Today has seen the sad passing of Professor Heinz Wolff , I remember him way back doing science prorammes for children .

Years later I met him as he hosted a seminar that I attended at Kew Bridge Pumping Station Museum .

I attended the seminar here in July 2002 - a full day given to the life and work of Richard Trevithick (1771-1833). As well as a well balanced presentation of various papers hosted by Professor Heinz Wolff, the highlight was the demonstration of the "Puffing Devil". This road locomotive was the first ever successful journey of a self propelled vehicle carrying passengers, the worlds first car. This achievment was the work of Richard Trevithick.The first time this took place was on December 24th 1801 at Camborne, Cornwall. Another journey took place a few days later but unfortuntely the roads being so rough in those days the locomotive was unstable and toppled over. Having righted the machine it was left in the stables of a local inn where all involved took " roast goose and proper drinks" that is until the still lit boiler boiled dry and the resulting fire destoyed both the locomotive and the stables! The Trevithick Society built this replica almost to the original design apart from a few health and safety requirements for today's world. The replica was built in time to perform a bi-centenial run up Camborne Hill in celebration of this monumental event. A superb demonstration took place after the lunch break, with the devil running back and forth in the car park (how it missed all the parked cars I don't know as it is a brute to handle and power steering was still nearly 200 years away).

Heinz Siegfried Wolff FIEE, FRSA (29 April 1928 – 15 December 2017) was a German-born British scientist, and television and radio presenter. He was best known for the BBC television series The Great Egg Race.

Heinz Wolff was born in Berlin, and moved to Britain with his family as Jewish refugees in September 1939. They left Berlin on the day the Second World War started; Wolff was 11. He was educated at the City of Oxford High School for Boys.

Heinz Wolff worked at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford under Robert Gwyn Macfarlane, and at the pneumoconiosis research unit near Cardiff, before going on to University College London, where he gained a first class honours degree in physiology and physics. Before going to UCL, he had been considered by Trinity College, Cambridge, but was rejected twice because his understanding of Latin was too weak.

He spent much of his early career in bioengineering, a term which he himself coined in 1954 to take account of then recent advances in physiology. He became an honorary member of the European Space Agency in 1975, and in 1983 he founded the Brunel Institute for Bioengineering, which is involved in biological research during weightless spaceflight. Following retirement, he was emeritus professor of bioengineering at Brunel University. Wolff was the scientific director and co-founder of Project Juno, the private British-Soviet joint venture which sent Helen Sharman to the Mir space station.

A familiar face in the 1970s and early 1980s, well known to British television audiences with his memorable bow tie and pronounced German accent, his best remembered programme is probably The Great Egg Race. He was also the presenter of Great Experiments, and presenter/judge of the annual Young Scientists of the Year series .

Professor Heinz Wolff was one of the first people to be interviewed by Ali G, during that character's initial appearances on The 11 O'Clock Show.

In 1989 he appeared on After Dark with among others astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

In 2007 Wolff made a guest appearance on Channel 4's Comedy Lab episode "Karl Pilkington: Satisfied Fool", where he is seen explaining to Pilkington the sudden rise of intelligence in Homo sapiens.

In March 2009, he appeared in the puzzle video game Professor Heinz Wolff's Gravity.

He certainly made a difference to a lot of peoples understanding of science .

 

Apologies for the poor photograph , it was taken way back before I ever picked up a digital camera and is an old photo scanned - plus I was more wound up watching the Puffing Devil !

Manufacturer: Yamato Motor Corporation

Nationality: Japan

First assembled: June 22nd, 2048

Birthplace: Osaka, Japan

Engine: 3.5 L Twin Turbo Flat-6/AC Synchronous Electric Motor

HP: 510 BHP

0-60: 5.9 seconds

Top speed: 164.12 MPH

 

The Yamato Corporation is one of if not the biggest conglomerate in Japan for the mid-21st century. Businesses under the Yamato umbrella include logistics, electronics, industrial machinery, energy, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, and even defense. Their most notable branch and the one that started it all is their automotive division. Starting as the Yamato Motor Company in 1909, it would explode into the global powerhouse it is today post WWII. Yamato cars, known for their reliability and affordability, would dominate the roads across the world, with millions sold. To find something rare from Yamato's garage, however, your best bet is visiting their homeland. If you look around, you may just run into the Millennium. You see, in the mid-60s when Yamato was rapidly growing, they were approached by the Japanese government to build a fleet of state cars for their government officials and royalty. They simply couldn't be driving around in an import, the optics would be nothing short of embarrassing. A domestic luxury statecar was needed, and was came was the Millennium. Simply put, it was the peak of Japanese automotive luxury, offering whoever found themselves in its seats a sublime driving experience that was second-to-none in the eastern hemisphere. The Millennium would go on to be Yamato's flagship domestic luxury car, seen chauffeuring around Japanese politicians and high-level businessmen. The Millennium would however gain a bit of a dubious rep for also being the car of choice for some of japans more "darker" elements. Regardless, the Millennium would live up to its name and live a long life, seeing numerous generations over its near-century of production. It's most recent generation which first appeared in 2048 would both be familiar territory and a great departure for the nameplate. The 5th-generation Millennium still retained the distinct boxy styling the nameplate was known for, but under the retro body was the peak of Yamato's technological and luxury prowess. For the powertrain, the new Millennium dumps the V8 of the older generations and uses a twin-turbo F6 based on the engine used in Yamato's RS-M sportscar. It's even built in the same sanitized assembly plant to avoid as much molecular imperfections as possible and guarantee its robustness. Obviously its heavily modified so instead of being a high-revving fire spitting beast, it's a smooth, highway cruising powerplant to help the Millennium blissfully waft along. The engine is backed up by a rear-mounted electric motor for city driving, making the 5th-gen Millennium the first hybrid in the nameplate. This hybrid powertrain gives the Millennium a respectable 510 horsepower. The powertrain isn't the most impressive mechanical component of the new Millennium, however. That honor goes to the suspension system. Dubbed the "Sleipnir" electromagnetic suspension system, this suspension takes anything short of a bombed-out dirt road and virtually eliminates and disruption to the ride comfort. Potholes, speedbumps, irregular inclines, even body roll, a combination of the electromagnetic shocks, advanced computers and radar always keeps the Millennium level and sublime. The most impressive thing is that this system only adds just under 200 pounds to the curb weight. Inside it only gets more impressive, as the Millennium lives up to its reputation as the pinnacle of Japanese luxury. The rear passenger area, where its occupants will always reside, was designed after first class airline seats. Totally power adjustable massage seats with high-quality soft textured upholstery, complimented by hand-crafted bioengineered red oak wood veneer trim and black granite entry steps. Like a first-class airline seat, included are fold-out picnic tables made with the same bioengineered wood as the trim. These tables include built-in holographic soft displays controlled by the center-mounted infotainment controls, which are complimented by 16-speaker surround sound system build in-house by Yamato's electronics division. In the center console is a mini fridge for storing beverages, and the windows in the rear passenger compartment have electric tinting windows in place of curtains to block out the sun and offer more privacy. The Millennium offers so much out the gate, it's possible to get even more if you upgrade. That's right, the Millennium has a higher trim level. Called the "Emperor" and represented with a simple badge of the Japanese Kanji for the word, this trim is mainly offered to Japanese politicians and royalty, like how the Millennium got its start. What makes the Emperor special is its extra security protocols. Supposedly doubling the Millennium's $200,000 price, the Emperor is equipped with advanced composite armor body panels, bulletproof tires and windows, "stealth modes", advanced autopilot capabilities, and extensive life support systems graded against electronic and biological hazards. All of these defensive capabilities are both impressive and unprecedented, but that's surprisingly not the most unprecedented thing about the Emperor and the new Millennium in general. Breaking a nearly century-long tradition, the Millennium Emperor is a global market vehicle. Yamato Motors plans to bring the Emperor overseas in very limited numbers. And those numbers won't just go to anyone who has the money. They have to be personally vetted and approved by Yamato themselves to have the privilege of purchasing an Emperor. So, whenever a Millennium is spotted overseas, it can be certainly very, very special.

 

ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewskia and Ax-4 mission specialist with the Space Volcanic Algae experiment on the International Space Station during the Ignis mission.

 

Space Volcanic Algae is an advanced biotechnological experiment involving the deployment of extremophilic microalgae—organisms naturally thriving in volcanic ecosystems—into space. The aim is to investigate their physiological properties to responses to microgravity and cosmic radiation. Simultaneously, the mission tests an innovative oxygen-sensing technology designed to quantify photosynthetic oxygen production under space conditions.

 

This experiment is a step toward developing sustainable systems for living in space and enable survival under extreme terrestrial conditions such as high concentration of metals, acidity, and radiation. It makes them prime candidates for integration into regenerative life support systems during long-term space missions. By studying their behavior and viability in space, researchers can evaluate their potential to sustain closed-loop systems by producing oxygen, capturing carbon dioxide, and synthesizing bioactive compounds essential for long-term human habitation on the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

 

This research lays the groundwork for sustainable life-support technologies which play a crucial role for human space exploration. Beyond its space applications, the insights gained may translate to breakthroughs in terrestrial biotechnology, such as the development of robust bioengineered organisms, new pharmaceuticals, and more efficient environmental remediation techniques. Understanding how life endures under extreme conditions may ultimately expand our capacity to address challenges both on Earth and beyond.

 

Follow Sławosz’s journey on the Ignis website, check our launch kit and connect with him on his Instagram and X accounts.

 

Credits: ESA-S. Uznański-Wiśniewski

A missing filter... Picture or maybe in the air of the time that brews a little anguish, it grinds ideas by dint of filtering the words... the cunning life with a twist. Angel or mill?

  

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in conspiracy theories and misinformation about the scale of the pandemic and the origin, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease.[1][2][3] False information, including intentional disinformation, has been spread through social media,[2][4] text messages,[5] and mass media,[6] including the tabloid media,[7] conservative media,[8][9] state media of countries such as China,[10][11] Russia,[12][13] Iran,[14] and Turkmenistan.[2][15] It has also been spread by state-backed covert operations to generate panic and sow distrust in other countries.[16][17]

 

Misinformation has been propagated by celebrities, politicians[18][19] (including heads of state in countries such as the United States,[20][21] Iran,[22] and Brazil[23]), and other prominent public figures.[24] Commercial scams have claimed to offer at-home tests, supposed preventives, and "miracle" cures.[25][26] Politicians and leaders of some countries have promoted purported cures, while some religious groups said that the faith of their followers and God will protect them from the virus.[27][28][29] Others have claimed the virus is a lab-developed bio-weapon that was accidentally leaked,[30][31] or deliberately designed to target a country,[32] or one with a patented vaccine, a population control scheme, the result of a spy operation,[3][4] or linked to 5G networks.[33]

 

The World Health Organization has declared an "infodemic" of incorrect information about the virus, which poses risks to global health.[2]

 

Types and origin and effect

On January 30, the BBC reported about the increasing spread of conspiracy theories and false health advice in relation to COVID-19. Notable examples at the time included false health advice shared on social media and private chats, as well as conspiracy theories such as the origin in bat soup and the outbreak being planned with the participation of the Pirbright Institute.[1][34] On January 31, The Guardian listed seven instances of misinformation, adding the conspiracy theories about bioweapons and the link to 5G technology, and including varied false health advice.[35]

 

In an attempt to speed up research sharing, many researches have turned to preprint servers such as arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv or SSRN. Papers can be uploaded to these servers without peer review or any other editorial process that ensures research quality. Some of these papers have contributed to the spread of conspiracy theories. The most notable case was a preprint paper uploaded to bioRxiv which claimed that the virus contained HIV "insertions". Following the controversy, the paper was withdrawn.[36][37][38]

 

According to a study published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, most misinformation related to COVID-19 involves "various forms of reconfiguration, where existing and often true information is spun, twisted, recontextualised, or reworked". While less misinformation "was completely fabricated". The study found no deep fakes in the studied sample. The study also found that "top-down misinformation from politicians, celebrities, and other prominent public figures", while accounting for a minority of the samples, captured a majority of the social media engagement. According to their classification, the largest category of misinformation (39%) includes "misleading or false claims about the actions or policies of public authorities, including government and international bodies like the WHO or the UN".[39]

 

A natural experiment correlated coronavirus misinformation with increased infection and death; of two similar television news shows on the same network, one took coronavirus seriously about a month earlier than the other. People and groups exposed to the slow-response news show had higher infection and death rates.[40]

 

The misinformations have been used by politicians, interest groups, and state actors in many countries to scapegoat other countries for the mishandling of the domestic responses, as well as furthering political, financial agenda.[41][42][43]

 

Combative efforts

Further information: Impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic on journalism

File:ITU - AI for Good Webinar Series - COVID-19 Misinformation and Disinformation during COVID-19.webm

International Telecommunication Union

On February 2, the World Health Organization (WHO) described a "massive infodemic", citing an over-abundance of reported information, accurate and false, about the virus that "makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it". The WHO stated that the high demand for timely and trustworthy information has incentivised the creation of a direct WHO 24/7 myth-busting hotline where its communication and social media teams have been monitoring and responding to misinformation through its website and social media pages.[44][45][46] The WHO specifically debunked several claims as false, including the claim that a person can tell if they have the virus or not simply by holding their breath; the claim that drinking large amounts of water will protect against the virus; and the claim that gargling salt water prevents infection.[47]

 

In early February, Facebook, Twitter and Google said they were working with WHO to address "misinformation".[48] In a blogpost, Facebook stated they would remove content flagged by global health organizations and local authorities that violate its content policy on misinformation leading to "physical harm".[49] Facebook is also giving free advertising to WHO.[50] Nonetheless, a week after Trump's speculation that sunlight could kill the virus, the New York Times found "780 Facebook groups, 290 Facebook pages, nine Instagram accounts and thousands of tweets pushing UV light therapies," content which those companies declined to remove from their platforms.[51]

 

At the end of February, Amazon removed more than a million products claimed to cure or protect against coronavirus, and removed tens of thousands of listings for health products whose prices were "significantly higher than recent prices offered on or off Amazon", although numerous items were "still being sold at unusually high prices" as of February 28.[52]

 

Millions of instances of COVID-19 misinformation have occurred across a number of online platforms.[53] Other fake news researchers noted certain rumors started in China; many of them later spread to Korea and the United States, prompting several universities in Korea to start the multilingual Facts Before Rumors campaign to separate common claims seen online.[54][55][56][57]

 

The media has praised Wikipedia's coverage of COVID-19 and its combating the inclusion of misinformation through efforts led by the Wiki Project Med Foundation and the English-language Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine, among other groups.[58][59][60]

 

Many local newspapers have been severely affected by losses in advertising revenues from coronavirus; journalists have been laid off, and some have closed altogether.[61]

 

Many newspapers with paywalls lowered them for some or all their coronavirus coverage.[62][63] Many scientific publishers made scientific papers related to the outbreak open access.[64]

 

The Turkish Interior Ministry has been arresting social media users whose posts were "targeting officials and spreading panic and fear by suggesting the virus had spread widely in Turkey and that officials had taken insufficient measures".[65] Iran's military said 3600 people have been arrested for "spreading rumors" about coronavirus in the country.[66] In Cambodia, some individuals who expressed concerns about the spread of COVID-19 have been arrested on fake news charges.[67][68] Algerian lawmakers passed a law criminalising "fake news" deemed harmful to "public order and state security".[69] In the Philippines,[70] China,[71] India,[72][73] Egypt,[74] Bangladesh,[75] Morocco,[76] Pakistan,[77] Saudi Arabia,[78] Oman,[79] Iran,[80] Vietnam, Laos,[81] Indonesia,[73] Mongolia,[73] Sri Lanka,[73] Kenya, South Africa,[82] Somalia,[83] Thailand,[84] Kazakhstan,[85] Azerbaijan,[86] Malaysia[87] and Hong Kong, people have been arrested for allegedly spreading false information about the coronavirus pandemic.[88][73] The United Arab Emirates have introduced criminal penalties for the spread of misinformation and rumours related to the outbreak.[89]

 

Conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theories have appeared both in social media and in mainstream news outlets, and are heavily influenced by geopolitics.[90]

 

Accidental leakage

 

Virologist and immunologist Vincent R. Racaniello said that "accident theories – and the lab-made theories before them – reflect a lack of understanding of the genetic make-up of Sars-CoV-2."[91]

A number of allegations have emerged supposing a link between the virus and Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV); among these is that the virus was an accidental leakage from WIV.[92] In 2017, U.S. molecular biologist Richard H. Ebright expressed caution when the WIV was expanded to become mainland China's first biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory, noting previous escapes of the SARS virus at other Chinese laboratories.[93] While Ebright refuted several conspiracy theories regarding the WIV (e.g., bioweapons research, or that the virus was engineered), he told BBC China this did not represent the possibility that the virus can be "completely ruled out" from entering the population due to a laboratory accident.[92] Various researchers contacted by NPR concluded there was "virtually no chance" (in NPR's words) that the pandemic virus had accidentally escaped from a laboratory.[94] Disinformation researcher Nina Jankowicz from Wilson Center indicates the lab leakage claim entered mainstream media in United States during April, propagated by pro-Trump news outlet.[43]

 

On February 14, 2020, Chinese scientists explored the possibility of accidental leakage and published speculations on scientific social networking website ResearchGate. The paper was neither peer-reviewed nor presented any evidence for its claims.[95] On March 5, the author of paper told Wall Street Journal in an interview why he decided to withdrew the paper by the end of February, stating: "the speculation about the possible origins in the post was based on published papers and media, and was not supported by direct proofs."[96][97] Several newspapers have referenced the paper.[95] Scientific American reported that Shi Zhengli, the lead researcher at WIV, started investigation on mishandling of experimental materials in the lab records, especially during disposal. She also tried to cross-check the novel coronavirus genome with the genetic information of other bat coronaviruses her team had collected. The result showed none of the sequences matched those of the viruses her team had sampled from bat caves.[98]

