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French-American artist (19112010)

Louise Josphine Bourgeois (French:[lwiz buwa] (listen); 25 December 1911 31 May 2010)[1] was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a variety of themes over the course of her long career including domesticity and the family, sexuality and the body, as well as death and the unconscious.[2] These themes connect to events from her childhood which she considered to be a therapeutic process. Although Bourgeois exhibited with the Abstract Expressionists and her work has much in common with Surrealism and Feminist art, she was not formally affiliated with a particular artistic movement.

Bourgeois was born on 25 December 1911 in Paris, France.[3] She was the middle child of three born to parents Josphine Fauriaux and Louis Bourgeois.[4] Her parents owned a gallery that dealt primarily in antique tapestries. A few years after her birth, her family moved out of Paris and set up a workshop for tapestry restoration below their apartment in Choisy-le-Roi, for which Bourgeois filled in the designs where they had become worn.[3][5] The lower part of the tapestries were always damaged which was usually a result of the characters' feet and animals' paws.

In 1930, Bourgeois entered the Sorbonne to study mathematics and geometry, subjects that she valued for their stability,[6][7] saying "I got peace of mind, only through the study of rules nobody could change."[7]

Her mother died in 1932, while Bourgeois was studying mathematics. Her mother's death inspired her to abandon mathematics and to begin studying art. She continued to study art by joining classes where translators were needed for English-speaking students, especially because translators were not charged tuition. In one such class, Fernand Lger saw her work and told her she was a sculptor, not a painter.[6] Bourgeois took a job as a docent, leading tours at the Muse du Louvre.[8]

Bourgeois graduated from the Sorbonne in 1935. She began studying art in Paris, first at the cole des Beaux-Arts and cole du Louvre, and after 1932 in the independent academies of Montparnasse and Montmartre such as Acadmie Colarossi, Acadmie Ranson, Acadmie Julian, Acadmie de la Grande Chaumire and with Andr Lhote, Fernand Lger, Paul Colin and Cassandre.[9] Bourgeois had a desire for first-hand experience and frequently visited studios in Paris, learning techniques from the artists and assisting with exhibitions.[10]

In 1938, she opened her own gallery in a space next door to her father's tapestry gallery where she showed the work of artists such as Eugne Delacroix, Henri Matisse and Suzanne Valadon,[11] and where she met visiting American art professor Robert Goldwater as a customer. They married and moved to the United States (where he taught at New York University). They had three sons; one was adopted. The marriage lasted until Goldwater's death in 1973.[6]

Bourgeois settled in New York City with her husband in 1938. She continued her education at the Art Students League of New York, studying painting under Vaclav Vytlacil, and also producing sculptures and prints.[7] "The first painting had a grid: the grid is a very peaceful thing because nothing can go wrong ... everything is complete. There is no room for anxiety ... everything has a place, everything is welcome."[12]

Bourgeois incorporated those autobiographical references to her sculpture Quarantania I, on display in the Cullen Sculpture Garden at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.[13]

For Bourgeois, the early 1940s represented the difficulties of a transition to a new country and the struggle to enter the exhibition world of New York City. Her work during this time was constructed from junkyard scraps and driftwood which she used to carve upright wood sculptures. The impurities of the wood were then camouflaged with paint, after which nails were employed to invent holes and scratches in the endeavor to portray some emotion. The Sleeping Figure is one such example which depicts a war figure that is unable to face the real world due to vulnerability. Throughout her life, Bourgeois's work was created from revisiting her own troubled past as she found inspiration and temporary catharsis from her childhood years and the abuse she suffered from her father. Slowly she developed more artistic confidence, although her middle years are more opaque, which might be due to the fact that she received very little attention from the art world despite having her first solo show in 1945.[14] In 1951, her father died and she became an American citizen.[15]

In 1954, Bourgeois joined the American Abstract Artists Group, with several contemporaries, among them Barnett Newman and Ad Reinhardt. At this time she also befriended the artists Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and Jackson Pollock.[10]As part of the American Abstract Artists Group, Bourgeois made the transition from wood and upright structures to marble, plaster, and bronze as she investigated concerns like fear, vulnerability, and loss of control. This transition was a turning point. She referred to her art as a series or sequence closely related to days and circumstances, describing her early work as the fear of falling which later transformed into the art of falling and the final evolution as the art of hanging in there. Her conflicts in real life empowered her to authenticate her experiences and struggles through a unique art form. In 1958, Bourgeois and her husband moved into a terraced house at West 20th Street, in Chelsea, Manhattan, where she lived and worked for the rest of her life.[6]

Despite the fact that she rejected the idea that her art was feminist, Bourgeois's subject was the feminine. Works such as Femme Maison (19461947), Torso self-portrait (19631964), and Arch of Hysteria (1993), all depict the feminine body. In the late 1960s, her imagery became more explicitly sexual as she explored the relationship between men and women and the emotional impact of her troubled childhood. Sexually explicit sculptures such as Janus Fleuri (1968) show she was not afraid to use the female form in new ways.[16] She stated, "My work deals with problems that are pre-gender," she wrote. "For example, jealousy is not male or female."[17] With the rise of feminism, her work found a wider audience. Despite this assertion, in 1976 Femme Maison was featured on the cover of Lucy Lippard's book From the Center: Feminist Essays on Women's Art and became an icon of the feminist art movement.[1]

In 1973, Bourgeois started teaching at the Pratt Institute, Cooper Union, Brooklyn College and the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture. From 1974 until 1977, Bourgeois worked at the School of Visual Arts in New York where she taught printmaking and sculpture.[1] She also taught for many years in the public schools in Great Neck, Long Island.

In the early 1970s, Bourgeois held gatherings called "Sunday, bloody Sundays" at her home in Chelsea. These salons would be filled with young artists and students whose work would be critiqued by Bourgeois. Bourgeois's ruthlessness in critique and her dry sense of humor led to the naming of these meetings. Bourgeois inspired many young students to make art that was feminist in nature.[18] However, Louise's long-time friend and assistant, Jerry Gorovoy, has stated that Louise considered her own work "pre-gender."[19]

Bourgeois aligned herself with activists and became a member of the Fight Censorship Group, a feminist anti-censorship collective founded by fellow artist Anita Steckel. In the 1970s, the group defended the use of sexual imagery in artwork.[20] Steckel argued, "If the erect penis is not wholesome enough to go into museums, it should not be considered wholesome enough to go into women."[21]

In 1978 Bourgeois was commissioned by the General Services Administration to create Facets of the Sun, her first public sculpture.[1] The work was installed outside of a federal building in Manchester, New Hampshire.[1]Bourgeois received her first retrospective in 1982, by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Until then, she had been a peripheral figure in art whose work was more admired than acclaimed. In an interview with Artforum, timed to coincide with the opening of her retrospective, she revealed that the imagery in her sculptures was wholly autobiographical. She shared with the world that she obsessively relived through her art the trauma of discovering, as a child, that her English governess was also her father's mistress.[22][23]

In 1989, Bourgeois made a drypoint etching, Mud Lane, of the home she maintained in Stapleton, Staten Island, which she treated as a sculptural environment rather than a living space.[24]

Bourgeois had another retrospective in 1989 at Documenta 9 in Kassel, Germany.[14] In 1993, when the Royal Academy of Arts staged its comprehensive survey of American art in the 20th century, the organizers did not consider Bourgeois's work of significant importance to include in the survey.[22] However, this survey was criticized for many omissions, with one critic writing that "whole sections of the best American art have been wiped out" and pointing out that very few women were included.[25] In 2000 her works were selected to be shown at the opening of the Tate Modern in London.[14]In 2001, she showed at the Hermitage Museum.[26]

In 2010, the last year of her life, Bourgeois used her art to speak up for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) equality. She created the piece I Do, depicting two flowers growing from one stem, to benefit the nonprofit organization Freedom to Marry. Bourgeois has said "Everyone should have the right to marry. To make a commitment to love someone forever is a beautiful thing."[27] Bourgeois had a history of activism on behalf of LGBT equality, having created artwork for the AIDS activist organization ACT UP in 1993.[28]

Bourgeois died of heart failure on 31 May 2010, at the Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan.[29][30] Wendy Williams, the managing director of the Louise Bourgeois Studio, announced her death.[30] She had continued to create artwork until her death, her last pieces being finished the week before.[31]

The New York Times said that her work "shared a set of repeated themes, centered on the human body and its need for nurture and protection in a frightening world."[32]

Her husband, Robert Goldwater, died in 1973. She was survived by two sons, Alain Bourgeois and Jean-Louis Bourgeois. Her first son, Michel, died in 1990.[33]

Femme Maison (194647) is a series of paintings in which Bourgeois explores the relationship of a woman and the home. In the works, women's heads have been replaced with houses, isolating their bodies from the outside world and keeping their minds domestic. This theme goes along with the dehumanization of modern art.[34]

