in the supraclavicular lateral neck region, from which photon emission was low. In cheek, the highest level of emission reaches to 3000 photon/s·cm2 at 16:00 which is about double to the value at 10:00.
Next, we examined the correlation of photon emission to other physiological parameters known to show circadian variations. In the subject of Fig.1B–G, we found a temporal decrease of cortisol from morning to evening, in opposite to the increase of photon emission (Fig. 2A). Cortisol concentration shows a clear daily rhythm, peaking in the morning and negatively correlated with photon emission intensity (p<0.002; href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0006256#pone-0006256-g002" target="_blank">Fig. 2B). Body temperature, another parameter showing daily rhythms peaking at night, does not show significant correlation with photon emission (Supplementary Figure S2).
A. Comparison of temporal variation of biophoton emission intensity and cortisol concentration in saliva observed through 3 days. Shaded regions indicate sleeping time. The subject is the one of Fig. 1B–G. B. Daily change of cortisol secretion (left; n = 15, Mean±SD) and its correlation with photon emission intensity (right). A negative correlation was found (r = −0.3074, P<0.002).
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006256.g002The photon emission mechanism is thought to originate from the generation of free radicals in energy metabolic processes. The spectra of photon emission detected from the palm skin span from 500 to 700 nm, with primary and secondary emission peaks at 630–670 nm and 520–580 nm, respectively [7]. Free radicals subsequently react with lipid or protein, generating electronically excited species as byproducts [1]. These excited molecules, such as carbonyl group in excited triplet state from lipid peroxidation or proteins including excited tyrosine or tryptophan, can further react with fluorophores through energy transfer and lead to photon emission [8], [9]. Higher level photon emission on facial skin might be caused by differences in the content of melanin fluorophores [10] between facial and thoracic skin.
No significant correlation of daily photon intensity and temperature was found, and the dissimilarity between photon emission and thermal image suggest that the diurnal rhythm of photon emission is not a consequence of a change of temperature or microcirculation. Moreover, a clear negative correlation of temporal changes of photon emission and cortisol might suggest that the diurnal rhythm of photon emission reflects the changes of cellular metabolic processes under the control of the circadian clock. Circadian rhythms are generated in most cells throughout the body, driven by clock genes interlocked in transcription/translation feedback loops [11], [12]. Recent advances of chronobiology have revealed that the redox state of the cells regulates circadian gene expression, indicating the importance of metabolic cues for clock oscillations [6], [13], [14]. Indeed, glucose utilization, accompanied by oxygen consumption, shows robust rhythms in the main mammalian circadian center [5]. By the regulation of cellular respiratory chain producing reactive oxygen species, which in turns react with molecules including proteins, lipids and fluorophores, whose excited states emit biophotons [1], [8], [9], [10], the human body glitters to the rhythm of the circadian clock.
Spectral Instruments 600 series CCD camera system (Spectral Instruments, Inc., AZ, USA) was used. Mounted CCD42-40 (e2v technologies Ltd., Essex, UK), which is a back-illuminated, full-frame operation CCD with a 2048×2048 pixel resolution and 13.5×13.5 µm pixel size. The camera system is equipped with a cooling head to maintain the CCD at −120°C using a closed-cycle mechanical cryogenic unit. Under these conditions, quantum efficiency is 75% at the peak wavelength. Dark current is 0.65 electron/pixel/h and readout noise in the slow scanning mode is less than 4.5 electron rms. The CCD camera head has a specially designed lens system, which is designed to maximize the light collection efficiency (numerical aperture (NA) of the lens system on the detector side is 0.5 and the number of lenses is restricted 7 pieces). Magnification of the lens system is 1/20 and the light collection efficiency to the surface of the subject is 1.0×10−3. In this experiment, the CCD was operated in the 8×8 binning mode, and the actual pixel number was 256×256. Taking into account the detection limit, which is determined by dark current and readout noise of the CCD, as well as light collection efficiency, the minimum detectable number of photons on each pixel is estimated ca 100 photon/s/cm2 on the surface of the subject under the measurement condition.
