In this post I will tell you about another unique object of the USSR nuclear project, which is located near my house. Secret Laboratory "B" interesting for two reasons:
1) the laboratory was established in 1947 by order of Stalin in order to study the effect of radiation on living organisms.
2) there is practically no information about this object on the Internet
For many years only a narrow circle of initiates knew about this laboratory. Even many of those directly involved in the creation of atomic weapons in the USSR have not heard anything about it. Timofeev-Resovsky later noted: “All over the world it is believed that the Americans developed the entire medical isotope, so to speak, biology and the entire aquatic isotope biology. And we did all this before the Americans.”
October 24, 1947 I.V. Stalin signs Decree 3640-1204 "On the organization of laboratory "B" of the 9th Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs", which states:
Assign the following tasks to the laboratory "B":
1) study and classification of the pathological effects of radioactive radiation and the development of methods of protection against these radiations;
2) development of methods for cleaning solutions and wastewater from radioactive products;
3) production of pure radioactive preparations (isotopes)
4) development of methods for isolating and purifying product Z (plutonium) and methods for separating artificial radioactive substances;
5) study of the damaging effect of radioactive decay products and the development of methods of protection against the damaging effect.
1947 There is nothing yet - neither an atomic bomb, nor a nuclear reactor, but the purpose of Laboratory "B" has already been determined - to study what consequences a broken atomic nucleus is capable of.
Everything that science required was delivered from Germany - equipment, apparatus, inventory, materials, libraries, as well as trophy beds, carpets, pianos, refrigerators, and so on. By the end of 1945, the USSR exported about 100 tons of uranium oxide from Germany- the first significant amount of uranium that ended up in the hands of the Soviet atomic project.
German scientists
Together with all this scientific property, German scientists were also taken out of Germany, those who were not taken out by the Americans (300 people). Many of them ended up on Sungul. This is Karl Zimmer, whom Timofeev-Resovsky called the best dosimetrist in the world. This is Hans Born, an experienced radiochemist. This is Alexander Kach. And finally, this is Nicholas Riel, who arrived later.
By that time, he had already managed to show in Elektrostal the technology for the production of metallic uranium mastered back in Germany. At the beginning of 1943, Germany had 10 tons of uranium(in the Soviet Union, the first kilogram of metallic uranium was obtained only in mid-1944). This made such a strong impression on Stalin that he thanked Riel with Stalinist generosity.
He came to Sungul Ril with the star of the Hero of Socialist Labor on his jacket. He was also a laureate of the Stalin Prize of the first, of course, degree. A bonus was given to him - 350 thousand rubles, in addition to the 350 thousand received before. And donated a car. And a dacha with furnishings was granted. And a double salary is set for all years of work. And the right to travel with the family for free on all modes of transport.
In the opinion of local residents, the scientists on Sungul lived behind barbed wire and sharp fences, but - in paradise. Researchers were assigned salaries from one and a half to two and a half thousand rubles. Heads of departments had up to 4.5 thousand rubles a month, German scientists received up to 6.5 thousand rubles, and Nicholas Riehl - 14 thousand rubles. Without a briefcase, he could not take his salary from the cash register. Meanwhile, the average earnings in industry amounted to 700 rubles. And the village in those years did not know money at all. First of all, fresh fruits, including grapes, coffee, Czech beer, good cigarettes and cigars were delivered to Sungul for German scientists.
If the Germans were brought to the Laboratory from Germany, then our scientists were brought from the camps. Geneticist Timofeev-Resovsky was brought to the Laboratory barely alive. He could not stand on his feet, he was brought into the building on a sheet. But such is the difference: from prison, from the camp immediately, without moving, to a heavenly place, to a resort.
Biologist Nikolai Viktorovich Luchnik was also brought from places not so remote. Then he recalled:
- We, the prisoners, were stuffed into a compartment not five, not seven people, as expected, but thirty or more. Such a compartment is a densely compressed human mass, where it is not known where whose hand is, where whose leg is. It is impossible to believe that people can exist in this human mass for at least an hour, and they ride in it for days and days.
