The Engineers, also called Pilots, Space Jockeys, Ossians or Mala'kak, are an ancient extraterrestrial species of unknown origin. They possess among the most advanced technology in the galaxy, this has made them masters of genetic engineering, such as seeding many primordial celestial bodies with life. The name "Engineer" was given by Elizabeth Shaw and Charles Holloway due to the lifeform being responsible for "engineering" the human race. Before the release of Prometheus, the Engineers were originally dubbed as the "Space Jockeys". The nickname was attached to it during production on Alien. Scott has stated he has no idea who christened the creature. People needed something to call this creature, and somehow Space Jockey stuck. But the creature has also had a host of other names including The Pilot (Giger's original nickname for it), Pilots, James Cameron called it the "Big Dental Patient," and later in the novel Aliens: Original Sin as Mala'kaks. Their "scientific" name is "Mundus gubernavi" (Universal Pilot). The Engineers are extremely pale-white, hairless and humanoid due to their subterranean nature, with two arms and legs, and said to have staring, "dead seeming" eyes. The veins underneath their skin are visible, and their pupils are in the shape of oblong plus-symbols. The Engineers are 7 feet tall and breathe oxygen just like human beings but are also able to survive on LV-223′s surface. Though not much is known about the Engineers, it is shown that the ...
Saturday, April 20, 2013
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Sunday, March 17, 2013
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
CIP4 Group 15 - BODY GARDEN
CIP 4: BODY GARDEN For this project, our group decided to approach the 'Behavioural change' macro-trend and 'Waste management' micro-trend and their relationship to human beings. According to the UN, by the year 2025, the world population will increase by 20% to reach 8 billion inhabitants and the amounts of waste will increase tremendously. (Mavropoulus, 2012) By creating a future scenario in the year 2050, this project will explore the possibility of human beings of growing plants or vegetables in their own physical bodies, as a hybrid between nature and human beings. Our aim is to question the idea of reusing our body nutrients and biological systems in order to grow organic matter and be able to save resources. We will provide a new service, in which people will receive a pill that they must take for four days until plants will start growing. As a result, a new interaction is constituted of nurturing organic matter. Our purpose is to critically challenge the audience's expectations, by showing them alternative ways of living and provoking on them, new ways of thinking. Studies have been conducted in the past by scientists, which have resulted in alternative ways of producing food; such as growing edible meat in a laboratory from cell cultures. For instance, genes from a spider inserted into the DNA of a goat have been used to produce large quantities of spider silk. Among the strongest substances known to man, the silk can even be used for building. These successes ...
Saturday, February 16, 2013
GMO Dangers - TDTV
GMO Dangers with Jeffrey M. Smith ........................................................ Author and filmmaker Jeffrey M. Smith shared an update on the use of genetically modified organisms (GMO). India recently said no to using GM eggplant over safety concerns, he noted, but farmers forced to use GM cotton there have been committing suicide because of poor crop yields (related report). Here in the US, the FDA was hijacked into fast tracking GMO, while Monsanto rigged its research, Smith asserted. For those looking to avoid GMO foods, he recommended visiting the Non-GMO Shopping Guide. ........................................................... A genetically modified organism (GMO) or engineered organism (GEO) is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques, generally known as recombinant DNA technology, use DNA molecules from different sources, which are combined into one molecule to create a new set of genes. This DNA is then transferred into an organism, giving it modified or novel genes. Transgenic organisms, a subset of GMOs, are organisms that have inserted DNA from a different species. GMOs are the constituents of genetically modified foods. Critics have objected to GMOs on several grounds, including tampering with nature, ecological concerns, economic concerns raised by the fact these organisms are often subject to intellectual property law, whether food produced from GMOs should be banned or labelled ...
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Genetically Modified Foods in America | Health Documentary
A genetically modified organism (GMO) is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. Organisms that have been genetically modified include micro-organisms such as bacteria and yeast, insects, plants, fish, and mammals. GMOs are the source of genetically modified foods, and are also widely used in scientific research and to produce goods other than food. The term GMO is very close to the technical legal term, 'living modified organism' defined in the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which regulates international trade in living GMOs (specifically, "any living organism that possesses a novel combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology"). This article focuses on what organisms have been genetically engineered, and for what purposes. The article on genetic engineering focuses on the history and methods of genetic engineering, and on applications of genetic engineering and of GMOs. Both articles cover much of the same ground but with different organizations (sorted by organism in this article; sorted by application in the other). There are separate articles on genetically modified crops, genetically modified food, regulation of the release of genetic modified organisms, and controversies.