All study participants were healthy males in their 20′s without any skin diseases or oral medications. The average time of sleep onset was 23:30 hours (range, 23:00 to 01:00 hours) and that for awakening was 06:15 hours (range, 06:00 to 07:00 hours). No attempt was made to synchronize the sleeping habits of the study participants before the study. From one week before the experiments, subjects were under controlled conditions to maintain regular sleeping hours. Subjects were not allowed to use cosmetics including aftershave lotion. Volunteers had lunch at 12:30 hours and dinner at 18:30 hours. Snacks and cold drinks were allowed between meals, at the study participant's discretion. During body imaging, participants were naked from the waist up. After a slight wipe of the body with lukewarm water, one by one the subjects were invited in the darkroom and where a relax chair was provided. Before photon emission measurements, the subjects were left 15 minutes in the darkroom for dark adaptation. During the dark adaptation, a thermograph to check the surface temperature of the body and a picture of the subject under weak light illumination for focusing are taken. Biophoton emission measurements are taken continuously for 20 minutes by the CCD camera. During measurements, comfortable music was provided for relaxation but sleep was not allowed. At the end of the measurements, thermograph and picture under weak illumination are taken again, together with the oral temperature. Photon emission intensity from the face and upper body was calculated from imaging data. Salivary cortisol levels were measured by radioimmunoassay. For statistical analysis, one-way ANOVAs followed by Bonferroni/Dunn's multiple comparisons were applied. The above experiments are approved by the Ethical Committee of Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine.
Photon emission in sleep deprived volunteers. Three volunteers kept in constant light environment (400 lux) without sleep, and photon counts were measured at 25:00 (1:00AM), 28:00 (4:00AM) and 31:00 (7:00AM) (red dots). Note the levels of photon emissions at these time points are much lower than evening value. The values from 10:00–22:00 are adopted from Figure 1H (n = 15, Mean±SD).
(5.65 MB TIF)
Daily change of oral temperature (left; n = 15, Mean±SD) (a), and its correlation to photon emission intensity (b). There was no significant correlation between photon emission and oral temperature (r = 0.1630, p = 0.1682).
(7.76 MB TIF)
James Lovelock: Schemes to 'Reverse' Global Warming Could Lead to Disaster
The idea of serious scientists and engineers gathering to discuss schemes for controlling the world's climate would a mere 10 years ago have seemed bizarre, or something from science fiction. But now, well into the 21st century, we are slowly and reluctantly starting to realise that global heating is real. We may have cool, wet summers in the UK, but we are fortunate compared with the Inuit, who see their habitat melting, and Australians and Africans who suffer intensifying heat and drought. We should not be surprised that public policy is edging ever nearer to geoengineering, the therapy our scientists are considering for a fevered planet.
Our senior scientific society, the Royal Society, met at the start of the month to launch the report "Geoengineering the Climate"explained in the Guardian in April, was to investigate theories of "intervening directly to engineer the climate system, so as to moderate the rise of temperature" and to "separate the real science from the science fiction". and to hear from its representative scientists. The meeting was hosted by the president, Lord Rees, and the chairman was Professor John Shepherd, who chaired the study group. The goal, as Prof Shepherd
Geoengineering is about deliberately changing the air, oceans or land surface of the world to offset global heating with the hope of restoring the cooler world we enjoyed in the last century. We are now fairly sure that the Earth has grown hotter by about one degree Celsius as a consequence of our own action in taking away as farmland the forests and other ecosystems that previously acted to keep the Earth cool. We also have increased by 6% the flow of CO2 into the air by burning coal, oil and natural gas. If we started global heating, can we reverse it by engineering?
The first scientist to consider geoengineering seriously was the Russian geophysicist Mikhail Budyko. In the 1970s he proposed that we could offset global heating by spreading in the stratosphere a fine dispersion of particles that reflected sunlight back to space; he based the idea on the observation that volcanic eruptions that did this were followed by global-scale cooling. He suggested that we could mimic the effects of a volcanic eruption by putting an aerosol into the stratosphere. His idea was confirmed by the detailed observations and analysis of the effect of Mount Pinatubo's eruption in 1991. It injected 20m tonnes of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere and this soon oxidised to form the white reflecting particles that offset global heating for three years. It is within our capacity to put this much sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere.