 

In February, it was alleged that the first person infected may have been a researcher at the institute named Huang Yanling.[99] Rumours circulated on Chinese social media that the researcher had become infected and died, prompting a denial from WIV, saying she was a graduate student enrolled in the Institute until 2015 and is not the patient zero.[100][99] In April, the conspiracy theory started to circulate around on Youtube and got picked up by conservative media, National Review.[101][6]

 

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that one of the WIV's lead researchers, Shi Zhengli, was the particular focus of personal attacks in Chinese social media alleging that her work on bat-based viruses was the source of the virus; this led Shi to post: "I swear with my life, [the virus] has nothing to do with the lab". When asked by the SCMP to comment on the attacks, Shi responded: "My time must be spent on more important matters".[102] Caixin reported Shi made further public statements against "perceived tinfoil-hat theories about the new virus's source", quoting her as saying: "The novel 2019 coronavirus is nature punishing the human race for keeping uncivilized living habits. I, Shi Zhengli, swear on my life that it has nothing to do with our laboratory".[103] Immunologist Vincent Racaniello stated that virus leaking theory "reflect a lack of understanding of the genetic make-up of Sars-CoV-2 and its relationship to the bat virus". He says the bat virus researched in the institution "would not have been able to infect humans—the human Sars-CoV-2 has additional changes that allows it to infect humans."[91]

 

On April 14, the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, in response to questions about the virus being manufactured in a lab, said "... it's inconclusive, although the weight of evidence seems to indicate natural. But we don't know for certain."[104] On that same day, Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin detailed a leaked cable of a 2018 trip made to the WIV by scientists from the U.S. Embassy. The article was referenced and cited by conservative media to push the lab leakage theory.[43] Rogin's article went on to say that "What the U.S. officials learned during their visits concerned them so much that they dispatched two diplomatic cables categorized as Sensitive But Unclassified back to Washington. The cables warned about safety and management weaknesses at the WIV lab and proposed more attention and help. The first cable, which I obtained, also warns that the lab's work on bat coronaviruses and their potential human transmission represented a risk of a new SARS-like pandemic."[105] Rogin's article pointed out there was no evidence that the coronavirus was engineered, "But that is not the same as saying it didn't come from the lab, which spent years testing bat coronaviruses in animals."[105] The article went on to quote Xiao Qiang, a research scientist at the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley, "I don't think it's a conspiracy theory. I think it's a legitimate question that needs to be investigated and answered. To understand exactly how this originated is critical knowledge for preventing this from happening in the future."[105] Washington Post's article and subsequent broadcasts drew criticism from virologist Angela Rasmussen of Columbia University, which she states "It's irresponsible for political reporters like Rogin [to] uncritically regurgitate a secret 'cable' without asking a single virologist or ecologist or making any attempt to understand the scientific context."[43] Rasmussen later compared biosafety procedure concerns to "having the health inspector come to your restaurant. It could just be, ‘Oh, you need to keep your chemical showers better stocked.’ It doesn’t suggest, however, that there are tremendous problems.”[106]

 

Days later, multiple media outlets confirmed that U.S. intelligence officials were investigating the possibility that the virus started in the WIV.[107][108][109][110] On April 23, Vox presented disputed arguments on lab leakage claims from several scientists.[111] Scientists suggested that virus samples cultured in the lab have significant amount of difference compare to SARS-CoV-2. The virus institution sampled RaTG13 in Yunnan, the closest known relative of the novel coronavirus with 96% shared genome. Edward Holmes, SARS-CoV-2 researcher at the University of Sydney, explained 4% of difference "is equivalent to an average of 50 years (and at least 20 years) of evolutionary change."[111][112] Virologist Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance, which studies emerging infectious diseases, noted the estimation that 1–7 million people in Southeast Asia who live or work in proximity to bats are infected each year with bat coronaviruses. In the interview with Vox, he comments, "There are probably half a dozen people that do work in those labs. So let's compare 1 million to 7 million people a year to half a dozen people; it's just not logical."[94][111]

 

On April 30, The New York Times reported the Trump administration demanded intelligence agencies to find evidence linking WIV with the origin of SARS-Cov-2. Secretary of State and former Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A) director Mike Pompeo was reportedly leading the push on finding information regarding the virus origin. Analysts were concerned that pressure from senior officials could distort assessments from the intelligence community. Anthony Ruggiero, the head of the National Security Council which responsible for tracking weapons of mass destruction, expressed frustration during a video conference that C.I.A. was unable to form conclusive answer on the origin of the virus. According to current and former government officials, as of April 30, C.I.A has yet to gather any information beyond circumstantial evidence to bolster the lab theory.[113][114] US intelligence officers suggested that Chinese officials tried to conceal the severity of the outbreak in early days, but no evidence had shown China attempted to cover up a lab accident.[115] One day later, Trump claimed he has evidence of the lab theory, but offers no further details on it.[116][117] Jamie Metzl, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, claimed the SARS-CoV-2 virus "likely" came from a Wuhan virology testing laboratory, based on "circumstantial evidence". He was quoted as saying, "I have no definitive way of proving this thesis."[118]

 

On April 30, 2020, the U.S. intelligence and scientific communities issued a public statement dismissing the idea that the virus was not natural, while the investigation of the lab accident theory was ongoing.[119][120] The White House suggested an alternative explanation, along with a seemingly contradictory message, that the virus was man-made. In an interview with ABC News, Secretary of State Pompeo said he has no reason to disbelieve the intelligence community that the virus was natural. However, this contradicted the comment he made earlier in the same interview, in which he said "the best experts so far seem to think it was man-made. I have no reason to disbelieve that at this point."[121][122][123] On May 4, Australian tabloid The Daily Telegraph claimed a reportedly leaked dossier from Five Eyes, which alleged the probable outbreak was from the Wuhan lab.[124] Fox News and national security commentators in the US quickly followed up The Telegraph story,[125][126] rising the tension within international intelligence community.[127] Australian government, which is part of the Five Eyes nations, determined the leaked dossier was not a Five Eyes document, but a compilation of open-source materials that contained no information generated by intelligence gathering.[128] German intelligence community denied the claim of the leaked dossier, instead supported the probability of a natural cause.[129][130] Australian government sees the promotion of the lab theory from the United States counterproductive to Australia’s push for a more broad international-supported independent inquiry into the virus origins.[127] Senior officials in Australian government speculated the dossier was leaked by US embassy in Canberra to promote a narrative in Australia media that diverged from the mainstream belief of Australia.[127][128][125]

 

Beijing rejected the White House's claim, calling the claim "part of an election year strategy by President Donald Trump’s Republican Party".[131] Hua Chunying, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, urged Mike Pompeo to present evidence for his claim. "Mr. Pompeo cannot present any evidence because he does not have any," Hua told a journalist during a regular briefing, "This matter should be handled by scientists and professionals instead of politicians out of their domestic political needs."[131][132] The Chinese ambassador, in an opinion published in the Washington Post, called on the White House to end the "blame game" over the coronavirus.[133][134] As of May 5, assessments and internal sources from the Five Eyes nations indicated that the coronavirus outbreak was the result of a laboratory accident was "highly unlikely", since the human infection was "highly likely" a result of natural human and animal interaction. However, to reach such a conclusion with total certainty would still require greater cooperation and transparency from the Chinese side.[135]

 

Anti-Israeli and antisemitic

Further information: Antisemitic canard

Iran's Press TV asserted that "Zionist elements developed a deadlier strain of coronavirus against Iran".[14] Similarly, various Arab media outlets accused Israel and the United States of creating and spreading COVID-19, avian flu, and SARS.[136] Users on social media offered a variety of theories, including the supposition that Jews had manufactured COVID-19 to precipitate a global stock market collapse and thereby profit via insider trading,[137] while a guest on Turkish television posited a more ambitious scenario in which Jews and Zionists had created COVID-19, avian flu, and Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever to "design the world, seize countries, [and] neuter the world's population".[138]

 

Israeli attempts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine prompted mixed reactions. Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi denied initial reports that he had ruled that a Zionist-made vaccine would be halal,[139] and one Press TV journalist tweeted that "I'd rather take my chances with the virus than consume an Israeli vaccine".[140] A columnist for the Turkish Yeni Akit asserted that such a vaccine could be a ruse to carry out mass sterilization.[141]

 

An alert by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding the possible threat of far-right extremists intentionally spreading the coronavirus mentioned blame being assigned to Jews and Jewish leaders for causing the pandemic and several statewide shutdowns.[142]

 

Anti-Muslim

Further information: 2020 Tablighi Jamaat coronavirus hotspot in Delhi

In India, Muslims have been blamed for spreading infection following the emergence of cases linked to a Tablighi Jamaat religious gathering.[143] There are reports of vilification of Muslims on social media and attacks on individuals in India.[144] Claims have been made Muslims are selling food contaminated with coronavirus and that a mosque in Patna was sheltering people from Italy and Iran.[145] These claims were shown to be false.[146] In the UK, there are reports of far-right groups blaming Muslims for the coronavirus outbreak and falsely claiming that mosques remained open after the national ban on large gatherings.[147]

 

Bioengineered virus

It has been repeatedly claimed that the virus was deliberately created by humans.

 

Nature Medicine published an article arguing against the conspiracy theory that the virus was created artificially. The high-affinity binding of its peplomers to human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) was shown to be "most likely the result of natural selection on a human or human-like ACE2 that permits another optimal binding solution to arise".[148] In case of genetic manipulation, one of the several reverse-genetic systems for betacoronaviruses would probably have been used, while the genetic data irrefutably showed that the virus is not derived from a previously used virus template.[148] The overall molecular structure of the virus was found to be distinct from the known coronaviruses and most closely resembles that of viruses of bats and pangolins that were little studied and never known to harm humans.[149]

 

In February 2020, the Financial Times quoted virus expert and global co-lead coronavirus investigator Trevor Bedford: "There is no evidence whatsoever of genetic engineering that we can find", and "The evidence we have is that the mutations [in the virus] are completely consistent with natural evolution".[150] Bedford further explained, "The most likely scenario, based on genetic analysis, was that the virus was transmitted by a bat to another mammal between 20–70 years ago. This intermediary animal—not yet identified—passed it on to its first human host in the city of Wuhan in late November or early December 2019".[150]

 

On February 19, 2020, The Lancet published a letter of a group of scientists condemning "conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin".[151]

 

Chinese biological weapon

India

Amidst a rise in Sinophobia, there have been conspiracy theories reported on India's social networks that the virus is "a bioweapon that went rogue" and also fake videos alleging that Chinese authorities are killing citizens to prevent its spread.[152]

 

Ukraine

According to the Kyiv Post, two common conspiracy theories online in Ukraine are that American author Dean Koontz predicted the pandemic in his 1981 novel The Eyes of Darkness, and that the coronavirus is a bioweapon leaked from a secret lab in Wuhan.[153]

 

United Kingdom

 

Tobias Ellwood said, "It would be irresponsible to suggest the source of this outbreak was an error in a Chinese military biological weapons programme ... But without greater Chinese transparency we cannot entirely completely sure."[154]

In February, Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, chair of the Defence Select Committee of the UK House of Commons, publicly questioned the role of the Chinese Army's Wuhan Institute for Biological Products and called for the "greater transparency over the origins of the coronavirus".[154][non-primary source needed] The Daily Mail reported in early April 2020 that a member of COBRA (an ad-hoc government committee tasked with advising on crises[citation needed]) has stated while government intelligence does not dispute that the virus has a zoonotic origin, it also does not discount the idea of a leak from a Wuhan laboratory, saying "Perhaps it is no coincidence that there is that laboratory in Wuhan"; the Asia Times reported the story as if it were factual,[155] perhaps unaware of the reputation of the Daily Mail.

 

United States

Further information: Cyberwarfare in the United States and Propaganda in the United States

In January 2020, BBC News published an article about coronavirus misinformation, citing two January 24 articles from The Washington Times that said the virus was part of a Chinese biological weapons program, based at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).[1] The Washington Post later published an article debunking the conspiracy theory, citing U.S. experts who explained why the WIV was unsuitable for bioweapon research, that most countries had abandoned bioweapons as fruitless, and that there was no evidence the virus was genetically engineered.[156]

 

On January 29, financial news website and blog ZeroHedge suggested without evidence that a scientist at the WIV created the COVID-19 strain responsible for the coronavirus outbreak. Zerohedge listed the full contact details of the scientist supposedly responsible, a practice known as doxing, by including the scientist's name, photo, and phone number, suggesting to readers that they "pay [the Chinese scientist] a visit" if they wanted to know "what really caused the coronavirus pandemic".[157] Twitter later permanently suspended the blog's account for violating its platform-manipulation policy.[158]

  

Logo of the fictional Umbrella Corporation, which some internet rumours linked to the pandemic. The corporation was invented for the Resident Evil game series.

In January 2020, Buzzfeed News reported on an internet meme of a link between the logo of the WIV and "Umbrella Corporation", the agency that created the virus responsible for a zombie apocalypse in the Resident Evil franchise. Posts online noted that "Racoon [sic]" (the main city in Resident Evil) was an anagram of "Corona".[159] Snopes noted that the logo was not from the WIV, but a company named Shanghai Ruilan Bao Hu San Biotech Ltd (located some 500 miles (800 km) away in Shanghai), and that the correct name of the city in Resident Evil was "Raccoon City".[159]

 

In February 2020, U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) suggested the virus may have originated in a Chinese bioweapon laboratory.[160] Francis Boyle, a law professor, also expressed support for the bioweapon theory suggesting it was the result of unintended leaks.[161] Cotton elaborated on Twitter that his opinion was only one of "at least four hypotheses". Multiple medical experts have indicated there is no evidence for these claims.[162] Conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh said on The Rush Limbaugh Show—the most popular radio show in the U.S.—that the virus was probably "a ChiCom laboratory experiment" and the Chinese government was using the virus and the media hysteria surrounding it to bring down Donald Trump.[163][164]

 

On February 6, the White House asked scientists and medical researchers to rapidly investigate the origins of the virus both to address the current spread and "to inform future outbreak preparation and better understand animal/human and environmental transmission aspects of coronaviruses".[165] American magazine Foreign Policy said Xi Jinping's "political agenda may turn out to be a root cause of the epidemic" and that his Belt and Road Initiative has "made it possible for a local disease to become a global menace".[90]

 

The Inverse reported that "Christopher Bouzy, the founder of Bot Sentinel, conducted a Twitter analysis for Inverse and found [online] bots and trollbots are making an array of false claims. These bots are claiming China intentionally created the virus, that it's a biological weapon, that Democrats are overstating the threat to hurt Donald Trump and more. While we can't confirm the origin of these bots, they are decidedly pro-Trump."[166]

 

Conservative commentator Josh Bernstein claimed that the Democratic Party and the "medical deep state" were collaborating with the Chinese government to create and release the coronavirus to bring down Donald Trump. Bernstein went on to suggest those responsible should be locked in a room with infected coronavirus patients as punishment.[167][168]

 

Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, promoted a conspiracy theory on Fox News that North Korea and China conspired together to create the coronavirus.[169] He also said people were overreacting to the coronavirus outbreak and that Democrats were trying to use the situation to harm President Trump.[170]

 

Hospital ship attack

The hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) deployed to the Port of Los Angeles to provide backup medical services for the region. On March 31, 2020, a Pacific Harbor Line freight train was deliberately derailed by its onboard engineer in an attempt to crash into the ship, but the attack was unsuccessful and no one was injured.[171][172] According to U.S. federal prosecutors, the train's engineer "[...] was suspicious of the Mercy, believing it had an alternate purpose related to COVID-19 or a government takeover".[173]

 

Population control scheme

See also: List of conspiracy theories § RFID chips

According to the BBC, Jordan Sather, a conspiracy theory YouTuber supporting the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory and the anti-vax movement, has falsely claimed the outbreak was a population control scheme created by Pirbright Institute in England and by former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. This belief is held mostly by right-wing libertarians, NWO conspiracy theorists, and Christian Fundamentalists.[1][174]

 

Spy operation

Some people have alleged that the coronavirus was stolen from a Canadian virus research lab by Chinese scientists. Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada said that conspiracy theory had "no factual basis".[175] The stories seem to have been derived[176] from a July 2019 news article[177] stating that some Chinese researchers had their security access to a Canadian Level 4 virology facility revoked in a federal police investigation; Canadian officials described this as an administrative matter and "there is absolutely no risk to the Canadian public."[177]

 

This article was published by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC);[176] responding to the conspiracy theories, the CBC later stated that "CBC reporting never claimed the two scientists were spies, or that they brought any version of the coronavirus to the lab in Wuhan". While pathogen samples were transferred from the lab in Winnipeg, Canada to Beijing, China, on March 31, 2019, neither of the samples was a coronavirus, the Public Health Agency of Canada says the shipment conformed to all federal policies, and there has not been any statement that the researchers under investigation were responsible for sending the shipment. The current location of the researchers under investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is not being released.[175][178][179]

 

In the midst of the coronavirus epidemic, a senior research associate and expert in biological warfare with the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, referring to a NATO press conference, identified suspicions of espionage as the reason behind the expulsions from the lab, but made no suggestion that coronavirus was taken from the Canadian lab or that it is the result of bioweapons defense research in China.[180]

 

U.S. biological weapon

Arab world

According to Washington DC-based nonprofit Middle East Media Research Institute, numerous writers in the Arabic press have promoted the conspiracy theory that COVID-19, as well as SARS and the swine flu virus, were deliberately created and spread to sell vaccines against these diseases, and it is "part of an economic and psychological war waged by the U.S. against China with the aim of weakening it and presenting it as a backward country and a source of diseases".[181] Iraqi political analyst Sabah Al-Akili on Al-Etejah TV, Saudi daily Al-Watan writer Sa'ud Al-Shehry, Syrian daily Al-Thawra columnist Hussein Saqer, and Egyptian journalist Ahmad Rif'at on Egyptian news website Vetogate, were some examples given by MEMRI as propagators of the U.S. biowarfare conspiracy theory in the Arabic world.[181]

 

China

Further information: Cyberwarfare by China, Propaganda in China, and Chinese information operations and information warfare

 

The Xinhua News Agency is among the news outlets that have published false information about COVID-19's origins.

