The explicit goal of the work of Charles Lieber, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard has been to devise a biological interface, in which a nanoscale device could communicate with a living organism and he had succeeded in developing a bio-compatible transistor the size of a virus.
He and his colleagues used nanowires to create a transistor so small that it can be used to enter and probe cells without disrupting the intracellular machinery and could even be used to enable two-way communication with individual cells.
On January 28th, Lieber was arrested and charged for lying about work he did for a program run by the Chinese government that seeks to lure American talent to China.
Lieber was paid $50,000 a month and up to $158,000 in living expenses to cultivate young teachers and students, according to court documents. He also received more than $1.5 million to create a research lab at the Wuhan University of Technology in China.
Lieber has also received more than $15 million in grants from US Federal agencies since 2008 and he’s required to disclose any conflicts of interest and money he receives from foreign governments.
China has been rampantly stealing IP, stealing critical and sensitive data from us through the university system. Shouldn’t that raise the question of why the university system is being used to get this work done? And was it stealing if they technically paid for it?
The the timing of Lieber’s arrest and the locations of where this virus has showed up suggest a high statistical probability that Mr. Lieber’s creations may have escaped from a research lab in China, though it’s thought that some of its ancestors probably came from Fort Detrick but there’s a high probability that we’re dealing with nanotechnology.
But bioweapons that are specifically-engineered aren’t the only concern. Nanomaterials, which are used in haircare, clothing and other familiar products are so small, they can be inadvertently ingested into the human body, where they accumulate in the liver to affect the immune system.
For example, it’s known that metallic oxides (such as titanium dioxide, which is used in a lot of processed foods) convert over time into phosphates, leading not only to physical changes but to fundamental compositional (atomic) changes in the human body that can cause lung fibrosis and a number of other ill effects.
Artikel 7 has put together this excellent video exploring these topics.
