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LYS a Ay EWN? "NEURO-CHIP" READS LIVING NERVE SIGNALS lhe UK Ministry of Defence is poised to enter into a welter of partnerships with business, usher- ing in the most fundamental shake- up of the military for more than 100 years. Entire training, logistics and sup- ply operations are set to be hived off to big business in the most far- reaching intrusion of the private sector into what was considered the state's preserve. Most controversially, perhaps, management of the Armed Forces' secret files—which cover Northern Treland, the Gulf War and a host of sensitive and historic areas—is set to be handed over to a private aant yA esearchers in Germany have developed new semiconductor technology that will allow scien- tists to read and record electrical signals in living nerve cells. Roland Thewes, senior director in corporate research at Munich- based Infineon, successfully recorded electrical signals in neu- rons, the specialised cells that make up the nervous system in liv- ing organisms and communicate with each other through electrical pulses. Infineon researchers worked with scientists at the Max Planck Institute, located outside Munich, on the new biosensor chip, dubbed the "Neuro-Chip". About the size of a fingernail, it has 16,000 sen- sors that monitor electrical pulses in cells submerged in electrolyte nutrient fluid that coats the semiconductor and keeps the neurons alive. Amplifiers embedded in the circuitry enable each sensor to detect and process the low-voltage signals throughout the different cell layers. The data can then be transmitted to a computer and eventual- ly transformed into a colour picture for analysis. (Source: Reuters, February 11, 2003, via http:/www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/02/11 /chips.bioscience.reut/index.html) contractor. (Source: The Observer, London, March 2, 2003) Laboratory, reveal evidence in the form of helium fission products, which indicates that the end of the georeactor lifetime may be approaching. "The Earth's nuclear furnace could die in as little as 100 years or as long as one bil- lion years—the uncertainty is great," said Herndon. He notes that at some yet unknown point in time after the demise of the georeactor, the presumed energy source for the geomagnetic field—the magnetic field—will collapse and, unlike other times in the geological past, this time it will be unable to re-start. (Source: PNAS, March 3, 2003, PNASnews @nas.edu, via http://NuclearPlanet.com) EARTH'S CORE TO BURN OUT? eophysicist J. Marvin Herndon, who heads Transdyne Corporation in San Diego, has set forth the foundations and demonstrated the feasibility of a giant nuclear reactor at the centre of the Earth. Quoted in a March 3 press release from the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Herndon provides the strongest evidence yet and sheds light on a previously unappreciated peril that humanity will ultimately face. Computer simulations of a nuclear reac- tor in the Earth's core, conducted at the prestigious Oak Ridge National FLORIDA COURT RULING SAYS MEDIA CAN LEGALLY LIE n February 14, a Florida Appeals Court ruled that there is absolutely nothing illegal in a major media organisa- tion lying, concealing or distorting infor- mation. The court reversed the US$425,000 jury verdict of 2000 that was in favour of journalist Jane Akre, who charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information. On August 18, 2000, a six-person jury was unanimous in its conclusion that Akre was indeed fired for threatening to report the station's pressure to broadcast what jurors decided was "a false, distorted or slanted" story about the widespread use of Monsanto's rBGH, a genetically engi- neered growth hormone given to dairy cows. The court did not dispute the heart of Akre's claim, that Fox pressured her to broadcast a false story to protect the broad- — i JTS THE pra, wero i covERT SURVEILLANCE. 6 = NEXUS APRIL — MAY 2003 PRIVATISING WAR se www.nexusmagazine.com