According to London-based The Economist, plenty of conspiracy theories exist on China's internet about COVID-19 being the CIA's creation to keep China down.[182] NBC News however has noted that there have also been debunking efforts of U.S.-related conspiracy theories posted online, with a WeChat search of "Coronavirus is from the U.S." reported to mostly yield articles explaining why such claims are unreasonable.[183] According to an investigation by ProPublica, such conspiracy theories and disinformation have been propagated under the direction of China News Service, the country's second largest government-owned media outlet controlled by the United Front Work Department.[184] Global Times and Xinhua News Agency have similarly been implicated in propagating disinformation related to COVID-19's origins.[185][186]

 

Multiple conspiracy articles in Chinese from the SARS era resurfaced during the outbreak with altered details, claiming SARS is biological warfare. Some said BGI Group from China sold genetic information of the Chinese people to the U.S., which then specifically targeted the genome of Chinese individuals.[187]

 

On January 26, Chinese military enthusiast website Xilu published an article, claimed how the U.S. artificially combined the virus to "precisely target Chinese people".[188][189] The article was removed in early February. The article was further distorted on social media in Taiwan, which claimed "Top Chinese military website admitted novel coronavirus was Chinese-made bio-weapons".[190] Taiwan Fact-check center debunked the original article and its divergence, suggesting the original Xilu article distorted the conclusion from a legitimate research on Chinese scientific magazine Science China Life Sciences, which never mentioned the virus was engineered.[190] The fact-check center explained Xilu is a military enthusiastic tabloid established by a private company, thus it doesn't represent the voice of Chinese military.[190]

 

Some articles on popular sites in China have also cast suspicion on U.S. military athletes participating in the Wuhan 2019 Military World Games, which lasted until the end of October 2019, and have suggested they deployed the virus. They claim the inattentive attitude and disproportionately below-average results of American athletes in the games indicate they might have been there for other purposes and they might actually be bio-warfare operatives. Such posts stated that their place of residence during their stay in Wuhan was also close to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where the first known cluster of cases occurred.[191]

 

In March 2020, this conspiracy theory was endorsed by Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China.[192][193][194][195] On March 13, the U.S. government summoned Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai to Washington over the coronavirus conspiracy theory.[196] Over the next month, conspiracy theorists narrowed their focus to one U.S. Army Reservist, a woman who participated in the games in Wuhan as a cyclist, claiming she is "patient zero". According to a CNN report, these theories have been spread by George Webb, who has nearly 100,000 followers on YouTube, and have been amplified by a report by CPC-owned newspaper Global Times.[197][198]

 

Iran

Further information: Propaganda in Iran

 

Reza Malekzadeh, deputy health minister, rejected bioterrorism theories.

According to Radio Farda, Iranian cleric Seyyed Mohammad Saeedi accused U.S. President Donald Trump of targeting Qom with coronavirus "to damage its culture and honor". Saeedi claimed that Trump is fulfilling his promise to hit Iranian cultural sites, if Iranians took revenge for the airstrike that killed of Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani.[199]

 

Iranian TV personality Ali Akbar Raefipour claimed the coronavirus was part of a "hybrid warfare" programme waged by the United States on Iran and China.[200] Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali, head of Iranian Civil Defense Organization, claimed the coronavirus is likely a biological attack on China and Iran with economic goals.[201][202]

 

Hossein Salami, the head of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), claimed the coronavirus outbreak in Iran may be due to a U.S. "biological attack".[203] Several Iranian politicians, including Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Rasoul Falahati, Alireza Panahian, Abolfazl Hasanbeigi and Gholamali Jafarzadeh Imanabadi, also made similar remarks.[204] Iranian Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made similar suggestions.[205]

 

Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter to the United Nations on March 9, claiming that "it is clear to the world that the mutated coronavirus was produced in lab" and that COVID-19 is "a new weapon for establishing and/or maintaining political and economic upper hand in the global arena".[206]

 

The late[207] Ayatollah Hashem Bathaie Golpayegani claimed that "America is the source of coronavirus, because America went head to head with China and realised it cannot keep up with it economically or militarily."[208]

 

Reza Malekzadeh, Iran's deputy health minister and former Minister of Health, rejected claims that the virus was a biological weapon, pointing out that the U.S. would be suffering heavily from it. He said Iran was hard-hit because its close ties to China and reluctance to cut air ties introduced the virus, and because early cases had been mistaken for influenza.[205]

 

Philippines

 

In the Philippine Senate, Tito Sotto has promoted his belief that COVID-19 is a bioweapon.

A Filipino Senator, Tito Sotto, played a bioweapon conspiracy video in a February 2020 Senate hearing, suggesting the coronavirus is biowarfare waged against China.[209][210]

 

Russia

Further information: Cyberwarfare by Russia and Propaganda in the Russian Federation

On February 22, U.S. officials alleged that Russia is behind an ongoing disinformation campaign, using thousands of social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to deliberately promote unfounded conspiracy theories, claiming the virus is a biological weapon manufactured by the CIA and the U.S. is waging economic war on China using the virus.[211][12][212] The acting assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, Philip Reeker, said "Russia's intent is to sow discord and undermine U.S. institutions and alliances from within" and "by spreading disinformation about coronavirus, Russian malign actors are once again choosing to threaten public safety by distracting from the global health response."[211] Russia denies the allegation, saying "this is a deliberately false story".[213]

 

According to U.S.-based The National Interest magazine, although official Russian channels had been muted on pushing the U.S. biowarfare conspiracy theory, other Russian media elements do not share the Kremlin's restraint.[214] Zvezda, a news outlet funded by the Russian Defense Ministry, published an article titled "Coronavirus: American biological warfare against Russia and China", claiming that the virus is intended to damage the Chinese economy, weakening its hand in the next round of trade negotiations.[214] Ultra-nationalist politician and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, claimed on a Moscow radio station that the virus was an experiment by the Pentagon and pharmaceutical companies. Politician Igor Nikulin made rounds on Russian television and news media, arguing that Wuhan was chosen for the attack because the presence of a BSL-4 virus lab provided a cover story for the Pentagon and CIA about a Chinese bio-experiment leak.[214] An EU-document claims 80 attempts by Russian media to spread disinformation related to the epidemic.[215]

 

According to the East StratCom Task Force, the Sputnik news agency was active publishing stories speculating that the virus could've been invented in Latvia, that it was used by Communist Party of China to curb protests in Hong Kong, that it was introduced intentionally to reduce the number of elder people in Italy, that it was targeted against the Yellow Vests movement, and making many other speculations. Sputnik branches in countries including Armenia, Belarus, Spain, and in the Middle East came up with versions of these stories.[216]

 

Venezuela

Constituent Assembly member Elvis Méndez declared that the coronavirus was a "bacteriological sickness created in '89, in '90 and historically" and that it was a sickness "inoculated by the gringos". Méndez theorized that the virus was a weapon against Latin America and China and that its purpose was "to demoralize the person, to weaken to install their system".[217]

 

COVID-19 recovery

It has been wrongly claimed that anyone infected with COVID-19 will have the virus in their bodies for life. While there is no curative treatment, infected individuals can recover from the disease, eliminating the virus from their bodies; getting supportive medical care early can help.[279]

 

COVID-19 xenophobic blaming by ethnicity and religion

Main article: List of incidents of xenophobia and racism related to the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic

File:IOM - Fighting Stigma and Discrimination against Migrants during COVID-19.webm

UN video warns that misinformation against groups may lower testing rates and increase transmission.

COVID-19-related xenophobic attacks have been made against people the attacker blamed for COVID-19 on the basis of their ethnicity. People who are considered to look Chinese have been subjected to COVID-19-related verbal and physical attacks in many other countries, often by people accusing them of transmitting the virus.[281][282][283] Within China, there has been discrimination (such as evictions and non-service in shops) against people from anywhere closer to Wuhan (where the pandemic started) and against anyone perceived as being non-Chinese (especially those considered African), as the Chinese government has blamed continuing cases on re-introductions of the virus from abroad (90% of reintroduced cases were by Chinese passport-holders). Neighbouring countries have also discriminated against people seen as Westerners.[284][285][286] People have also simply blamed other local groups along the lines of pre-existing social tensions and divisions, sometimes citing reporting of COVID-19 cases within that group. For instance, Muslims have been widely blamed, shunned, and discriminated against in India (including some violent attacks), amid unfounded claims that Muslims are deliberately spreading COVID-19, and a Muslim event at which the disease did spread has received far more public attention than many similar events run by other groups and the government.[287] White supremacist groups have blamed COVID-19 on non-whites and advocated deliberately infecting minorities they dislike, such as Jews.[288]

 

False causes

5G

 

5G towers have been burned by people wrongly blaming them for COVID-19.

 

Openreach engineers appealed on anti-5G Facebook groups, saying they aren't involved in mobile networks, and workplace abuse is making it difficult for them to maintain phonelines and broadband.

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In February 2020 BBC News reported that conspiracy theorists on social media groups alleged a link between coronavirus and 5G mobile networks, claiming that Wuhan and Diamond Princess outbreaks were directly caused by electromagnetic fields and by the introduction of 5G and wireless technologies. Some conspiracy theorists also alleged that the coronavirus outbreak was a cover-up for a 5G-related illness.[33] In March 2020, Thomas Cowan, a holistic medical practitioner who trained as a physician and operates on probation with Medical Board of California, alleged that coronavirus is caused by 5G, based on the claims that African countries were not affected significantly by the pandemic and Africa was not a 5G region.[289][290] Cowan also falsely alleged that the viruses were wastes from cells that are poisoned by electromagnetic fields and historical viral pandemics coincided with the major developments in radio technology.[290] The video of his claims went viral and was recirculated by celebrities including Woody Harrelson, John Cusack, and singer Keri Hilson.[291] The claims may also have been recirculated by an alleged "coordinated disinformation campaign", similar to campaigns used by the Internet Research Agency in Saint Petersburg, Russia.[292] The claims were criticized on social media and debunked by Reuters,[293] USA Today,[294] Full Fact[295] and American Public Health Association executive director Georges C. Benjamin.[289][296]

 

Professor Steve Powis, national medical director of NHS England, described theories linking 5G mobile phone networks to COVID-19 as the "worst kind of fake news".[297] Viruses cannot be transmitted by radio waves. COVID-19 has spread and continues to spread in many countries that do not have 5G networks.[279]

 

After telecommunications masts in several parts of the United Kingdom were the subject of arson attacks, British Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said the theory that COVID-19 virus may be spread by 5G wireless communication is "just nonsense, dangerous nonsense as well".[298] Vodafone announced that two Vodafone masts and two it shares with O2 had been targeted.[299][300]

 

By Monday April 6, 2020 at least 20 mobile phone masts in the UK had been vandalised since the previous Thursday.[301] Because of slow rollout of 5G in the UK, many of the damaged masts had only 3G and 4G equipment.[301] Mobile phone and home broadband operators estimated there were at least 30 incidents of confronting engineers maintaining equipment in the week up to April 6.[301] There have been eleven incidents of attempted arson at mobile phone masts in the Netherlands, including one case where "Fuck 5G" was written, as well as in Ireland and Cyprus.[302][303] Facebook has deleted multiple messages encouraging attacks on 5G equipment.[301]

 

Engineers working for Openreach posted pleas on anti-5G Facebook groups asking to be spared abuse as they are not involved with maintaining mobile networks.[304] Mobile UK said the incidents were affecting attempts to maintain networks that support home working and provide critical connections to vulnerable customers, emergency services and hospitals.[304] A widely circulated video shows people working for broadband company Community Fibre being abused by a woman who accuses them of installing 5G as part of a plan to kill the population.[304]

 

YouTube announced that it would reduce the amount of content claiming links between 5G and coronavirus.[299] Videos that are conspiratorial about 5G that do not mention coronavirus would not be removed, though they might be considered "borderline content", removed from search recommendations and losing advertising revenue.[299] The discredited claims had been circulated by British conspiracy theorist David Icke in videos (subsequently removed) on YouTube and Vimeo, and an interview by London Live TV network, prompting calls for action by Ofcom.[305][306]

 

On April 13, 2020, Gardaí were investigating fires at 5G masts in County Donegal, Ireland.[307] Gardaí and fire services had attended the fires the previous night in an attempt to put them out.[307] Although Gardaí were awaiting results of tests they were treating the fires as deliberate.[307]

 

There were 20 suspected arson attacks on phone masts in the UK over the Easter 2020 weekend.[297] These included an incident in Dagenham where three men were arrested on suspicion of arson, a fire in Huddersfield that affected a mast used by emergency services and a fire in a mast that provides mobile connectivity to the NHS Nightingale Hospital Birmingham.[297]

 

Ofcom issued guidance to ITV following comments by Eamonn Holmes after comments made by Holmes about 5G and coronavirus on This Morning.[308] Ofcom said the comments were "ambiguous" and "ill-judged" and they "risked undermining viewers' trust in advice from public authorities and scientific evidence".[308] Ofcom also local channel London Live in breach of standards for an interview it had with David Icke who it said had " expressed views which had the potential to cause significant harm to viewers in London during the pandemic".[308]

 

Some telecoms engineers have reported threats of violence, including threats to stab and murder them, by individuals who believe them to be working on 5G networks.[309] West Midlands Police said the crimes in question are being taken very seriously.[309]

 

On April 24, 2020 The Guardian revealed that an evangelical pastor from Luton had provided the male voice on a recording blaming 5G for deaths caused by coronavirus.[310] Jonathon James claimed to have formerly headed the largest business-unit at Vodafone, but insiders at the company said that he was hired for a sales position in 2014 when 5G was not a priority for the company and that 5G would not have been part of his job.[310] He left the company after less than a year.[310]

 

Mosquitoes

It has been claimed that mosquitoes transmit coronavirus. There is no evidence that this is true; coronavirus spreads through small droplets of saliva and mucus.[279]

 

Petrol pumps

A warning claiming to be from the Australia Department of Health said coronavirus spreads through petrol pumps and that everyone should wear gloves when filling up petrol in their cars.[311]

 

Shoe-wearing

There were claims that wearing shoes at one's home was the reason behind the spread of the coronavirus in Italy.[312]

 

Resistance/susceptibility based on ethnicity

There have been claims that specific ethnicities are more or less vulnerable to COVID-19. COVID-19 is a new zoonotic disease, so no population has yet had the time to develop population immunity.[medical citation needed]

 

Beginning on February 11, reports, quickly spread via Facebook, implied that a Cameroonian student in China had been completely cured of the virus due to his African genetics. While a student was successfully treated, other media sources have noted that no evidence implies Africans are more resistant to the virus and labeled such claims as false information.[313] Kenyan Secretary of Health Mutahi Kagwe explicitly refuted rumors that "those with black skin cannot get coronavirus", while announcing Kenya's first case on March 13.[314] This myth was cited as a contributing factor in the disproportionately high rates of infection and death observed among African Americans.[315][316]

 

There have been claims of "Indian immunity": that the people of India have more immunity to the COVID-19 virus due to living conditions in India. This idea was deemed "absolute drivel" by Anand Krishnan, professor at the Centre for Community Medicine of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He said there was no population immunity to the COVID-19 virus yet, as it is new, and it is not even clear whether people who have recovered from COVID-19 will have lasting immunity, as this happens with some viruses but not with others.[317]

 

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed the virus was genetically targeted at Iranians by the U.S., and this is why it is seriously affecting Iran. He did not offer any evidence.[318][22]

 

Religious protection

A number of religious groups have claimed protection due to their faith, some refusing to stop large religious gatherings. In Israel, some Ultra-Orthodox Jews initially refused to close synagogues and religious seminaries and disregarded government restrictions because "The Torah protects and saves",[319] which resulted in an 8 times faster rate of infection among some groups.[320] The Tablighi Jamaat movement organised mass gatherings in Malaysia, India, and Pakistan whose participants believed that God will protect them resulted the biggest rise in COVID-19 cases in a number of countries.[321][29][322] In Iran, the head of Fatima Masumeh Shrine encouraged pilgrims to visit the shrine despite calls to close the shrine, saying that they "consider this holy shrine to be a place of healing."[323] In South Korea the River of Grace Community Church in Gyeonggi Province spread the virus after spraying salt water into their members' mouths in the belief that it would kill the virus,[324] while the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu where a church leader claimed that no Shincheonji worshipers had caught the virus in February while hundreds died in Wuhan later caused in the biggest spread of the virus in the country.[325][326]

 

In Somalia, myths have spread claiming Muslims are immune to the virus.[327]

 

Unproven protective and aggravating factors

Vegetarian immunity

[icon]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2020)

Claims that vegetarians are immune to coronavirus spread online in India, causing "#NoMeat_NoCoronaVirus" to trend on Twitter.[328][better source needed] Eating meat does not have an effect on COVID-19 spread, except for people near where animals are slaughtered, said Anand Krishnan.[329] Fisheries, Dairying and Animal Husbandry Minister Giriraj Singh said the rumour had significantly affected industry, with the price of a chicken falling to a third of pre-pandemic levels. He also described efforts to improve the hygiene of the meat supply chain.[330]

 

Efficacy of hand sanitiser, "antibacterial" soaps

 

Washing in soap and water for at least 20 seconds is the best way to clean hands. Second-best is a hand sanitizer that is at least 60% alcohol.[331]