There are other ways of reflecting sunlight: large mirrors or diffusers of sunlight put in orbit around the sun. One of the more promising and controllable reflection methods was put forward by John Latham and Stephen Salter, who proposed spraying very fine droplets of sea water from the ocean surface to make the natural surface clouds, called marine stratus, whiter.
As well as cooling by reflecting sunlight away we could cool by removing the carbon dioxide or methane from the air. Klaus Lackner has proposed making artificial trees to do this; others, following the lead of Johannes Lehmann, would sooner see vegetation capture CO2 and then, after harvest, turn the plant waste into charcoal and bury it.
Geoengineering implies that we have an ailing planet that needs a cure. But our ignorance of the Earth system is great; we know little more than an early 19th-century physician knew about the body. Geoengineering is like trying to cure pneumonia by immersing the patient in a bath of icy water; the fever would be cured but not the disease.
Many of us feel a sense of unease about using geoengineering to escape global heating. Most of the planetary therapies have side effects, potentially as severe as the disease itself. We know that the cooling by Pinatubo was accompanied by droughts; cooling alone does nothing to prevent the ocean growing ever more acid as the carbon dioxide dissolves in the water.
Before long, global heating could reach a level that makes geoengineering an enticing option. Indeed, cautiously applied it may help by buying us time either to adapt to climate change or to develop a practical scientific cure. We have, as yet, no comprehensive Earth system science; in such ignorance I cannot help feeling that attempts by us to regulate the Earth's climate and chemistry would condemn humanity to a Kafkaesque fate from which there may be no escape. Better, perhaps, to learn from the wiser physicians of the early 19th century; they knew no cure for common diseases but also knew that by letting nature take its course, the patient often recovered. Perhaps we, too, had better use our energies to adapt and leave recovery to Gaia; after all, she has survived more than three billion years and has kept life going all that time.
See more stories tagged with: science, climate change, james lovelock, geoengineering, planet
James Lovelock is an independent scientist, author, researcher, environmentalist and futurist. He proposed the Gaia hypothesis, in which the Earth functions as a superorganism. His most recent book is The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning.
From: AlterNet"Climate stability has never been a feature of planet earth,” explains R. Timothy Patterson professor and director of the Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre, Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University in an article in the Financial Post. "The only constant about climate is change; it changes continually and, at times, quite rapidly. Many times in the past, temperatures were far higher than today, and occasionally, temperatures were colder. As recently as 6,000 years ago, it was about 3 C warmer than now. Ten thousand years ago, while the world was coming out of the thousand-year-long ‘Younger Dryas’ cold episode, temperatures rose as much as 6 C in a decade — 100 times faster than the past century's.”
The coldest period of the Little Ice Age, between
1645 and 1715, has been linked to a deep dip
in solar storms known as the Maunder Minimum.
What is really unstable is our sun though it does change in predictable patterns and cycles. The sun presently is in the pits of the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century. Weeks and sometimes whole months go by without a single sunspot. Since mid-July our friendly neighborhood star has gone blank again, not that it’s been that active in relative terms these past 10 years. But it’s the longest blank streak in a year. This means a continuation of the deepest solar minimum in a hundred years: at least for now. The longest number of consecutive blank days during the present cycle 23/24 minimum was 52 during the summer of 2008. The most recent count was 41 as of August 20th. The sun is the dimmest it has been in a hundred years. The lull is causing some scientists to recall the Little Ice Age, an unusual cold spell in Europe and North America, which lasted from about 1300 to 1850.
The technique of measuring solar magnetic fields was pioneered at the McMath-Pierce solar telescope near Tucson. Scientists are looking at a spectral line emitted by iron atoms in the sun's atmosphere.
