Widespread ‘Mysterious’ Heavy Fog Sparks Fears of Biowarfare Experiments
The appearance of heavy fog over the final week of 2024 in various regions across the country has sparked fears that the U.S. Government is spraying some sort of harmful pathogen on the population. Described as “mysterious” and having a “burning chemical-like smell” by posts on social media, the fog has been likened to a 1950 biowarfare experiment conducted by the U.S. Navy, stoking fears that such an operation is currently underway.
Fog alerts were already in effect for Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, parts of Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin when posts regarding the nature of the fog began appearing on social media between December 31 and January 2. One Florida resident, speaking in a video posted to TikTok, said that “the weirdest part is the taste and smell… it smells like after you set off a bunch of fireworks and the taste of the air is toxic. It is super weird.”
Formed when humid air cools to within a few degrees of the dew point, the weather conditions that form fog also tend to trap airborne pollutants, resulting in an increase in the concentration of the offending chemicals. Numerous posts were also made describing flu-like symptoms that the posters experienced after being exposed to the fog, ascribing their conditions to pathogens believed to have been inhaled from the mist, but it is not unusual for the water inhaled from dense fog to “cause respiratory issues such as coughing, shortness of breath, chest pain, congestion and wheezing, especially in people with asthma,” according to the Daily Mail.
“That’s because our lungs are designed to inhale oxygen, not water,” the article continued. “When we inhale the increased moisture content of the air, it can irritate the respiratory system and trigger uncomfortable symptoms,” and “can be especially irritating when it is mixed with airborne pollutants, allergens or other particles.”
At the same time, heavy fog was also reported in regions across Canada; across northern India, delaying trains and over 400 flights at New Delhi’s Delhi Airport; and also disrupting flights at Gatwick and Heathrow airports in the U.K. over the last weekend of 2024.
“There is a lot of fog covering much of England, mainly the south-east and central England, but the rest of the country is seeing quite a bit of thick fog too… It will be pretty murky on Saturday morning and there will still be fog patches that will take a little longer to clear,” according to national weather service meteorologist Liam Eslick.
Although the phenomenon wasn’t accompanied by fearful posts on social media, heavy fog also blanketed parts of the U.S. at the same time last year, along with Canada, China, Egypt, India and Pakistan.
Although they offered no evidence to back up their claims, two posts on X/Twitter likened the fog’s appearance to a mid-century biowarfare study that involved the release of bacteria in the San Francisco Bay area, alluding to a link between the famously-foggy city and the more recent weather occurrence.
“Guys, they dumped a bunch of microbes on the country this week, in the form of fog. I know it sounds tin-foil, but my Spidey senses are telling me they are seeding the skies with pathogens that make us sick. Operation Sea-Spray 4.0,” one December 31, 2024 X/Twitter post stated.
“Did we just suffer another Operation Sea Spray event – The Fog?” said another tweet from January 2, 2025. “Our own military would never expose us to toxins.. actually, they would “Operation Sea Spray – 1950 San Francisco Bay, California. The US Navy secretly tested out a bioweapon attack on the unsuspecting population”.
Conducted by the U.S. Navy over the course of a week in late September 1950, Operation Sea Spray saw the release of two types of bacteria over San Francisco to evaluate the susceptibility of an urban area to a biowarfare attack involving a deadly pathogen like anthrax. At the time, both species of bacteria were not considered dangerous to humans: one was Bacillus atrophaeus, a microbe that doesn’t cause disease in humans, and was commonly used by the military as a safe proxy for studies on the spread of anthrax. The other, Serratia marcescens, is a common microbe found throughout the environment, and is responsible for the pink or orange slime that forms on unwashed bathroom tiles. Although exposure to S. marcescens is generally safe, it can cause urinary tract (UTI) and catheter-related infections in hospitalized patients.
Although a link hasn’t been definitively proven, it is the latter species that was presumed to have caused an outbreak of 11 rare UTI cases the following month at Sanford Hospital, involving patients that had undergone recent medical procedures; ordinarily, S. marcescens only accounts for 1.4 percent of infections contracted in-hospital, meaning that the sudden appearance of even less than a dozen cases in one facility is notable. Although the majority of those involved made a full recovery, one patient died from his infection.