Destruction of the Father (1974) is a biographical and a psychological exploration of the power dominance of father and his offspring. The piece is a flesh-toned installation in a soft and womb-like room. Made of plaster, latex, wood, fabric, and red light, Destruction of the Father was the first piece in which she used soft materials on a large scale. Upon entering the installation, the viewer stands in the aftermath of a crime. Set in a stylized dining room (with the dual impact of a bedroom), the abstract blob-like children of an overbearing father have rebelled, murdered, and eaten him.[35]

... telling the captive audience how great he is, all the wonderful things he did, all the bad people he put down today. But this goes on day after day. There is tragedy in the air. Once too often he has said his piece. He is unbearably dominating although probably he does not realize it himself. A kind of resentment grows and one day my brother and I decided, 'the time has come!' We grabbed him, laid him on the table and with our knives dissected him. We took him apart and dismembered him, we cut off his penis. And he became food. We ate him up ... he was liquidated the same way he liquidated the children.[36][failed verification]

In 1982, The Museum of Modern Art in New York City featured unknown artist, Louise Bourgeois' work. She was 70 years old and a mixed media artist who worked on paper and with metal, marble and animal skeletal bones. Childhood family traumas "bred an exorcism in art", and she desperately attempted to purge her unrest through her work. She felt she could get in touch with issues of female identity, the body, and the fractured family long before the art world and society considered them as subjects to be expressed in art. This was Bourgeous' way to find her center and stabilize her emotional unrest. The New York Times said at the time that "her work is charged with tenderness and violence, acceptance and defiance, ambivalence and conviction."[37]

While in her eighties, Bourgeois produced two series of enclosed installation works she referred to as Cells. Many are small enclosures into which the viewer is prompted to peer inward at arrangements of symbolic objects; others are small rooms into which the viewer is invited to enter. In the cell pieces, Bourgeois uses earlier sculptural forms, found objects as well as personal items that carried strong personal emotional charge for the artist.

The cells enclose psychological and intellectual states, primarily feelings of fear and pain. Bourgeois stated that the Cells represent "different types of pain; physical, emotional and psychological, mental and intellectual ... Each Cell deals with a fear. Fear is pain ... Each Cell deals with the pleasure of the voyeur, the thrill of looking and being looked at."[38]

In the late 1990s, Bourgeois began using the spider as a central image in her art. Maman, which stands more than nine metres high, is a steel and marble sculpture from which an edition of six bronzes were subsequently cast. It first made an appearance as part of Bourgeois's commission for The Unilever Series for Tate Modern's Turbine Hall in 2000, and recently, the sculpture was installed at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha, Qatar.[39] Her largest spider sculpture titled Maman stands at over 30 feet (9.1m) and has been installed in numerous locations around the world.[40]It is the largest Spider sculpture ever made by Bourgeois.[36]Moreover, Maman alludes to the strength of her mother, with metaphors of spinning, weaving, nurture and protection.[36] The prevalence of the spider motif in her work has given rise to her nickname as Spiderwoman.[41]

The Spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother was a weaver. My family was in the business of tapestry restoration, and my mother was in charge of the workshop. Like spiders, my mother was very clever. Spiders are friendly presences that eat mosquitoes. We know that mosquitoes spread diseases and are therefore unwanted. So, spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother.

Bourgeois's Maisons fragiles / Empty Houses sculptures are parallel, high metallic structures supporting a simple tray. One must see them in person to feel their impact. They are not threatening or protecting, but bring out the depths of anxiety within you. Bachelard's findings from psychologists' tests show that an anxious child will draw a tall narrow house with no base. Bourgeois had a rocky/traumatic childhood and this could support the reason behind why these pieces were constructed.[12]

Bourgeois's printmaking flourished during the early and late phases of her career: in the 1930s and 1940s, when she first came to New York from Paris, and then again starting in the 1980s, when her work began to receive wide recognition. Early on, she made prints at home on a small press, or at the renowned workshop Atelier 17. That period was followed by a long hiatus, as Bourgeois turned her attention fully to sculpture. It was not until she was in her seventies that she began to make prints again, encouraged first by print publishers. She set up her old press, and added a second, while also working closely with printers who came to her house to collaborate. A very active phase of printmaking followed, lasting until the artist's death. Over the course of her life, Bourgeois created approximately 1,500 printed compositions.

In 1990, Bourgeois decided to donate the complete archive of her printed work to The Museum of Modern Art. In 2013, The Museum launched the online catalogue raisonn, "Louise Bourgeois: The Complete Prints & Books." The site focuses on the artist's creative process and places Bourgeois's prints and illustrated books within the context of her overall production by including related works in other mediums that deal with the same themes and imagery.

One theme of Bourgeois's work is that of childhood trauma and hidden emotion.[42] After Louise's mother became sick with influenza Louise's father began having affairs with other women, most notably with Sadie, Louise's English tutor. He would bring mistresses back home and be unfaithful in front of his whole family.[43] Louise was extremely watchful and aware of the situation. This was the beginning of the artist's engagement with double standards related to gender and sexuality, which was expressed in much of her work. She recalls her father saying "I love you" repeatedly to her mother, despite infidelity. "He was the wolf, and she was the rational hare, forgiving and accepting him as he was."[44] Her 1993 work Cell: You Better Grow Up, part of her Cell series, speaks directly to Louise's childhood trauma and the insecurity that surrounded her. 2002's Give or Take is defined by hidden emotion, representing the intense dilemma that people face throughout their lives as they attempt to balance the actions of giving and taking. This dilemma is not only represented by the shape of the sculpture, but also the heaviness of the material this piece is made of.[original research?]

Motherhood is another recurrent theme of Bourgeois's work. It was her mother who encouraged Bourgeois to draw and who involved her in the tapestry business. Bourgeois considered her mother to be intellectual and methodical; the continued motif of the spider in her work often represents her mother. The notion of a spider that spins and weaves its web is a direct reference to her parents' tapestry business and can also be seen as a metaphor for her mother, who repairs things.[11]

Bourgeois has explored the concept of feminity through challenging the patriarchal standards and making artwork about motherhood rather than showing women as muses or ideals.[42] She has been described as the 'reluctant hero of feminist art'.[45] Louise Bourgeois had a feminist approach to her work similar to fellow artists such as Agnes Martin and Eva Hesse, less driven by the political but rather made work that drew on their experiences of gender and sexuality, naturally engaging with women's issues.[11]

Architecture and memory are important components of Bourgeois's work.[46] Bourgeois's work are very organic, biological, reproductive feel to them; they draw attention to the work itself.[43] Louise describes architecture as a visual expression of memory, or memory as a type of architecture. The memory which is featured in much of her work is an invented memory about the death or exorcism of her father. The imagined memory is interwoven with her real memories including living across from a slaughterhouse and her father's affair. To Louise her father represented injury and war, aggrandizement of himself and belittlement of others and most importantly a man who represented betrayal.[44] Her 1993 work Cell (Three White Marble Spheres) speaks to fear and captivity. The mirrors within the present an altered and distorted reality.[original research?]

Sexuality is undoubtedly one of the most important themes in the work of Louise Bourgeois. The link between sexuality and fragility or insecurity is also powerful. It has been argued that this stems from her childhood memories and her father's affairs. 1952's Spiral Woman combines Louise's focus on female sexuality and torture. The flexing leg and arm muscles indicate that the Spiral Woman is still above though she is being suffocated and hung. 1995's In and Out uses cold metal materials to link sexuality with anger and perhaps even captivity.[original research?]

The spiral in her work demonstrates the dangerous search for precarious equilibrium, accident-free permanent change, disarray, vertigo, whirlwind. There lies the simultaneously positive and negative, both future and past, breakup and return, hope and vanity, plan and memory.[original research?]

Louise Bourgeois's work is powered by confessions, self-portraits, memories, fantasies of a restless being who is seeking through her sculpture a peace and an order which were missing throughout her childhood.[12]

This collaboration took place over a span of two years with British artist Tracey Emin. The work was exhibited in London months after Bourgeois's death in 2010. The subject matter consists of male and female images. Although they appear sexual, it portrays a tiny female figure paying homage to a giant male figure, like a God. Louise Bourgeois did the water colors and Tracey Emin did the drawing on top. It took Emin two years to decide how to figure out what she would contribute in the collaboration. When she knew what to do, she finished all of the drawings in a day and believes every single one worked out perfectly. I Lost You is about losing children, losing life. Bourgeois had to bury her son as a parent. Abandonment for her is not only about losing her mother but her son as well. Despite the age gap between the two artists and differences in their work, the collaboration worked out gently and easily.[47][according to whom?]

Major holdings of her work include the following.

