Senior researcher at the Central Institute of Motor Engineering, Hamlet Khanyan, said in a short interview with Pravda.Ru that space sanctions would cause bigger damage to the United States, rather than to Russia. "Due to rising tensions in the US-Russia relations, NASA speeded up the development of its own manned spacecraft to compete against Russia's Soyuz spaceships. The space agency signed contracts for the construction of a new generation of spacecraft with Boeing and SpaceX. The contracts total $6.8 billion dollars. The new ships are planned to be launched from the territory of the United States (Florida). Will this experience be successful?" "As the saying goes, good luck." I do not think that the Americans will outdo the performance of Russian RD-180 engines. If you have ever watched Russian rockets and US shuttles taking off, you can see the difference. From an American shuttle, when it takes off, there is a large tail left, and the smoke in the tail is very thick, because the combustion of fuel is incomplete, so it falls down. When a Proton rocket takes off, it leaves a thin plasma column in the air that is barely visible, with an intermittent fiery stream of the purple color. This means that our fuel burns completely, and the propulsive effort is stronger. "With the Russian technology, two tons of fuel burn in one second. I do not know when the Americans can achieve this. The Proton rocket, in general, becomes a matter of the past, because we have already developed a new rocket called Angara that will fly on another type of fuel. The fuel that is used in Proton is highly toxic as it burns heptyl. This is a very good, effective fuel, but a very toxic one. Should a catastrophe occur, the contamination of the area nearby will be serious. The Angara rocket will be just as efficient, and maybe even more efficient, while using completely non-toxic fuel." "Will corporations be able to cheapen production, given the fact that, for example, Boeing buys titanium for aircraft construction in Russia?" "Boeing makes civilian aircraft. Russian companies lag behind them in terms of comfort and efficiency, but take the lead in terms of military aircraft and missiles. Cheaper production? I do not think so. The USA just wants to set us up so that Russia does not receive $70 million, for which they would buy our RD-180 engines." "How did you assess NASA's chances to deliver astronauts to the ISS, independently of Russia?" "NASA without Russia? This would be a very expensive and ineffective way to go, but they can do it. Rogozin once offered them to send astronauts to the ISS from bouncers. The USA's sudden love to Ukraine, apparently, justifies negative consequences for the industry, including in the field of space." "One of the reasons to shelve the space shuttle program in 2011 was said to be considerable spending. Is the United States now ready to invest huge sums in the space program, given the current spending on wars?" "They have money, they just print it, so they will invest. Yes, of course they can, although I do not know where it can happen. The shuttle program was closed because it was heavily advertised. It was a beautiful rocket and an impressive ship, but it was very ineffective. The cost of one Proton launch in comparison with that of a shuttle is ten times as low, so the Americans got addicted to our engines." "Will the Russian space industry suffer?" "I do not think so. It will only be relieved of freeloaders." "Will there be another space race between the USA and Russia?" "Well, we must try, because on the moon, there are enticing reserves of helium-3. This material is highly effective in thermonuclear reactions. On Earth, it is impossible to produce it, but one can fly to the moon and take it from there. This would solve the problem of controlled thermonuclear synthesis. So the current situation is a challenge for humanity, because it can give a boost to the development of the helium technology, and we will be able to set fire to the water." Source: English pravda.ru,
Russia to set fire on water without NASA
Senior researcher at the Central Institute of Motor Engineering, Hamlet Khanyan, said in a short interview with Pravda.Ru that space sanctions would cause bigger damage to the United States, rather than to Russia. "Due to rising tensions in the US-Russia relations, NASA speeded up the development of its own manned spacecraft to compete against Russia's Soyuz spaceships. The space agency signed contracts for the construction of a new generation of spacecraft with Boeing and SpaceX. The contracts total $6.8 billion dollars. The new ships are planned to be launched from the territory of the United States (Florida). Will this experience be successful?" "As the saying goes, good luck." I do not think that the Americans will outdo the performance of Russian RD-180 engines. If you have ever watched Russian rockets and US shuttles taking off, you can see the difference. From an American shuttle, when it takes off, there is a large tail left, and the smoke in the tail is very thick, because the combustion of fuel is incomplete, so it falls down. When a Proton rocket takes off, it leaves a thin plasma column in the air that is barely visible, with an intermittent fiery stream of the purple color. This means that our fuel burns completely, and the propulsive effort is stronger. "With the Russian technology, two tons of fuel burn in one second. I do not know when the Americans can achieve this. The Proton rocket, in general, becomes