The existence of Operation Sea Spray went unknown to the public until 1977, when the U.S. Army revealed the operation during a series of hearings held by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research. While Sea Spray was underway, the military concluded that, given the isolated nature of the cases and their relative commonality to hospitalized patients, the experiment was not the cause of the Sanford cases, it was safe to continue using S. marcescens in future experiments.
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Do you trust Kurzweil?
New Studies Change Our Understanding of Our Meeting With Neanderthals
New Studies Change Our Understanding of Our Meeting With Neanderthals
It's true that we met and mixed with Neanderthals many times, but only one 'gene flow event' produced all non-Africans alive today, and it was later than we thought, studies find
Illustration of the Zlatý kůň/Ranis group. Around 45,000 years ago, individuals from Ranis in Germany and Zlatý kůň in Czechia likely traveled together across the open steppe landscapes of Europe.Credit: Tom BjörklundSomewhere on the path out of Africa, our ancestors encountered Neanderthals, and their joint children would beget all non-African humans alive today. Now two new research papers have shed startling new light on how this happened.
The papers, "Earliest modern human genomes constrain timing of Neanderthal admixture" in Nature led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and "Neanderthal ancestry through time: Insights from genomes of ancient and present-day humans" in Science were published Thursday.
- Get a grip: Unsuspected Neanderthal abilities revealed in France
- Early farmers spreading out of Anatolia explain mystery of Neanderthal DNA in east Asians
- Archaeologists Discover Missing Link in Human Evolution, in Israel
The Nature paper by Arev Sümer, Johannes Krause and colleagues analyzes seven modern humans who lived in Europe 49,000 to 42,000 years ago – the earliest humans in Europe to be studied to date.
The Science paper by Leonardo Iasi, Priya Moorjani and colleagues analyzed 300 current and ancient individuals to study the timing and the duration of the intermixing.
Previous research showed three major Homo sapiens-Neanderthal admixture events: over 200,000 years ago, 120,000 to 105,000 years ago and then after 60,000 years ago. But the new work implies that all non-Africans today result from a lineage of modern humans that mixed with Neanderthals 49,000 to 45,000 years ago in a single event.
By single event we don't mean one coupling on one starry night, but a process of gene flow that may have lasted centuries or even a few thousand years when the two species overlapped, the researchers say.
The other mixing events did happen. They resulted in hybrid human-Neanderthals. We have found traces of these hybrids. The other lineages went extinct. Ours didn't.
The Zlatý kůň skull: Fossil of an Early Homo sapiens woman discovered in the Koněprusy Caves, Czech Republic. Her line went extinct Credit: Marek Jantač, Anthropology Department, National Museum, PragueCaught knapping
The genetic material for the new work was recovered from seven people who lived 49,000 to 42,000 years ago in Ranis, Germany and Zlatý kůň in the Czech Republic. Though the two towns are 230 kilometers distant, the seven were related, Sumer said in a press conference.
The Zlatý kůň people were cousins of the Ranis people, fifth or sixth degree. The team also identified the earliest modern family at Ranis: a mother and daughter, found with a second- (or third-) degree cousin.
The people at Zlatý kůň and Ranis were not our ancestors: their line died out. But they had the same Neanderthal background that we do.
Which means? About 50,000 years ago a band of modern humans left Africa. Possibly while crossing through the Middle East, they mated with Neanderthals about 49,000 to 45,000 years ago. Reaching Europe, the descendants of the band split up, with one branch forming the Zlatý kůň and Ranis family, which died out. Another branch became our ancestors.
The humans and Neanderthals may have lived in proximity for thousands of years, the researchers say. That doesn't necessarily mean they were having relations for 5,000 years.
Prosek (main) Dóme of the Koněprusy caves where early modern humans lived about 46,000 years agoCredit: Martin FrouzWe have no idea how "it" went down, the archaeologists clarified in the press conference. There is no archaeological or cultural evidence whatsoever to temper our fancies in this context. We can't even point at clear cultural transfer.