Claims that hand sanitiser is merely "antibacterial not antiviral", and therefore ineffective against COVID-19, have spread widely on Twitter and other social networks. While the effectiveness of sanitiser depends on the specific ingredients, most hand sanitiser sold commercially inactivates SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.[332][333] Hand sanitizer is recommended against COVID-19,[279] though unlike soap, it is not effective against all types of germs.[334] Washing in soap and water for at least 20 seconds is recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as the best way to clean hands in most situations. However, if soap and water are not available, a hand sanitizer that is at least 60% alcohol can be used instead, unless hands are visibly dirty or greasy.[331][335] The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration both recommend plain soap; there is no evidence that "antibacterial soaps" are any better, and limited evidence that they might be worse long-term.[336][337]

 

Alcohol (ethanol and poisonous methanol)

Contrary to some reports, drinking alcohol does not protect against COVID-19, and can increase health risks[279] (short term and long term). Drinking alcohol is ethanol; other alcohols, such as methanol, which causes methanol poisoning, are acutely poisonous, and may be present in badly-prepared alcoholic beverages.[338]

 

Iran has reported incidents of methanol poisoning, caused by the false belief that drinking alcohol would cure or protect against coronavirus;[339] alcohol is banned in Iran, and bootleg alcohol may contain methanol.[340] According to Iranian media in March 2020, nearly 300 people have died and more than a thousand have become ill due to methanol poisoning, while Associated Press gave figures of around 480 deaths with 2,850 others affected.[341] The number of deaths due to methanol poisoning in Iran reached over 700 by April.[342] Iranian social media had circulated a story from British tabloids that a British man and others had been cured of coronavirus with whiskey and honey,[339][343] which combined with the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers as disinfectants, led to the false belief that drinking high-proof alcohol can kill the virus.[339][340][341]

 

Similar incidents have occurred in Turkey, with 30 Turkmenistan citizens dying from methanol poisoning related to coronavirus cure claims.[344][345]

 

In Kenya, the Governor of Nairobi Mike Sonko has come under scrutiny for including small bottles of the cognac Hennessy in care packages, falsely claiming that alcohol serves as "throat sanitizer" and that, from research, it is believed that "alcohol plays a major role in killing the coronavirus."[346][347]

 

Cocaine

Cocaine does not protect against COVID-19. Several viral tweets purporting that snorting cocaine would sterilize one's nostrils of the coronavirus spread around Europe and Africa. In response, the French Ministry of Health released a public service announcement debunking this claim, saying "No, cocaine does NOT protect against COVID-19. It is an addictive drug that causes serious side effects and is harmful to people's health." The World Health Organisation also debunked the claim.[348]

 

Ibuprofen

A tweet from French health minister Olivier Véran, a bulletin from the French health ministry, and a small speculative study in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine raised concerns about ibuprofen worsening COVID-19, which spread extensively on social media. The European Medicines Agency[349] and the World Health Organization recommended COVID-19 patients keep taking ibuprofen as directed, citing lack of convincing evidence of any danger.[350]

 

Helicopter spraying

In some Asian countries, it has been claimed that one should stay at home on particular days when helicopters spray disinfectant over homes for killing off COVID-19; no such spraying is taking place.[351][352]

 

Cruise ships safety from infection

Main article: COVID-19 pandemic on cruise ships

 

Claims by cruise-ship operators notwithstanding, there are many cases of coronaviruses in hot climates; some countries in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and the Persian Gulf are severely affected.

In March 2020, the Miami New Times reported that managers at Norwegian Cruise Line had prepared a set of responses intended to convince wary customers to book cruises, including "blatantly false" claims that the coronavirus "can only survive in cold temperatures, so the Caribbean is a fantastic choice for your next cruise", that "[s]cientists and medical professionals have confirmed that the warm weather of the spring will be the end of the [c]oronavirus", and that the virus "cannot live in the amazingly warm and tropical temperatures that your cruise will be sailing to".[353]

 

Flu is seasonal (becoming less frequent in the summer) in some countries, but not in others. While it is possible that the COVID-19 coronavirus will also show some seasonality, it is not yet known.[354][355][356][medical citation needed] The COVID-19 coronavirus spread along international air travel routes, including to tropical locations.[357] Outbreaks on cruise ships, where an older population lives in close quarters, frequently touching surfaces which others have touched, were common.[358][359]

 

It seems that COVID-19 can be transmitted in all climates.[279] It has seriously affected many warm-climate countries. For instance, Dubai, with an year-round average daily high of 28.0 Celsius (82.3°F) and the airport said to have the world's most international traffic, has had thousands of cases.

 

Vaccine pre-existence

It was reported that multiple social media posts have promoted a conspiracy theory claiming the virus was known and that a vaccine was already available. PolitiFact and FactCheck.org noted that no vaccine currently exists for COVID-19. The patents cited by various social media posts reference existing patents for genetic sequences and vaccines for other strains of coronavirus such as the SARS coronavirus.[360][4] The WHO reported as of February 5, 2020, that amid news reports of "breakthrough" drugs being discovered to treat people infected with the virus, there were no known effective treatments;[361] this included antibiotics and herbal remedies not being useful.[362] Scientists are working to develop a vaccine, but as of March 18, 2020, no vaccine candidates have completed Phase II clinical trials.[citation needed]

 

Miscellaneous

Name of the disease

Social media posts and internet memes claimed that COVID-19 means "Chinese Originated Viral Infectious Disease 19", or similar, as supposedly the "19th virus to come out of China".[477] In fact, the WHO named the disease as follows: CO stands for corona, VI for virus, D for disease and 19 for when the outbreak was first identified (31 December 2019).[478]

 

Bat soup

Some media outlets, including Daily Mail and RT, as well as individuals, disseminated a video showing a Chinese woman eating a bat, falsely suggesting it was filmed in Wuhan and connecting it to the outbreak.[479][480] However, the widely circulated video contains unrelated footage of a Chinese travel vlogger, Wang Mengyun, eating bat soup in the island country of Palau in 2016.[479][480][481][482] Wang posted an apology on Weibo,[481][482] in which she said she had been abused and threatened,[481] and that she had only wanted to showcase Palauan cuisine.[481][482] The spread of misinformation about bat consumption has been characterized by xenophobic and racist sentiment toward Asians.[90][483][484] In contrast, scientists suggest the virus originated in bats and migrated into an intermediary host animal before infecting people.[90][485]

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misinformation_related_to_the_COVID...

The Museum of the Future in Dubai is a landmark that explores how society could evolve in the coming decades using science and technology. It is located along Sheikh Zayed Road and offers a journey through possible futures, allowing visitors to bring hope and knowledge back to the present. The building itself is an architectural marvel, recognized by National Geographic as one of the most beautiful museums in the world. It has floors dedicated to distinct experiences, including immersive exhibitions on outer space resource development, ecosystems and bioengineering, and health, wellness, and spirituality.

For me and Stirling's buildoff

To build a weapon in the other's style.

So yeah, Credit to Stirling for his style, for much inspiration, and for the "heatshield" technique :P

 

Please, for all that is good, comment. I'm bored and I might go insane if someone doesn't say something to me.

 

Alright, Arch is bored once again, so its storytime children.

  

Rain fell upon wet broken pavement, and we stood solemn at what we were about to unleash.

Man in his pride boldly strode forth into the stars, unaware of just what he would find. A million fertile worlds, a million planetary nations spread across the Milkyway's great glittering arm. The rate of technological advancement grew absurd. In the year 2015 we stumbled upon new means of power supply which lead to the first faster-than-light spacecraft by 2025. Come 2050 Humanity was so far spread and advancing at such a rate that technology failed to travel beyond the originating solar system before it was already antiquated by new technology.

Then in 2073 several events simultaneously rocked the human race. In one system Technological Singularity was achieved, and a race of super transient AI armed with a robotic army waged war upon us.

From another system an intelligent biological virus which manipulated the host body to spread itself via any means possible, even to the degree of harnessing technology, started turning worlds into zombie-like couriers of the virus.

Another toyed with bioengineering too much and created a thousand different violent and fearsome mutant species of human which overwhelmed containment forces.

One managed to somehow create new life in the form of a violent and bloodthristy new species that would strive to consume both the knowledge and flesh of humanity.

The final straw came when one planet tore a rift in time and space which resulted not only in the appearance of alien life in our own galaxy which until now had lacked it, but also brought with it an invasion force of humanity from an alternate reality.

It was then resolved by us on Earth, in the center of this maelstrom of chaos that humanity, the cause of this, must by bridled and quickly.

We designed the STLG Accelerated Entropy System for this purpose, a rifle that would fire a beam which would speed the rate at which things aged, wore down, and broke. Soldiers in power armor faded to skeletons in rusty wreckages in minutes, blast gates fell right off their own hinges, reactors cooled off in seconds.

This was a mighty weapon, but not mighty enough for the task at hand. The genocide of the human race and the fearsome creations it had brought to life. We had become like gods, but we used our power poorly. We would destroy it all, and create the Sphere, and artificial construct which would permanents confine us within our home solar systems, once the majority of life and technology within that system had been destroyed. This would occur in parallel with the founding of the Order of Containment, which would keep humanity confined within their Spheres, advancing its own technology only as much as required to keep the humans within the Spheres contained. There would be ten Spheres for each of the systems closest to earth, where the seat of the Oder of Containment would rest. Everything that humanity has made would be destroyed.

Rain fell upon wet broken pavement, and we stood solemn at what we were about to unleash...

A replicant is a bioengineered human composed entirely of organic material. Introduced in 2000, the Tyrell Corporation's 'Nexus' series of replicants were virtually identical to standard adult humans, but had superior strength, speed, agility, resilience and intelligence to varying degrees depending on the model In 2009, when the murder of Lydia Kine was blamed on a Nexus-4, Nexus 4-331575, further redesigns were proposed.

 

The Tyrell Corporation later introduced the Nexus-6, the supreme replicant — much stronger and faster than, and virtually indistinguishable from, humans. These replicants were also programmed to live for a designated four years, an aspect that prompted a group of replic

 

Visit this location at Bunker 05 in Second Life

Marasmius rotula is a common species of agaric fungus in the family Marasmiaceae. Widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, it is commonly known variously as the pinwheel mushroom, the pinwheel Marasmius, the little wheel, the collared parachute, or the horse hair fungus. The type species of the genus Marasmius, M. rotula was first described scientifically in 1772 by mycologist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli and assigned its current name in 1838 by Elias Fries.

 

The fruit bodies, or mushrooms, of M. rotula are characterized by their whitish, thin, and membranous caps up to 2 cm (0.8 in) wide that are sunken in the center, and pleated with scalloped margins. The slender and wiry black hollow stems measure up to 8.0 cm (3.1 in) long by 1.5 mm (0.06 in) thick. On the underside of the caps are widely spaced white gills that are attached to a collar encircling the stem. The mushrooms grow in groups or clusters on decaying wood such as fallen twigs and sticks, moss-covered logs, and stumps.

 

Unlike other mushrooms known to release spores in response to a circadian rhythm, spore release in M. rotula is dependent upon sufficient moisture. Dried mushrooms may revive after rehydrating and continue to release spores for up to three weeks—a sustained spore production of markedly longer duration than other typical agarics. There are several species of Marasmius with which M. rotula might be confused due to somewhat similar overall appearances, but differences in size, gill arrangement, and substrate are usually sufficient field characteristics to distinguish them. Although M. rotula mushrooms are not generally considered edible, they produce a unique peroxidase enzyme that is attracting research interest for possible use in bioengineering applications.

 

Photographed in the woods at Nymans National Trust, Handcross, West Sussex, UK.

Manufacturer: Harrier Motor Cars

Nationality: USA

First assembled: March 1 2054

Birthplace: Corvallis, OR

Engine: 6.3 L Supercharged Straight 8

HP: 774

0-60: 5.3 seconds

Top speed: 204.23 MPH

 

Born as Appaloosa customs, Harrier Motor Cars is a luxury manufacturer, starting as a boutique customs shop and bespoke designer to a large-scale producer of high-end luxury cars and even civil aircraft. Harrier is well-known for building everything they have with a classy, retro futuristic elegance in their design. When you get in a Harrier, it's like you've already arrived before your journey has begun. You're never behind schedule when you're in a Harrier. You'll just be fashionably late. Everyone at the gala will more than understand. After all, you had to find the right blazer to match your driving gloves. No matter what the driver wears, any Harrier will work for the occasion. From the Fusion-powered Varsovian hypercar to the long and opulent Citadel. The preferred choice of the mid-21st century high roller was usually the Sentinel 8. A long 2+2 coupe with heavy art deco design influences, the Sentinel is the perfect choice for someone looking to drive in elegance. The interior is finished with a opulent mix of fine Turkish silk, brushed stainless steel and bioengineered evergreen oak sourced from the Oregon forests Harrier is based in. It's long wheelbase ensures that the rear seats are a nice, roomy place to be despite the Sentinel being a coupe. The dazzling paint incorporates crushed minerals sourced from meteorites, giving it a beautiful shimmer. Electromagnetic suspension ensures that the ride is absolutely sublime, but can be set to something more firm and performance-oriented at the turn of a well-crafted toggle switch. Finally, there's the power plant. Under the long center-split hood you'll find something unlike anything else in modern cars, and an example of how far Harrier takes its retro design influences. The Sentinel utilizes a Straight-8 engine, a layout not seen in cars since before WWII. Thanks to advancements in modern tech and manufacturing, Harrier was able to take this forgotten layout and successfully bring it into the modern era. Combined with a centrifugal supercharger, this engine smoothly delivers over 770 horsepower. This gives the Sentinel a 0-60 of just over 5 seconds, and a top speed breaking the 200 MPH barrier. While there are plenty of cars out there, namely from Harrier's midwestern rival Rogue Automotive, that are plenty faster than the Sentinel, it was never about raw speed or power. The Sentinel is here to provide a luxurious driving experience as good as it looks, the textbook example of a Grand Tourer. Which it is second-to-none in if it's clientele of film stars and titans of industry are anything to go by. Regardless, there are rumors that Harrier wants to build a Sentinel with a bit more muscle, utilizing their new V16 engine they unveiled recently at the 2059 Avion International Autoshow.

Pavia, Italy, as seen by ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti aboard the International Space Station for her Minerva Mission. She posted this image to her social media on 30 September 2022 with the following caption:

 

Ciao #Pavia! And a shout-out to

@unipv, one of the oldest universities in the world. Grateful for the honorary degree in bioengineering! #MissionMinerva #CiaoItaly

 

ID: iss067e244943

Credit: ESA/NASA-S.Cristoforetti

Perhaps bored by neuroanatomy, in later years this young lady moved on to bioengineering at Cornell University, where she is a rising sophomore.

digital art

 

View On Black

 

www.flickriver.com/photos/28045633@N00

A marvel of bioengineering, R-Type was developed amidst the cosmos by the highest tier of Mormon tech priests. R-Type's primary mission is to eliminate birth control and abortion, ensuring the reproduction of his tentacled Romnean biodrones. R-Type's secondary mission is to dull the fertile minds of youth, ensuring the slavery of future generations.

WARNING: Approach with caution. R-Type's Thetan count is in the quintuple digits!

Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their role in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea. They are presently considered a clade, called Anthophila. There are over 16,000 known species of bees in seven recognized biological families.[1][2] Some species – including honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees – live socially in colonies while some species – including mason bees, carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, and sweat bees – are solitary. Wikipedia

 

Bees are found on every continent except for Antarctica, in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated flowering plants. The most common bees in the Northern Hemisphere are the Halictidae, or sweat bees, but they are small and often mistaken for wasps or flies. Bees range in size from tiny stingless bee species, whose workers are less than 2 millimetres (0.08 in) long, to Megachile pluto, the largest species of leafcutter bee, whose females can attain a length of 39 millimetres (1.54 in).

 

Bees feed on nectar and pollen, the former primarily as an energy source and the latter primarily for protein and other nutrients. Most pollen is used as food for their larvae. Vertebrate predators of bees include birds such as bee-eaters; insect predators include beewolves and dragonflies.

 

Bee pollination is important both ecologically and commercially, and the decline in wild bees has increased the value of pollination by commercially managed hives of honey bees. The analysis of 353 wild bee and hoverfly species across Britain from 1980 to 2013 found the insects have been lost from a quarter of the places they inhabited in 1980.[3]

 

Human beekeeping or apiculture has been practised for millennia, since at least the times of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. Bees have appeared in mythology and folklore, through all phases of art and literature from ancient times to the present day, although primarily focused in the Northern Hemisphere where beekeeping is far more common. PASADENA, Calif.- One of the most elusive questions in science has finally been answered: How do bees fly?

 

Although the issue is not as profound as how the universe began or what kick-started life on earth, the physics of bee flight has perplexed scientists for more than 70 years. In 1934, in fact, French entomologist Antoine Magnan and his assistant André Sainte-Lague calculated that bee flight was aerodynamically impossible. The haphazard flapping of their wings simply shouldn't keep the hefty bugs aloft.

 

And yet, bees most certainly fly, and the dichotomy between prediction and reality has been used for decades to needle scientists and engineers about their inability to explain complex biological processes.

 

Now, Michael H. Dickinson, the Esther M. and Abe M. Zarem Professor of Bioengineering, and his postdoctoral student Douglas L. Altshuler and their colleagues at Caltech and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, have figured out honeybee flight using a combination of high-speed digital photography, to snap freeze-frame images of bees in motion, and a giant robotic mock-up of a bee wing. The results of their analysis appear in the November 28 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

"We're no longer allowed to use this story about not understanding bee flight as an example of where science has failed, because it is just not true," Dickinson says.

 

The secret of honeybee flight, the researchers say, is the unconventional combination of short, choppy wing strokes, a rapid rotation of the wing as it flops over and reverses direction, and a very fast wing-beat frequency.

 

"These animals are exploiting some of the most exotic flight mechanisms that are available to insects," says Dickinson.

 

Their furious flapping speed is surprising, Dickinson says, because "generally the smaller the insect the faster it flaps. This is because aerodynamic performance decreases with size, and so to compensate small animals have to flap their wings faster. Mosquitoes flap at a frequency of over 400 beats per second. Birds are more of a whump, because they beat their wings so slowly."

