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ANOMALY ARCHIVES eNEWS

May 2005

“UFO or NO?”

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Health - Debate Rekindled in Homosexual Brain Research
By Steven Reinberg / HealthDay Reporter
[img]http://www.northernwave.org/images/brain.jpg[/img]
TUESDAY, May 10 (HealthDayNews) — The latest research indicating that at
least some aspects of homosexuality may be “hard-wired” into the brain has
once again fanned the flames of debate.

Swedish scientists claim that chemicals called pheromones that affect our
sense of smell are different for gay men and straight men, providing another
biologic basis for different sexual orientation. Adding fuel to the fire is
the finding that gay men’s brain reactions to the chemicals were similar to
women’s reactions.

All the researchers say is, “These findings show that our brain reacts
differently to the two putative pheromones compared with common odors, and
suggest a link between sexual orientation and hypothalamic neuronal
processes.”

Pheromones are chemicals that send sexual messages as often undetectable
odors to individuals of the same species. In their study, the researchers
found that a pheromone in the perspiration of homosexual men causes a
similar reaction in other gay men and heterosexual women.

According to the report in the May 10 issue of the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, the research team looked at compounds that
include a testosterone derivative called 4,16-androstadien-3-one (AND), and
the estrogen-like steroid estra-1,3-5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol (EST).

The researchers found that AND activated the hypothalamus in homosexual men
and heterosexual women, but not heterosexual men. Additionally, EST
activated the hypothalamus only in heterosexual men.

“The regions of the brain involved have been found to be involved in sexual
behavior, based on animal studies,” said Brian Mustanski, from the
department of psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “Some
previous studies also found differences between gay and straight men in
these brain regions,” he added.

Mustanski noted that this study suggests a link between sexual orientation
and brain processes, specifically in the hypothalamus. “Another study, to
soon be published in Psychological Science, found differences in the odors
of gay and heterosexual men,” he said.

Taken together, these studies suggest that sexual orientation has a
biological component related to body odor and possible pheromones, Mustanski
said. “It also helps to demonstrate that sexual orientation is not a simple
choice — how could such a choice influence the production of and response
to body odors?

“These studies converge with previous research using family studies, twin
studies, and molecular genetic studies to show that sexual orientation is at
least partly determined by biology,” he said.

But other experts see it differently.

“This study says nothing about homosexuality being innate,” said Dr. Jeffrey
Satinover, a psychoanalyst who has written about homosexuality and lectured
on its social consequences. “There is an automatic knee-jerk assumption that
if there is a difference in the brain, that difference has to be innate,” he
added.

Changes in the hypothalamus could be caused by repetitive sexual behavior,
Satinover said. “The brain is extremely plastic, like a muscle,” he said.

“There have been dozens and dozens of studies attempting to show a genetic
or biological basis for homosexuality,” Satinover said. “Not one has ever
succeeded in doing so.”

Warren Throckmorton, an associate professor of psychology at Grove City
College, a Christian-based college in Pennsylvania, finds the study
intriguing. “It does show that there is some involuntary reaction on the
part of the brain to a stimulus that is imperceptible to the person,” he said.

But like Satinover, Throckmorton believes that the sense of smell is
partially learned. “The brains of the participants may have acquired a
sexual response to these chemicals as a result of past sexual experiences,”
he said. “So, learning could be implicated here in a way the subjects
wouldn’t have been aware of.”

From a political perspective, whether homosexuality is innate or learned
misses the point, according to Winnie Stachelberg, a vice president at the
Human Rights Campaign Foundation, an umbrella organization for gay and
bisexual causes. “How we treat people should be based on principles of basic
fairness and not on scientific evidence,” she said

“This study adds to the scientific evidence around sexual orientation. It
points to the need for continued research in this area,” Stachelberg added.
“In addition, studies like this help people understand each other and
alleviate fear.”

More information

The Council for Responsible Genetics can tell you more about genes and
sexual orientation.

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Back to the saucers
Thursday May 12, 2005 / The Guardian
[img]http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/site_furniture/2003/04/02/FarOut_128.gif[/img] [img]http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:FB1p2uh7XD4J:www.okultura.cz/ezimagecatalogue/catalogue/variations/190-400×500.jpg[/img]
In February 2004, a team of Russian and American physicists discovered two
new elements, glimpsed for split seconds at the Joint Institute of Nuclear
Research in Dubna, Russia, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in
California.

Led by Russian Yuri Oganessian, the physicists made their announcement in
the journal Physical Review C. While their findings have yet to be repeated,
they are considered highly reliable. The two new “superheavy” elements, 113
and 115, provisionally named ununtrium and ununpentium, excite physicists
who think they are generated by exploding stars, and could provide clues to
the origins of the universe.

But this was not the first time Element 115 had made the headlines.
According to another group of perhaps less reputable researchers, it might
be the key that ultimately brings the stars to us.