a matter of the past, because we have already developed a new rocket called Angara that will fly on another type of fuel. The fuel that is used in Proton is highly toxic as it burns heptyl. This is a very good, effective fuel, but a very toxic one. Should a catastrophe occur, the contamination of the area nearby will be serious. The Angara rocket will be just as efficient, and maybe even more efficient, while using completely non-toxic fuel." "Will corporations be able to cheapen production, given the fact that, for example, Boeing buys titanium for aircraft construction in Russia?" "Boeing makes civilian aircraft. Russian companies lag behind them in terms of comfort and efficiency, but take the lead in terms of military aircraft and missiles. Cheaper production? I do not think so. The USA just wants to set us up so that Russia does not receive $70 million, for which they would buy our RD-180 engines." "How did you assess NASA's chances to deliver astronauts to the ISS, independently of Russia?" "NASA without Russia? This would be a very expensive and ineffective way to go, but they can do it. Rogozin once offered them to send astronauts to the ISS from bouncers. The USA's sudden love to Ukraine, apparently, justifies negative consequences for the industry, including in the field of space." "One of the reasons to shelve the space shuttle program in 2011 was said to be considerable spending. Is the United States now ready to invest huge sums in the space program, given the current spending on wars?" "They have money, they just print it, so they will invest. Yes, of course they can, although I do not know where it can happen. The shuttle program was closed because it was heavily advertised. It was a beautiful rocket and an impressive ship, but it was very ineffective. The cost of one Proton launch in comparison with that of a shuttle is ten times as low, so the Americans got addicted to our engines." "Will the Russian space industry suffer?" "I do not think so. It will only be relieved of freeloaders." "Will there be another space race between the USA and Russia?" "Well, we must try, because on the moon, there are enticing reserves of helium-3. This material is highly effective in thermonuclear reactions. On Earth, it is impossible to produce it, but one can fly to the moon and take it from there. This would solve the problem of controlled thermonuclear synthesis. So the current situation is a challenge for humanity, because it can give a boost to the development of the helium technology, and we will be able to set fire to the water." Source: English pravda.ru,
How molecules are a lot like birds
Emory chemist Jay Goodwin was featured in an interview by Ari Daniel of PRI's "Living on Earth." Below is an excerpt from the interview transcript
ARI DANIEL: Once in a while, if you’re lucky, you catch a glimpse of something that gives away a secret of the universe. It’s like a window – up into the heavens and deep into ourselves. This is a story about someone who poked his head through just this kind of window, and we find him in Atlanta. It’s a perfect day here – Jay Goodwin walks over to a bench to sit down. And he can’t help but be reminded about a day just like this one, 5 years ago, in western Michigan where he used to live. JAY GOODWIN: I was outside – I think I was going for a walk, just to kind of clear my head a little bit. I turned a corner, and I saw this flock of birds and they took off into the sky and they started to form a shape – sort of an amorphous shape. And it was one that was dynamic, and it was changing – but it had a boundary to it, like looking at a blob of oil in water. DANIEL: It stopped Goodwin in his tracks. Several hundred birds pulsing and dipping and soaring to an invisible beat in the sky. GOODWIN: It wasn’t clear what they were responding to – there weren’t any predator birds in the sky. And you never got the sense that there was anything that was directing it from within. There was no leader bird that they were all following. But just watching it was, well, it was beautiful. DANIEL: Goodwin realized he had no way of predicting the flock’s behavior by simply taking lots of individual birds flapping their wings, and adding them up. Rather, it was something that emerged once all these birds threw themselves together. And it’s this notion of emergence – how really complex patterns and properties can arise from combining somewhat simple units – that now defines how Goodwin thinks about his real work. Chemistry. Goodwin heads into his lab at Emory University. He’s a chemist here. And since seeing that flock, he’s come to appreciate how molecules are a lot like birds. That is – you get to know how the individuals behave and parade on their own, but then, you put them together. And often, something new and astonishing emerges. You can read the whole transcript, and listen to the podcast, on the "Living on Earth" web site. Source: eScienceCommons
2 Russian, 1 UK scientist win Global Energy Prize