 

Being relatively large insects, bees would be expected to beat their wings rather slowly, and to sweep them across the same wide arc as other flying bugs (whose wings cover nearly half a circle). They do neither. Their wings beat over a short arc of about 90 degrees, but ridiculously fast, at around 230 beats per second. Fruit flies, in comparison, are 80 times smaller than honeybees, but flap their wings only 200 times a second.

 

When bees want to generate more power--for example, when they are carting around a load of nectar or pollen--they increase the arc of their wing strokes, but keep flapping at the same rate. That is also odd, Dickinson says, because "it would be much more aerodynamically efficient if they regulated not how far they flap their wings but how fast "

 

Honeybees' peculiar strategy may have to do with the design of their flight muscles.

 

"Bees have evolved flight muscles that are physiologically very different from those of other insects. One consequence is that the wings have to operate fast and at a constant frequency or the muscle doesn't generate enough power," Dickinson says.

 

"This is one of those cases where you can make a mistake by looking at an animal and assuming that it is perfectly adapted. An alternate hypothesis is that bee ancestors inherited this kind of muscle and now present-day bees must live with its peculiarities," Dickinson says.

 

How honeybees make the best of it may help engineers in the design of flying insect-sized robots: "You can't shrink a 747 wing down to this size and expect it to work, because the aerodynamics are different," he says. "But the way in which bee wings generate forces is directly applicable to these devices."

 

###

 

Contact: Kathy Svitil (626) 395-8022 ksvitil@caltech.edu

 

Visit the Caltech Media Relations Web site at: pr.caltech.edu/media

   

WRITTEN BY

Kathy Svitil

CONTACT

Caltech Media Relations

mr@caltech.edu

Audi Concept Car.

 

The Museum of the Future in Dubai is a landmark that explores how society could evolve in the coming decades using science and technology. It is located along Sheikh Zayed Road and offers a journey through possible futures, allowing visitors to bring hope and knowledge back to the present. The building itself is an architectural marvel, recognized by National Geographic as one of the most beautiful museums in the world. It has floors dedicated to distinct experiences, including immersive exhibitions on outer space resource development, ecosystems and bioengineering, and health, wellness, and spirituality.

Women in Bioengineering Networking Night 2022

The building o The Faculty of Science and Technology (IT and bioengineering) of University of Silesia in Katowice, situated in Sosnowiec.

The Museum of the Future in Dubai is a landmark that explores how society could evolve in the coming decades using science and technology. It is located along Sheikh Zayed Road and offers a journey through possible futures, allowing visitors to bring hope and knowledge back to the present. The building itself is an architectural marvel, recognized by National Geographic as one of the most beautiful museums in the world. It has floors dedicated to distinct experiences, including immersive exhibitions on outer space resource development, ecosystems and bioengineering, and health, wellness, and spirituality.

One of my earliest and most beloved original characters made it to 1/6 scale a couple of years ago.

Kes is a lab-grown, bioengineered human, specifically designed to pilot ships and interact with their AIs at the biological level.

These Living Root Bridges are made of the Indian rubber tree Ficus elastica which thrives and flourishes alongside the streams and rivers at the southern slopes of the Khasi and Jaintia hills.

Some scientists operate at the cutting edge. Roderic Pettigrew seems to have built the cutting edge himself. A biomedical innovator, engineer, and physician, Pettigrew exists at the intersection of disciplines, where medicine meets physics, where imaging transforms diagnostics, and where the boundaries between what is and what’s possible begin to blur.

 

Born in Georgia, Pettigrew grew up in an era when science and engineering were still finding their foothold in medicine. He was drawn to both—the precision of physics and the human imperative of healing. He pursued both paths relentlessly, earning a Ph.D. in applied radiation physics from MIT and later an M.D. from the University of Miami. That duality—scientist and physician—would define his career, allowing him to move seamlessly between theory and application, innovation and patient care.

 

His defining contributions came in the realm of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), where he helped refine techniques that pushed the boundaries of medical imaging. While MRI had already revolutionized diagnostics, Pettigrew’s work took it further, developing new ways to see inside the human body with unprecedented clarity. His research on cardiovascular MRI allowed doctors to visualize blood flow and heart function in ways that were previously impossible—transforming the way we diagnose and treat heart disease.

 

But Pettigrew was never content with just advancing the science; he wanted to change the system itself. As the founding director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) at the NIH, he spearheaded efforts to integrate engineering and medicine, funding interdisciplinary research that bridged gaps between fields. Under his leadership, bioengineering became central to modern medicine—leading to advances in imaging, prosthetics, regenerative medicine, and wearable health technology.

 

Later, at Texas A&M, he continued to push boundaries, leading initiatives in convergent science—bringing together engineers, physicians, and data scientists to tackle some of healthcare’s most pressing challenges. His vision was always expansive: a world where medicine isn’t just reactive, but predictive; where technology doesn’t just diagnose disease, but prevents it.

 

Pettigrew’s work has earned him global recognition—election to the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, and countless honors for his impact on medical imaging and healthcare innovation. But in conversation, he remains disarmingly warm, deeply curious, and endlessly fascinated by the next big challenge. His mind operates at a high frequency, but his presence is grounded—he listens as intently as he speaks, embodying the rare scientist who sees both the molecular and the human.

 

To talk with him is to glimpse the future of medicine, a world where imaging, AI, and bioengineering converge to make disease something we detect early, treat precisely, and maybe—one day—eliminate altogether. He doesn’t just imagine that future. He’s helping build it.

What do you think?

 

Bioengineering gone berserk?

(No photoshopping here, by the way)

Masimo Pulse Oximetry Sensor, Single Patient Use...

Pulse oximetry is a method used to measure the concentration of oxygen in the blood

Home of the Department of Bioengineering and Bio-X program. It was designed by Foster + Partners in London. The architecture is supposed to promote interdisciplinary research and open collaboration/interaction, through the copious use of windows that look directly into the labs (not too sure how I'd feel about that if I had to work in there ... ) and the placement of almost all walkways/stairways outside.

The Museum of the Future in Dubai is a landmark that explores how society could evolve in the coming decades using science and technology. It is located along Sheikh Zayed Road and offers a journey through possible futures, allowing visitors to bring hope and knowledge back to the present. The building itself is an architectural marvel, recognized by National Geographic as one of the most beautiful museums in the world. It has floors dedicated to distinct experiences, including immersive exhibitions on outer space resource development, ecosystems and bioengineering, and health, wellness, and spirituality.

Nelumbo nucifera, also known as sacred lotus, Indian lotus, or simply lotus, is one of two extant species of aquatic plant in the family Nelumbonaceae. It is sometimes colloquially called a water lily, though this more often refers to members of the family Nymphaeaceae.

 

Lotus plants are adapted to grow in the flood plains of slow-moving rivers and delta areas. Stands of lotus drop hundreds of thousands of seeds every year to the bottom of the pond. While some sprout immediately and most are eaten by wildlife, the remaining seeds can remain dormant for an extensive period of time as the pond silts in and dries out. During flood conditions, sediments containing these seeds are broken open, and the dormant seeds rehydrate and begin a new lotus colony.

 

Under favorable circumstances, the seeds of this aquatic perennial may remain viable for many years, with the oldest recorded lotus germination being from seeds 1,300 years old recovered from a dry lakebed in northeastern China. Therefore, the Chinese regard the plant as a symbol of longevity.

 

It has a very wide native distribution, ranging from central and northern India (at altitudes up to 1,400 m or 4,600 ft in the southern Himalayan), through northern Indochina and East Asia (north to the Amur region; the Russian populations have sometimes been referred to as "Nelumbo nucifera, also known as sacred lotus, Indian lotus, or simply lotus, is one of two extant species of aquatic plant in the family Nelumbonaceae. It is sometimes colloquially called a water lily, though this more often refers to members of the family Nymphaeaceae.

 

Lotus plants are adapted to grow in the flood plains of slow-moving rivers and delta areas. Stands of lotus drop hundreds of thousands of seeds every year to the bottom of the pond. While some sprout immediately and most are eaten by wildlife, the remaining seeds can remain dormant for an extensive period of time as the pond silts in and dries out. During flood conditions, sediments containing these seeds are broken open, and the dormant seeds rehydrate and begin a new lotus colony.

 

Under favorable circumstances, the seeds of this aquatic perennial may remain viable for many years, with the oldest recorded lotus germination being from seeds 1,300 years old recovered from a dry lakebed in northeastern China. Therefore, the Chinese regard the plant as a symbol of longevity.

 

It has a very wide native distribution, ranging from central and northern India (at altitudes up to 1,400 m or 4,600 ft in the southern Himalayan), through northern Indochina and East Asia (north to the Amur region; the Russian populations have sometimes been referred to as "Nelumbo komarovii"), with isolated locations at the Caspian Sea. Today, the species also occurs in southern India, Sri Lanka, virtually all of Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and northern and eastern Australia, but this is probably the result of human translocations. It has a very long history (c. 3,000 years) of being cultivated for its edible seeds and is commonly cultivated in water gardens. It is the national flower of India and Vietnam.

 

Names

Nelumbo nucifera is also known as Egyptian bean.

 

Classification

The lotus is often confused with the true water lilies of the genus Nymphaea, in particular N. caerulea, the "blue lotus." In fact, several older systems, such as the Bentham & Hooker system (which is widely used in the Indian subcontinent), refer to the lotus by its old synonym, Nymphaea nelumbo.

 

While all modern plant taxonomy systems agree that this species belongs in the genus Nelumbo, the systems disagree as to which family Nelumbo should be placed in or whether the genus should belong in its own unique family and order. According to the APG IV system, N. nucifera, N. lutea, and their extinct relatives belong in Proteales with the protea flowers due to genetic comparisons. Older systems, such as the Cronquist system, place N. nucifera and its relatives in the order Nymphaeles based on anatomical similarities. According to the APG IV classification, the closest relatives of Nelumbo include the sycamores (Platanaceae).

 

Botany

The lotus roots are planted in pond or river bottom soil, while the leaves float on the water's surface or are held well above it. The leaf stalks (petioles) can be up to 200 cm (6 ft 7 in) long, allowing the plant to grow in water to that depth, The peltate leaf blade or lamina can have a horizontal spread of 1 m (3 ft 3 in). The leaves may be as large as 80 cm (31 in) in diameter.

 

Flower

The flowers are usually found on thick stems rising several centimeters above the leaves. They are showy and grow up to 30 cm (12 in) in diameter, but fourteen inches (35 centimeters) has been frequently reported.

 

Some cultivated varieties have extraordinary numbers of petals. For example, the Chinese variety qian ban lian ("thousand petals lotus") can have between 3000 and 4000 petals in a single blossom and the Japanese variety ohmi myoren ("strange lotus") can have between 2000 and 5000 petals, the greatest number recorded for any species of plant.

 

Researchers report that the lotus has the remarkable ability to regulate the temperature of its flowers within a narrow range, just as humans and other warm-blooded animals do. Roger S. Seymour and Paul Schultze-Motel, physiologists at the University of Adelaide in Australia, found that lotus flowers blooming in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens maintained a temperature of 30–35 °C (86–95 °F), even when the air temperature dropped to 10 °C (50 °F). They suspect the flowers may be doing this to attract cold-blooded insect pollinators. Studies published in the journals Nature and Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences in 1996 and 1998 were important contributions in the field of thermoregulation in plants. Two other species known to be able to regulate their temperature include Symplocarpus foetidus and Philodendron selloum. The red tiger lotus is native to West Africa, including Nigeria and Cameroon, and thrives in slow-moving water.

 

Seed

A fertilized lotus flower bears fruit that contains a cluster of 10 to 30 seeds. Each seed is ovoid 1–2.5 cm wide by 1–1.5 cm long with a brownish coat.: 132  Lotus seeds can remain viable after long periods of dormancy. In 1994, a seed from a sacred lotus, dated at roughly 1,300 years old ± 270 years, was successfully germinated.

 

The traditional sacred lotus is only distantly related to Nymphaea caerulea, but possesses similar chemistry. Both Nymphaea caerulea and Nelumbo nucifera contain the alkaloids nuciferine and aporphine.[citation needed]

 

The genome of the sacred lotus was sequenced in May 2013.

 

Cultivation

The sacred lotus grows in water up to 2.5 m (8 ft) deep. The minimum water depth is about 30 cm (12 in). In colder climates, having a deeper water level protects the tubers more effectively, and overall is helpful for better growth and flowering. The sacred lotus germinates at temperatures above 13 °C (55 °F). Most varieties are not naturally cold-hardy, but may readily adapt to living outdoors year-round in USDA hardiness zones 6 through 11 (with some growers having success in zones as low as 4 or 5); the higher the zone's number, the greater the adaptability of the plants. In the growing season, from April to September (in the northern hemisphere), the average daytime temperature needed is 23 to 27 °C (73 to 81 °F). In regions with low light levels in winter, the sacred lotus has a period of dormancy. The tubers are not cold-resistant, if removed from water, and exposed to the air; when kept underwater in soil, the energy-rich tubers can overwinter temperatures below 0 °C (32 °F). If the plants are taken out of the water for wintertime storage (mostly in exceptionally cold climates), the tubers and roots must be stored in a stable, frost-free location, such as a garage, preferably in a cardboard box or container filled completely with vermiculite or perlite. Care must be taken to fully insulate the tubers.

 

Planting

The sacred lotus requires a nutrient-rich and loamy soil. In the beginning of the summer period (from March until May in the northern hemisphere), a small part of rhizome with at least one eye is either planted in ponds or directly into a flooded field. There are several other propagation ways via seeds or buds. Furthermore, tissue culture is a promising propagation method for the future to produce high volumes of uniform, true-to-type, disease-free materials.

 

The first step of the cultivation is to plough the dry field. One round of manure is applied after ten days, before flooding the field. To support a quick initial growth, the water level is relatively low and increases when plants grow. Then a maximum of approximately 4,000 per hectare (1,600/acre) with grid spacing of 1.2 by 2 metres (3 ft 11 in × 6 ft 7 in) are used to plant directly into the mud 10–15 cm (3+7⁄8–5+7⁄8 in) below the soil surface.

 

Harvest

The stolon is ready to harvest two to three months after planting. It must be harvested before flowering. Harvesting the stolon is done by manual labor. For this step, the field is not drained. The stolon is pulled out of the water by pulling and shaking the young leaves in the shallow water.

 

The first leaves and flowers can be harvested three months after planting. Flowers can be picked every two days during summer and every three days during the colder season. Four months after planting, the production of flowers has its climax. The harvest of flowers is usually done by hand for three to four months.

 

Seeds and seed pods can be harvested when they turn black four to eight months after planting. After sun drying for two to three days, they are processed by mechanical tools to separate seed coats and embryos.

 

The rhizomes mature to a suitable stage for eating in approximately six to nine months. Early varieties are harvested in July until September and late varieties from October until March, after the ponds or fields are drained. The large, starch-rich rhizomes are easy to dig out of the drained soil. In small-scale production, they are harvested by hand using fork-like tools. In Japan and on bigger farms, manual labour harvesting is fully replaced by machines.

 

Varieties and cultivars

Lotus varieties have been classified according to their use into three types: rhizome lotus, seed lotus, and flower lotus. Varieties that show more than one of these characteristics are classified by the strongest feature. Regarding production area in China, rhizome lotus has the largest area with 200,000 ha (490,000 acres), followed by seed lotus with 20,000 ha (49,000 acres).

 

Rhizome lotus

Rhizome lotus cultivars produce a higher yield and higher quality rhizomes than seed or flower lotus cultivars. Furthermore, this group grows tall and produces few to no flowers.

 

Cultivars can be classified by harvest time or by the depth of rhizomes into these types:

 

Pre-mature (early) cultivars are harvested before the end of July, serotinous (late) cultivars from September on, and mid-serotinous or mid-matutinal cultivars are in between these harvest times. Using pre-mature cultivars, rhizomes can be harvested earlier and sold for a higher price.

Adlittoral, deep, and intermediate cultivars are distinguished according to the depth in which the rhizomes grow underground. Adlittoral cultivars range from 10 to 20 cm (3.9 to 7.9 in) depth and are often premature. They develop faster due to higher temperatures in surface soil layers. When harvested in July, adlittorals have higher yields than deeper-growing cultivars, but not necessarily when harvested in September. Rhizomes of adlittoral cultivars are crisp and good for frying purposes. Deep cultivars grow more than 40 cm (16 in) deep. They are often serotinous and can harvest high yields. Their rhizomes are starch-rich.

The main popular Nelumbo nucifera cultivars in China are Elian 1, Elian 4, Elian 5, 9217, Xin 1, and 00–01. The average yield of these cultivars is 7.5–15 t/ha (3.3–6.7 tons/acre) of harvest in July and 30–45 t/ha (13–20 tons/acre) of harvest in September. In Australia, the cultivar grown for the fresh rhizome market in Guangdong and Japan, the common rhizome cultivars are Tenno and Bitchu.

 

Seed lotus

The characteristics of seed lotus cultivars are a large number of carpels and seed sets as well as large seeds with better nutritional properties. Roots of these varieties are thin, fibrous, and do not form good rhizomes. The main popular cultivars for seed production in China are Cunsanlian, Xianglian 1, Zilian 2, Jianlian, Ganlian 62, and Taikong 36. The average yield of these cultivars in China is 1.05–1.9 t/ha (0.5–0.8 tons/acre) of dry seeds and weight of thousand seeds between 1,020 and 1,800 g (36 and 63 oz). Green Jade and Vietnam-Red are recommended cultivars for seed production in Australia.

 

Flower lotus

Flower lotus cultivars are used exclusively for ornamental purpose, producing many flowers and the lowest plant height.

 

The seed production of flower lotus is typically poor regarding yield and quality. Flower types differ in the number of petals (single petals, double petals, or multi-petals) and their colours range from single colour in white, yellow, pink, and red to bi-colour, most often of white petals with pink tips or highlights.

