Experiment Update
FLIGHTS COMPLETED! We just subjected live culturing stem and immune cells to the altered dynamics of jet travel – east & west with a control group in SF. They'll be sent out soon for RNA-sequencing – stay tuned….
[The basis for our Eötvös experiment: There is a natural asymmetry – a Coriolis-like effect – in any equilibrium built on a reference frame that is spinning and wobbling like Earth's. It was first identified by Loránd Eötvös in the early 1900's, and while the effect never found its way into our biology books, it gives our 'rest frame' a rich, fine-scale underlying rotational strain cycle – ideal for driving evolution and the geometry of proteins and enzymes. These asymmetrical dynamics get amplified when traveling at jet speeds – so we're flying cells simultaneously on east and west journeys and looking for differences in their genetic and metabolic output. If found, it will be the first evidence that metabolic pathways utilize or cue to the dynamic strains inherent to Earth's motion.]
The scientific team includes Agata Zupanska of SETI, Chris & Graça Porada of Wake Forest, Afshin Beheshti of U. Pitt, Afshin Khan of Cleveland Clinic, and Michael, Caleb, and Julian Schmidt of Sovaris Aerospace. Sean Thorne and Greta Martin are providing planning assistance.
In Q3 of 2025 our experimental collaborators at Karl Morten's Oxford lab (Holly Tonks and Alex Silverthorne) completed the first wave of the heavy isotope study. Excitingly they demonstrated how altering the ratio of D2O/H2O in H460 cells has a significant effect on cancer metabolism – supporting previous studies on the potential therapeutic benefits that might be gained by manipulating deuterium ratios. Publication of those results is expected later this year. Later this year we also expect to see progress made on a second isotope study identifying altered resonance effects caused by 58Fe & 54Fe isotopes within iron containing structures such as hemes. A team at Oxford will be leading the lab work.
Our circalunar research expanded significantly in 2025. Our student intern, Clayton Xavier Vanegas Aguilar, currently studying at St. Petersburg University, has produced an expanded list of over 700 species exhibiting such periodicity. That database will be submitted for publication in 2026 together with an interactive world map (excerpt at right). The notion that circa 28-day periodicity exists in metabolic pathways is important because it is observed at the level of gene expression. Although current biological modeling speculates these periodicities are regulated either by light or some extended Transcription-Translation-Feedback Loop, we're looking for a more fundamental dynamic explanation that can be shared across all species. This research, therefore, complements our EOTVOS program — for if those results produce evidence that metabolic pathways do couple to Earth's spin & orbital motion, this would provide a more natural explanation for circalunar cycles.