On Friday, the names of this year’s winners of the Global Energy Prize were announced in Moscow. They are Russian scientists Boris Katorgin and Valery Kostyuk and UK scientist Rodney John Allam. The awarding ceremony will take place in St. Petersburg, as a part of an international economic forum, which is traditionally held in this city. The amount of the prize, if translated into dollars, is more than $ 360,000. This year, the Global Energy Prize marks 10 years since its foundation. It is an international prize awarded for discoveries and inventions which help to save energy and are at the same time harmless to the environment. Since 2003, scientists from Russia, the US, Germany, France, Japan, the UK, Iceland, Canada and Ukraine have become winners of this prize. This year, all the three winners of the prize are awarded for inventions which have to do with space. Boris Katorgin and Valery Kostyk are awarded for inventing new types of space rocket engines, and Rodney John Allam – for inventing new kinds of rocket fuel. The time when scientific discoveries and inventions were made by individuals has long passed away. Moreover, today, discoveries and inventions, as a rule, appear not as a result of work of one scientific institution, or even several institutions in one country, but as a result of scientists’ international cooperation – and all the three winners acknowledge this. Rodney John Allam says that he would not have made his inventions without cooperation with the Institute of Thermal Physics in the Russian city of Novosibirsk. In an interview with the Voice of Russia, another winner, Boris Katorgin, said: “In fact, I don’t know why the jury chose me personally – I believe that the whole staff of the Energomash company, for which I work, deserves this prize. Our company has been producing engines for rockets and other flying devices for a long time, and they have proved themselves very well.” At present, engines made by Energomash are used not only on Russian space devices, but on some US ones as well. Mr. Katorgin says that his company has already registered 13 patents in the US. Very soon, the Energomash engines will be used in a number of other countries – contracts to that end have already been signed. According to estimates, these contracts may bring an income of about $ 1 bln to Russia. Source: Voice of Russia
American geneticist claims Bigfoot is real after sequencing his genomes in a DNA study
Last November team of American scientists led Dr Melba Ketchum of DNA diagnostics in Nacogdoches, Texas, announced that they have found proof that the legendary ‘Sasquatch’ or ‘Bigfoot’ actually exists. After sequencing three Bigfoot genomes the team concluded that Sasquatch is extant in North America and is a human relative that arose approximately 13 thousand years ago as a hybrid cross of modern Homo Sapiens with some unknown primate species. The Voice of Russia contacted Dr Ketchum to ask her for the details of one of the most controversial projects of the decade.
Voice of Russia: Before we get into details, I would like to ask you how you came up with the idea to study bigfoot. At the very least, this is a very unusual choice of study for a serious geneticist. Dr Melba Ketchum: Well, I must say that it came to me, I did not choose it. What we do in our laboratory is we perform species identification mostly for forensic use. However, over the years we have also been receiving samples that supposedly contained DNA of a Bigfoot or a Sasquatch. Five years ago one of the TV show production companies asked us to identify some samples one of which was allegedly a yeti sample. At the same time I also received the samples from North America Bigfoot Search Organization. We did not have enough DNA to go far with neither of the samples but we still got marginally interesting results. When the TV show aired we got a huge amount of calls from people who wanted to submit DNA samples to us, and, out of curiosity, we agreed. When we started testing them we realized that something might come out from this research. To tell you the truth, I did not believe in the existence of Sasquatch before we began our tests. Voice of Russia: In your previous interviews you said that when you submitted your project for peer-review you encountered the worst scientific bias which you called the ‘Galileo Effect’. Some journals would not even read your manuscript when you sent them a pre-submission enquiry. In your opinion, why were you rejected by the mainstream scientific journals? Is it because the modern science is not yet ready for such ground-breaking research? Dr Melba Ketchum: Yes, the modern science is not yet ready for it. There is so much hype surrounding it that the scientific community feels that the research cannot be credible. For most of the scientific world, the results of our study cannot be valid because they know that yeti does not exist and thus the project is merely a hoax, an ad campaign. As a result, the scientists did not even want to look through it. Their unwillingness to even consider the possibility that a mythical creature might actually be real might leads them to invent the reasons why our research was invalid. Another reason why most of the scientific world turned their backs on our research is that the existence of hybrid DNA is a very unpopular theory, even though it is a proven scientific fact that most Caucasian individuals have at least two to three percent Neanderthal genes as well as a lot of South-East Asian people have up to five percent of Denisova genes. Those reviewers who finally agreed to read the paper then came back to me asking for the information that was already in the manuscript, so I knew they did not even read it. Moreover, when the reviewers failed to find any errors in our research they simply asserted that it was ‘contaminated’. Given that most of our project team consisted of forensic scientists we are sure that there is no contamination in our research. In this sense, it seems to me that contamination is the only excuse that