The Ciba-Geigy Effect

[LuisP]

Guido Ebner and Heinz Schürch arrived at the lab that day thinking it would be just another day. They hung their overcoats and donned the knee length white lab smocks, ready for business as usual.

But it wouldn’t be so.

Just another day. Or business as usual.

They had been working for some time now, with Seeds. More to the point, they had been trying to understand – and see for themselves – the strange effects that occurred with its exposure to an "electrostatic field", that is, to a high voltage field in which no current flows.

They had started with Fern seeds, given their simplicity and ease of breed. And then, having seen the strange (very strange) effects on these, Guido and Heinz enthusiastically decided to move on, and try that “field” on corn and wheat seeds.

Why ?

Firstly, because those two cereals and their byproducts represented more than 75 % of the world’s cereal’s diet. Wheat alone was the second most produced cereal, only beaten by rice and, on occasion, by maize …. a cereal commonly known, yes, by the name of corn.
Secondly, their Employer was a major player in the Seeds business, selling them around the globe on some 90 countries.
Thirdly, there were rumors that the Seeds in-house department was getting so big and lucrative it could even be spun-off in the near future, and made a player by its own autonomous merit.
Fourthly, the company they worked for, Ciba-Geigy, was yet also a major player in the domain of pesticides, ever since 1939. That year, one of their chemists, Paul Hermann Müller, discovered that DDT was effective against malaria-bearing insects, a discovery seemingly “simple” but that had been enough for him to be awarded, in 1948, the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Therefore, corn and wheat seeds’ genetic engineering with a view to make them stronger and resistant to draught and plagues …. was only natural, and a seemingly good idea.

So, Ebner and Schürch went ahead with it … but not by manipulating genes.

After the Ferns experiments, they knew they didn’t need to.

But that day, when they entered the lab and examined the plants that had sprouted from the "electrostatic field" enhanced corn and wheat seeds … they were dumbstruck !

It was simply too strange, and too big a thing ! They had to try it on something else. Something “living”…. something “animal”. And see what “it” would do.

That day, they decided to try it.

And so it began.

It would never be the “same business”.

(to be continued …)


Credits (some left out by reason of story presentation) :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novartis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syngenta
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat

[LuisP]

The Fern experiments had shown Guido Ebner and Heinz Schurch that they could safely and naturally modify the genes of an organism by simply using what everyone calls “electricity”, without really having a clue of what “that” is, harvested from what is also designated, again without understanding it, a “electrostatic field”.

Normal fern.jpg (10.86 KiB) Viewed 4210 times

No more need, they came to realize, for the Agrobacterium, a soil bacteria that was being invasively used to genetically modify a plant. Much less a need for the crude “shotgun method”, where plant cells were blasted with tiny pellets containing DNA material in large chunks, the resulting changes in the “created plant” including unwelcome modifications.

No, nothing of that sort. As Ebner said it,
“Our experiments do not involve a mutation of the organism in question, which in the case of genetic engineering involves channelling an additional gene into the organism ...No entirely new organism is created … In the electrostatic field, only the gene expression is altered - the retrieval of the existing gene. That is something different."

But not only that “difference” had “happened with consequences”.

Their “method” had also, and most notably, revealed what they could only describe as “a genetical memory in organisms” … something which disturbed both greatly, for it then arose in them cultural and philosophical questions far beyond the experiment or its production benefit.

Why ?
Because, from common seeds exposed to the electrostatic field, a “primeval” Fern had sprouted ! a “Ancestor” had presented itself, grown in such a way as millions of years ago !

Electrostatic modified Fern.jpg (8.89 KiB) Viewed 4210 times

No wonder it was a Fern that that no botanist, and they had called several, had been able to identify.

It was not a “new” engineered Fern. It instead was an “old”, ancestral one. The only scientific explanation was : - From the seeds, a “gene memory” had been retrieved. From the time of the dinosaurs, perhaps even from the time before ... the scientists conjectured.

Their minds racing, they wrote down every tiny little bit of data from the experiment, and moved on, replicating it in Wheat and Corn seeds.

