Scientists working to replicate the harsh conditions of space, with its cold temperatures, radiation and lack of air,have managed to get artificial cell membranes to form, proving that life could have originated in space. For life toexist in cellular form, each cell must be surrounded by a protective membrane. These cells then combine together to form complex life structures.

The membranes resemble primitive cell walls. David Dreamer, a biologist at the University of California at Santa Cruz,said, “This wall is semi-permeable, so that things like water and oxygen can get in and out very easily. That is whatlife requires-it needs to have an inside that is not totally shut off from the outside.”
read more

Hormel Foods Corporation, the creators of Spam, is teaming up with General Motors to make car parts out of pork and turkey byproducts. They will supply GM with a binding agent, known as “GMBond,” that is made from animal protein collagen and will be used to make the molds that are used to cast metal parts.

“Who would have guessed that a food product would be used in the production of your automobile’s engine block?” said Joel Johnson, president of Hormel. Richard Schreck, GM’s principle research scientist, said the collagen binder will help reduce manufacturing costs.
read more

A new Dutch study has concluded that if your teenagers are having trouble in school, it may be because you raised them vegetarian. Plants do not make the crucial vitamin B-12, so diets that avoid animal products can lead to B-12 deficiencies. This vitamin plays a key role in brain functions and toddlers raised on a non-meat diet can experience delays in the acquisition of certain motor skills. Researchers in the Netherlands have discovered that even when meat is added to diets later, neurological impairments may persist into adolescence.
read more

Government spokesmen who assure us that there’s never been a case of Mad Cow Disease in the United States have ignored the fact that a similar disease, Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), has infected large parts of the deer and elk population and 3 U.S. hunters are known to have died from it.

Wyoming veterinarian Tom Thorn says, “What we watch for in an affected deer is kind of a hollow look in their eyes, theydrink a lot. They don’t eat very much.” The deer waste away from not eating, which is why the affliction is known asChronic Wasting Disease. As CWD destroys the animals’ brains, they lose their fear of humans, making them more likely to be hunted. An infected animal can look normal in the early stages of the disease.
read more