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Science
Friday > Archives
> 1998
> July
> July 3, 1998:
Hour One: UFO Report / Spinal Cord Research
This week, a panel of scientists released a report
concluding that there is enough physical evidence of some
sightings of unidentified flying objects to warrant serious
scientific study. The evidence cited by the panel, including
photographs, radar signals, ground traces, and debris, did
not convince them of the involvement of extraterrestrials or
of the violation of any known physical laws - but, they say,
should be examined all the same. "It may be valuable to
carefully evaluate UFO reports to extract information about
unusual phenomena currently unknown to science," said the
authors of the report, published in the Journal of
Scientific Exploration.The nine member, international panel
was co-chaired by Von Eshleman, a professor of electrical
engineering at Stanford, and by Thomas Holzer, of the High
Altitude Observatory in Boulder.
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Some of the UFO incidents examined by the panel
may, they believe, have been caused by unusual
natural phenomena. Moving flashes of colored light,
sometimes called "blue jets" and "red sprites," may
be caused by electrical activity high above
thunderstorms. Unexplainable movements on radar
screens that seem to defy the laws of physics may
in fact be caused by radar ducting, a trapping of
radar signals by pockets in the atmosphere that can
cause objects to appear on radar to be miles from
their actual positions.
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Any time there are unexplained reports, said the
team, science may learn something new by carefully studying
them - but only through careful study. SETI researchers and
UFO investigators share some common goals and
characteristics, said the group, and yet the SETI community
is considered to be much more mainstream. They suggest that
this is because many UFO researchers, though dedicated, lack
the rigorous, critical approach necessary to truly gain from
study of unexplained phenomena.
On this segment of Science Friday - is the truth out
there? And what truth is it?
Then... A team of scientists has been able to partially
repair the damaged central nervous system of some laboratory rats,
partially restoring the ability to move their hind legs after spinal
injuries. The results, though preliminary, are intriguing. Some
lower animals can repair parts of the central nervous system (the
brain, retinas, or spinal cord). Mammals, however, are usually limited
to repairing only peripheral nerves (nerves outside the central
nervous system).
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The scientists, working at the Weizmann Institute in Israel,
found that the central nervous system suppresses macrophages,
immune cells that are key in the healing of injuries. They
speculate that this may be because when the nervous system
is functioning normally, the presence of these cells might
disrupt the networks of neurons that the brain needs to
function - and so the cells are kept away. Peripheral nerves,
however, have no such repulsive properties. The Weizmann
scientists took macrophage cells, placed them in a test
tube in the presence on a damaged peripheral nerve, and
let them become "activated" -- ready to respond to nerve
damage. Then they injected them into the site of CNS damage
in paralyzed laboratory rats, and found that the rats regained
some ability to move their hind legs.
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The treatment is years away from being used in humans - in fact,
scientists aren't even sure if the technique would have any effect
at all. Other research into treatments for damage to the central
nervous system includes steriod drugs like methylprednisolone, which
appears to reduce damage when given within eight hours of injury;
replacement of nerve cells with transplanted material; investigation
of the role of the myelin sheath that insulates nerve cells; and
efforts to regenerate axons by transplanting in tiny pieces of peripheral
nerves to stimulate growth. On this segment of Science Friday, we'll
take a look the latest research and see how it fits in to other
methods being investigated.
Guests:
Von Eshleman
Professor Emeritus, Electrical Engineering
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
Michal Schwartz
Professor, Neuroimmunology
Weizmann Institute of Science
Rehovot, Israel
Wise Young
Director, Neuroscience Center
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ
Articles Discussed:
"Physical
Evidence Related to UFO Reports: the Proceedings of a Workshop Held
at the Pocantico Conference Center, Tarrytown, New York, September 29-October
4, 1997."
"Implantation of stimulated homologous macrophages results in partial
recovery of paraplegic rats," by M. Schwartz et al. Nature Medicine,
July, 1998.
Related Links:
The Journal of Scientific
Exploration
The Skeptical
Inquirer
The SETI
Institute
The J. Allen Hynek Center
for UFO Studies
The Mutual
UFO Network
Got UFO Insurance?
Government UFO documents
from
the NSA (may be very slow)
from
the CIA
The Weizmann Institute
American Paralysis Association
Miami Project to Cure Paralysis
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