 

The flowers are capable of producing ink used by artists such as Morrison Polkinghorne to produce abstract images of the landscapes of southern Asia.

 

One example of a flower lotus is Wanlian. Also known as bowl lotus, wanlians are any miniature cultivars of N. nucifera sized between 5 and 8 centimetres (2.0 and 3.1 in). Bowl lotuses come in various colours and numbers of petals, and they bloom longer than other species of lotus. But together with the rhizome, their seeds are often too small or too hard to be eatable.

 

The sacred lotus may be crossed with the yellow lotus to produce interspecific hybrids. A few varieties have been produced with differing appearances.

 

Farming

About 70% of lotus for human consumption is produced in China. In 2005, the cultivation area in China was estimated at 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres). A majority of lotus production takes place in managed farming systems in ponds or flooded fields like rice.

 

The most widely used system is crop rotation with rice and vegetables. This system is applicable if the propagule (small piece of rhizome) can be planted early in the year. The rhizomes are harvested in July, after which rice can be planted in the same field. Rice is then harvested in October. From November until March, the field stays either free or terricolous vegetables, such as cabbage or spinach, are planted. Alternatively, the vegetable can also be planted after the harvest of the lotus.

 

Another alternative way is not to harvest the lotus rhizome, although it is ripe. A terricolous vegetable is planted between the rhizomes into the drained field. The rhizomes are then harvested next March.

 

A third way is to plant lotus in ponds or fields and raise aquatic animals such as fish, shrimp, or crab in the same field. A more efficient use of the water for both, the aquatic animal and the lotus production has been identified with this planting pattern.

 

Rhizomes

Japanese: 蓮根, romanized: renkon, Korean: 연군 or 蓮根, romanized: yeongun, Hindi: कमल ककड़ी, romanized: kamal kakdi, Telugu: are consumed as a vegetable in Asian countries, extensively in China, Japan, and India, sold whole or in cut pieces, fresh, frozen, or canned. They are fried or cooked mostly in soups, soaked in syrup or pickled in vinegar (with sugar, chili and garlic). Lotus rhizomes have a crunchy texture and are a classic dish at many banquets, where they are deep-fried, stir-fried, or stuffed with meats or preserved fruits. Salads with prawns, sesame oil or coriander leaves are also popular. Fresh lotus root slices are limited by a fast browning rate. Lotus root tea is consumed in Korea.

 

Lotus root is a popular vegetable in Sri Lanka, where it is often cooked in coconut milk gravy. In India, lotus root (also known as kamal kakdi in Hindi) is cooked as a dry curry or sabzi.

 

Japan is one of the primary users of the rhizomes, representing about 1% of all vegetables consumed. Japan grows its own lotus but still must import 18,000 tons of lotus rhizome each year, of which China provides 15,000 tons yearly.

 

Rhizomes contain high amounts of starch (31.2%) without characteristic taste or odor. The texture is comparable to a raw potato. The binding and disintegration properties of isolated Nelumbo starch have been compared with maize and potato starch; Nelumbo starch is shown to be superior as an adjuvant in the preparation of tablets. When dried, N. nucifera is also made into flour, another popular use of this vegetable.

 

Pips

Lotus pip tea is consumed in Korea.

 

Seeds

Fresh lotus seeds (simplified Chinese: 莲子; traditional Chinese: 蓮子; pinyin: liánzǐ; Cantonese Yale: lìhnjí) are nutritious but also vulnerable to microbial contamination, especially fungal infections. Therefore, mostly dry lotus seed-based products are found on the market. Traditional sun baking combined with charcoal processing dries the seeds but results in a loss of nutrients. Freeze-dried lotus seeds have a longer shelf life and maintain original nutrients, while no differences in flavour are found after rehydration compared to fresh lotus seeds.

 

Dry stored lotus seeds are sensitive to moisture and mold infestation; researchers continue to explore new ways to preserve fresh lotus seeds, such as radiation processing.

 

Lotus seeds can be processed into moon cake, lotus seed noodles and food in the forms of paste, fermented milk, rice wine, ice cream, popcorn (phool makhana), and others, with lotus seeds as the main raw material. Traditional Eastern medicine claims that fresh lotus seed wine has thirst-quenching, spleen-healing, and anti-diarrheal advantages after drinking, attributed to unspecified bioactive compounds. Lotus seed tea is consumed in Korea, and lotus embryo tea is consumed in China and Vietnam.

 

Stems

Young lotus stems are used as a salad ingredient in Vietnamese cuisine and as a vegetable ingredient for some soup and curry in Thailand, such as keang som sai bua (Thai: แกงส้มสายบัว, lotus stem sour soup) and keang kati sai bua (แกงกะทิสายบัว, lotus stem in coconut milk curry)

 

In northern and eastern regions of India, the stalk of the flower is used to prepare a soup, kamal gatte ki sabji (Hindi: कमल गट्टे की सब्जी) and an appetizer, kamal kakdi pakode (Hindi: कमल ककडी पकौडे). In South Indian states, the lotus stem is sliced, marinated with salt to dry, and the dried slices are fried and used as a side dish. In Kerala (Malayalam: "താമര") and Tamil Nadu, this end product is called thamara vathal.

 

In the Philippines, an indigenous variety called tukal is used as the main ingredient in dishes with coconut milk. The stems and petals can be bought in markets when in season.

 

Leaves

In China and Korea, lotus leaf tea (Korean: 연잎차, romanized: yeon'ip-cha) is made from the leaves of the lotus. It is also used as a wrap for steaming rice and sticky rice and other steamed dishes in Southeast Asian cuisine, such as lo mai gai in Chinese cuisine or kao hor bai bua (Thai: ข้าวห่อใบบัว), fried rice wrapped in lotus leaf in Thai cuisine.

 

Vietnamese also use lotus leaves to wrap green young rice, cốm, which is eaten in autumn. The leaves impart a unique scent to the soft, moist rice.

 

Flowers

In Korea, lotus flower tea (연꽃차 yeon'kkot-cha) is made from the dried petals of the white lotus.

 

The stamens can be dried and made into a fragrant herbal tea (Chinese: 蓮花 茶; pinyin: liánhuā cha; Cantonese Yale: lìhnfāa chah), or used to impart a scent to tea leaves (particularly in Vietnam). This Vietnamese lotus tea is called trà sen, chè sen, or chè ướp sen.

 

Risks

The petals, leaves, and rhizome can also all be eaten raw, but there is a risk of parasite transmission (e.g., Fasciolopsis buski): it is therefore recommended that they be cooked before eating.

 

Use in water treatment

Nelumbo nucifera shows high potential for usage in wastewater treatment removing polluting compounds and heavy metals. It is able to grow in variable water conditions and in low light intensity. Various studies show the successful use of N. nucifera to counteract water eutrophication. The leaves of the floating lotus reduce sunlight reaching the lower part of the water. This suppresses algae growth in N. nucifera aquatic systems and thus, the oxygen content is up to 20% higher than in other aquatic plant systems. Due to intense agricultural practices, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution are major problems in aquatic systems. N. nucifera is able to assimilate a higher content of phosphorus than aquatic plants currently used for water remediation (such as water hyacinth). It also assimilates nitrogen ("denitrification") and creates a habitat for bacterial growth in the water body. Through rhizofiltration, heavy metals – including arsenic, copper, and cadmium – can be removed efficiently from the water. The results observed are impressive showing 96% of copper and 85% cadmium metals removed after a seven-day incubation period. The accumulation of heavy metals doesn't show morphological symptoms of metal toxicity; however, the rhizome quality for human consumption needs further study.

 

Storage and commercialization

Currently, most rhizomes are consumed fresh, and it is not common to store them due to their poor shelf life performance. This limits export possibilities for low-income production countries in Asia. Rhizomes quickly lose water, oxidation occurs and nutrient composition changes within a short time after harvest. Optimal storage temperatures range between 5 and 8 °C (41 and 46 °F). There are three different approaches to storing rhizomes. By stacking the rhizomes, they are storable and remain fresh for about three weeks. Special stacking with silver sand and soil results in five to six layers that prevent water loss, thus, the rhizome stays fresh for up to two months. However, the method is not suitable for commercialization but rather for home use. Hydrogen sulfide fumigation reduces enzymatic browning and therefore ensures rhizome quality. Dipping the rhizomes in a salt solution prevents oxidation and bacterial reproduction, which allows storage for up to five months and greater export ability. This treatment is related to the high cost and inefficient cleaning process before eating the rhizomes.

 

Use in bioengineering

Nelumbo nucifera contains some thermal-stable proteins that might be useful in protein bioengineering processes. The proteins are characterized by seed longevity used for cell protection and repair under stress. There are also several indications that compounds of N. nucifera are used in drug fabrication in human health research for multiple purposes. Lotus leaves possess hydrophobic characteristics, attributed to a waxy coat that prevents water from adhering to the surface. This attribute has influenced the conception of the "lotus effect" in biomimicry and engineering, guiding the design of materials that resist water and remain self-cleaning. Researchers at the National University of Singapore have utilized the water-repelling structure as inspiration for developing eAir, an aero-elastic sensor capable of detecting subtle pressure changes or other environmental stimuli.

 

Other uses

The distinctive dried seed heads, which resemble the spouts of watering cans, are widely sold throughout the world for decorative purposes and for dried flower arranging.

 

In Asia, the petals are sometimes used for garnish, while the large leaves are used as a wrap for food, not frequently eaten (for example, as a wrapper for zongzi). Lotus leaves are also used to serve food in various cultures.

 

A unique fabric called lotus silk, from the lotus plant fibers, is produced only at Inle Lake, Myanmar, and in Siem Reap, Cambodia. This thread is used for weaving special robes for Buddha images called kya thingan (lotus robe).

 

Chemical composition

The flavonol miquelianin, as well as the alkaloids (+)-(1R)-coclaurine and (−)-(1S)-norcoclaurine, can be found in the leaves of N. nucifera. The plant also contains nuciferine, neferine, and many other benzylisoquinoline alkaloids with medicinal properties.

 

Health properties and nutrients

(December 2017)

 

Lotus root, cooked, no salt

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)

Energy278 kJ (66 kcal)

Carbohydrates

16.02 g

Sugars0.50 g

Dietary fiber3.1 g

Fat

0.07 g

Protein

1.58 g

VitaminsQuantity%DV†

Thiamine (B1)11%0.127 mg

Riboflavin (B2)1%0.01 mg

Niacin (B3)2%0.3 mg

Pantothenic acid (B5)6%0.302 mg

Vitamin B617%0.218 mg

Folate (B9)2%8 μg

Choline5%25.4 mg

Vitamin C33%27.4 mg

MineralsQuantity%DV†

Calcium3%26 mg

Iron7%0.9 mg

Magnesium6%22 mg

Manganese10%0.22 mg

Phosphorus11%78 mg

Potassium12%363 mg

Sodium3%45 mg

Zinc3%0.33 mg

Other constituentsQuantity

Water81.42 g

Link to USDA Database entry

Units

μg = micrograms • mg = milligrams

IU = International units

†Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults.

 

All parts of Nelumbo nucifera are edible, with the rhizome and seeds being the main consumption parts. Traditionally rhizomes, leaves, and seeds have been used as folk medicines, Ayurveda, Chinese traditional medicine, and oriental medicine. In Chinese medicine, seeds are still used as lian zi xin (蓮子心).

 

Lotus rhizomes and seeds and their processing by-products are widely consumed in Asia, the Americas, and Oceania for high content of physiologically active substances. Especially in China, lotus seeds are popular with a cultural history going back about 3000 years. As early as the Han Dynasty, lotus seeds were already recorded as sweet, astringent, nourishing the heart and kidney in "Shen Nong's Herbal Classic". Nowadays there are 22 varieties for the four known Chinese lines, which are found particularly in Jianning (still called "the town of Jianlian lotus seeds in China") and Guangchang ("the town of white lotus seeds in China").

 

These days the perennial aquatic herb is gaining popularity because of its nutraceutical and historical importance It will be of economic value if the different parts of lotus can be developed as functional food. Because of its special role in human health and richness in nutrients and bioactive substances, the Chinese Ministry of Health approved the use of N. nucifera as both "food and medicine."

 

Rhizomes

The rhizomes are 60–14 cm (23.6–5.5 in) long, 0.5–2.5 cm (0.20–0.98 in) in diameter, yellowish white to yellowish brown, smooth, and with nodes and internodes.

 

Lotus root is a moderate-calorie root vegetable (100 g of root stem provides about 74 calories) and is composed of several vitamins, minerals, and nutrients: 83.80% water, 0.11% fat, 1.56% reducing sugar, 0.41% sucrose, 2.70% crude protein, 9.25% starch, 0.80% fiber, 0.10% ash and 0.06% calcium.[81] 100 g of root provides 44 mg of vitamin C or 73% of daily recommended values (RDA).

 

Lotus rhizome and its extracts have shown diuretic, psychopharmacological, anti-diabetic, anti-obesity, hypoglycemic, antipyretic and antioxidant activities.

 

Seeds

Lotus seeds are mostly oval or spherical, with sizes varying according to varieties. They are generally 1.2–1.8 cm long, with diameters ranging from 0.8 to 1.4 cm and a weight of 1.1–1.4 g. After lotus seeds have been decorticated and peeled, they are edible and rich in nutrients and can be dried for storage. Their nutritional values can differ due to culture environments and varieties.

 

Not only do these seeds contain proteins of high quality and are rich in a variety of essential amino acids including high contents of albumin (42%) and globulin (27%), they also contain unsaturated fatty acids, carbohydrates, vitamins, calcium, iron, zinc, phosphorus and other trace elements. They also provide water-soluble polysaccharides, alkaloids, flavonoids, superoxide dismutase, and other bioactive components.

 

Lotus seeds also contain particularly large amounts of vitamins, including VB1, VB2, VB6 and Vitamin E.

 

The functional components (polyphenols, protein, polysaccharides) in N. nucifera seeds can help combat high blood pressure, diabetes, and gallstones.

 

After lotus seed germination, crude protein and fat levels in the endosperm significantly increase. It is therefore an important method to enhance its nutritional quality.

 

Cultural and religious significance

An Indian lotus motif on a Hindu temple. Nelumbo nucifera is also the national flower of India.

 

Lotus symbol in Derafsh Kaviani, flag of the Sasanian Empire

Main article: Sacred lotus in religious art

Nelumbo nucifera is a lotus species with historical cultural and spiritual significance. It is a sacred flower in both Hinduism and Buddhism, representing the path to spiritual awakening and enlightenment. In Christianity, the lotus flower is often associated with the apostle Thomas and his coming to India. The lotus flower is also mentioned in the bible.

 

In Asian art, a lotus throne is a stylized lotus flower used as the seat or base for a figure. It is the normal pedestal for divine figures in Buddhist art and Hindu art and is often seen in Jain art. Originating in Indian art, it followed Indian religions to East Asia in particular. Lotus flowers are also often held by figures.

 

The Nelumbo nucifera, which is also called (Nilufar Abi in Persian), can be seen in many reliefs of the Achaemenid period (552 BC) such as the statue of Anahita in the Persepolis. The lotus flower was included in Kaveh the blacksmith's Derafsh and later as the flag of the Sasanian Empire Derafsh Kaviani. Today, it is the symbol of Iranians Solar Hijri calendar.

 

The lotus flower also holds cultural and religious significance in Ismaili Muslim and related South Asian traditions. For example, in South Asian Ismaili literature, the lotus is compared to the pure soul. A poem describes the lotus' beauty, describing how its delicate white petals remain pure and beautiful, despite its murky environment. Similarly, a pure soul is part of this world, yet is not of this world, much like the circumstances of the lotus. The poem further emphasizes the importance of true knowledge or gnosis, which is likened to the pure rainwater that allows the lotus to flourish. Ismaili belief holds that the true guide provides this true knowledge, without which the pure soul cannot survive. Just as the lotus flower would rather die than drink from a reeking swamp, the pure soul also seeks nourishment solely through true knowledge."), with isolated locations at the Caspian Sea. Today, the species also occurs in southern India, Sri Lanka, virtually all of Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and northern and eastern Australia, but this is probably the result of human translocations. It has a very long history (c. 3,000 years) of being cultivated for its edible seeds and is commonly cultivated in water gardens. It is the national flower of India and Vietnam.

 

Names

Nelumbo nucifera is also known as Egyptian bean.

 

Classification

The lotus is often confused with the true water lilies of the genus Nymphaea, in particular N. caerulea, the "blue lotus." In fact, several older systems, such as the Bentham & Hooker system (which is widely used in the Indian subcontinent), refer to the lotus by its old synonym, Nymphaea nelumbo.

 

While all modern plant taxonomy systems agree that this species belongs in the genus Nelumbo, the systems disagree as to which family Nelumbo should be placed in or whether the genus should belong in its own unique family and order. According to the APG IV system, N. nucifera, N. lutea, and their extinct relatives belong in Proteales with the protea flowers due to genetic comparisons. Older systems, such as the Cronquist system, place N. nucifera and its relatives in the order Nymphaeles based on anatomical similarities. According to the APG IV classification, the closest relatives of Nelumbo include the sycamores (Platanaceae).

 

Botany

The lotus roots are planted in pond or river bottom soil, while the leaves float on the water's surface or are held well above it. The leaf stalks (petioles) can be up to 200 cm (6 ft 7 in) long, allowing the plant to grow in water to that depth, The peltate leaf blade or lamina can have a horizontal spread of 1 m (3 ft 3 in). The leaves may be as large as 80 cm (31 in) in diameter.

 

Flower

The flowers are usually found on thick stems rising several centimeters above the leaves. They are showy and grow up to 30 cm (12 in) in diameter, but fourteen inches (35 centimeters) has been frequently reported.