Normal corn.jpg (8.43 KiB) Viewed 4210 times

What will we get ? what will we see ?

What they then saw, and got, what something amazing !

The hereditary characteristics that had been lost through breeding or degeneration, were brought out again and activated. Without using any genetic engineering.

Because from those “exposed” seeds a variant had emerged which resembled the genetic antecedents of the wheat, and a corn plant with a particularly high number of pistons in a heap, where normally found in maize is only a single piston.
It also had “new” proteins, which people had looked for in the original wheat, to no avail. Furthermore, it produced much larger roots than the control group, allowing the crops to grow far more rapidly.

Electrostatic modified Corn.jpg (10.05 KiB) Viewed 4210 times

As Schürch recalled it,
- "In the case of our 'manipulated' wheat, growth was so rapid that it was ripe in four weeks instead of the usual seven months, and although the ears and stalks were somewhat smaller, there were more ears per plant.”
- “The actual benefit is that we could cultivate this wheat in regions where spring and summer are short and where conventional wheat cannot be grown at all."
- “ In this case, one can also cheerfully refrain from using pesticides and herbicides: The pests that have adapted to the growth process of normal wheat have not yet developed when we harvest our wheat as early as four to eight weeks after planting."

Their “electric field cereals” had a higher yield than modern genetically engineered varieties and did not require fertilizers. Furthermore, it was completely “natural” and thus healthier.

It could, therefore, be grown by anybody at minimal cost.

They next tried the “field” on some Green Algae grown in Petri dishes. What they saw there made their skin crawl … for “The Cultures outlive comparative material without electrostatic field. The latter already after 1 month shows a distinct deficiency appearance and is after 2 month brown. In the same period of time, cultures cultivated in the electrostatic field develop normally.”

Retarded Start of Senescence ?

What is “happening” here ? What have we “stumbled” upon ?

Guido Ebner and Heinz Schurch were dumbstruck. They had to tell “the suits” about this. They were onto something big. Very big.

And they did. Tell the suits. With a detailed Memo of the experiments.

Adrenaline pumping up their excitement, and not because of the coffee they had drunk that morning, they then sat in their lab stools, silently looking at each other and grinning like kids with a new toy to play with.

That’s when, in that day of days, they decided to play some more and push the experiment onward and upwards, to higher organisms.

They chose rainbow trout eggs. And went to work on them.

The suits had yet to read their Memo.
Ciba-Geigy had a lot of projects going on in their labs, so when received, it was dropped on top of big stack. That same day, it would be buried under other Memos from other scientists.

In time, it would be read, though.

Oh yes, it would definitely be. And once read by a suit, up it went then, that Memo, along the suits’ chain of command. Until it landed where the buck stops being kicked. And stays put. That place usually is a long and otherwise empty table at which, on either side of it, some very important guys in suits get to sit.

Never to eat. Just to talk.

And who always have a lot more to speak of, besides seeds and algae. Not to mention, a lot less interest in it.

Little did they know, or they might have gotten scared instead of just worried, that by the time this Memo reached them, Guido Ebner and Heinz Schurch were so far out of control as to be experimenting with human blood cells and even human heart tissue.

But I’m getting ahead of their story.

(to be continued …)


Credits :
Presented in full at the end. When we get there.

[LuisP]

Heinz Schürch said :
- “Electrostatic fields are regulative fields. Nature comes out of chaos; it needs regulative structures to manifest something. This is the idea behind it; a certain electrostatic field brings a certain structure into nature, that’s what we know out of the experiments.
- We cannot tell how strong a field it needs (electric field strength) to go back to a certain time in evolution. We don’t even know how it really works. Our theory is, that the plants in the field get information, which makes them go back to the archetypes, i.e., the wheat remembers it once was a grass.
- If I can change the set of chromosomes and grow ancient (long dead) plants just by using a simple electrostatic field, I have to pronounce the question whether all the information about the shape of creatures is really in the genes, the DNA, the nucleus? I think the electrostatic charging of the atmosphere is also a factor.
- The memory of nature seems to go back to the very beginnings of life.”