Throughout her career, Bourgeois knew many of her core collectors, such as Ginny Williams, Agnes Gund, Ydessa Hendeles and Ursula Hauser.[86] Other private collections with notable Bourgeois pieces include the Goetz Collection in Munich.[86]

Bourgeois started working with gallerist Paule Anglim in San Francisco in 1987, Karsten Greve in Paris in 1990, and Hauser & Wirth in 1997. Hauser & Wirth has been the principal gallery for her estate. Others, such as Kukje Gallery in Seoul and Xavier Hufkens in Brussels continue to deal in her work.[86]

In 2011 one of Bourgeois's works, titled Spider, sold for $10.7 million, a new record price for the artist at auction,[87] and the highest price paid for a work by a woman at the time.[88] In late 2015, the piece sold at another Christie's auction for $28.2 million.[89]

Louise Bourgeois in The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: https://www.mfah.org/blogs/inside-mfah/a-confessional-sculpture-by-louise-bourgeois

Awards for Louise Bourgeois

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Louise Bourgeois - Wikipedia

More than 40 years and 1,000 or so patents after selling his first company, AutoSyringe, to healthcare giant Baxter, Dean Kamen still gets a charge describing breakthrough innovation. It's been five years since his organ fabricating project ARMI (Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute) divided critics.

The project made more waves early last month, at the CNN-hosted conference Life Itself. Kamen paints the picture appearing on a panel at TC Sessions: Robotics today:

Doris Taylor, who moved up here from where she spent more than a decade in Texas, at the Texas Heart Institute, she gets on stage with a beaker. In the beaker is a miniature, pediatric-scale beating heart that was manufactured with induced pluripotent stem cells were put into a scaffold of preexisting organ. Within an hour of that presentation, Martine Rothblatt, the founder and chairman of United Therapeutics, is on stage and they roll out from backstage an almost surrealistic, lit from the top of the box. A panel opens, and what emerges out of the top of this platform is a scaffold of a human lung, that was printed, entirely printed at the smallest scale any printer has ever operated.

Inventor Dean Kamen looks on as over 110,000 pounds of personal protective equipment (PPE), shipped from Shanghai, China, is unloaded from a cargo plane at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in Manchester, New Hampshire, Thursday, April 30, 2020

Inventor Dean Kamen looks on as over 110,000 pounds of personal protective equipment (PPE), shipped from Shanghai, China, is unloaded from a cargo plane at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in Manchester, New Hampshire, Thursday, April 30, 2020. The equipment will be used for medical workers and first responders in their fight against the virus outbreak. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Kamen is first to admit, however, that the path to all success is paved with failure. The trick is learning the right lesson.

What I've learned from failure is go back and decide was the fundamental goal wrong -- that's why it failed, you succeeded, but nobody needs this -- or did the available technology and your systems integration and application have it wrong, in which case, you've now learned enough, go try again, go use a different approach, Kamen explains. Pick yourself up, try again, using a different approach. And it really doesn't matter how many times you fall down. If you fall down five times, but you stand up six, it's okay. And in the end, you only need a win every once in a while to keep your confidence up. And hopefully, to give you the resources to keep going even though inevitably you'll have failures, let the projects fail, don't let the people fail.

Story continues

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjIISbARc20?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&w=640&h=360%5D

These are among the fundamentals Kamen has attempted to infuse into FIRST, the education program he co-founded in 1989, with MIT professor Woodie Flowers. It is best known for its robotics competitions, which center around competitive builds of robots and other projects, bringing the teamwork and enthusiasm of sports to STEM education -- subjects that might otherwise turn off students who traditionally encounter them in more formal and staid settings.

Kids wont go to class, or theyll take math for 45 minutes between phonics and spelling, one day a week. But theyll go after school for three hourse, every single day to get better at football or get better at basketball. So I said, look, were not competing for the hearts and minds of kids with the science fair and the spelling bee, were competing with the things that they invest all of their time, energy and passion in. So lets use that model -- make it aspirational, make it after school. Dont give them quizzes and tests, give them letters and trophies. Bring the school band and the mascots.

U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), right, looks toward inventor Dean Kamen as over 110,000 pounds of personal protective equipment (PPE) from Shanghai, China, delivered to protect medical workers and first responders fighting the COVID-19 virus outbreak, is unloaded from a cargo plane at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in Manchester, New Hampshire, Thursday, April 30, 2020

U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), right, looks toward inventor Dean Kamen as over 110,000 pounds of personal protective equipment (PPE) from Shanghai, China, delivered to protect medical workers and first responders fighting the COVID-19 virus outbreak, is unloaded from a cargo plane at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in Manchester, New Hampshire, Thursday, April 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Perhaps the hardest-fought lesson of all, however, is understanding, accepting and even welcoming the fact that progress in technology and sciences means that one day your best work will be eclipsed.

You have to be more than prepared for it. You have to be confident it will happen, and you have to celebrate it. I celebrate it more when its me that obsoleted the last thing I did, but if somebody else can obsolete it and if I get to a point where I need a better clinical solution than a dialysis machine or an insulin pump, if I can get to a place with somebody else's technology to gave me a new organ or a prosthetic limb or something, I need to have a better quality of life, I will thank that person. And I hope I will return that favor by giving them something of value that we invented.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rEVALfKbhA?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&w=640&h=360%5D

Read more here:
Dean Kamen on the power of celebrating your own obsoletion - Yahoo News

BELIZE CITY, BelizeA discarded bicycle lay on a dimly lit side street near a pool of blood, surrounded by around a dozen bullet shells in Belizes biggest city.

Local cops surveyed the scene, moving the body of 17-year-old Gerald Tillett Jr. into the back of a pickup truck as onlookers gawked at the most recent victim of a long-simmering Bloods and Crips gang war that started in the U.S.

In Belize City, Tillett Jr. was gangster royalty. Both his father and uncle, also murdered in 2016 and 2012 respectively, were leaders of an infamous Blood clique known as the George Street Gang, named for the street that traverses the rough-and-tumble Southside neighborhood where the gang is based.

Only a few blocks from where he grew up, Tillett Jr. was riding his bike on May 7 in hostile territory reportedly run by a rival Blood set known as the Taylor's Alley Gang when he was ambushed and shot to death.

Such gang violence has become all too common in Belize City, explained Police Senior Superintendent Gualberto Garcia, since the gangs started way back in the 1980s, when we started having the influx of deportees [from the U.S.], and they started the Crips and the Bloods.

As years progressed, these two gangs splintered, said Garcia. So, we have a very big number now, maybe 20 to 25 different gangs, scattered throughout the city, small factions with their own little affiliation to the Crips and the Bloods.

Now, Bloods fight Bloods and Crips fight Crips, with loyalty mostly boiling down to the block you were raised on, and longstanding beefs being handed down from generation to generation.

The murder of George Street Gang member Tillett Jr. was especially worrisome.

We are already expecting retaliation from his side, Garcia told VICE World News as he rode through the Southside in a police van.

It didn't take long.

Roughly 48 hours after Tillett Jr.'s murder, radio chatter alerted Garcia to shots fired on the corner of Church and George streetsonly a few blocks from where the teenager was murdered. Police arrived to a gruesome scene.

Blood-covered domino pieces lay strewn throughout a one-room hovel; one man dead, two others wounded, one of whom would die later at the hospital. Gunmen riding a motorbike had arrived at the small dwelling, well known locally as a place for dominoes betting games, and opened fire indiscriminately. As police quarantined the scene, family members of one of the men came to identify the body. They couldn't believe that 51-year-old Raymond Garcia, a successful bank manager and loving father, could be a victim of a gang war.

Garcia, no relation to the superintendent, had been the valedictorian of his class. He didn't have any gang affiliation. Days later his mother, Natividad Rita Garcia, told VICE World News that he had one vice: Dominoes.

He said, I love my dominos and that is a part of my life, said the elder Garcia, claiming she'd tried to get him to stop visiting the Southside domino spot off George Street. He has been playing in that area for quite some time, for many years before the guns ever started.

But after his death, she also heard the rumors of how his love of dominoes led to his death.

Those men had been playing dominoes with him for a very long time, but according to what I heard, one of the men, his children, are in the gangs, she said.

The rumor was that a man who frequented the domino games had several sons connected to a rival clique of the George Street Gang, but after the death of Tillett Jr., he hadn't come around, knowing that he and his sons could be targets. When they couldn't find the sons, they shot up the domino den even though the father wasn't there.

As Garcias yellow casket was lowered into a plot in a cemetery on the outskirts of Belize City a few days later, a family member placed a cross decorated with dominoes on top.

I couldn't believe that this would ever have happened to my family. I couldn't believe that this would happen to my son, she said. Not in the wildest of my dreams.