 

Some cultivated varieties have extraordinary numbers of petals. For example, the Chinese variety qian ban lian ("thousand petals lotus") can have between 3000 and 4000 petals in a single blossom and the Japanese variety ohmi myoren ("strange lotus") can have between 2000 and 5000 petals, the greatest number recorded for any species of plant.

 

Researchers report that the lotus has the remarkable ability to regulate the temperature of its flowers within a narrow range, just as humans and other warm-blooded animals do. Roger S. Seymour and Paul Schultze-Motel, physiologists at the University of Adelaide in Australia, found that lotus flowers blooming in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens maintained a temperature of 30–35 °C (86–95 °F), even when the air temperature dropped to 10 °C (50 °F). They suspect the flowers may be doing this to attract cold-blooded insect pollinators. Studies published in the journals Nature and Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences in 1996 and 1998 were important contributions in the field of thermoregulation in plants. Two other species known to be able to regulate their temperature include Symplocarpus foetidus and Philodendron selloum. The red tiger lotus is native to West Africa, including Nigeria and Cameroon, and thrives in slow-moving water.

 

Seed

A fertilized lotus flower bears fruit that contains a cluster of 10 to 30 seeds. Each seed is ovoid 1–2.5 cm wide by 1–1.5 cm long with a brownish coat.: 132  Lotus seeds can remain viable after long periods of dormancy. In 1994, a seed from a sacred lotus, dated at roughly 1,300 years old ± 270 years, was successfully germinated.

 

The traditional sacred lotus is only distantly related to Nymphaea caerulea, but possesses similar chemistry. Both Nymphaea caerulea and Nelumbo nucifera contain the alkaloids nuciferine and aporphine.[citation needed]

 

The genome of the sacred lotus was sequenced in May 2013.

 

Cultivation

The sacred lotus grows in water up to 2.5 m (8 ft) deep. The minimum water depth is about 30 cm (12 in). In colder climates, having a deeper water level protects the tubers more effectively, and overall is helpful for better growth and flowering. The sacred lotus germinates at temperatures above 13 °C (55 °F). Most varieties are not naturally cold-hardy, but may readily adapt to living outdoors year-round in USDA hardiness zones 6 through 11 (with some growers having success in zones as low as 4 or 5); the higher the zone's number, the greater the adaptability of the plants. In the growing season, from April to September (in the northern hemisphere), the average daytime temperature needed is 23 to 27 °C (73 to 81 °F). In regions with low light levels in winter, the sacred lotus has a period of dormancy. The tubers are not cold-resistant, if removed from water, and exposed to the air; when kept underwater in soil, the energy-rich tubers can overwinter temperatures below 0 °C (32 °F). If the plants are taken out of the water for wintertime storage (mostly in exceptionally cold climates), the tubers and roots must be stored in a stable, frost-free location, such as a garage, preferably in a cardboard box or container filled completely with vermiculite or perlite. Care must be taken to fully insulate the tubers.

 

Planting

The sacred lotus requires a nutrient-rich and loamy soil. In the beginning of the summer period (from March until May in the northern hemisphere), a small part of rhizome with at least one eye is either planted in ponds or directly into a flooded field. There are several other propagation ways via seeds or buds. Furthermore, tissue culture is a promising propagation method for the future to produce high volumes of uniform, true-to-type, disease-free materials.

 

The first step of the cultivation is to plough the dry field. One round of manure is applied after ten days, before flooding the field. To support a quick initial growth, the water level is relatively low and increases when plants grow. Then a maximum of approximately 4,000 per hectare (1,600/acre) with grid spacing of 1.2 by 2 metres (3 ft 11 in × 6 ft 7 in) are used to plant directly into the mud 10–15 cm (3+7⁄8–5+7⁄8 in) below the soil surface.

 

Harvest

The stolon is ready to harvest two to three months after planting. It must be harvested before flowering. Harvesting the stolon is done by manual labor. For this step, the field is not drained. The stolon is pulled out of the water by pulling and shaking the young leaves in the shallow water.

 

The first leaves and flowers can be harvested three months after planting. Flowers can be picked every two days during summer and every three days during the colder season. Four months after planting, the production of flowers has its climax. The harvest of flowers is usually done by hand for three to four months.

 

Seeds and seed pods can be harvested when they turn black four to eight months after planting. After sun drying for two to three days, they are processed by mechanical tools to separate seed coats and embryos.

 

The rhizomes mature to a suitable stage for eating in approximately six to nine months. Early varieties are harvested in July until September and late varieties from October until March, after the ponds or fields are drained. The large, starch-rich rhizomes are easy to dig out of the drained soil. In small-scale production, they are harvested by hand using fork-like tools. In Japan and on bigger farms, manual labour harvesting is fully replaced by machines.

 

Varieties and cultivars

Lotus varieties have been classified according to their use into three types: rhizome lotus, seed lotus, and flower lotus. Varieties that show more than one of these characteristics are classified by the strongest feature. Regarding production area in China, rhizome lotus has the largest area with 200,000 ha (490,000 acres), followed by seed lotus with 20,000 ha (49,000 acres).

 

Rhizome lotus

Rhizome lotus cultivars produce a higher yield and higher quality rhizomes than seed or flower lotus cultivars. Furthermore, this group grows tall and produces few to no flowers.

 

Cultivars can be classified by harvest time or by the depth of rhizomes into these types:

 

Pre-mature (early) cultivars are harvested before the end of July, serotinous (late) cultivars from September on, and mid-serotinous or mid-matutinal cultivars are in between these harvest times. Using pre-mature cultivars, rhizomes can be harvested earlier and sold for a higher price.

Adlittoral, deep, and intermediate cultivars are distinguished according to the depth in which the rhizomes grow underground. Adlittoral cultivars range from 10 to 20 cm (3.9 to 7.9 in) depth and are often premature. They develop faster due to higher temperatures in surface soil layers. When harvested in July, adlittorals have higher yields than deeper-growing cultivars, but not necessarily when harvested in September. Rhizomes of adlittoral cultivars are crisp and good for frying purposes. Deep cultivars grow more than 40 cm (16 in) deep. They are often serotinous and can harvest high yields. Their rhizomes are starch-rich.

The main popular Nelumbo nucifera cultivars in China are Elian 1, Elian 4, Elian 5, 9217, Xin 1, and 00–01. The average yield of these cultivars is 7.5–15 t/ha (3.3–6.7 tons/acre) of harvest in July and 30–45 t/ha (13–20 tons/acre) of harvest in September. In Australia, the cultivar grown for the fresh rhizome market in Guangdong and Japan, the common rhizome cultivars are Tenno and Bitchu.

 

Seed lotus

The characteristics of seed lotus cultivars are a large number of carpels and seed sets as well as large seeds with better nutritional properties. Roots of these varieties are thin, fibrous, and do not form good rhizomes. The main popular cultivars for seed production in China are Cunsanlian, Xianglian 1, Zilian 2, Jianlian, Ganlian 62, and Taikong 36. The average yield of these cultivars in China is 1.05–1.9 t/ha (0.5–0.8 tons/acre) of dry seeds and weight of thousand seeds between 1,020 and 1,800 g (36 and 63 oz). Green Jade and Vietnam-Red are recommended cultivars for seed production in Australia.

 

Flower lotus

Flower lotus cultivars are used exclusively for ornamental purpose, producing many flowers and the lowest plant height.

 

The seed production of flower lotus is typically poor regarding yield and quality. Flower types differ in the number of petals (single petals, double petals, or multi-petals) and their colours range from single colour in white, yellow, pink, and red to bi-colour, most often of white petals with pink tips or highlights.

 

The flowers are capable of producing ink used by artists such as Morrison Polkinghorne to produce abstract images of the landscapes of southern Asia.

 

One example of a flower lotus is Wanlian. Also known as bowl lotus, wanlians are any miniature cultivars of N. nucifera sized between 5 and 8 centimetres (2.0 and 3.1 in). Bowl lotuses come in various colours and numbers of petals, and they bloom longer than other species of lotus. But together with the rhizome, their seeds are often too small or too hard to be eatable.

 

The sacred lotus may be crossed with the yellow lotus to produce interspecific hybrids. A few varieties have been produced with differing appearances.

 

Farming

About 70% of lotus for human consumption is produced in China. In 2005, the cultivation area in China was estimated at 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres). A majority of lotus production takes place in managed farming systems in ponds or flooded fields like rice.

 

The most widely used system is crop rotation with rice and vegetables. This system is applicable if the propagule (small piece of rhizome) can be planted early in the year. The rhizomes are harvested in July, after which rice can be planted in the same field. Rice is then harvested in October. From November until March, the field stays either free or terricolous vegetables, such as cabbage or spinach, are planted. Alternatively, the vegetable can also be planted after the harvest of the lotus.

 

Another alternative way is not to harvest the lotus rhizome, although it is ripe. A terricolous vegetable is planted between the rhizomes into the drained field. The rhizomes are then harvested next March.

 

A third way is to plant lotus in ponds or fields and raise aquatic animals such as fish, shrimp, or crab in the same field. A more efficient use of the water for both, the aquatic animal and the lotus production has been identified with this planting pattern.

 

Rhizomes

Japanese: 蓮根, romanized: renkon, Korean: 연군 or 蓮根, romanized: yeongun, Hindi: कमल ककड़ी, romanized: kamal kakdi, Telugu: are consumed as a vegetable in Asian countries, extensively in China, Japan, and India, sold whole or in cut pieces, fresh, frozen, or canned. They are fried or cooked mostly in soups, soaked in syrup or pickled in vinegar (with sugar, chili and garlic). Lotus rhizomes have a crunchy texture and are a classic dish at many banquets, where they are deep-fried, stir-fried, or stuffed with meats or preserved fruits. Salads with prawns, sesame oil or coriander leaves are also popular. Fresh lotus root slices are limited by a fast browning rate. Lotus root tea is consumed in Korea.

 

Lotus root is a popular vegetable in Sri Lanka, where it is often cooked in coconut milk gravy. In India, lotus root (also known as kamal kakdi in Hindi) is cooked as a dry curry or sabzi.

 

Japan is one of the primary users of the rhizomes, representing about 1% of all vegetables consumed. Japan grows its own lotus but still must import 18,000 tons of lotus rhizome each year, of which China provides 15,000 tons yearly.

 

Rhizomes contain high amounts of starch (31.2%) without characteristic taste or odor. The texture is comparable to a raw potato. The binding and disintegration properties of isolated Nelumbo starch have been compared with maize and potato starch; Nelumbo starch is shown to be superior as an adjuvant in the preparation of tablets. When dried, N. nucifera is also made into flour, another popular use of this vegetable.

 

Pips

Lotus pip tea is consumed in Korea.

 

Seeds

Fresh lotus seeds (simplified Chinese: 莲子; traditional Chinese: 蓮子; pinyin: liánzǐ; Cantonese Yale: lìhnjí) are nutritious but also vulnerable to microbial contamination, especially fungal infections. Therefore, mostly dry lotus seed-based products are found on the market. Traditional sun baking combined with charcoal processing dries the seeds but results in a loss of nutrients. Freeze-dried lotus seeds have a longer shelf life and maintain original nutrients, while no differences in flavour are found after rehydration compared to fresh lotus seeds.

 

Dry stored lotus seeds are sensitive to moisture and mold infestation; researchers continue to explore new ways to preserve fresh lotus seeds, such as radiation processing.

 

Lotus seeds can be processed into moon cake, lotus seed noodles and food in the forms of paste, fermented milk, rice wine, ice cream, popcorn (phool makhana), and others, with lotus seeds as the main raw material. Traditional Eastern medicine claims that fresh lotus seed wine has thirst-quenching, spleen-healing, and anti-diarrheal advantages after drinking, attributed to unspecified bioactive compounds. Lotus seed tea is consumed in Korea, and lotus embryo tea is consumed in China and Vietnam.

 

Stems

Young lotus stems are used as a salad ingredient in Vietnamese cuisine and as a vegetable ingredient for some soup and curry in Thailand, such as keang som sai bua (Thai: แกงส้มสายบัว, lotus stem sour soup) and keang kati sai bua (แกงกะทิสายบัว, lotus stem in coconut milk curry)

 

In northern and eastern regions of India, the stalk of the flower is used to prepare a soup, kamal gatte ki sabji (Hindi: कमल गट्टे की सब्जी) and an appetizer, kamal kakdi pakode (Hindi: कमल ककडी पकौडे). In South Indian states, the lotus stem is sliced, marinated with salt to dry, and the dried slices are fried and used as a side dish. In Kerala (Malayalam: "താമര") and Tamil Nadu, this end product is called thamara vathal.

 

In the Philippines, an indigenous variety called tukal is used as the main ingredient in dishes with coconut milk. The stems and petals can be bought in markets when in season.

 

Leaves

In China and Korea, lotus leaf tea (Korean: 연잎차, romanized: yeon'ip-cha) is made from the leaves of the lotus. It is also used as a wrap for steaming rice and sticky rice and other steamed dishes in Southeast Asian cuisine, such as lo mai gai in Chinese cuisine or kao hor bai bua (Thai: ข้าวห่อใบบัว), fried rice wrapped in lotus leaf in Thai cuisine.

 

Vietnamese also use lotus leaves to wrap green young rice, cốm, which is eaten in autumn. The leaves impart a unique scent to the soft, moist rice.

 

Flowers

In Korea, lotus flower tea (연꽃차 yeon'kkot-cha) is made from the dried petals of the white lotus.

 

The stamens can be dried and made into a fragrant herbal tea (Chinese: 蓮花 茶; pinyin: liánhuā cha; Cantonese Yale: lìhnfāa chah), or used to impart a scent to tea leaves (particularly in Vietnam). This Vietnamese lotus tea is called trà sen, chè sen, or chè ướp sen.

 

Risks

The petals, leaves, and rhizome can also all be eaten raw, but there is a risk of parasite transmission (e.g., Fasciolopsis buski): it is therefore recommended that they be cooked before eating.

 

Use in water treatment

Nelumbo nucifera shows high potential for usage in wastewater treatment removing polluting compounds and heavy metals. It is able to grow in variable water conditions and in low light intensity. Various studies show the successful use of N. nucifera to counteract water eutrophication. The leaves of the floating lotus reduce sunlight reaching the lower part of the water. This suppresses algae growth in N. nucifera aquatic systems and thus, the oxygen content is up to 20% higher than in other aquatic plant systems. Due to intense agricultural practices, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution are major problems in aquatic systems. N. nucifera is able to assimilate a higher content of phosphorus than aquatic plants currently used for water remediation (such as water hyacinth). It also assimilates nitrogen ("denitrification") and creates a habitat for bacterial growth in the water body. Through rhizofiltration, heavy metals – including arsenic, copper, and cadmium – can be removed efficiently from the water. The results observed are impressive showing 96% of copper and 85% cadmium metals removed after a seven-day incubation period. The accumulation of heavy metals doesn't show morphological symptoms of metal toxicity; however, the rhizome quality for human consumption needs further study.

 

Storage and commercialization

Currently, most rhizomes are consumed fresh, and it is not common to store them due to their poor shelf life performance. This limits export possibilities for low-income production countries in Asia. Rhizomes quickly lose water, oxidation occurs and nutrient composition changes within a short time after harvest. Optimal storage temperatures range between 5 and 8 °C (41 and 46 °F). There are three different approaches to storing rhizomes. By stacking the rhizomes, they are storable and remain fresh for about three weeks. Special stacking with silver sand and soil results in five to six layers that prevent water loss, thus, the rhizome stays fresh for up to two months. However, the method is not suitable for commercialization but rather for home use. Hydrogen sulfide fumigation reduces enzymatic browning and therefore ensures rhizome quality. Dipping the rhizomes in a salt solution prevents oxidation and bacterial reproduction, which allows storage for up to five months and greater export ability. This treatment is related to the high cost and inefficient cleaning process before eating the rhizomes.

 

Use in bioengineering

Nelumbo nucifera contains some thermal-stable proteins that might be useful in protein bioengineering processes. The proteins are characterized by seed longevity used for cell protection and repair under stress. There are also several indications that compounds of N. nucifera are used in drug fabrication in human health research for multiple purposes. Lotus leaves possess hydrophobic characteristics, attributed to a waxy coat that prevents water from adhering to the surface. This attribute has influenced the conception of the "lotus effect" in biomimicry and engineering, guiding the design of materials that resist water and remain self-cleaning. Researchers at the National University of Singapore have utilized the water-repelling structure as inspiration for developing eAir, an aero-elastic sensor capable of detecting subtle pressure changes or other environmental stimuli.

 

Other uses

The distinctive dried seed heads, which resemble the spouts of watering cans, are widely sold throughout the world for decorative purposes and for dried flower arranging.

 

In Asia, the petals are sometimes used for garnish, while the large leaves are used as a wrap for food, not frequently eaten (for example, as a wrapper for zongzi). Lotus leaves are also used to serve food in various cultures.

 

A unique fabric called lotus silk, from the lotus plant fibers, is produced only at Inle Lake, Myanmar, and in Siem Reap, Cambodia. This thread is used for weaving special robes for Buddha images called kya thingan (lotus robe).

 

Chemical composition

The flavonol miquelianin, as well as the alkaloids (+)-(1R)-coclaurine and (−)-(1S)-norcoclaurine, can be found in the leaves of N. nucifera. The plant also contains nuciferine, neferine, and many other benzylisoquinoline alkaloids with medicinal properties.

 

Health properties and nutrients

(December 2017)

 

Lotus root, cooked, no salt

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)

Energy278 kJ (66 kcal)

Carbohydrates

16.02 g

Sugars0.50 g

Dietary fiber3.1 g

Fat

0.07 g

Protein

1.58 g

VitaminsQuantity%DV†

Thiamine (B1)11%0.127 mg

Riboflavin (B2)1%0.01 mg

Niacin (B3)2%0.3 mg

Pantothenic acid (B5)6%0.302 mg

Vitamin B617%0.218 mg

Folate (B9)2%8 μg

Choline5%25.4 mg

Vitamin C33%27.4 mg

MineralsQuantity%DV†

Calcium3%26 mg

Iron7%0.9 mg

Magnesium6%22 mg

Manganese10%0.22 mg

Phosphorus11%78 mg

Potassium12%363 mg

Sodium3%45 mg

Zinc3%0.33 mg

Other constituentsQuantity

Water81.42 g

Link to USDA Database entry

Units

μg = micrograms • mg = milligrams

IU = International units

†Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults.