"Sunspot magnetic fields are dropping by about 50 gauss per year," says Dr. Matt Penn of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson, Arizona.. "If we extrapolate this trend into the future, sunspots could completely vanish around the year 2015." This disappearing act is possible because sunspots are made of magnetism. The "firmament" of a sunspot is not matter but rather a strong magnetic field that appears dark because it blocks the up flow of heat from the sun's interior. If Earth lost its magnetic field, the solid planet would remain intact, but if a sunspot loses its magnetism, it ceases to exist. "This work has caused a sensation in the field of solar physics," comments NASA sunspot expert David Hathaway.
It is really hard to argue with a simple thermometer but in Los Angeles these days nobody is talking about global cooling with all the fires burning there and in some Washington DC offices they still have their heads stuck in the oven dreaming of warming trends and taxing CO2. Less radiation from the sun means a cooling planet. It’s quite possible 2009 will displace 2008 as the quietest year since 1913 but that does not mean we are definitely entering some kind of “Dalton Minimum” or worse yet a “Maunder Minimum” but is sure looks and feels that way.
Global surface temperatures have not increased since 1998 contrary to what climate models and U.S. policymakers who cite “consensus” on man-made global warming as justification for anti-emission regulations have predicted. What they are doing is relying upon outdated and misleading material from the United Nations that deliberately omits the influence of natural forces. The sun has a mind of its own and does not give a wit for Al Gore and his friends.
Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics with the National Autonomous University of Mexico sees evidence that points to the onset of a “little ice age” in about 10 years that could last for much of the 21st Century. The IPPC models are not correct because they do not take into account natural factors like solar activity, he said in a lecture.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) has exposed a major cover-up at the EPA regarding a study on global warming because it conflicts with the agenda of the current administration and its Cap and Trade legislation.1
As oceans contain around 80% of the climate's total energy,
ocean heat is a good measure of what's happening with our climate.
New reports claims ocean temperatures are rising, and fast. This is rubbish
Ocean temperatures can be measured adequately only by the Argo buoy network. Argo buoys dive down to 700m, recording temperatures, then come up and radio back the results. There are 3,000 of them floating around all the world’s oceans. The Argo buoys have been operational only since the end of 2003. According to Argo temperature measurements, the world’s oceans have shown a slight cooling since Argo became operational in 2003. In sharp contrast to model predicted heat build-up ocean temperatures are heading down.
This does not stop some from claiming its still warming. “The world's ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for July, breaking the previous record set in 1998”, reports NOAA's National Climatic Data Center. To enable them to make the case the oceans are warming, NOAA chose to remove satellite input into their global ocean estimation and not make any attempt to operationally use Argo data in the process. This resulted in a jump of 0.2C or more and ‘a new ocean warmth record’ in July. ARGO tells us this is another example of NOAA’s inexplicable decision to corrupt data to support political agendas.
Average Water Temperature
The oceans are a much better thermal sink than the atmosphere, and thus a better indicator of the earth's temperature (for example 2.6 meters of sea water has the same capacity to hold and store heat as the entire atmosphere above it). Thus ocean temperature readings give a better idea of global warming/cooling trends than air temperatures.
Yet today with cooling conditions we still read in the news that ice sheets in the North Pole and in Antarctica are melting faster than ever. We also read about mythical economic recoveries and green shoots and even stock market celebrations. It is becoming harder to trust anything the mainstream press is giving air time to.
It is a world that allows people and institutions to say anything they want without due respect to truth or logic that is threatening modern civilization. When trust goes out the window the rug is pulled out from under us. Only fools continue to follow corporate controlled media outlets. Whatever has been hidden though eventually comes to light. Fortunately it is really difficult to hide the temperature outside of everyone’s windows. But as we shall see in our next newsletter the cooling trend is another factor threatening this years food harvests.
Both world cooling and the Apocalypse in Agricultural are covered extensively in Into the Ashes. The above reporting from the end of the summer of 2009 gives just a glimpse of what is coming so be prepared for you are forewarned. Smart people are stocking up on the basics. No doubt the pace of change will accelerate greatly starting this fall and which shoe will drop first is anyone’s bet.