Oh, and just another thing. Remember the initial experience with the Fern plant ? Well, guess what, in the following years the ancient fern grew different leafs every year, like it was going through the whole process of evolution in his growing process.

Because out of its spores different kinds of ferns were grown : worm ferns, beach ferns, some south African leather ferns, …the ancient fern seemed to be able to develop every kind of fern.

Genetic Memory of Life ?
Only there, in plants ?

That’s why Ebner and Schürch decided to try the field in rainbow trout eggs and see what they would achieve.

Well, not exactly “decided”. They, in fact, wanted to try it immediately on “animals”. But, as Schürch put it “we got the strict instructions not to mess with the germ line of animals. That’s why we thought of taking the eggs of a rainbow trout and put them into a field for four weeks after their impregnation.” And wait.

And it “paid off”. For they did achieve something.

They brought back to life a fish that was extinct for over 150 years.

From present day trout eggs. Without any kind of “genetic engineering”. Just by using the mysterious “electrostatic” field.

Normal and electrostatic trout, apparatus on eggs

Let’s keep on hearing this Ciba-Geigy scientist, in his own words :
- “After four weeks we put them into aquariums and raised them. The result are fish, which are much stronger and robust than our rainbow trout.
- They have more teeth and a different color. Grown males have a hook-jaw (like wild salmons). They behave wilder and more aggressive. We needed to heighten the fence around the aquarium because the fish would jump higher. They are an archetype of our trout’s, dead since 150 years (they were identified with the aid of old drawings).
- The flesh of the fish is firmer and more delicate. The fish are more resistant to disease. That’s why there is no need to put antibiotics or pesticides into the water.
- There is a standing joke in the company about bringing back the dinosaurs. It is just a joke. I wouldn’t dare do it. You can’t control a dinosaur. We would just have to use bird-eggs, for the birds are the descendants of the saurian.
- But we don’t even know how these fields are working.”

But they could witness “its effects” on their trouts.

And they were, simply, out of this world ….

Look at what they observed, and wrote :
"- a substantially higher hatching rate of the treated fish eggs is observed, with frequently an increase of 100 to 300% and even higher values being achieved.
- the juvenile fish make a far more agile and more vital impression than the untreated comparison fish.
- Very significant is their markedly higher survival rate which extends not only to their first few days, but virtually to their entire life cycle. This feature becomes all the more marked if all medication is dispensed with.
- the untreated control group (not exposed to an electrostatic field) is at least twice as heavily reduced by the non-artifically inhibited and naturally occurring population of pathogens as the fish that have been exposed to treatment with an electric field.
- In addition, the treated fish, while receiving identical feeding, grow in weight and size far faster and reach adulthood significantly earlier.
- Further, no deleterious changes in the progeny of these treated fish are observed. On the contrary, a certain element of the vitality seems to be transferable to the progeny."

Is it simply me, and my ignorance, or should everyone be amazed by the magnificence of these mysteries ? And I say this without any drama, just humility. And a gnawing curiosity.

Which led me to go look around some more, because surely, surely – or just maybe ! – someone else had “stumbled” on this.

And to my amazement I found that in 1911, a guy named Emilio Olsson had patented an irrigation system using “electrified rain”, with which he had “successfully cultivated a 600-acre plantation with this method”.

That in 1920, a Thomas Curtis had used a large, oil-immersed Tesla coil (10 KV/500 W) to supply high-tension current over a 200 sq ft plot planted with radishes and lettuce, the resulting “electrified crops” being “at least 50% larger than the normal crops.”

That in 1927 a certain “H. L. Roe” had invented an “electrified plow to kill pests in the soil.”

And that in 1939, a “Fred Opp” had invented a garden cultivator that used high-tension electric current to “increase the nitrogen content of the soil” and that this same method had been, in 1946, incorporated into the "Electrovator" built by a Gilbert M. Baker, as reported by “Popular Science” in September of that year.