 

All parts of Nelumbo nucifera are edible, with the rhizome and seeds being the main consumption parts. Traditionally rhizomes, leaves, and seeds have been used as folk medicines, Ayurveda, Chinese traditional medicine, and oriental medicine. In Chinese medicine, seeds are still used as lian zi xin (蓮子心).

 

Lotus rhizomes and seeds and their processing by-products are widely consumed in Asia, the Americas, and Oceania for high content of physiologically active substances. Especially in China, lotus seeds are popular with a cultural history going back about 3000 years. As early as the Han Dynasty, lotus seeds were already recorded as sweet, astringent, nourishing the heart and kidney in "Shen Nong's Herbal Classic". Nowadays there are 22 varieties for the four known Chinese lines, which are found particularly in Jianning (still called "the town of Jianlian lotus seeds in China") and Guangchang ("the town of white lotus seeds in China").

 

These days the perennial aquatic herb is gaining popularity because of its nutraceutical and historical importance It will be of economic value if the different parts of lotus can be developed as functional food. Because of its special role in human health and richness in nutrients and bioactive substances, the Chinese Ministry of Health approved the use of N. nucifera as both "food and medicine."

 

Rhizomes

The rhizomes are 60–14 cm (23.6–5.5 in) long, 0.5–2.5 cm (0.20–0.98 in) in diameter, yellowish white to yellowish brown, smooth, and with nodes and internodes.

 

Lotus root is a moderate-calorie root vegetable (100 g of root stem provides about 74 calories) and is composed of several vitamins, minerals, and nutrients: 83.80% water, 0.11% fat, 1.56% reducing sugar, 0.41% sucrose, 2.70% crude protein, 9.25% starch, 0.80% fiber, 0.10% ash and 0.06% calcium.[81] 100 g of root provides 44 mg of vitamin C or 73% of daily recommended values (RDA).

 

Lotus rhizome and its extracts have shown diuretic, psychopharmacological, anti-diabetic, anti-obesity, hypoglycemic, antipyretic and antioxidant activities.

 

Seeds

Lotus seeds are mostly oval or spherical, with sizes varying according to varieties. They are generally 1.2–1.8 cm long, with diameters ranging from 0.8 to 1.4 cm and a weight of 1.1–1.4 g. After lotus seeds have been decorticated and peeled, they are edible and rich in nutrients and can be dried for storage. Their nutritional values can differ due to culture environments and varieties.

 

Not only do these seeds contain proteins of high quality and are rich in a variety of essential amino acids including high contents of albumin (42%) and globulin (27%), they also contain unsaturated fatty acids, carbohydrates, vitamins, calcium, iron, zinc, phosphorus and other trace elements. They also provide water-soluble polysaccharides, alkaloids, flavonoids, superoxide dismutase, and other bioactive components.

 

Lotus seeds also contain particularly large amounts of vitamins, including VB1, VB2, VB6 and Vitamin E.

 

The functional components (polyphenols, protein, polysaccharides) in N. nucifera seeds can help combat high blood pressure, diabetes, and gallstones.

 

After lotus seed germination, crude protein and fat levels in the endosperm significantly increase. It is therefore an important method to enhance its nutritional quality.

 

Cultural and religious significance

An Indian lotus motif on a Hindu temple. Nelumbo nucifera is also the national flower of India.

 

Lotus symbol in Derafsh Kaviani, flag of the Sasanian Empire

Main article: Sacred lotus in religious art

Nelumbo nucifera is a lotus species with historical cultural and spiritual significance. It is a sacred flower in both Hinduism and Buddhism, representing the path to spiritual awakening and enlightenment. In Christianity, the lotus flower is often associated with the apostle Thomas and his coming to India. The lotus flower is also mentioned in the bible.

 

In Asian art, a lotus throne is a stylized lotus flower used as the seat or base for a figure. It is the normal pedestal for divine figures in Buddhist art and Hindu art and is often seen in Jain art. Originating in Indian art, it followed Indian religions to East Asia in particular. Lotus flowers are also often held by figures.

 

The Nelumbo nucifera, which is also called (Nilufar Abi in Persian), can be seen in many reliefs of the Achaemenid period (552 BC) such as the statue of Anahita in the Persepolis. The lotus flower was included in Kaveh the blacksmith's Derafsh and later as the flag of the Sasanian Empire Derafsh Kaviani. Today, it is the symbol of Iranians Solar Hijri calendar.

 

The lotus flower also holds cultural and religious significance in Ismaili Muslim and related South Asian traditions. For example, in South Asian Ismaili literature, the lotus is compared to the pure soul. A poem describes the lotus' beauty, describing how its delicate white petals remain pure and beautiful, despite its murky environment. Similarly, a pure soul is part of this world, yet is not of this world, much like the circumstances of the lotus. The poem further emphasizes the importance of true knowledge or gnosis, which is likened to the pure rainwater that allows the lotus to flourish. Ismaili belief holds that the true guide provides this true knowledge, without which the pure soul cannot survive. Just as the lotus flower would rather die than drink from a reeking swamp, the pure soul also seeks nourishment solely through true knowledge.

Vote to make this a real LEGO set! ideas.lego.com/projects/118422

 

Additional images, including minifigures: flic.kr/s/aHskmkvuWw

 

If the set gets 10,000 votes of support from the public, LEGO will consider selling it in stores, so.... please vote and pass it on!

Ella Watkins is a Dean’s Honored Graduate from the Department of Molecular Biosciences. She is graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a specialization in Cell and Molecular Biology. She is being recognized for her diverse academic achievements and her outstanding research in the area of molecular and synthetic biology.

 

Ella began her research career in Dr. Jeffrey Barrick’s lab with the 2014 iGEM team. She and the team spent the summer building a system for testing the fidelity and efficiency of non-canonical amino acid synthetase/tRNA pairs. The team won a Gold Medal at the international Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) conference for their work. In the fall of 2014, she joined the research lab of Dr. Andrew Ellington to work on a project in protein engineering and directed evolution. Her main focus was to adapt emulsionbased directed evolution methods, compartmentalized selfreplication and compartmentalized partnered replication, to a eukaryotic organism. Recently she has been using this method to evolve DNA polymerases that may be able to synthesize and sequence very long pieces of DNA, potentially enabling the construction and decoding of new organisms.

 

Her work has been recognized with a Fall Undergraduate Research Forum Presentation Award. During her studies she came to realize that the best way to learn something was to teach it to someone else. This led her to become a personal tutor for Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Microbial Genetics. Next year, Ella will enter the Ph.D. Program in Bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology.

Megan Palmer, Executive Director, Bio Policy and Leadership Initiatives; Adjunct Professor, Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford University, USA, Rania A. Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation of Egypt, Michelle Longmire, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Medable, USA, Nita Madhav, Chief Executive Officer, Metabiota, USA and Umra Omar, Founder and Executive Director, Safari Doctors, Kenya in the Turning the Tide on Infectious Diseases and Cancer session at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, 25 May. Congress Centre - Forum Room. Copyright: World Economic Forum/Sikarin Fon Thanachaiary

The word “organic” is everywhere, but what does it mean and why is it so important?

I believe in the fundamental effects that an organic lifestyle can have on us. From personal health to a healthier planet, I invite you to learn more about what going organic can mean to you.

 

Simply stated, organic produce and other ingredients are grown without the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, genetically modified organisms, or ionizing radiation. Animals that produce meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products do not take antibiotics or growth hormones.

 

The USDA National Organic Program (NOP) defines organic as follows:

 

Organic food is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations. Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation. Before a product can be labeled "organic," a Government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards. Companies that handle or process organic food before it gets to your local supermarket or restaurant must be certified, too.

  

View of UniKL MICET campus during evening. Seven exposures blended in Photomatix Pro 5 using Contrast Optimizer mode.

The Museum of the Future in Dubai is a landmark that explores how society could evolve in the coming decades using science and technology. It is located along Sheikh Zayed Road and offers a journey through possible futures, allowing visitors to bring hope and knowledge back to the present. The building itself is an architectural marvel, recognized by National Geographic as one of the most beautiful museums in the world. It has floors dedicated to distinct experiences, including immersive exhibitions on outer space resource development, ecosystems and bioengineering, and health, wellness, and spirituality.

www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/koloa-hi/harlan-amstut...

 

(My note, photograph from a 2015 follow-up visit, Dr. Amstutz traveling to Seattle) Well here in 2024 I am now 18 and 15 years out after having both my hips resurfaced by orthopedic pioneer Harlan Amstutz; Dr. Amstutz doing "his" resurfacing on my hips as opposed to the more traditional total hip replacement. Both my hips are working perfectly with no endpoint in sight, and they feel and perform as though they were my natural hips; for me a life with no hip related limitations. Thank you once again, Dr. Amstutz.

  

Emeritus 1991 Harlan Cabot Amstutz M.D. was born in Santa Monica California on July 17, 1931. After graduating from the John Marshall High School, he went on to UCLA, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1953 with a B.A. in fine arts. While an undergraduate he played on the UCLA basketball team. He received his M.D. from UCLA in 1956. He did a rotating internship at LA County and a year of general surgery at UCLA before going to HSS for his orthopaedic surgery residency from 1958-1961. That was immediately followed by two years of military service, serving as Captain in the U.S. Air Force, stationed in Minot, N. Dakota, as Chief of Orthopaedics, Consultant Hospital, for the 862nd SAC Division, Area Veterans and local Indian reservations. This was followed by two years in London, England, the first at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital as an Honorary Registrar and the next year as Research Assistant at the Institute of Orthopaedic, also in London. Harlan then returned to HSS from 1965-1970, working at various capacities including Chief of Prosthetics and Orthotics, Associate Scientist, Lecturer and Director of Bioengineering. In 1970, he was tapped for the job of Division Chief of Orthopaedic Surgery at UCLA, taking over for the founding Division Chief, Charles Bechtol, who had served since 1959. Harlan served in that capacity from 1970-1989. From 1975 until 1989, he also served as Chief of Section of Orthopaedics at the Wadsworth VA. He became Emeritus in 1990. From 1991- 2007 he was the Medical Director of the Joint Replacement Institute at Orthopaedic Hospital. He then became the Medical Director of the Joint Replacement Institute at St. Vincent Medical Center in downtown LA. He continued to work on the technologies of metal on metal surface replacements until it closed in 2015.

 

Harlan Amstutz was the epitome of a true academic clinician-scientist. To his credit, he has authored or co-authored 335 refereed journal articles, over 500 abstracts and 75 chapters. He has over 1000 national and international presentations and 76 invited lectureships, as well as holding 13 patents. He is editor of Hip Arthroplasty, was the author and editor of Hip Resurfacing: Principles, Indications, Complications and Results, and is the editor of Current Status of Metal-on-Metal Hip Resurfacing. In 1996, Harlan was elected to the Royal College of Surgeons of England as an Honorary Fellow (one of only seven American orthopaedic surgeons to have been so honored), and elected in 2005 as an Honorary Member of the German Orthopaedic Society. In 2007 he received AOA-Zimmer Award for Distinguished Contribution to Orthopaedics, and in 2010 he was named Distinguished Alumnus of the Hospital of Special Surgery. In addition, Harlan seems to have been president of about everything: the Orthopaedic Research Society in 1973, the North American Hip Society in 1979, the Association of Orthopaedic Chairman in 1983, the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons in 1984, the American Orthopaedic Association in 1992, and the International Hip Society in 2000. In 1970, he was an ABC Travelling Fellow, and in 1974, Harlan, along with Mark Coventry from the Mayo Clinic, were the NIH Travelling Exchange Fellows to Russia. He is a six time winner of the John Charnley Award in 1977, 1984, 1990, 1994, 2000, 17 and 2006. In 1979, he was the recipient of the Otto Frank Award for cement fixation of the femoral head in canine surface replacements, and in 1987, along with Keith Markolf, PhD, he received the Nicholas André Award for the UCLA knee ligament testing apparatus for ACL insufficiency.

 

In his 19-year tenure at UCLA, he established this Division as a dominant presence in bioengineering and joint replacement surgery. There, in collaboration with the Department of Engineering, he started the first PhD program in Biomechanical Engineering. He did the first leg lengthening, established the CEU (clinical evaluation unit) in 1973, and performed the first surface replacement in 1975. In those days it was all about joint replacement. Andy Cracchiolo introduced the Poly Centric Knee replacement, Gerry Finerman designed the Anametric Knee replacement, and we all used the Zimmer T-28 hip replacement system designed by Harlan. There were 4 stem sizes and 3 cup sizes and the cups and stems were cemented. The trochanter was removed 100% of the time (except at the VA where it was forbidden). The Tharies hip surface replacement system designed by Harlan was introduced in 1975. As a brand new R2 on July 1, 1975, I picked up that first patient and scrubbed on the second case. Vibrant and exciting describe those early days for the residents and faculty. In the ‘80s, Harlan introduced the DANA shoulder replacement, “Designed After Normal Anatomy,” to round out the complement of joint replacement systems and technologies.

 

After an illustrious career as an academic orthopaedic surgeon spanning 5½ decades, Harlan is now retired, but rumored to still be working. He and his wife Patty now have time to enjoy their children, Julie, Mark and Catherine and their second home in Maui. All those who have worked with and for Harlan wish him and his family health and happiness in the years to come. We look upon and remember our professional and social experiences Harlan and Patty as privileged.

 

Jeffrey J. Eckardt M.D. December 2015

 

Related photograph www.flickr.com/photos/tellytomtelly/7895343866

 

BioScience and Engineering center at UC, Berkeley. A world-class place for new studies in medicine, energy, and engineering and the places where they increasingly intersect.

 

"Costing $162 million, the new Stanley Hall science center is perhaps the most expensive building ever erecteded on the Cal campus." Built 2007.

www.sfgate.com/science/article/UC-Berkeley-s-new-Stanley-...

  

These Living Root Bridges are made of the Indian rubber tree Ficus elastica which thrives and flourishes alongside the streams and rivers at the southern slopes of the Khasi and Jaintia hills.

Raisinets.

 

Maybe it's the soy?

 

"In 2014, the state of Vermont enacted a law – Act 120 – that required labels on products containing genetically engineered ingredients. This law was effective July 1, 2016. However, on July 29, 2016, President Obama signed Public Law 114-216 which establishes a “National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard” and calls for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to “establish a national mandatory bioengineered food disclosure standard”. This federal law preempts the State of Vermont’s law, and the Vermont law will not be enforced."

 

Perhaps disclosures of the type shown on this package will disappear?

 

I have read, "Raisinets are the number one largest selling candy in United States history." I have also read they are the second and third most popular.

Pranjal Sharma, Contributing Editor, Businessworld, India

Nita A. Farahany, Robinson O. Everett Professor of Law and Philosophy; Director, Duke Science and Society, Duke University, USA

Megan Palmer, Executive Director, Bio Policy and Leadership Initiatives; Adjunct Professor, Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford University, USA

Kuldeep Singh Rajput, Chief Executive Officer, Biofourmis, USA, are speaking in the Transforming Medicine, Redefining Life session at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, 20 January. Congress Centre - Salon. Copyright: World Economic Forum/Mattias Nutt

A mouse neural stem cell (blue and green) sits in a lab dish, atop a special gel containing a mat of synthetic nanofibers (purple). The cell is growing and sending out spindly appendages, called axons (green), in an attempt to re-establish connections with other nearby nerve cells.

The pictured research is giving hope that one day humans may be able to reverse spinal cord damage.

 

More information: directorsblog.nih.gov/2017/04/13/snapshots-of-life-healin...

 

This image was a 2016 FASEB BioArt winner.

 

Credit: Mark McClendon, Zaida Alvarez Pinto, Samuel I. Stupp, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

 

This image is not owned by the NIH. It is shared with the public under license. If you have a question about using or reproducing this image, please contact the creator listed in the credits. All rights to the work remain with the original creator.

 

NIH support from: National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

  

La Jolla is surrounded on three sides by ocean bluffs and beaches and is located 12 miles (19 km) north of Downtown San Diego and 45 miles (72 km) south of Orange County. The climate is mild, with an average daily temperature of 70.5 °F (21.4 °C).

 

La Jolla is home to many educational institutions and a variety of businesses in the areas of lodging, dining, shopping, software, finance, real estate, bioengineering, medical practice and scientific research. The University of California, San Diego (UCSD), is located in La Jolla, as are the Salk Institute, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (part of UCSD),and Scripps Research Institute.

“Bear” is artist Tim Hawkinson’s monumental rock sculpture; the artist’s first permanent outdoor public project. It sits in the Academic Courtyard among three UCSD campus buildings; Powell-Focht Bioengineering Hall, Computer Science and Engineering Building, and Atkinson Hall.

Megan Palmer, Executive Director, Bio Policy and Leadership Initiatives; Adjunct Professor, Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford University, USA speaking in the "Doubling Down on Science" session at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, 20 January. Congress Centre - Aspen 2 Room. Copyright: World Economic Forum/Jakob Polacsek

“You can’t grow organs outside of the body. DARPA was enamoured with the idea of headless humans a few years back, but we learned that you also need the nervous system for organ development.”

 

“At HLI we want to decode the brain at the genetic level.”

 

“We are trying to predict your exact face from your genetic code alone. But, it could be any phenotypic trait.”

 

“At SGI, we are engineering phage [viruses that kill bacteria] to target pseudomonas in burn therapy.”

 

More below, and here's the DARPA event agenda for their "Biology is Technology" gathering.