the reviewers can come up with to prevent the publication of our study. More generally, one might recall that nearly all major breakthroughs in science have been met with great skepticism or immediately rejected as invalid. This why I call the situation in which we know find ourselves a ‘Galilio Effect’. Every-so-often innovative research projects are not accepted by the scientific community up until the scientist passes away. Voice of Russia: Oh, I am sure this will not be the case with your research! So, your 5-year long DNA study confirms the existence of a novel hominin hybrid species that reside in North America. Is there a possibility that these hybrids can be found somewhere else? In Russia, for example? Dr Melba Ketchum: We actually have some Russian samples which we are currently studying. We are just at the beginning of the sequencing process but we believe that these DNA samples will have the same makeup as North American ones. In this sense, we think that Russian hybrids and North American Sasquatch are all related individuals. More generally, we believe that Bigfoot species can be found all over the world. Only in the United States there are over 30 thousand documented sightings of Sasquatch and probably three times more undocumented eyewitness testimonies. According to my Russian colleague Dr Igor Burtsev there are also numerous documented yeti sightings in Siberia. Voice of Russia: Tell us a bit more about your methods of research. I heard that you used mitochondrial DNA that you obtained from leftover blueberry bagels eaten by a family of 10 bigfoot’s who live in Michigan. Dr Melba Ketchum: Oh, this is not true! Admittedly, one can obtain a DNA sample from anything that an individual ate or chewed because saliva is a very good source of DNA, but we did not use any bagels. We made plastic containers where we placed a piece of food, such as chocolate. This way, we could ensure that only a creature that had ‘hands’ could gain access to the food. We then used food remnants as our DNA samples. This is one of the very few methods that we can use to study Sasquatch. It is almost impossible, for example to get any photographic record or a body. Although, I must say that there is now a photographic record that will soon be released. Voice of Russia: In your statement published last November you suggested that the government at all levels must recognize Sasquatch as an indigenous people and immediately protect their human and Constitutional rights against those who would see in their physical and cultural differences a ‘license’ to hunt, trap, or kill them. Can you elaborate on this? Dr Melba Ketchum: Basically, Bigfoot are a particular type of people, so we do not want them hunted, harassed, or being chased through the woods. The wood is their home. They have a right to privacy. People should leave them alone. We are not asking the government to give them large areas of land or anything like that. Sasquatch do not need them – they live right under our noses and we do not see them. Also, people should be aware that an encounter with a Sasquatch might not be as pleasant as they think. People should not be afraid of them but, at the same time, they should realize that if harassed, a Sasquatch can fight back. So, you might need to think twice before you argue with someone who is twice your size. Voice of Russia: Taking into consideration all the obstacles that stand on your way in publishing your research, do you intend to continue your project? Dr Melba Ketchum: First of all, the DNA sequencing is a very complicated technique and it might take years to go through it in full. So, yes, we do continue our research. Second of all, we intend to do a cultural assessment of Sasquatch. We aim to learn how Sasquatch behave and whether they have any specific rituals. Source: Voice of Russia
Dr. Melba Ketchum To Be Interviewed By George Knapp On Coast to Coast AM Tonight
Two and a half years ago, George Knapp sat down with Dr. Melba Ketchum and David Paulides to talk about the Bigfoot DNA project they were working on. Knapp said that in order to peek at Ketchum's research material, he was required to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. For two years, he kept his silence and was not allowed to talk about what he had learned. Last December, Knapp wrote a blog post titled, "I’m dreaming of a Bigfoot Christmas", explaining the dilemma Ketchum would face if she tried to publish her "scientific paper":
The well-meaning Dr. Ketchum naively assumed that the world of science would welcome her data with open arms and open minds. Her initial draft of a scientific paper unwisely referred to the existence of a Bigfoot-like creature, and she was certain the information from her study would receive a fair hearing from the scientific world. My friend the microbiologist gave her the sad-but-true news that no mainstream science journal in the world would ever publish a paper, or allow for an honest peer review, of any paper that mentioned Bigfoot or Sasquatch by name. Unlike my TV prediction, that one proved prescient in the extreme.Tonight (2/17) on Coast to Coast AM, George Knapp will sit down with Ketchum again, probably to discuss the backlash from not only the Bigfoot community, but also the scientific community. Ketchum posted on Facebook this morning: "Will be on Coast to Coast tomorrow night. I have sent documentation to George Knapp as supporting evidence."Source: : Bigfoot-Evidence
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