Belize is perhaps best known as a small picturesque tourism destination roughly the size of the U.S. state of New Hampshire, famed for its beautiful islands and coral reefs along the Caribbean coast, and its dense jungles and Mayan ruins inland. That contrast has also come to represent its racial diaspora, with more of an Afro-descendant Black population along the coast and an indigenous Mayan and Mestizo culture inland.

It stands out from other nations in mainland Central America as the only where English is the first language. Its large Black population is a lasting legacy of British colonization and the remnant of the slave trade that saw kidnapped Africans forced to work for the European settlers in the logwood industry. Belize only became fully independent from the United Kingdom in 1981 and had long been named British Honduras before changing its name in the 70s.

In 1961, a hurricane decimated the country leading to a large exodus of its inhabitants migrating to the United States, and by the end of the millennium, around 30 percent of Belizeans lived in the U.S. A large swath of them settled in California, and like many migrants who came from impoverished regions, a vulnerable subsection of that population became involved in crime.

While immigrants from other Spanish-speaking countries in the region became involved in Hispanic street gangs like the Latin Kings or the Mexican Mafia, the English-speaking Afro-descendant Belizeans who chose to enter the gang life mostly joined predominately Black gangs that sprung up in the late 1960s and 70s, like the Bloods and the Crips.

Soon after, the Bloods and Crips started appearing in Belize.

Behind the walls of the countrys central prison, Leslie Pipersburgh recalled the early days of the gangs in Belize.

Known on the streets as Pipe, the former Crip admitted he was an infamous person and had witnessed the rise of the gangs firsthand before going down for a double murder connected to a botched robbery in 2002.

The deportees, from that it started, and it never stopped. Just keep at retaliation, retaliation, retaliation. One after the other, said Pipe. So then other guys get deported, and that just strengthens it more and men adapted like cells, more and more. Then they start to learn about extortion, robberies, selling drugs. It just got out of hand from there.

Researchers have traced a small presence of Bloods and Crips in Belize to the deportation of members in the early 80s. But Pipe and numerous people interviewed by VICE World News recalled a boom in gang growth after the release of the 1988 film Colorsa cop drama directed by Dennis Hopper that follows two white police officers as they investigate the Bloods and Crips, along with a fictional multiracial gang, in South Central Los Angeles.

At the time, Colors made waves in the U.S., being released before gangster rap albums like N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton and preceding other L.A. street films like Boyz n the Hood and Menace II Society. The film also gained notoriety for using real gang members as extras in the film, and became especially controversial after a Crip murdered a Blood waiting in line to see the movie in Stockton, California.

In the soundtracks eponymous theme song, a bass-heavy Bloods and Crips anthem, Ice-T ominously raps:

Red or Blue, Cuz or Blood, it just don't matter.

Sucker die for your life when my shotgun scatters.

The gangs of L.A. will never die,

Just multiply...Colors

In Belize, that turn of phrase was prescient.

Although there may have been a few Bloods and Crips before, Pipe called the film the branch that spread like wildfire.

Growing up as kids, none of them claimed red nor blue. But when the movie came out, now everyone started to claim a color.

Around that time, the U.S. deported a Blood named Heathcliff Reyes and a Crip named Fredrick Lynch, aka Diggy Dap, who didn't get along.

These two guys were the leaders, said Pipe. They were cool to their own kind, but to their enemy, they got no love for their enemy.

Reyes founded a Blood clique near George Street, while Diggy Dap headed a Crips set on the other side of town near Pinks Alley, and that's how the war started.

That is where all the O.G's (Original Gangsters) came from that really know about gangs, said Pipe. Then another block started to copy them and claim the color red, and some claim the color blue, and it branched out. Then the war really started.

Belize City, and especially its ramshackle Southside neighborhood, is home to much of the country's impoverished parts of the Afro-descendant population. Its also where the majority of its gangs fight over turf. Although Belize only has a population of roughly 400,000 and Belize City is home to some 60,000 of those, its murder rate per capita often ranks as one of the highest in the world with the majority of killings happening in the Southside.

Pipe believed the rising murder rate was tied to a criminal code that has faded as more and more of the older generation were murdered, disappeared, or ended up in prison. Heathcliff Reyes would eventually be gunned down by the police in the 2000s, and Diggy Dap is rumored to have fled the country over a decade ago after witnessing the murder of one of his close associates, another Crip leader named George Junie Balls McKenzie, in 2007.

Back then in the 90s these guys didn't hurt innocent people. They only hurt who they had a problem with, said Pipe. Nowadays, the guys hurt anybody. They hurt brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers. Anyone who they could catch, they hurt. Like this crew that is there right now, has no sense, no discipline. Theyre ruthless.

Pipe spoke with VICE World News just days after the May 7 murder of Gerald Tillett Jr. and the prison walls were buzzing with the recent arrival of 18-year-old Kalief Caceres, who police alleged had been the trigger man in the slaying. It was well known that the two teenagers had beef. They'd both been held together in the youth ward of the prison in March 2020 and grew up blocks from each other.

Clinton Harris, 33, a former Blood in prison for a 2012 murder, knew Tillett Jr. and Caceres well; he'd worked as a youth mentor in the prison's under 18 facility when the two were behind bars the year prior.

All they did was fight and quarrel, said Harris.

In the 2000s, the Tillett family became prominent players in the George Street Gang, led by Sheldon Pinky Tillett, and his brother, Gerald Shiny Tillett Sr. The George Street Gang had become bitter enemies with a rival Blood clique a few blocks away called the Taylors Alley Gang. That feud hit overdrive in 2012 when the leader of the Taylors Alley Gang, Arthur Young, allegedly gunned down Pinky Tillett at a gas station in a murder that went viral in Belize and is still visible on Youtube. Pinky Tilletts death led to a series of retaliatory killings and a week later Arthur Young died at the hands of police. Tilletts murder still loomed large over the Southside.

Harris explained that while Caceres wasnt a member of Arthur Youngs family, the elder Blood had been close with Caceres and brought him into the gang from an early age, so in a way, while not connected by blood, they were Bloods.

It was a shadow over those guys, recalled Harris about Tillett Jr. and Caceres. They believed that they had to continue that conflict.

After the death of Pinky Tillett, his brother, Gerald Shiny Tillett Sr. led the gang for several years before being gunned down himself in 2016. Tillett Jr. was only 12 years old at the time of his fathers murder, but by then, he thought that the George Street Gang was his duty in life, explained Harris.

Tillett Jr. had no intention of trying to leave the gang because he believed that was his place because of his dad.

In the days and weeks after Tillett Jrs murder, several alleged gang affiliates were murdered around the Southside, along with numerous other non-fatal shootings. But the still-unsolved murders of Raymond Garcia and Wayne Peteau in the domino den shocked the city as citizens became more concerned that the tentacles of gang violence could reach anyone in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Belize saw a change of the guard in November 2020 when Johnny Briceo became Prime Minister and his People's United Party (PUP) won a majority government, unseating the United Democratic Party (UDP) which, had held power for the previous 12 years.

Briceo entered office facing a long laundry list of challenges, the most immediate being an economy that relies heavily on tourism for roughly 40 percent of its GDP and was decimated by the coronavirus pandemic. His government quickly instituted pay cuts across the government, authorities, and civil society, leading to large protests especially by the teachers union.

Gang violence had fallen into the background of the national discussion as a strict pandemic curfew led to a decrease in violence, but the recent uptick in violent incidents immediately vaulted the country's gang problem back into the forefront half a year after the PUP took office. May would end with 21 murders in Belize, tying with April 2021 and March 2018 as the highest monthly death tolls since 2009.

The issue of gang violence is not something that just happened. It is something that has been coming up over the years. And it's unfortunate that the previous government did not have a well thought out plan on how to deal with it, Prime Minister Johnny Briceo told VICE World News less than a week after the spate of killings. And we're seeing the results, the crime is getting more outrageous, more brazen, more in your face.

He said the killing of innocent people as retaliation in gang violence was something that has rarely happened in Belize. And we are all outraged about it.

During the 12 year reign of the UDP, the former prime minister Dean Barrow instituted a two fold policy to stem gang violence. The UDP infamously negotiated several truces between the gangs, even going so far as to create a work program that paid stipends to those who agreed to stop warring in 2011. While it did lead to a drop in homicides, the program eventually ran out of money the following year and gang violence spiked again.

Barrow also took a firm hand policy against the gangs, most notoriously with the creation of a special police force in 2010 known as the Gang Suppression Unit (GSU). Over the years, a handful of prominent gangsters died at the hands of the cops, although firm accusations of extrajudicial murders by the GSU were never proven.

Several incidents gave the unit a murky reputation.