Mark Sircus Ac., OMD
David Wilcock Sees Unprecedented Positive Events Unfolding Over the Coming Six Months
Says Prophetic Dreams Are Pointing to Imminent Spectacular Changes for Humanity
News | September 20, 2009 | UPDATED: September 22, 2009
Reported by Scott Mowry
Author, speaker and mystic, David Wilcock is offering a bountiful of new positive predications for humanity, based upon an endless stream of prophetic dreams that have been coming to him lately.
He has concluded that the world is about to witness one of the most unprecedented events ever for positive evolutionary change, in all of human history.
His latest prophecy began with a post on his web site on September 11, 2009, entitled, "Awesome New Disclosure Videos!" in which he stated:
"Humanity is at a critical turning-point, the likes of which few could ever imagine. Dream guidance has been increasingly insistent in telling me that a very substantial defeat of the New World Order / negative elite / Neocon faction is imminent — much sooner than we may have thought, if we even dared believe it at all," he wrote.
"The full sequence of events may also include some form of official or semi-official public acknowledgement of the reality of the UFO phenomenon, which would certainly be a tremendous event — probably the most substantial event in modern human history, at least since the founding of any of the major world religions," he continued.
CAMELOT WHISTLEBLOWER RADIO APPEARANCE
"Everything that western civilization has ever been, at least in modern history, is building up to the moment that is going to occur sometime in the next six months or less," he proclaimed.
"I really can't stress enough that the number of dreams I have gotten on the impending event is probably five times greater than the number of dreams I got about 9/11," he added.
David Wilcock has long relied on his dream interpretations to provide him with guidance for future world events. And it should be noted he has created a stellar track record for his prognostications for over 17 years.
In 2001, mere days before the actual event took place, David had accurately prophesied the 9/11 catastrophe, which he then posted his predictions to his web site for confirmation. And earlier this year, his many prophetic dreams foresaw the death of Michael Jackson, as many as six weeks prior to that tragedy.
However, David is now referencing his most recent series of about fifty recurring dreams that are strongly indicating that we can expect an epochal event of a very positive, and not a negative nature to unfold for humanity. He cited other conformational evidence that is pointing to very similar conclusions.
"...the dream data has so much empirical support based both on articles we are finding and exposure from people on the inside... it is this massive combination of data that I am putting together, all of which is saying the same thing," he said on Camelot Whistleblower radio.
"I never had much this data on one event before," he surmised. "The basic message seems to be that legal and political maneuvers are now being made against these so-called New World Order groups," he said.
"What I am seeing is basically a very substantial defeat of the New World Order, which then will also eliminate their financial ability to harass disclosure groups. Disclosure is absolutely going to happen and is actually being planned, this all came to me in the last four or five days" he added excitedly about two key insiders who have recently stepped forward to provide him this information.
"The things that I have been hearing... it is just going to blow people's minds out of the water," he said confidently. "It is going to hit the public like nothing before. It is going to be amazing."
(See our David Wilcock Radio section for more information on the Camelot Whistleblower radio program from September 17, 2009.)
SPEAKING AT THE AWAKE & AWARE IN L.A. CONFERENCE
"I have never, ever in my life had as many dreams about one upcoming future event as I have about what's going to happening in the near future," he reiterated.
He explained the world is undergoing a massive shift away from a patriarchal/masculine consciousness to that of a matriarchal/feminine or lunar consciousness.
"I am being guided as sternly as possible to be telling you that it appears that we are going to have a spectacular defeat of the New World Order and the Illuminati," he said yet again before the audience erupted in rapturous applause, drowning out his words.
He then went on to comment specifically about the world economic crisis and the recent decision by China to no longer honor derivative contracts from the United States and Federal Reserve as of August 31, 2009.
He predicted the corrupt, over inflated economic system currently in place, is about to undergo a radical transformation of its financial priorities, with pressures being exerted by an international alliance of countries.
"So imagine what would happen if your money was now worth 100 times more because the parasite that's been sucking all that money out of the system has now been defeated," he said enthusiastically.
"There is going to be a harrowing economic event, it is gong to seem terrifying if you come from fear," he cautioned. "I would encourage people to hold on to their assets, and not sell. Panic sell is the worst thing you can do," he stressed.
