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Nanobes


I watched the show on "Nanobes" tonight and am impressed though not yet convinced but sincerely hope that this is a real discovery. I was initially annoyed by the shorts before the show went to air showing what were claimed to be the nanobes actively moving under the microscope when these things were below the resolution of the light microscope and electron beams or x-rays would have been expected to kill any living organisms rapidly if not instantly. This apparent anomaly was explained in the show that these organisms actually increased in size and became highly visible thus explaining the apparent discrepancy.

I was immediately stimulated by the appearance of some of the strands of "organisms" which looked very similar to strands of what I thought were silver growing in a beaker of silver cyanide solution with a cast iron chip at the bottom. This event arose at the end of our relationship with M.I.M. Holdings after we had successfully completed the silver recovery work and had only just begun to endeavour to apply it to gold recovery. Although we had actually prepared gold cyanide solutions from a bar supplied by M.I.M. we did not get the opportunity to test it before they departed just ahead of the 1987 Stock Market crash. This is an explanation of this crude example which resulted because there was considerable scepticism that silver or gold would crystalise under these conditions which were very different from those in photographic solutions. I maintained at the time that it could be done and had done so in a very crude manner previously but because of the departure of M.I.M., who were very good to us I need to acknowledge that, and all the disruption which this caused, the beaker was left on the bench for a couple of days.

When the beaker was to be cleaned out and the solution returned to the waste container we discovered what appeared to be hairs of silver growing not only from the bottom in contact with the cast iron chip but also disconnected and on the sides of the beaker. These "hairs" had the appearance of the "Nanobes" and I am now wondering if it was possible that such "organisms" could have survived in such a solution precipitating the silver around themselves as a protective shell as has been postulated by the Finnish doctor as a mechanism for the formation of of kidney stones. I drew this to the attention of those scientists with whom I was working at the M.I.M. Laboratory but the process of disengagement was underway and orders were orders we had to terminate the work. Before the beaker was cleaned I hastily took a photograph of it and have emailed a copy to Barbara for your interest.

These crystals were unlike anything we had produced before and what the break up of our project was a consequence of the interference of Joe Bjelke Petersen but I won't go into details on that, he wondered why I refused to shake his hand when I met the old bastard at the Fernvale Shell Service Station a couple of times he seemed to think he was doing me some favour - SICKO. He ought to be the inaugural recipient of the Stupidity Award but that's for other to decide! Anyway the image is there for your interest.

Regards
Gerald

Hair-like formation growing in a beaker of silver cyanide
Substance resembling fine hairs growing in a beaker of silve cyanide solution

Bruce Young added

I enjoyed the show greatly, especially because I was (fleetingly) in at least 3 "scenes" of the TV broadcast and had an opportunity to personally meet many of the people in the show (plus many more). I attended a number of related events in July last year where Philippa presented her paper. It was good stuff at the time. The more recent news of "contamination" of the samples is discouraging but does not invalidate the other results.

I mention this, as if it is true, I can look back in my "later years" and say "I remember when..."

If there was one thing that came out strongly from the whole astrobiology workshop, and that was repeated my many participants, was that wishing/wanting something to be true doesn't make it true.  That of course applied to more than just nanobes... (a wet Mars for example, the data has changed since though).