Arthur Young, the Taylor's Alley Gang boss who died in police custody in 2012, gave numerous interviews over the years claiming that the police wanted to kill him and he even threatened GSU family members on the local news a month before his death. The following year, the corpses of four high-ranking members of the George Street Gang were discovered with their throats slit in an apartment in the Southside. Many have long suspected the GSU committed the killings.

Barrow met with family members of the slain George Street Gang members in the weeks following but claimed there were no truce negotiations. However, by 2014, the police had publicly negotiated another ceasefire. It quickly failed a few months later when old disputes led to seven murders in a 10 day period.

Briceo called the negotiations the biggest mistake of the UDP's time in power because it gave the gangs legitimacy.

Since taking office, Briceo maintains that he wont negotiate with the gangs and promptly followed through on a campaign process to disband the GSU. Although the division did disappear, a new unit quickly took its place called the GI3, which stands for the Gang Intelligence, Investigation and Interdiction Unit. The PUP government claims the new unit will focus more on intelligence gathering rather than hard-handed tactics, but many critics believe its more of the same, old strategy.

Briceo said that his government is trying to change the mindset of the police and to get the respect and support from the community, and you don't get that by beating people.

Over two evenings of ride alongs with the Belize City Quick Response Team, a tactical unit that patrols the city, the police repeatedly pulled over cars and stopped young men on bikes, patting them down looking for drugs and guns, and even broke up a child's birthday party as the family screamed profanities at the officers. The prime minister believed that the strong presence in the Southside was necessary as a way to deter retaliation after Tillett Jr.'s death triggered four murders in five days.

After the flare-up in violence the now opposition UDP quickly put out a statement urging the PUP government to institute a state of emergency in the Southside, which would allow for massive sweeps of known gang members that will take them off the streets for several months without charges. Last year, during his final year in power Dean Barrow instituted two different states of emergencies in the Southside in an attempt to curb the rise in gang violence. Known gang members were arbitrarily detained and held at the Belize Central Prison for several months which, along with coronavirus curfews, led to a significant drop in homicides once again. But the results were not long-lasting. If anything, it led to the recent spate of killings.

Two people picked up in one of those sweeps were Gerald Tillett Jr., and Kalief Caceres, who were housed together in the youth ward for a month where their disagreements intensified.

The PUP remains hesitant about taking such drastic measures, which they see as ineffective and an overreach of power.

We have to be very careful on how we infringe on the rights of our citizens, and its not something that we just do flippantly, we have to think very carefully before we go down that road, said Briceo. We just have to continue to monitor those areas, those hotspots, and it can be done by a police presence. And I think wed rather do that before we start calling a state of emergency in certain areas of the city.

Instead, Briceos government hoped to institute a number of programs to address gang violence, like creating a cadet corps for youths to instill exercise and discipline, provide free education, apprenticeships and job training. These new initiatives have been delayed by financial constraints related to coronavirus.

We believe that these young kids would now have something to do as opposed to being out in the streets and have nothing to do, and the older guys prey on them, and tell them Hey you want to make a quick buck? Go on and commit a crime, said Briceo. But the only way we can deter that is by getting the economy going again, growing the economy, creating jobs.

Another avenue that the government is seriously considering is legalizing marijuana, which is a primary source of income for many of the gangs.

It's something whose time has come. But we just have to be very careful as to how were going to do it," he said. Ensuring that we have the necessary laws in place as to where we are able to grow, how are you going to cultivate it, and of course, to ensure that the government gets its fair share of taxes, and then how it's going to be sold.

On a dusty side street in a corner of the Southside, a Crip set hangs around, drinking beer, smoking weed, and keeping an eye out for intruders.

This is a dead end, this is we hole, this is we block, nobody who ain't from around here come through here, explained one member who heads the marijuana distribution for the clique.

We supply all this, waving his hands around to show that he sells to the whole neighborhood. The dealer talked about how much of the violence is related to the weed, the beef, and the colors.

But he didn't think legalization would calm things, once it went legal, boy, there'll be more war, be a lot of war.

He suggested that everyone would have weed, but also people would move into other crimes. His arguments didn't make much sense, besides explaining that the weed is a part of everything because without the weed I think, we can't eat.

That's how I live, I don't gotta job. This is what I do for a living. I got my people and I try to take care of them, said the dealer. Me, I'm the breadwinner for my peoples.

These gangsters aren't rich, they don't move kilos of cocaine or run large-scale extortion rackets. It's mostly nickel and dime street-level marijuana dealing that puts food on their plates. At one point, they even start asking for money for booze.

The dealer recalled the job program that Dean Barrow instituted in 2013 as one of the few times when the violence really dipped because they had opportunities, but when that ended, the killings continued.

Another member of the Crip set who works as an enforcer felt he had no other option than to join the gang because of where he was from.

I was born around blue. If I was born around red, I'd be red, said the clique's enforcer.

Killing became a part of life early; he had to murder someone to join the Crips and to prove you're strong enough. Now, he spends most days on his block, helping move weed, and protecting his circle.

I sell weed, you know. We just drink, smoke, enjoy ourselves, you know and anyone wanna fuck with us, we got the tools, we got the heat, we gonna do what we gotta do, said the enforcer. So if you violate me, I bout to kill you like point-blank right. I could meet you at the shop, home, in your yard, anywhere.

As he speaks, a car comes peeling into the alley. A third man who claims that he's one of the bosses of the clique gets out in a huff, speaking in nearly inaudible profanities in a mix of Belizean Creole and English, shouting baow.

The guys said baow, that's what we into, huh? said the enforcer. If you fuck with us you just gonna hear baow, it's easy.

The enforcer careened his head to overhear the conversation breaking out among the other Crips in the yard.

Sounds like somebody wants to bust on us right now. That's what he's saying, said the enforcer. He gets up, ends the interview, finds a gun stashed nearby, and disappears.

The boss explained that he'd been in his car when a rival crew spotted him and unleashed a hail of bullets. He'd been able to escape unharmed, this time.

He'd been shot three times before: My leg, my back and then my arm. But still he didn't think about imminent death often because too much thinking is bad for the brain.

In Belize City, the violence always comes and goes, said the boss, like fruits right, got the mango season. Sometimes its the killing season. It's like a disease, like AIDS, theres no cure.

Ben Solomon, Maeva Bambuck, Zach Caldwell, and Jose A. Sanchez contributed to this report.

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How the US Exported a Bloods and Crips Gang War to Belize - VICE

An online game that lets students learn about stem cells and tissue engineering also offered them information about high school and college internship programs to further spur their interest in regenerative medicine.

Through the game, aimed mainly at seventh graders through high school seniors, students competed in daily challenges to win swag and the chance to meet inventor Dean Kamen (virtually in this pandemic age).

The vision is to help inform young people about all the really cool things that are happening in this space, said Alexander Titus, the freshly minted chief strategy officer at the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute in Manchesters Millyard.

The game helps to inspire students as they choose their classes, their elective classes in high school and particularly majors in college, Titus said last week.

Nearly 100 students took part in the game, which ended Friday. The content about regenerative medicine will remain online through June.

ARMI, which is working to manufacture human tissue commercially, is working on recruiting tomorrows workforce one cool video at a time.

I think the timing of this couldnt be any better, said Julie Demers, executive director of the New Hampshire Tech Alliance. The pandemic has limited in-person, work-based learning opportunities and interactions with industry professionals. Interactive opportunities to get students interested in and thinking about career opportunities are critical.

Titus said a chief goal is to build a pipeline of future workers.

Its all tied together in attracting students while theyre young to understand the process of what to study along the way to get to college and a job when theyre done, said Titus, who earned a Ph.D. in quantitative biomedical sciences at Dartmouth.

Titus said he expects the game to help ARMI officials learn what draws the interest of students so they can develop other programming they know will garner student interest, he said.

The ARMI challenge, called TEMPtation, featured profiles of businesses from more than a dozen states as well as universities and colleges interested in regenerative medicine.

Arizona State University holds summer camps for middle and high school students that are interested in learning more about science and mathematics, read one profile.

From Georgia Tech in Atlanta: Georgia Tech has a Center for Career Discovery & Development, which offers internships, co-ops, and career services that give students the resources they need to support their search for employment following their graduation.

Formerly employed at the U.S. Department of Defense, Titus returned to New Hampshire to join ARMI.

The mission, he said, is marrying science and manufacturing.

Bring the science to the stage where we can automate it and market the new technologies we couldnt make before, said Titus, previously assistant director for biotechnology within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering.

ARMI features more than 150 partners and more than $300 million in government and private investment committed.

If we want to be able to produce a replacement heart for people who have heart disease, what are the components that go into that? Titus said.

He hopes ARMI can attract startups in the Manchester area, allowing for ARMI to mentor them until they are viable companies.

The idea is for companies to move into New Hampshire and move into our ecosystem if you will, Titus said.