I could go on … but it is pointless.
For I am dumbfounded just by having scratched these. I can hardly write all of this down without it being my turn to ask “what is happening here ? what are we seeing ?” and add, of my own accord, “WTF are we being kept out of ?”

While experiencing at the same time a kind of an immobilizing, questioning awe … amidst a sense of anger. Yes, lots of anger.

But that’s just me.

Ebner and Schürch, being scientists, decided to deal with it by bending their “strict instructions”, and move … onto human blood cells and “animal” heart tissue.

That’s what I will be writing about next.

Meanwhile, keep in mind one thing : "In the company", not everyone was making "jokes" about what they were doing. Further down the corridor, inside another Ciba-Geigy lab, a different team was working.

Doing on seeds exactly the opposite of their work's aims.

I will be writing about those motherf**kers, too.

You bet I will.

Just wait for the Epilogue to all this.


(to be continued …)

[Mikado14]

Curious, did any of the reports state if the trout were able to reproduce?

Mikado

[LuisP]

Good question Mikado.
I was also intrigued by the fact that the original trout eggs were “impregnated”, meaning, fertilized in vitro, and not “naturally” inseminated, and later harvested.

I’m no scientist, and the procedure is, far as I know, so straightforward as to be deemed irrelevant towards any “effects” it may also generate. But the fact remains that it was done that way.

So when they say that “no deleterious changes in the progeny of these treated fish are observed” one does retain the fact that they did have offspring … but not that these were generated by “reproduction”.

But, as far as “educated guesses” may go and assumptions can be made, I’d expect these scientists to observe, and also write down, if the trout could not reproduce ! I mean, it is no minor detail, is it ?

So, If on one hand nothing is said to the contrary and, on the other, their “progeny” is mentioned, I’d safely assume that yes, the “electrostatic” trout were indeed able to reproduce.

[StarCat]

I agree with Luis. If the trout were unable to reproduce, that would quite likely have been noted. It would follow the rule of "charting by exception." Very little is noted when things are fine, but if something is wrong? It's like writing a novel.

Cat

[LuisP]

Thanks for helping clarify that, Cat. Even if "charting by exception" is akin to thermonuclear science to me !

As to ".... but if something is wrong? It's like writing a novel."

HA ! you do know who you are ...

And that's not the first time I noticed it, either.

[LuisP]

Inside one of Ciba-Geigy labs, a team was working frantically. They were elated, for the previous experiments had produced results beyond their most extreme expectations.

Things had started simple, just another go at the known but not really understood beneficial effects of electricity on seeds with a view to improve and enhance them. They had applied a plain electrostatic field on some fern seeds and later, after reaching amazing but inexplicable results, had decided to try its magic on wheat and corn seeds. Dumbstruck, to say the least, by what they then achieved and saw happening to these plants, a bold decision was reached : they would try the “field” on higher organisms. They had chosen trout eggs, not by their value or intrinsic interest but because meanwhile strict instructions had been relayed to not mess with “animal genes”.

The resulting sprouting and revival of a long ago extinct fish, recorded as such around 150 years ago, made them stop in their tracks. What were they messing with ? Jokes were already being made by some colleagues about dinosaurs coming to life and frankenstein doctors running amok in the labs. And yes, there were those “strict instructions” shadowing their every move.

But Guido Ebner and Heinz Schürch were not soldiers. They were scientists.

That is why they decided that if instructions could not be broken, they had to be bent. And made then a Choice, regardless of the suits’ stern orders, feeling like hunters on a hot trail. Powered not by lust of blood, but of knowledge.

So they broke protocol, and like generals moving an army inside a battlefield, rerouted their electrostatic field, microscopes and experiments onto “animal” subjects.

The proverbial rat, so to speak, got the privilege. Or more precisely, its heart.

And so they began.

A rat’s heart was swiftly “found”. They suspended it in midair, between the copper plates of a charged capacitor, without any nutrient solution. Instead, their “electric field” was put in place, pulsing with a normal heart beat frequency. Other rat hearts, obviously, had to be “procured” to serve as controls. So procured and produced they were. Rats, after all, are a cheap commodity and are bred in labs to serve, precisely, higher purposes.