N.V. Luchnik, researcher at Lab "B":
We reached our destination late in the evening. In front of us shone with windows without bars a three-story building of a sanatorium type. The forest roared around. In the soron, very close, the lake shone. It was clear that five years of ordinary prisons and camps were over. What the coming years will bring is unknown. But there was confidence that life was saved.
Research
In short and simply, Laboratory "B" was run by physicists and biologists. But physics there was biological, and biology was physical. Thus, in crossbreeding, biophysics was born. The two sciences, claiming leadership in natural science, then intertwined. When the first reactor was launched in Chelyabinsk-40 (Ozersk), from there they brought to Laboratory "B" in a flask "product-903", "yushka", as Timofeev-Resovsky said, a brownish liquid - a mixture of uranium fission fragments. From the "yushka" it was necessary to isolate isotopes, purify them and work with them. Annual grasses were grown on the experimental plots. Seeds were treated with "yushka". The grown herbs were given to the experimental cow, then the milk obtained from the cow was studied. And the work consisted in studying - where the first in the world, where the second, - how radiation affects all living things, where it accumulates and how it is excreted. That is, Laboratory "B" started what, after Chernobyl, the entire world community is still discussing.
L.A. Kuzovkina, employee of Laboratory "B":
- In the basement we had forty kilograms of a uranium compound, it is not clear which one: in a jar, black ... Born gave me a task: we need to bring good salt and isolate a thorium compound with a half-life of 24 days. This was for mice. When I was working with a uranium solution (these are bottles of twenty liters, can you imagine! - I lift them, pour them into cups on the stove), Schmidt, a German special settler, saw: “Lida! Can a woman do that? Invite me!". And so we were so friends with him ... It was necessary to recrystallize all forty kilograms and isolate thorium-X.
Of course, now science knows a lot more about radiation. And now you can look down on what is mined and extracted behind the three zones of the hidden Laboratory "B". Now their mistakes and miscalculations are in full view. But no matter what they say now, the fact is that modern biophysics still stands on several stones laid in its foundation by Laboratory "B", which was given only five strictly classified years.
liquidation
Laboratory "B" was liquidated in 1955 by order of the Minister of Medium Machine Building No. 252 of 04/05/1955. The fixed assets of Laboratory "B" were transferred to the balance of the newly created institute NII-1011 (Snezhinsk city), in which most of the specialists of Laboratory "B" began to work. Some of the employees of the chemical department, the radiopathological laboratory were transferred to plant No. 817 (Ozersk), and the Timofeev-Resovsky laboratory was transferred to the Ural branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
The Germans left for the GDR, and then some of them moved to the FRG. For example, Riehl returned to Germany in 1955 and was accepted as a research assistant at the Technical University of Munich at the Research Nuclear Reactor. In 1961, he received a position as resident professor of technical physics and continued research in the field of solid state physics, in the field of ice physics and optical spectroscopy of solids. He died in 1991 in Munich.
After the closure of the laboratory, radioactive traces of its activity remained, although in recent years a large amount of work has been done to eliminate pollution.
Now there is almost nothing there. On one side, the laboratory is surrounded by barbed wire with "Radiation" signs. The territory is not protected. On the other side there is an entrance guarded by a watchman. There are several abandoned buildings on the territory, but there are also quite working buildings - they are used for warehouses, there is a small printing house. There is another entrance, but it is completely abandoned.
Unfortunately, the pictures were taken a long time ago on a Chinese film soap dish, so there is almost nothing left and the quality is terrible. Inside, abandoned brick buildings without windows and doors - there is not much to look at.
Fallout style photo: a rusty radiation sign at the entrance and a completely overgrown road outside the gate.
Territory of the Laboratory. The abandoned entrance is marked with a cross
Nature takes back
View from the shore to the Cherry Mountains
Map
Upper right corner: Yekaterinburg–Chelyabinsk highway.
Black footprint below: radioactive trace after the Mayak accident in 1957. In fact, it was a small Chernobyl. There is a lot of information about this accident on the Internet. The red arrow points to a break in the road. Actually there is no break. There begins the secret city of Chelyabinsk-70, in which I was born. Now the city is declassified and it is on the maps. But before it looked exactly like this: as if there was nothing.
Very interesting information, as in previous posts.