I think especially given now, where were seeing so many people in the cities during COVID have a hard time social distancing, I expect well see some shifting of people out of the cities, said Titus, who speculated some could settle in New Hampshire.

Whats Working, a series exploring solutions for New Hampshires workforce needs, is sponsored by the New Hampshire Solutions Journalism Lab at the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications and is funded by Eversource, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, the New Hampshire College & University Council, Northeast Delta Dental and the New Hampshire Coalition for Business and Education. Contact reporter Michael Cousineau at mcousineau@unionleader.com. To read stories in the series, visit unionleader.com/whatsworking.

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Online game looks to stoke interest in regenerative medicine - The Union Leader

Fortunately there are dozens of fun things to do in Hampshire which are within an hours drive of Portsmouth.

Although we are still in lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, some attractions which had been closed are working on plans to reopen.

We have put together a list of activities, museums and heritage sites in our area you can enjoy with the family once lockdown is over.

Many of these places will be closed until government restrictions are lifted please check with the individual places website to see if they are open.

These include free things to do, as well as ones you can do if it is raining outside.

It displays ongoing constructions of Iron Age buildings based on real sites, crops from prehistory and rare breeds of animals.

There is loads of space for the kids to run around and the farms special events are worth checking out.

Little Woodham, near Gosport

Step back in time to the 17th century. Immerse yourself in the everyday life of people who lived in a small village in the 1600s.

Walk through real homes, watch weavers spinning wool or find the potter at his wheel.

There are hundreds of animals to admire at Marwell, including giraffes, tigers, meerkats, and penguins.

There are also three adventure playgrounds and a train, in case the animals arent enough to keep the little ones occupied.

A place to learn about the history of the industry. The building was saved because of its unique history when it closed in 1974 the men working there still worked in the same way as their Victorian and Edwardian forefathers.

Head over to Hinton Ampner, a country manor with a tranquil garden and breathtaking views across the South Downs. You can explore the garden, wander the estate, and discover the house, which was rebuilt following a fire in 1960.

The house is currently closed but the gardens and parkland are open.

Winchester Science Centre

Use a fully-functioning pinball machine to learn how we harness the potential of stem cells to repair our bodies, visit the Ancient Wisdom zone, or go on a journey of discovery through an enormous colon.

Yes, you read that right.

Hensting Alpacas, Eastleigh

If everyone needs a little fresh air, heres a fun way to trick the wee ones into walking. Hensting Alpacas like to take their animals out for a roam when the weather is good so the general public can come and meet them.

Uppark House and Gardens, Petersfield

Home to peaceful gardens, woodland for exploring and one of the best examples of a 17th century dolls house, Uppark illustrates the difference between comfortable life upstairs and the difficult life of servants downstairs.

The house is not currently open but the garden is open to visitors.

Portchester Castle was originally built late in the 3rd century and is the best-preserved of the Roman 'Saxon Shore' forts. You can visit the exhibition on the history of the castle and Portchester, and you can enjoy a family picnic surrounded by history.

This trail uses the Hayling Billy coastal path which runs along the west coast of Hayling Island. The five-mile round path is regularly used by walkers, cyclists and horse riders. The route starts at the car park at North Halt on Havant Road and is clearly signposted.

Alpine Snowsports, Southampton

The centre is a great place for new and experienced snowsports fans to have a go on the slopes. There are qualified instructors to take you through the basics of skiing and snowboarding, and they offer lessons for adults and juniors as well as childrens parties.

Fort Nelson is one of five defensive forts built on Portsdown Hill in the 1860s overlooking Portsmouth. Visit the museum to find out more about the collection of artillery and how it changed the nature of battles over hundreds of years. Admission is free.

This small, volunteer-led attraction is the UKs only museum dedicated to diving. There is a wide range of diving equipment including diving bells, chambers and atmospheric diving suits, as well as the prototype helmet used in the worlds first commercial dive.

Solent Sky Museum, Southampton

There are more than 20 aircraft to explore at the Solent Sky Museum, from the golden age of aviation. Among others you can learn the fascinating history of the Supermarine Spitfire F24, which has Southampton as its birthplace.

Spend the day with goats, pigs, rabbits and more at Manor Farm. On a rainy day you can also enjoy walking round the traditional barns and workshops, farmhouse and cottage.

Watercress Line, New Alresford

Take a ride on the popular heritage railway which runs between Alresford and Alton. In February and March 2020 there is a chance to see the world-famous Flying Scotsman locomotive on its tracks.

Titchfield Abbey was first built in the 13th century and was originally the home of a community of Premonstratensian canons. Later the buildings were transformed into a great Tudor house, featuring a grand turreted gatehouse.

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19 fun things to do in Hampshire with the family - Portsmouth News

With a motto of Live Free or Die it is no wonder that New Hampshire has happily taken to the idea of stem cell therapy and does not really have any legislation that would hinder researchers in their state from making breakthroughs in the fledgling medical field. The state currently has 9 stem cell clinics, which is surprisingly a lot considering the small population of the state. While stem cell therapy in New Hampshire is fairly new when compared with other states, it is growing and will probably continue to do so in the near future.

If you are thinking about getting stem cell therapy in New Hampshire, then you have two choices for the type of stem cell therapy that you can get. Currently, in the state, autologous bone marrow and autologous adipose-derived stem cells are the only stem cells that are being offered, but this does not mean that you wont be able to get the treatment that you need. A majority of the treatments that are offered throughout the country are based on these stem cells, so there is a fairly good chance that you will be able to get the treatment that you desire in New Hampshire.

Some of the stem cell therapies that are available in New Hampshire are:

Pain managementAchilles TendinitisAchilles TearsAnkle SprainsArthritisBack PainCarpal Tunnel SyndromeCartilage DefectsDegenerative Disc DiseaseElbow TendonitisFailed Back Surgery SyndromeFractures Golfers ElbowPhantom Limb PainPlantar FasciitisPost-herpetic NeuralgiaPost-laminectomy SyndromeRheumatoid ArthritisRotator Cuff TendonitisTension HeadachesTrigeminal Neuralgia

After looking at the list of treatments above if you do not see the particular treatment that you are looking for, dont fret, as it might just not be listed. Putting forth a list of every single stem cell treatment offered in the state would be untenable and so our list represents only a cross-section of what is offered in the state. Be sure to reach out to us so that we can offer you more complete information and if need be refer you to a clinic near you.

The only law that is currently enforceable in New Hampshire in regard to stem cell research or therapy is that researchers are not allowed to maintain an unfrozen fertilized embryo for more than 14 days. This means that for the most part researchers who are interested in studying embryonic stem cells are able to do so as long as they operate within the confines of that piece of legislation.

Even though there are a number of new and exciting stem cell therapies available in New Hampshire it is always important to remember that most of these treatments are not FDA approved. As of now the only stem cell therapies that are FDA approved are a few related to certain types of bone and blood cancers. Outside of this, all therapies are considered to be experimental and as such your insurance company will more than likely not cover the costs of the treatment.

If you are looking to better educate yourself on the benefits of stem cell therapy in New Hampshire, then call Stem Cell Authority toll-free today. Since there is so much information and misinformation out there in regard to stem cells it is important to get all of the facts before you make a decision to undergo treatment. At Stem Cell Authority we can help you do just that, so give us a call today.

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Find the Best Stem Cell Clinics in New Hampshire - Stem ...

MELBOURNE, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Propanc Biopharma, Inc. (OTC: PPCB) (Propanc or the Company), a biopharmaceutical company developing new cancer treatments for patients suffering from recurring and metastatic cancer, announced today that its Chief Executive Officer, Mr James Nathanielsz, predicts a significant and unmet need for need for new cancer treatments that are not only more effective and less toxic, but critically, also enhance the immune response of patients. As a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the risk of infection for cancer sufferers undergoing chemotherapy or radiation is life threatening. Propanc Biopharmas lead product candidate, PRP, not only stops the cancer from returning and spreading, but also enhances the bodys own immune system, which is considered a key to overcoming cancer.

According to the World Health Organization over 18.1 million cancer cases were diagnosed and 9.6 million cancer related deaths were recorded in 2018, globally. The threat of the global pandemic penetrating this vulnerable and significantly large patient group, globally, whilst undergoing treatment is extremely high. Recently, there were a number of instances where COVID-19 infections have been discovered among staff and patients in oncology wards in hospitals, such as the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

I am gravely concerned for cancer sufferers worldwide during this global crisis and it especially came to my attention when three COVID-19 positive patients from the Alfred hematology and oncology ward, died as a result of exposure. My heart goes out to those families, said James Nathanielsz, Propancs Chief Executive Officer. There is no doubt this group of patients are particularly vulnerable, and we need to put all our resources into every avenue of healthcare to ensure a better quality of life for human kind. Now that we have the backing of our institutional investor, financially, we are expending every effort to fast track PRP into the clinic so we can determine its effectiveness as a less toxic, targeted therapy for the treatment and prevention of metastatic cancer from solid tumors, where patients can enjoy a better quality of life.