In 1989, a Las Vegas TV station broadcast an interview with self-professed
scientist Bob Lazar. He claimed to have worked at a top secret facility
called S-4, just south of Nevada’s infamous airbase Area 51, and caused a
sensation when he described seeing nine extraterrestrial flying saucers
stored at S-4.

Lazar, who claims to have studied at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, states that his job
at S-4 was to “back-engineer” the reactor of one of the flying discs and
find out how it worked. While there, he was briefed on the history of ET
interaction with humankind, and watched a short test flight of the single
operational craft.

According to Lazar, the saucer flies using “gravity amplifiers” to create
“an intense gravitational field” that could “distort space/time”, “bringing
the destination to the source and allowing you to cross many light years of
space in little time”. The power to do this is generated in the craft’s
reactor, which is fuelled by … Element 115.

Whether or not he’s telling the truth, Lazar has stood by his claims and
left the UFO scene behind. As well as running a lab equipment repair
company, he is currently developing a hydrogen fuel generator for home use
and is involved in an ambitious plan to terraform a Martian environment in
an underground nuclear missile silo.

And, if Element 115’s existence is confirmed, perhaps one day it will be
called lazarium.

Mark Pilkington

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‘Oddball rodent’ in Laos takes scientists by surprise
By John Noble Wilford The New York Times
THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2005

They live in the forests and limestone outcrops of Laos. With long whiskers,
stubby legs and a long, furry tail, they are rodents but unlike any seen
before by wildlife scientists.

They are definitely not rats or squirrels, only vaguely like a guinea pig or
a chinchilla. And they often show up in Laotian outdoor markets being sold
for food. There, visiting scientists came upon the animals and determined
that they represented a rare find: an entire new family of wildlife.

The discovery was announced Wednesday by the Wildlife Conservation Society
and described in a report in the journal Systematics and Biodiversity.

The new species in this previously unknown family is called kha-nyou
(pronounced ga-nyou) by local people.

Scientists found that differences in the skull and bone structure and in the
animal’s DNA revealed this to be a member of a distinct family that diverged
from others of the rodent order millions of years ago.

“To find something so distinct in this day and age is just extraordinary,”
said Robert Timmins of the Wildlife Conservation Society, one of the
discoverers. “For all we know, this could be the last remaining mammal
family left to be discovered.”

Naturalists had trouble recalling when a new family of mammals was last
identified. It may have been when, in the 1970s, a new family of bats was
found in Thailand. The most active period of finding and classifying new
species and families was in the 19th century, when explorers and settlers
moved into remote interiors of the continents.

Timmins said in an interview that he first came on the animals laid out on
market tables. Local farmers and hunters trapped or snared the animals,
slaughtered them and rushed them to market. As far as he knew, Timmins said,
no Western scientists have ever seen a kha-nyou alive.

The encounter occurred in the late 1990s, about the same time that another
scientist, Mark Robinson, independently collected several of the carcasses
as specimens. The adults have bodies about a foot long, or 30 centimeters
with a tail that is not as bushy as a squirrel’s. They knew immediately that
this was, as Timmins said, “an oddball rodent.”

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Students get sick while watching video
ADAM LYNN; The News Tribune / LUI KIT WONG/THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Three Rogers High students had to go to the hospital Monday in Puyallup.
[img]http://www.thenewstribune.com/images/unisys-images/20050510-images/NWS0510_ROGERS_P-thumb.JPG[/img]
School will not be back in session today at Rogers High, a day after
officials sent everyone home early when three students came down with a
mysterious illness while watching a science video.

Officials still don�t know what caused the illness and want another day to
continue testing for clues, said Karen Hansen, Puyallup School District
spokeswoman.

Neither a fire district hazardous materials crew nor a private environmental
firm hired by the district could find anything wrong in a science classroom
where three students took ill Monday morning.

�That�s why we�re taking another day to investigate,� Hansen said. �We�re
going to continue to test and hope school will be open Wednesday.�

Teachers, however, will report to school today. �We will be working with
them outside of the affected area,� Hansen said.

The three juniors were in the same room when they got woozy, said Matt Holm,
assistant chief at Central Pierce Fire & Rescue.

The first student reported feeling ill about 10 a.m. and received permission
to step outside, Holm said. She later fainted, Holm said.

A few minutes later, another student reported feeling light-headed. Soon
after, a third.

Authorities don�t think the trio was in cahoots to avoid class, Holm said.

�Their teacher got concerned and notified the school administration, which
called the sheriff�s office,� he said.

The three students were taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup as a
precaution, he said.

The scare first prompted school officials to evacuate all students to the
gymnasium then to send all students home for the day, Hansen said.

�We decided to err on the side of caution,� she said.

A Central Pierce hazardous materials crews inspected the room but found
nothing amiss, Holm said.

The district then hired a private environmental firm to test air quality in
the school, Hansen said.

Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644
adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com

Staff writer Daniel Thigpen contributed to this report.

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