Note the heartbreak of the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician cultural complex from about 45,000 years ago, Krause says.
LRJ artifacts characterized by sophisticated leaf-shaped stone blades have been found stretching from Britain to Poland in Europe. Note that even in that space, the LRJ sites are very rare, yet they badly muddied the waters because, based on the timing and geography, it was assumed to be a very late and highly skilled Neanderthal culture.
It turned out that modern humans had reached northern Europe by 45,000 years ago. The suggestion arose that the blades were so advanced, the Neanderthals encountered modern humans who graciously taught them extreme knapping.
The known distribution of the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician culture or technocomplex, about 45,000 years ago.Credit: Albin LRecently analysis in an LRJ site in Thuringia deduced that after all, the LRJ makers were modern humans who had penetrated northern Europe that long ago. Ditto regarding the gorgeous Châtelperronian technology; we don't know who made it – Neanderthals, modern humans, hybrids.
So we have no evidence of transfers between Neanderthals and modern humans but do have solid evidence for sex, leading Priya Moorjani to observe that we were all one species.
"The differences we imagine between these groups weren't very big," she says. "They could mix and did so for a long period of time and lived side by side over time, so I think that shows we were far more similar than different. I would expect exchange of ideas and cultures."
X marks the missing spot
Maybe. The new analyses suggest our Neanderthal ancestry component took shape very fast after that single putative gene flow event, within 100 generations, Krause says, thanks to strong selection of Neanderthal genes. In other words, some Neanderthal heredity strongly supported our occupation of Europe and other genes could have been deadly for us.
Think of it this way. You are an early modern human venturing into prehistoric Europe, which was colder, and the pathogens were different. Neanderthals had been there for hundreds of thousands of years and had adapted to it, developing immunities to the pathogens. Your hybrid children could gain immunity from the Neanderthal parent, conferring a great advantage.
But some genes would not work well for us. Some parts of our genome have heavy Neanderthal signals and others have none (and such was the case already in the earliest hybrids, Krause explains).
Such as, we ladies have almost no Neanderthal or Denisovan signals in our X chromosome.
Illustration of the woman in Zlatý kůň, who belonged to the same population as the Ranis individuals and was closely related to two of them.Credit: Tom BjörklundDoes that imply the sex was confined to human women with Neanderthal men? It does not.
"There are regions in our genome that don't tolerate Neanderthal DNA," Krause explains. Perhaps human fetuses with a Neanderthal X chromosome weren't viable. Neanderthal women with human men may not have been a match made in heaven.
A 'success story'
So what have we? Seven people at two spots in Central Europe who lived about 49,000 to 42,000 years ago and had the same Neanderthal sequences we do, but who are not our ancestors. Their line died out. But they stemmed from the same group that was ancestral to us, which had met Neanderthals 80 to 50 generations earlier – likely in the Near East and possibly in Israel.
Upper jaw found in Misliya Cave, Israel from ~200,000 years ago and identified as Homo sapiensCredit: Israel Hershkovitz / Tel Aviv UniversityWe know Homo sapiens and Neanderthals co-occupied our region. In fact Israeli researchers suspect that the Levant was a land where Homo sapiens and Neanderthals struggled over eons. So possibly a small group of humans venturing out of Africa ran into Neanderthals in the Middle East, and their children continued onto Europe, where the lineage of Ranis and Zlatý kůň would die out. But ours would stride on.
It bears adding: If they mixed over centuries or a few thousand years – geologically that's an eyeblink but in terms of human history, consider how much has happened in the last 7,000 years, such as the rise of civilization, Benjamin Peter points out.
"I think it reasonable to assume lots of different things were happening in that time period – not one event or one culture or one group that interacted with Neanderthals but a lot of population structures, people different from each other that all interacted with Neanderthals," he speculates. The teams note that other early human lines who died out in Europe, for instance in Bulgaria and Romania, evinced signs of additional admixture.
But in the group that survived, maybe all in all there were a couple of hundred Neanderthals interacting with a group of humans numbering maybe 5,000 and the result is We.