Professor Klaus Kutz, Chief Medical Officer for Propanc Biopharma, recognizes the need for more effective and less toxic treatments, but also recognizes that supporting immune function will become an imperative for his medical colleagues, who are not only battling cancer, but the risk of secondary infection from treatment, often resulting in patients admitted to critical care and many dying from infection.

When I first joined the Propanc Scientific Advisory Board, my first task was to assess a small number of terminal cancer patients treated on the grounds of compassionate use, and what I observed was not only an overall improvement in life expectancy, but also no severe, or even serious side effects from treatment, no hair loss, no nausea and no immune suppression, said Professor Kutz, Propancs Chief Medical Officer. After more than ten years of research, I am keen to see the positive effects from treatment in a First-In-Human study for advanced cancer patients, a vulnerable, at risk patient group who need better treatments for a sustained, better quality of life.

Dr Julian Kenyon, who serves as Chief Scientific Officer at Propanc Biopharma, whilst also Medical Director of his clinic in Hampshire, UK, has focused his expertise on looking after patients who are at risk from COVID-19 infection due to underlying health conditions, by helping improve their innate and acquired immunities. He believes this gives his patients the best possible chance of overcoming this global pandemic.

My clinical expertise over the years in treating chronic diseases, including cancer, often focuses on how I can improve the immune function of my patients, as we know that adequate immune function means that any patient with COVID-19 has increased chances of surviving, and also those without COVID-19 are less likely to develop a positive infection, said Dr Kenyon. Our lead product candidate, PRP, has the potential to not only treat cancer patients, but improve their immune response towards fighting against the cancer, as well as secondary infection. This is something we have long understood as a medical need, but COVID-19 has brought this to the forefront as a pressing issue for these vulnerable patients. I believe a product which can achieve this objective in clinical trials will likely see significant and rapid uptake among healthcare practitioners.

About Propanc Biopharma, Inc.

Propanc Biopharma, Inc. (the Company) is developing a novel approach to prevent recurrence and metastasis of solid tumors by using pancreatic proenzymes that target and eradicate cancer stem cells in patients suffering from pancreatic, ovarian and colorectal cancers. For more information, please visit http://www.propanc.com.

The Companys novel proenzyme therapy is based on the science that enzymes stimulate biological reactions in the body, especially enzymes secreted by the pancreas. These pancreatic enzymes could represent the bodys primary defense against cancer.

To view the Companys Mechanism of Action video on its anti-cancer lead product candidate, PRP, please click on the following link: http://www.propanc.com/news-media/video

Forward-Looking Statements

All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release are forward-looking statements, which may often, but not always, be identified by the use of such words as may, might, will, will likely result, would, should, estimate, plan, project, forecast, intend, expect, anticipate, believe, seek, continue, target or the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These factors include uncertainties as to the Companys ability to continue as a going concern absent new debt or equity financings; the Companys current reliance on substantial debt financing that it is unable to repay in cash; the Companys ability to successfully remediate material weaknesses in its internal controls; the Companys ability to reach research and development milestones as planned and within proposed budgets; the Companys ability to control costs; the Companys ability to obtain adequate new financing on reasonable terms; the Companys ability to successfully initiate and complete clinical trials and its ability to successful develop PRP, its lead product candidate; the Companys ability to obtain and maintain patent protection; the Companys ability to recruit employees and directors with accounting and finance expertise; the Companys dependence on third parties for services; the Companys dependence on key executives; the impact of government regulations, including FDA regulations; the impact of any future litigation; the availability of capital; changes in economic conditions, competition; and other risks, including, but not limited to, those described in the Companys Registration Statement on Form S-1, Amendment No. 1, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) on January 24, 2020, and in the Companys other filings and submissions with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any obligations to update these statements except as may be required by law.

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How Propanc Biopharma Is Joining the Fight with Cancer Patients Who Are Increasingly Vulnerable to the COVID-19 Global Pandemic - Business Wire

A hospital patient from London who was the second person in the world to be cleared of HIV has revealed his identity.

Adam Castillejo, 40, achieved sustained remission from HIV after being treated at Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust announced last year over a decade after the first known case in Berlin in 2007.

By publicly revealing my identity and my story I hope to help improve peoples understanding of the science and HIV generally, Mr Castillejo, who works in the hospitality industry, said in a statement.

I want to thank all those who have supported me on this journey particularly my medical team at Hammersmith Hospital whom without I would not be here today.

Mr Castillejo was diagnosed with HIV infection in 2003 and developed an Aids-defining cancer, advanced Hodgkins lymphoma, in 2012.

In 2016, he received a transplant of haematopoietic stem cells from a donor carrying a genetic mutation in the HIV receptor CCR5, which hinders the HIV virus from entering human cells.

After antiretroviral drugs were discontinued, researchers said Mr Castillejo has been in remission for 30 months with no viable virus in bloods, brain fluid, intestinal or lymph tissue.

Mr Castillejo, who revealed his identity in an interview with the New York Times, is of mixed Spanish-Dutch heritage and said he is very proud to consider himself a Londoner.

He was head chef in a corporate dining room when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2011 while working a second job on weekends to save money for travel.

After a couple of years the chemo became too intense and I could no longer continue to work, his statement said.

My life fell apart at that stage I lost my job and I couldnt afford my flat so lost that too.

I am now starting again, rebuilding my life as I steadily get stronger. The journey has given me the chance to gain more knowledge and understanding about cancer research and the world beyond me.

Now, I am looking forward to building a new path as an Ambassador of Hope for millions of people around the world living with HIV.

Whilst my treatment is not possible for all, I hope it will offer scientists insights that can help us on the journey to better treatment and a cure.

Mr Castillejo said he plans to share his experiences through a podcast and his Twitter and Instagram accounts, @londonpatient and LondonPatientofficial, and said he recently began to rekindle his passion for cooking as a trained chef.

On March 10, a follow-up report on Mr Castillejos case will be presented by Professor Ravindra Gupta at this years Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Boston, USA where the Londoner will share his story.

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Patient who was second in world to be cleared of HIV reveals his identity - Hampshire Chronicle

BOSTON (PRWEB) January 23, 2020

Asymmetrex LLC is part of a new public-private Manufacturing USA initiative, the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI). Headquartered in Manchester, New Hampshire, ARMI is the 12th Manufacturing USA Institute. ARMI brings together a consortium of over 100 partner organizations from industry, government, academia and the non-profit sector to develop next-generation manufacturing processes and technologies for cells, tissues and organs.

Approximately $80 million from the federal government will be combined with more than $200 million in cost share to support the development of tissue and organ manufacturing capabilities. As part of continuing efforts to help revitalize American manufacturing and incentivize companies to invest in new technology development in the United States, ARMI will lead the Advanced Tissue Biofabrication (ATB) Manufacturing USA Institute on behalf of the Department of Defense.

Under the umbrella of Manufacturing USA, a public-private network that invests in the development of world-leading manufacturing technologies, ARMI will work to integrate and organize the fragmented collection of industry practices and domestic capabilities in tissue Biofabrication technology to better position the US relative to global competition. ARMI will also focus on accelerating regenerative tissue research and creating state-of-the-art manufacturing innovations in biomaterial and cell processing for critical Department of Defense and civilian needs.

We need to develop 21st century tools for engineered tissue manufacturing that will allow these innovations to be widely available similar to how a 15th century tool (the printing press) allowed knowledge to spread widely during the Renaissance, said inventor Dean Kamen, ARMIs chairman.

ARMIs efforts are supported by forty-seven industrial partners, twenty-six academic and academically affiliated partners, and fourteen government and nonprofit partners. The ARMI partnership continues to grow.

About AsymmetrexAsymmetrex, LLC is a Massachusetts life sciences company with a focus on developing technologies to advance stem cell medicine. The companys patent portfolio contains biotechnologies that solve the two main technical problems production and quantification that have stood in the way of successful commercialization of human adult tissue stem cells for regenerative medicine and drug development. Asymmetrex markets the first technology for determination of the dose and quality of tissue stem cell preparations (the AlphaSTEM Test) for use in stem cell transplantation therapies and pre-clinical drug evaluations. For more information, please visit http://www.asymmetrex.com.

About ARMIThe Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI), headquartered in Manchester, NH, is the 12th Manufacturing USA Institute. It brings together a consortium of over 150 partners from across industry, government, academia and the non-profit sector to develop next-generation manufacturing processes and technologies for cells, tissues and organs. ARMI will work to organize the current fragmented domestic capabilities in tissue Biofabrication technology to better position the U.S. relative to global competition. For more information on ARMI, please visit http://www.ARMIUSA.org.