But somehow it even aspires to me and sometimes it seems that you are a spy;)
Andron, 25.09.2009 - 11:55
:) Yes, great article, and well written! Thanks for sharing
Secret laboratories, entire cities... it's probably strange to live in a place that no one is told about anywhere and you can't tell about its existence. Closed world from prying eyes... a bit creepy
olgaa, 28.09.2009 - 19:55
Hmm ... you don’t even know how to perceive it.
There was science ... but at what cost ... And there is none, and also at what cost ... Worst of all, everything is the same with the country ....
Den, 25.10.2009 - 15:28
And what about the people, I mean those who lived there, worked, served? Or were they brought from somewhere? Are they alive? Were they experimented on? If so, then I'm shocked ... What's wrong with people? It could not be like this - Everything - once and disappear ... This is some kind of nonsense.
Savva, 15.03.2010 - 12:23
Why laugh - laboratory B - this is the 21st site - the village of Sokol =)
People probably safely moved to Snezhinsk or any other cities =)
Or they stayed there - to grow vegetable gardens))
Dmitry, 30.10.2010 - 05:01
And who is this serious man depicted in the photo. Maybe Nicholas Riel himself? Does anyone know him?
Sergey, 7.12.2010 - 07:09
You have very interesting and informative articles. Thanks
Irina, 30.12.2010 - 20:22
there used to be military secrets, but now we just read about them on the Internet ...
and the article is interesting.
I will reply to comment #2.
yes, life is the same as in other cities, except that the regime and secrecy imposes some restrictions.
And so same life, as and everywhere.
Tornado, 28.05.2011 - 11:53
I don't know if Volodya made this site or Viktor Ekimov. Of course, the information is necessary and useful, but something else worries. Why is there no information about ecology and people? Why is everything always GOOD? Why is there not a word about the "lower treatment facilities" and what was merged into it over the course of many years? Why is it not said that a kindergarten and a nursery were located 100 meters from the laboratory? Why is it not said about the object No. 168, what was done there and what kind of accident happened, and how would it have ended if not for Rukovishnikov and others? What "cleanliness" is to this day on "Platonikha", and in general on 21 sites in general. Why do old-timers and young people fail in their legs, and many young people have already died of cancer? Somehow everything is too GOOD!!! Where are the burial grounds? Where was the used "clean" garbage and much, much more taken out? About the background in general - NOTHING !!!
Volodya, or Victor, somehow everything is HEALTHY with YOU !!! GREAT!!!
And that's not ALL and YOU know it, but SILENT. WHY? or, is this YOUR information an ORDER?
Where is the other side of the coin? Where?
If you decide to tell, then tell EVERYTHING - as it is.
jorji, 6.07.2011 - 19:58
I have one question, why did you get the idea that this laboratory is secret these days?!
Tiriel, 21.07.2011 - 20:06
and also, what kind of barbed wire? she hasn’t been there for 10 years, there’s not even a smell of fallouts there. There is now a normal holiday village + children's camp.
no need to tell terrible secrets to people. these secrets are long gone.
Tiriel, 21.07.2011 - 20:12
read carefully.
// Now there is almost nothing there. There are several abandoned buildings in the area.
it was secret 60 years ago. a post about those times when they were just beginning to study the effect of radiation.
admin, 21.07.2011 - 20:35
For Tiriel. I have a question for you. You were there?
The laboratory, of course, is no longer a secret object, and even more so these days.
Dear, a children's camp, a nursery and a kindergarten and chocolate have been there for a long time, even when VNIITF was crap. If you were there and lived, then how long ago did you check your bones for SR 90 and cesium 137? I recommend))
For admin
I see you know a lot about secrets))
The thorn is no secret.
This gives the impression that you, Lord, are not at all aware of the problem of the 21st platform. Have you been walking through the woods with a counter for a long time? I advise))
jorji, 07/25/2011 - 03:36 PM
I fully support the comment above. And I will say that the territory is really contaminated to this day, then all this was done in an open way, people knew little about the dangers of radiation, waste was simply buried in basements - the so-called burial grounds. Now, by the way, it’s not difficult to get into them, everything is out)
Invicible, 27.07.2011 - 15:51
And the experimental ones were those people who lived there, without knowing it themselves, that's why there is so much oncology there)
Invicible, 27.07.2011 - 15:57
#17
You mentioned the pioneer camp. "Eaglet" he was called then. But they forgot to mention about the waste dump and not only household waste across the road - 250-350 meters (which, by the way, was previously guarded). And there (oh!) What could be found at one time. A lot of different things - and colored wire and different electronic blocks and a lot of different things. I was there as a kid, I know. And different flasks with test tubes, etc.