Bacho Kiro Cave in Bulgaria, where Homo sapiens lived 46,000 years agoCredit: Nenko LazarovCan all this genetic analysis tell us what the early Europeans and Neanderthals looked like? No. Krause points out that dozens of genes at a minimum affect skin color and at this point in the science, we can't even tell based on genetics what our own species looks like at a distance.
"If we apply methods developed in Europe [to deduce skin color based on genetic analysis], they don't work in South Africa. These methods are population-specific. So if the European methods don't work there, how would they work for Neanderthals?" he says. He suspects that being fairly freshly out of Africa, the early modern humans in Europe all had dark skin and eyes.
As for Neanderthal appearance, most of the skin color variants we can identify in Neanderthal genomes aren't present in Homo sapiens, so we don't know what they do. And we have gene variants that Neanderthals don't have, and all this means exactly nothing. So we can't say our ancestors saw blond Neanderthals and swooned. Or vice versa.
Anyway, about 39,500 years ago all human lineages in Europe died out – Neanderthals and early modern humans alike, including the small modern human bands at Ranis and Zlatý kůň. Except for our ancestors, who had reached Europe about 43,500 years ago, according to the latest analysis, and somehow weathered whatever happened, and were fruitful and multiplied and peopled the continents, eventually walking over the Bering Bridge to the Americas and sometimes, with dogs in tow.
Separate work implies that Denisovans, a sister species to Neanderthals (or are we all one?), survived in Southeast Asia, mixing with humans, until perhaps 15,000 years ago. Maybe they did, but we won.
We won? A little humility might be in order. The human story isn't just a story of success. "We also went extinct several times," points out Science coauthor Benjamin Peter. In fact we always went extinct in Europe, and all other modern humans in Europe joined the Neanderthals in that final void, except for one little band that didn't. The end.
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- COMMENT:
James Louder
14.12.2024
While this study casts new and very interesting light on the timing of Neanderthal and Sapiens hybridization among the ancestors of today's Eurasians 49-42 KYA, it doesn't address the introgression of Neanderthal genes among aboriginal Australian/Oceanian peoples. According to an earlier study, also from the Max Planck Institute [Malaspinas, Westaway, et al. Nature 538], this occurred in the range of ~60 KYA. It appears to follow an Out-of-Africa event around ~72 KYA involving the common ancestors of all modern non-Africans.
Space Junk
While there was no word from officials, astronomer Jonathan McDowell identified the space debris as a Chinese satellite.
“The commercial imaging satellite 高景一号02星 (GaoJing 1-02, Superview
1-02), operated by Beijing-based SpaceView, reentered above New Orleans
at 10:08 p.m. CST heading northbound towards Mississippi, Arkansas,
Missouri and was widely observed,” McDowell said... “The satellite has been space junk and dead as a doornail since January
2023. This was an uncontrolled reentry. We knew it was coming down today
but only with ±2 hour accuracy estimate so we didn’t know where (at
17000 mph, ±2 hours is more than one trip round the Earth).”
Residents in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama were
treated to a dazzling sight late Saturday as bright, slow-moving objects
streaked across the sky. Experts said they’re likely space debris –
probably a Starlink satellite – and not a meteor.
The event happened
just after 10 p.m. and was visible from multiple states, according to
witnesses who shared footage on social media. While there was no word
from officials, it was previously announced that 4 Starlink satellites
were due to reenter Earth’s atmosphere this weekend. Many observers
initially speculated that the object was a meteor, but experts quickly
dismissed this theory due to its slow movement. Unlike meteors, which
travel at incredibly high speeds, the object’s gradual pace strongly
suggests it was man-made debris.
Space debris often burns up upon
entry, creating bright streaks and fragments visible from the
ground. Social media platforms quickly filled with videos and photos of
the event, with users across the region sharing their awe and curiosity.
The object’s slow pace and vivid brightness made it a captivating sight
for many who happened to look skyward at the right moment.
This sighting adds to a growing list of re-entry events witnessed globally as humanity’s activity in space continues to increase.
Just last month, a fireball lit up the sky over North Texas, which astronomers identified as a SpaceX Starlink satellite which launched in 2022.
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