somatids, voodoo, and astrology

[Ken Kinman]

Sorry,
     Somatids seem to be a strange invention ("discovery") or fantasy of
modern-day snake-oil "scientists".  And to see them you need a special
microscope (somatoscope).   Give me a break.
     Now it seems somatids are being called proteins, but apparently in the
past they were described as the spark of life or pure light energy
transformed into matter (sound sort of like large biological quarks).
     Anyway, if you have "unhealthy" somatids, there are expensive products
available to make them healthy again.   I suspect the only thing being made
healthy is certain people's bank accounts.  I think I'll put somatids in a
file with astrology, voodoo, and other "twlight zone" oddities of
pseudoscience.
         -----Happy Holidays, Ken Kinman
P.S.  And "Happy Somatids" to those who might believe in them.   And if by
chance we do have "somatids", I hope they are happy with my Vitamin E
supplement, because that's the only "therapy" they are going to get from me.

*********************************************************
>From: veldkamp <Veldkamp at NHN.LEIDENUNIV.NL>
>Reply-To: veldkamp <Veldkamp at NHN.LEIDENUNIV.NL>
>To: TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG
>Subject: somatids
>Date: Fri, 26 Nov 1999 10:33:38 +0100
>
>         Have you ever heard of  'somatids'? One of my students is working
>as an
>assistant to an physician with alternative methods, and I was demonstrated
>some of these. One of them is to put a drop of blood under a special
>microscope. Very interesting to see, but what was remarkable was that small
>objects darted about that he called 'somatids'.
>         These are said to be proteins and to occur in all (!) living
>organisms. In
>a healthy organism up to 3 forms occur, but when not there may be up to 16
>'stages' indicative of the degree of unhealthiness. Little to say that of
>course some of the quite advanced stages were present. Possibly because I
>was an observer and not a patient I was spared prescriptions (and the bill)
>         Intrigued by an apparant organism-like object with at least a
>partial life
>cycle that in my education as a biologist I had never heard of I asked some
>colleagues here, who were as ignorant. So I tried some of the students and
>went to the first year lab to look in textbooks, but nothing there, either.
>         On the WEB I found a lot of interesting remarks when I searched
>for
>'somatid cycle'. You might try this if you got nothing better to do this
>week-end.
>
>         Has any taxonomic research been done on this?
>
>         If you have any haematologist friends you might ask for what the
>current
>opinion on what these things are is. (Excuse my English...)

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com