Answer, please, Tiriel, but what happened to the measuring equipment from the landfills, from object 168, and so on?
YES! And further. What can you say about the coagulant every summer at Sungul and Silach? I think you know what it is and what it is eaten with. That's just according to the rules for cleaning water bodies from pollution, including radioactive ones, it is necessary to trawl the coagulant that has absorbed all the muck from the surface of the reservoir and dispose of it, which has never been done. And he's all on the bottom, on the bottom! And what can you say about the maize circling over the 21st at one time. And just do not need to say that it was done from ticks. From ticks and other bugs, processing is carried out at an extremely low height, but from a height of more than 100 meters - this is another matter.
And further. Please think about the following. Why is it that in any camp season, when the water is already warm and you can swim, there is a ban - like - E. coli, etc.? So, there is NO ban for the locals and everyone swims, sunbathe, but for the camp from Snezhinsk - there is))) I smile at YOU kindly))
jorji, 28.07.2011 - 09:43
I went to this place today, I myself live nearby in Ozyorsk, I tried to go there, but now they made a second perimeter there, they didn’t let me in for it. I talked with the watchman, she told me everything as described above (in the article). I took a few pictures if anyone is interested I can post them.
Sergey, 25.09.2011 - 18:21
I was very cool there today and will go again
Spell, 20.11.2011 - 11:46
Our family moved to Sokol to work in Laboratory B on March 1, 1949. And they lived there until the beginning of November 1957, when they moved to live in the first residential building in Snezhinsk. That's why I could tell you a lot.
By the will of circumstances, in the early 90s, I conducted a radiation survey of the industrial zone in which the laboratory was located and compiled a cartogram of the contamination of the territory. After the uproar, the radiation safety department of the institute conducted a second examination for almost a month, but could not find serious errors in my results.
I will express my opinion as a specialist in radiation safety issues. To destroy the first corus, in which not only the laboratory, but also the founders of the institute worked, was, to put it mildly, a big mistake. There was no need for this. Everything could be fixed. But, apparently, some high-ranking gardeners needed a brick on the cheap.
The current situation in the territory is not an emergency. However, significant efforts and financial resources are required to put it in order.
Knowing firsthand the real state of affairs in ZATO Snezhinsk and realistically evaluating the prospects, I can say that a gloomy future awaits the village. Very sorry.
German Lukashin, 12/15/2011 - 20:47
K # 18 "I went to this place today, I myself live nearby in Ozersk, I tried to go there, but now they made a second perimeter there, they didn’t let me in for it. I talked with the watchman, she told me everything as everything is described above (in the article). I took a few photos if anyone is interested, I can throw it off. ".
Where is this perimeter? At the end of June 2011, I freely walked through the entire territory.
Yuri, 6.03.2012 - 11:30
Hello German.
If you are a specialist, tell me what it can mean and continue the calculation in reverse order until 1985 (all this is about the 21st site)
I understand and know that today the dose is miserable, BUT! internal radiation and its annual decrease (!)
what happened to the human body from the moment of conception to 1985, taking into account that nothing to do with production, etc. this person did not have, but was simply born and lived on the 21st site, had a garden, ate the gifts of the forest, lakes, etc.. You know the half-life. What is the cumulative dose from birth to leaving this accursed place in 1985. How could this affect his health?
jorji, 27.04.2012 - 11:33
Excuse me, Herman, date of birth - 1959
jorji, 27.04.2012 - 11:36
Hello Jorji!
You are asking a difficult question.
The data presented by you suggests that there was an intake of strontium-90 into the body.
It is difficult to say whether this admission was a single one or whether it was extended over time.
Nevertheless, on the basis of the data presented, it can be assumed that strontium is excreted with a period of approximately 150 days, which is typical for excretion from bone tissues.