"...this thing (economic event) is going to rearrange the financial structures so much that I think the notion of value of your assets will be much, much higher (than they were before) when this thing gets through. I think it's going to happen a lot faster than we think," he added optimistically.
David then concluded with these most inspiring words:
"The amount of change that you are going to see in the next year is so spectacular, and so positive, that your cynicism probably won't allow you to really take it in. But trust me, and trust the data that we are starting to see, it is at least possible, if not probable, that is what's going to be happening," he said as yet more rapturous applause arose from the audience.
(To view David Wilcock's appearance on the Awake & Aware in L.A. panel discussion, see the links to the Project Camelot video archives below. His words above appear at the very end of Part 2 of the Panel of Speakers:)
Awake & Aware in LA - Panel of Speakers - Part 1
Awake & Aware in LA - Panel of Speakers - Part 2
Finally, on Sunday, September 20, 2009, David gave the closing speaker presentation at the Awake & Aware in L.A. conference with a lecture entitled, "2012: The Return to Camelot."
During this two-hour presentation, David proffered numerous hardcore scientific data and undeniable proof that an unparalleled awakening of humanity is unfolding upon Planet Earth. He made a very compelling case for the rapid human evolution and offered yet more confirming evidence to support his prediction of this seminal world event to occur within the next six months.
(To view David's presentation at the Awake & Aware in L.A. conference, "2012: The Return to Camelot", see the link or the video below:)
David Wilcock – "2012: The Return to Camelot"
FUTHER CONFIRMATIONS
It should be noted that numerous other whistleblowers and insiders such as Benjamin Fulford, Dr. Pete Peterson, leading economists and others are predicting the collapse of the dollar and the Federal Reserve, possibly by the end of the fiscal year on September 30, 2009.
In addition, Congressman and former Presidential candidate, Ron Paul, has introduced legislation (HR 1207) to audit the Federal Reserve, which is being supported by the Democratic contingent led by Congressman Barney Frank, who is considering opening hearings on this matter and has stated publicly the bill will pass in October. (Don't hold your breath, however, counting on this Congress to do anything of value at this late stage of the game.)
In conclusion, although the forecasts for a tumultuous economic collapse this year or in the near future remain to be seen, nonetheless, David Wilcock's latest set of very bold positive predictions have certainly ramped up the excitement and anticipation levels by a factor of ten!
UPDATE – 9.22.09: David has posted his comments about his participation at the Awake & Aware in L.A. confernce: "Amazing FREE 2-Hour Video: 2012 -- Return to Camelot!"
For further confirming information, see David Wilcock's and Project Camelot's interview with Dr. Pete Peterson from June 30, 2009: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
(See our David Wilcock Video section for further information on the Dr. Pete Peterson interview.)
Also see other speaker presentations at the Awake and Aware in L.A. conference by:
Alex Collier - Awake & Aware in LA
Jordan Maxwell - Awake & Aware in LA
(To view all of the speaker video archives from the Awake and Aware in L.A. conference, go to the Project Camelot U-Stream page.)
There are several other new developments regarding upcoming news on David Wilcock that are worth noting:
– David will be appearing on the NBC network during a special program about the year 2012, along with Richard Hoagland and other researchers. According to David, it is scheduled to air on November 11, 2009.
– David has also been commissioned by Penguin Books to write a book based upon his sensational video, "The 2012 Enigma" — Conscious Life Expo '08, which is due out next year.
– Along with other collaborators, David is preparing a sequel to the aforementioned, "The 2012 Enigma" which he will be releasing for free on YouTube, Google Video, etc., perhaps before the end of 2009.
– And finally, James V. Hart, the screenwriter for such hit movies as "Contact," "Tomb Raider," "Hook," and "August Rush", has been commissioned to compose the screen play for David Wilcock's upcoming theatrical film project, "Convergence." David has stated on numerous occasions that "Convergence" will be like, "'The Da Vinci Code" meets 'What the Bleep.'" Look for that film to be released possibly in 2010, as well.
