"Fringe" - the TV series

[Sadsack]

I saw the debut of this last Sept but somehow lost track of it.
Today I was hunting down a parisitologist, and found a link to him on a Popular Mechanics blog where the series was being discussed. OK, so read the last line of this article where Morgellons is mentioned.

Then I read up on the series. Look at the synopsis from Wiki:

Fringe follows the exploits of FBI special agent Olivia Dunham, mad scientist Walter Bishop, and his son “jack of all trades” Peter Bishop as they investigate aspects of fringe science (rare diseases, cryptids, transhumans with psychic abilities, teleportation, and so forth). All over the world, a series of apparent experiments collectively referred to as "the Pattern" (e.g., a newborn baby who rapidly ages and dies within a few hours, a bus full of passengers trapped in a strange substance like mosquitoes in amber) are occurring for reasons unknown. Olivia, Peter, and Walter are in charge of investigating these strange events to determine their source. Connected to the Pattern is Massive Dynamic, a leading global research company that holds the patents for a number of new and important technologies. Their enemy is ZFT, a bioterrorist organization which is orchestrating all of the strange occurrences in order to prepare for a destructive technological singularity. Tying both sides together is a nootropic drug, called Cortexiphan, that was developed by Walter and his partner, William Bell (now chairman of Massive Dynamic), which Olivia and a number of others were treated with as children.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fringe_(TV_series)

Scientists Say Fringe Parasites are Far From Realistic: Hollywood Fact vs. Fiction

You might have had a few weeks off from Fringe, but the sketchy-science series came back this week with its usual charms. "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones" focuses on the now-typical tasks of talking to dead people and brain-on-brain experimentation, but it also introduces a parasite with quite a grip. Three parasitological experts sink their teeth into the truth behind the episode.

By Kate Schweitzer
Published on: November 12, 2008





Walter (John Noble, center) explains his findings to Astrid (Jasika Nicole, left) and Peter (Joshua Jackson, right) during an experiment. (Photograph by Craig Blankenhorn/FOX)


Can a heart-sized, seven pound parasite exist in a human?
When FBI agent Mitchell Loeb collapses in pain, he's sent to the emergency room. Only after breaking open his chest cavity do the doctors see what caused his heart to stop: a strange, almost-otherworldly alligator-mouthed parasite wrapped around the organ. When mad scientist Dr. Walter Bishop examines the parasite, he determines that it is a typical water-borne organism that lives in the intestines of animals.

"The typical parasite isn't typical," says Dr. David Williams, an associate professor of immunology and biology at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. "Parasites are very diverse. From single-cell organisms to worms in whales that are 5 to 6 meters long, they are not related to each other except for the fact that they live inside a host and do harm to that host."

And according to Henry Bishop, a microbiologist in the diagnostic laboratory within the division of parasitic diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (and no relation to Fringe's fictional resident mad scientist), some parasites are so complex that they have digestive and reproductive tracts that are easily visible. Tapeworms that live in the small intestine, for instance, can be more than 20 feet long.

So, does that mean that wormlike organism on Fringe is possible?
Both Williams and John Janovy, Jr., the Varner professor of biological sciences at University of Nebraska Lincoln, can't come up with anything like it.

"There's certainly no human parasites that would be like that," says Janovy. "The only ones that invade the heart are dog heartworms. They fill up the cavities inside the heart. There's also microscopic parasites that invade muscle cells of the heart, but I don't know of anything that could attach or surround the heart that you can see with the unaided eye."

That doesn't mean real-life parasites aren't Fringe-worthy. Janovy mentions Naegleria fowleri, the "brain-eating amoeba," and the fatal primary amebic meningoencephalitis as some dramatic contenders. (We suggest a Morgellon's-centered episode).

SS

[Sadsack]

OMG - from the above:

"Their enemy is ZFT, a bioterrorist organization which is orchestrating all of the strange occurrences in order to prepare for a destructive technological singularity."

Now go back and read the first article on the Nanotechnology thread. It's all about the technological singularity movement, which is very, very real. "Singularity University" just opened on the grounds of NASA.

If you haven't read it yet, please do so. Then come back and read this thread. I really believe that we are being experimented on for the purposes of achieving singularity and immortality for the elite few.

SS

[Kritters]

You sure have been busy mustering up incredible stuff!!!

I have company now (yap, yap, yap about nothing important...) and all I want to do is read your posts......but later.

Oh, by the way... my eye did catch that 8 (?) lb parasite residing in a person...yesser, that's my baby. The one in my stomach!

xoxo
Kritts

[Sadsack]

PS -

This is the link to the Popular Mechanics blog:

JJ Abrams Fringe Episode 7 In Which We Meet Mr. Jones - Guide to Fox Fringe - Popular Mechanics

SS