In addition, it can be assumed that in the periods preceding 2010, the content of strontium could be significantly higher. But for more accurate conclusions, you need to know your history.
And yet, 160 nCi is not such a meager value. For information - the permissible content of strontium-90 in the bone tissue of personnel is regulated by the value of 2000 nCi, and in the lung - 760 nCi.
Taking into account that the dose limits for the personnel directly involved in the work with radioactive substances are set 10 times higher than for the population, the data presented by you may be the basis for serious conclusions.
In conclusion, I note that the way in which the content of strontium was determined is also important.
Gramble793, 20.05.2012 - 19:19
Hello German.
I'll start with the fact that the content of strontium and cesium was determined during a survey at the FGUN UNPTs FMBA of RUSSIA, Chelyabinsk, at the SEG - "SICH -9.1M" installation.
My story is very simple - I was born and lived at 21 sites from 1959 to 1985. I had nothing to do with work related to radioactive substances. I just lived on the 21st site and that's it. Don't you know this place. And it's pure coincidence that he learned what he learned.
The only problem is that no one cares about it. Looking at one document (received in Snezhinsk) at the Ministry of Social. protection region They said it was a crime and it was necessary to resolve the issue through the courts. In Burzanyan's clinic (unofficially) they said that no one needs extra problems and it is unlikely that anyone will solve this issue. In the presence of many chronic diseases, I see that Snezhinsky doctors do not need this either. No one wants to take responsibility and link these diseases to the 21st, because ... well, you understand. And what is most interesting - Everyone, as one, does not seem to see what is stated in the document of the Regional Directorate No. 15 of the FMBA of Russia, where, although evasively, it is clearly written about the place of residence - "there is a probability of man-made exposure with contaminated areas." Even to me, a person, as a non-specialist, it is clear that the source of radiation in me is more than a dozen years old, and it acts destructively on the body, BUT..................
respectfully,
jorji, 05/23/2012 - 04:15 PM
Hello Yuri!
In order to help you, you need to carefully study the documents you have. First of all, this concerns the results of measurements on WBC "e.
You can send all these materials, if you want, to my email address: [email protected]. And I will send you the materials I have on the radiation situation at the site. After all, I lived there, on Kirova, 5, until 1957.
As boys, we bathed in bathtubs in which solutions of cesium and strontium were diluted for watering the beds. We plugged the holes and filled them with water, to which we splashed. They climbed into the Stroi swamp, filled up after 1955.
Therefore, the presence of activity is a reason to find out its possible sources and ways of entering your body.
I will try to find information about the parameters of WBC (minimum detectable activity, etc.) on the Internet.
In your case
Gramble793, 24.05.2012 - 14:39
Hello German. I don’t understand why you call me Yuri, well, God bless him. Yuri means Yuri.
Submitting research documents for WBS is not a problem. And the only one - that they gave me ...
Herman, how are you looking to meet?
I would really like to make sure that you are you. To be honest, I don't trust e-mail, etc., much.
And I took similar baths)) in the garden. And he ate mushrooms with berries from 168, caught fish there, pricked pike, etc., and also ate, and "walked" around the lower burial ground in search of children's adventures, and dug up different cones with different solutions, and how many lead trailers climbed around and it is difficult to count, etc. ... a lot of things ... but how much iron is different, yes wires ....... in short, a full range of services ... and much more ... And in the body, what strontium, that cesium - with food, but how else, / though I'm not special, I don't know - maybe there is another way / but I think that with food, because, well, you know, they lived with all their own, but grew -that living creatures, that the rest is where it should not have grown. And Buyan with a "gas" and duda further to the burial grounds - just in general there were favorite places ...
Alas, among its leaders, "persons of Jewish nationality" were very noticeable, exterminating, among others, their fellow tribesmen.
Semyon KIPERMAN, Haifa
Photo: Grigory Mairanovsky
It is very painful to write about laboratories marked with the mysterious "X" sign and engaged in the manufacture of murderous drugs at all stages of the activity of the Soviet security agencies. Especially when it comes to people with scientific degrees and titles, acting as executioners.
