Protocols by DeYtH Banger, Clive Cooper (best novels for beginners .txt) 📕

SCP-006

 Under direct orders of the founder, access is limited to those with Overseer clearance

 

Overseer Clearance Granted

 

Item #: SCP-006

 

Object Class: Safe

 

Special Containment Procedures: Whereas the nature of SCP-006 does not warrant any extensive containment, a certain level of secrecy is necessary regarding the object's existence and properties, for obvious reasons. The following procedures are required not for personnel safety, but to deny or hide knowledge of SCP-006's effects from the personnel who interact with it.

 

 

1: All personnel interacting with SCP-006 in any physical way are required to wear modified class VI BNC suits. Before personnel are allowed to perform procedures, they must be briefed with Material SCP-006B or SCP-006C. SCP-006A Briefing is the correct one and is restricted to only those with O5 clearance. To assure personnel are wearing suits properly, they are to be submerged into a pool of water. Any air bubbles spotted signify a leak in the suit.

 

2: Procedures with SCP-006 are to be carried out under extreme surveillance. In case of contact with SCP-006, the commander in charge will announce Procedure 006-Xi-12, which the personnel have been briefed to believe to mean high toxicity is present and they must evacuate.

 

3: Any procedure in which liquid is acquired from SCP-006 must be approved by three (3) O5 level personnel. The liquid is to be transferred in a Quad-Sealant Container and under armed guard.

 

4: If at any time personnel come into contact with SCP-006 or liquid from SCP-006, they are to be confined and terminated after sufficient studies are done. Due to the nature of SCP-006, the most effective termination method is incineration. (For full report, see file SCP006-TerO5)

 

Description: SCP-006 is a very small spring located 60 km west of Astrakhan. Foundation Command was aware of its existence since the 19th century, but was unable to secure it until 1991 due to political reasons. On the spot of the spring, a chemical factory has been constructed as a disguise, with the majority of laborers under Foundation and/or Russian control. The liquid emitted from the spring has been chemically identified as simple mineral water in 1902, but has the unusual property of "health".

 

Ingesting the liquid produces the following properties in human beings: the ability to regenerate DNA damaged by sufficient duplication, heightened excitement of cellular duplication, vastly improved abilities in the repair of damaged tissue, and a frightening increase in the effectiveness of the human immune system. Upon testing the liquid on animal subjects, hostile bacteria and viral agents were destroyed immediately. Many reptiles and birds were unaffected, while higher primates experienced the same benefits as humans.

SCP-005

 

Item #: SCP-005

 

Object Class: Safe

 

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-005 poses no immediate risk in any direct sense. Even so, its unique functions require special measures be taken to restrict access and manipulation of the object. Approval of at least one (1) Level 4 personnel is required for the removal of the object from its containment area.

 

Description: In appearance, SCP-005 resembles an ornate key, displaying the characteristics of a typical mass produced key used in the 1920s. The key was discovered when a civilian used it to infiltrate a high security facility. SCP-005 seems to have the unique ability to open any and all forms of lock (See Appendix A), be they mechanical or digital, with relative ease. The origin of this ability has yet to be determined.

 

Additional Notes: SCP-005 may be used as a replacement for lost security passes, but only under the supervision of at least one (1) Level 4 personnel. SCP-005 may not be used for vending machine repairs, opening lockers, or for any personnel's spare home key. Removal of the object from the compound will result in immediate termination.

 

Appendix A: While SCP-005 has been shown to be effective in removing almost any form of locking device, further experiments have shown that efforts to disguise the purpose or identity of a lock have proven at least somewhat successful in defeating SCP-005's ability. In approximately 50% of cases where a volunteer was not able to identify a locking device as such, SCP-005 was not successful in deactivating the device. Due to these results, SCP-005 has been tentatively classified as 'sentient' and further tests are being run to determine its cognitive abilities. However, there are no results that show any traits that prevent it from being able to identify any particular locking device, only that the aforementioned device has been heavily concealed and disguised.

 

 

A close up of SCP-005

Knowledge - Part 2

 News

Could targeting myelin treat binge eating?

 by Michael Goldberg

 

Researchers have identified a gene in mice associated with binge eating, a new study suggests. The team may have also found evidence that binge eating alters the makeup of proteins in the brain.

Recent technological developments, such as whole genome sequencing, have made it much easier to map genetic risk factors for addiction, says Camron D. Bryant, an assistant professor of pharmacology and psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine, whose Laboratory of Addiction Genetics conducted the study.

 

He says the results of his research support the hypothesis “that there is a subset of genes that influences both some of the addictions and some of the eating disorders.”

 

The research, published in Biological Psychiatry, used two strains of laboratory mice that are genetically similar, but not quite identical. Mice from each strain were known to behave differently with respect to addiction to alcohol and psychostimulants.

The findings suggest that restoration of myelin could lead to return of healthy eating behaviors in people with binge-eating disorders.

Breeding the strains with one another for two generations and recording which offspring demonstrated binge-eating behaviors allowed the researchers to spot a clear causal link between genetic inheritance and behavioral variation.

 

“The behavioral difference was huge,” says Bryant. “One of the strains escalated in how much they ate, and the other didn’t change at all.”

 

Coauthor Vivek Kumar, an assistant professor at the Jackson Laboratory, an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institution in Bar Harbor, Maine, had previously found a predictor of cocaine addiction in the same chromosomal region that Bryant’s group identified for binge eating. Both investigators found linkage with a mutation in the gene called cytoplasmic FMR1-interacting protein 2, or CYFIP2.

The researchers also found that binge eating coincided with a decrease in the transcription of a set of genes in the striatum, a component of the brain’s reward system. These genes are important in myelination, a chemical process that forms a sheath around a nerve fiber that speeds up the flow of nerve impulses.

 

“The decrease in transcription of myelination genes is not a risk factor associated with binge eating,” says Bryant. “It’s something that’s induced by the repeated cycles of binge-eating behavior. We think that this has relevance for neuropathology in the brain that is a consequence of repeated cycles of binge eating. The next step is to measure myelin proteins, the proteins that make up myelin in the brain.”

 

The findings suggest that restoration of myelin could lead to return of healthy eating behaviors in people with binge-eating disorders. Bryant plans to see if he can reverse behaviors associated with binge eating (anxiety, depression, compulsivity) by administering agents that promote remyelination and restore neuronal function.

 

“We’re at the point in mouse genetics where we can more efficiently map genes, and in humans where the sample sizes are rapidly becoming large enough to detect genome-wide significant associations,” he says.

 

Bryant cites the first genome-wide significant association for anorexia nervosa, reported in fall 2016 by Cynthia M. Bulik, a University of North Carolina School of Medicine researcher. “Results with other neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, where hundreds of genes have been identified, suggest that we are just at the tip of the iceberg,” he says.

“These are exciting times for the genetics of eating disorders and the addictions. We’re at the stage where it’s really about to take off in terms of new discoveries.”

Source: Boston University

Glaucoma biomarker may predict speed of vision loss

 by Jim Dryden-WUSTL

 

 

A biomarker could be a way to monitor how fast glaucoma is progressing, as well as the effectiveness of treatment.

“There hasn’t been a reliable way to predict which patients with glaucoma have a high risk of rapid vision loss,” says principal investigator Rajendra S. Apte, professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

“But we’ve identified a biomarker that seems to correlate with disease severity in patients, and what that marker is measuring is stress to the cells rather than cell death. Other glaucoma tests are measuring cell death, which is not reversible, but if we can identify when cells are under stress,