All of the hearts had its vitals monitored via ECG.

After 14 minutes, the control hearts, which were suspended without an electrostatic field, were all “dead”.

But the one inside it ? … that one survived for another 6 minutes. Meaning, having reached almost 43 % more longevity!

Moreover, the recorded ECG signals of the electrostatically treated heart was significantly stronger than those of the control group – a result which “hinted” at having had increased vitality as well !

The phenomenon was then confirmed under the microscope: an untreated rat heart was sliced into very thin samples.

After 15-30 minutes, cellular disintegration was observed.

But the tissue samples taken from the electrostatically treated heart ? these displayed no such cellular disintegration.

Even after 70 minutes …

Ebner and Schürch feverishly did the math. And once done, felt what can only be described … as an awed puzzlement.

They had seen unexplainable, alien things come out of “It” before, like the Jurassic fern and the extinct fish.

But nothing this “alien”.

For the math showed that the treated cells had maintained their longevity by something like 130 % more … over the longest surviving untreated cells !

It simply was not possible, it defied every rule of any book !

But, that was exactly what had happened.

What they had “seen” and “observed”. And awed them.

Because, quite “obviously”, the electrostatic field was delaying cellular destruction even without any nutrients. Meaning … just by itself.

But how ?

They would not be allowed to see that question answered. It still isn’t, today.

But right then and there, unsuspecting and uncaring in that ignorance, it may only be fair to say that Ebner and Schürch transformed themselves. And a metamorphosis of their souls took place.

They were no longer Ciba-Geigy employees. They had become Explorers, Navigators, Pioneers. And Conquistadors.

Onwards, they decided. With the wind, ridding the storm but unafraid of it, into the Unknown. With a will to know it and, if so able, to try and conquer it.

That is why they now decided not to bend, but to break, completely, the strict rules.

And cross the Rubicon, into Human material.

They would never get back. Nor would they care to.

Their story was coming to an end, anyway.

(to be continued …)

The ill fated scientists.jpg (10.39 KiB) Viewed 4142 times

[LuisP]

The dice had been cast.

There was no turning back.

If Guido Ebner and Heinz Schürch at one point had decided to bend their Employer’s strict instructions, now they intended to breach and break them.

This was not just messing with “animal” genes. It was meddling with those of THE animal itself.

That is, Man’s.

Not much is recorded, and even less known, of their experiments with Human cells.
One wonders why.

It starts with “a donor’s blood” being “found” and placed in a highly salted solution for about seven days in the presence of their “electric field” in order to observe red cell behavior.

Swiss are but slightly diluted Germans. A “donor’s blood” ? Whose ? they were inside a seeds lab, supposedly working on a seeds project.
I can imagine what lies behind that singularly simple description.

A junior scientist in their team would have at first stepped forward. “Ich melde mich freiwillig. Ich biete mein Blut, Herr Doktor”, I would like to volunteer and offer my blood, he would have said.

“Nein” would have been Ebner’s immediate reply, “ich bin der älteste, es wird mein”. No, I am the oldest, it will be mine.
“Meine verantwortung”, he would heave added.

My responsibility.

That’s about when Schürch must’ve risen from the working bench he had been sitting, knowing it had to be him.

“Danke, mein freund, aber mein blut ist starker, ja ? ich bin jünger. Mein anruf”. Thank you my friend, but my blood is stronger for I’m younger. It will be my call, he would have said, smiling in compassion, and gratitude, for the older man’s sense of honor.

Ebner would’ve looked down. And then, after a second or two weighing it up, he raised his eyes to look into those of his partner. A curt “Natürlich, gehen sie bitte, Schürch” ended it.

Naturally, please proceed.

Yes, they had cast the dice. And done it like the honorable Men they undoubtedly were.

All my conjecture, of course. No record of how it happened exists.

Just that “a donor’s blood” had been “found”.

(to be continued …)

[Mikado14]

Still have my attention Luis...

Mikado