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Asymmetrex Partners in Manufacturing USA Institute January 23, 2020The Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute - PR Web

Rural communities often take solace in the continuity associated with country life. Cities are the place for change, while our countryside is to be treasured for its slower pace. This can make the prospect of new ways of working a daunting one. But not all change is negative some technology increases productivity in farming, some benefits the environment.

Some things do need to change. The National Farmers Union (NFU) has pledged that the industry will reduce greenhouse emissions to zero by 2040, which means farmers are having to come up with eco-friendly ways to meet growing demand.

People often think of agriculture as conservative and slow to adapt, but it has always been about experimentation and trying new things, says Dr Helen Ferrier, chief science and regulatory affairs adviser at the NFU. Technology has a history of making life easier, replacing some jobs and creating new ones, adds Farmers Guardian editor Ben Briggs.

If new technologies help to make agriculture more profitable, they should be welcomed. So, let us introduce 20 innovations that could be coming to a field near you

We all want animals to live stress-free, but how do you ask a pig how its feeling? Scientists at Bristol Robotics Laboratory are using 3D scanners to find out. The machines use artificial intelligence to identify emotions on the animals faces. Farmers could eventually use similar technology to check that their pigs arent in pain or distress, thereby improving animal welfare.

Ammonia and nitrogen pollution harms more than 60% of UK land by acidifying soil and fresh water, and destroying plants. Unfortunately, cows and their bodily functions are partly to blame. But Dutch designer Henk Hanskamp might have the answer: a cow loo. Cows will pay a visit voluntarily (their daily feed given nearby as encouragement), toxins will then be removed from the waste, with the remainder used as fertiliser. The machine could be on sale in the Netherlands in 2020, before it is exported abroad.

Soon, everything and everyone in National Parks could be connected to the internet. Rubbish bins will send alerts to rangers when theyre full, so that they only have to be checked when they need emptying, reducing emissions, while sensors in footpaths will call out rangers to deal with fallen trees and flooding. Signposts at the end of a route will also be sending messages to your oven to have supper ready for when you arrive home well, we can dream, cant we?

Suffolk Punch horses, Britains oldest native breed, once happily ploughed our fields, but now they are dying out, with only about 70 breeding females left. What to do? Equine reproduction specialists Stallion AI Services has found a way to determine the gender of semen so that it can impregnate a filly with a female foal. More breeding females mean more horses in years to come

The ethics of egg-farming can make for uncomfortable reading: farmers require female chickens, as they lay the eggs, leaving the difficult question about what to do with the males. All chicks in Britain are incubated to full term, but German company Seleggt has found a way to determine the sex of a chick before it is born by testing a fluid sample from the egg. Males can then be used in animal feed before they hatch. Seleggt eggs are already sold in Germany and the company hopes to expand across Europe soon.

Meet Tom, Dick and Harry, three autonomous planters that are currently being tested in Hampshire by Waitrose & Partners; Harry plants, Tom places soil on top and Dick zaps weeds with lasers. Being smaller and lighter than tractors, these four-wheeled machines reduce compaction of the soil, improving yields. Theyre also pretty good workers. Small Robot Company CEO Ben Scott-Robinson says, People get tired, but robots dont nor do they get distracted. Robots would support rather than replace farmers, he says, adding that the technology needs further trials.

Almost half the dogs in the UK are overweight, according to vet charity PDSA. The solution? A canine activity tracker attached to your pets collar, monitoring his or her movements and how many calories they are burning. PitPat can tell you whether your dog has been playing, running or walking (39, pitpat.com), while FitBark (65, fitbark.com/store-uk) can also track your dogs sleep restless nights could indicate health problems.

A third of our wild bees and hoverflies are in decline, according to a 2019 study by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, but help is on the way in the form of tiny bee-like drones that fly between plants and cross-pollinate them. Created by Harvard University, the solar-powered RoboBee X-Wing can flap its two sets of wings at a rate of 170 beats per second. Growers could use similar drones in greenhouses within five to 10 years.

Farms floating in harbours could make food more sustainable by reducing how far produce travels to consumers while also increasing the land available for agriculture. In Rotterdam, 32 Meuse-Rhine-Issel cows are helping to test this very notion, living on a 30m x 30m, three-storey pontoon, in a project by Dutch property company Beladon. The team is looking to expand into China and one day it could happen here

Almost a third of Britons believe well all be happily chomping away at insects by 2029, according to the Agricultural Biotechnology Council. Insects are great sources of protein, while farming them requires little space and water, and releases fewer greenhouse gases than conventional animal farms. Want a taster? Sainsburys already sells snack-sized packs of grasshoppers, crickets, buffalo worms and mealworms, produced by Eat Grub in the Netherlands (from 4.29 for 20g, also from eatgrub.co.uk), while Selfridges stocks chocolate-chip cricket cookies (5.99, in store only), produced by Bug Farm Foods in St Davids, Wales.

In New Zealand, drones are increasingly taking on sheepdog duties and farmers are now trying them over here. Mark Rutter, of Harper Adams University in Shropshire, thinks its more ethical: sheep happily follow drones, as they already lead them to food, whereas they only obey dogs because they see them as predators. Drones can also cover a fair bit of ground (about four miles), dont mind hilly terrain and wont leave muddy paw prints on the carpet. A basic model such as the DJI Mavic Pro 2 can handle winds of up to 24mph and costs roughly 1,300. Drones that work in the rain cost nearer 6,000. Farmers dont need a licence, but they should be aware of the risks, especially to birds. They also dont like to be scratched behind the ears

Sometimes it just isnt possible to cross the country to see wildlife, but now it can come to you. Webcams run by The Wildlife Trusts follow grey seals in Cumbria and puffins in Alderney, allowing you to watch them from your phone or computer (wildlifetrusts.org/webcams). Most activity takes place from the spring, but theres plenty of grass-munching year-round at The Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth, Devon (thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/webcams).

Wondering where your food really comes from? Started by two farmers, new app Happerley allows you to find out where food is produced by scanning the QR code on the packaging. About 250 food and drink producers have signed up, including Simon Weaver Organic in the Cotswolds, Hayes Fruit Farm in Gloucestershire and Grass Fed Meats, which operates across the UK. Happerley is free and available on the App Store and Google Play.

New energy sources are vital as we move away from fossil fuels and grass could be a solution. In Lincolnshire, the local council, the Environment Agency and The Wildlife Trusts have been turning roadside cuttings into electricity. A tractor-like machine sucks up the grass and takes it to an anaerobic digestor, which converts it into energy. It is estimated that Lincolnshires 5,500 miles of rural roads could generate a years worth of electricity for 4,500 homes.

In the US, you can already buy burgers and meatballs made of meat grown in labs from animal stem cells, while in Europe, Netherlands-based Mosa Meat predicts its product could be in supermarkets within four years. Still hesitant? Conventional farming will continue to have a place. The NFUs Dr Helen Ferrier says lab-grown meat will simply start a useful conversation about what people want to eat.

Most of the prawns we eat in the UK come from farms in the Far East and Central America, but the future could be different. Great British Prawns, the worlds first sustainable, clean-water, land-based prawn farm, in Balfron, Stirlingshire, began harvesting a million prawns last summer, selling them to nearby chefs. The company is now planning more farms to supply restaurants across the UK.

Sompong Sriphet / EyeEmGetty Images

Good news for professional gardeners and groundsmen RootWave has patented a wand-like device that zaps weeds with an electric pulse, killing them without chemicals and allowing them to decompose in the soil. The zapper is already available to commercial growers, and CEO Andrew Diprose hopes a version will eventually be available for hobby gardeners.

In 2019, there was a shortfall of 6,000 soft-fruit pickers in the UK. More robots to the rescue. Hall Hunger Farm, near Chichester, West Sussex, is trying out machines on wheels with 3D cameras and four sets of grippers. Designed by the University of Plymouths Fieldworks Robotics lab, the machines (below) are expected to go into production within a year.

Fruit and vegetables could be grown in some of the UKs 150,000 abandoned coal mine shafts, predicts Professor Saffa Riffat, president of the World Society of Sustainable Energy Technology. This would reduce the environmental costs of transporting food from far away, as well as cutting the need for pesticides. Salads grown in tunnels in south-west London are already sold through Ocado (Growing Underground, 2.59 for 70g, ocado.com).

Want to cut down on garden plastic? Bristol-based start-up Candide Labels has devised an app that identifies plants and creates virtual labels you store on your phone. Simply hold your camera-phone up to a plant and tap the screen, enabling it to identify the plant and tag it. Candide is free and available on the App Store and Google Play.

This feature is from Country Living magazine. Subscribe here.

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From cow loos to dog fitbits: 20 ways technology will transform the countryside in 2020 - Countryliving (UK)