Pavel Sudoplatov and other authors indicate that the toxicological laboratory was established in 1921 under the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V.I. Lenin, long before Beria, and was called the "Special Cabinet". It is not ruled out that Lenin asked Stalin to get him poison from the available stocks in this laboratory - "office".
Such a statement is based on the ongoing post-revolutionary studies of poisons in Russia in the early 20s, headed by Professor Ignatius Kazakov. Interest in the ongoing research was shown by the leaders of the Soviet security agencies - the chairman of the OGPU V. Menzhinsky, his deputy, and later - People's Commissar of Internal Affairs G. Yagoda.
The research laboratory was formally located at the All-Union Institute of Biology of Academician Bach.
Various sources do not rule out that one of the experiments in the use of narcotic substances in a special operation was associated with the abduction of the head of the Russian All-Military Union, General Kutepov, in Paris in January 1930. The executors of the operation were the "Yasha group" - a special group of senior major Yakov Serebryansky under the chairman of the OGPU.
In broad daylight, the general was pushed into a car in an unconscious state and taken to Marseille aboard a Soviet steamer. However, the weak heart of the old soldier could not stand it, and after an injection of morphine made to him, he died almost on the roadstead of Novorossiysk. Seven years later, the same “Yasha group”, using narcotic substances, under deep anesthesia, kidnapped and took Kutepov’s successor, General Miller, from the French port of Le Havre, who was taken to Lubyanka and shot in 1939.
In December 1937, Kazakov, the first head of the laboratory, was arrested "for participating in a counter-revolutionary anti-Soviet organization" and in 1938, in the course of the trial of the anti-Soviet Right-Trotskyist bloc (the trial of Bukharin-Rykov, etc.), he was sentenced to death. He was charged with the murder of the chairman of the OGPU V. Menzhinsky, the chairman of the Supreme Economic Council V. Kuibyshev and the writer M. Gorky on the orders of G. Yagoda. This was the first experience of creating an ominous image of killer doctors, when Kazakov, along with his "accomplices" Levin and Pletnev, were sentenced to death and shot two days later.
In 1935, under the leadership of senior major of state security Yakov Serebryansky, a laboratory for the use of poisons and drugs operated, which was directly subordinate to the head of the NKVD. The subsequent arrest of Serebryansky in November 1938 led to the dissolution of the laboratory.
From the summer of 1937, as part of the 12th Department of the GUGB of the NKVD until 1951, the head of the toxicological laboratory (Laboratory - "X") of a special unit engaged in research in the field of toxic substances and poisons was Grigory Moiseevich Mairanovsky.
* * *
Where did this terrible man come from?
He was born in 1899 in Batumi in a large middle-class family. After graduating from high school in 1917, he entered the Tiflis Medical Institute, where he joined the Jewish socialist organization Bund. Then he moved to Baku, where one of his brothers was listed among the leaders of the local "Bundists".
Grigory Mainarovsky continued to study at the university. Convinced that the Bolsheviks were against the Bund, he quickly got his bearings and in April 1920 joined the RCP(b). The ambitious young man directed all his efforts to prove his loyalty to the new government. For almost two years he worked in one of the departments of the bush industry of the Council of People's Commissars of the Azerbaijan SSR.
In 1922, G. Mainarovsky moved to Moscow, where he completed his studies at the medical faculty of the 2nd Moscow State University. He worked as a doctor, assistant of the university department, head of the outpatient clinic. Soon he was offered the head of the toxicological department at the Biochemical Institute of the Central Sanitary and Chemical Institute of the People's Commissariat of Health.
In 1937, Mainarovsky's research group from the Institute of Biochemistry, headed by Academician Bach, was transferred to the NKVD and transferred to the direct subordination of the head of the special department of operational equipment at the commandant's office of the NKVD-MGB ... The secrecy of the laboratory was ensured by serious control over the involvement of its employees in the operations of special services. Access to the laboratory was strict even for the leadership of the NKVD-MGB, which was regulated by the Regulations approved by the government and orders from the NKVD-MGB ... The Minister of State Security or his first deputy directly supervised the work of the laboratory. And the work there was carried out exclusively with poisons. And not for treatment at all, but for testing prisoners sentenced to capital punishment or killing those who, by decision of the government, were subject to secret liquidation.
In 1940 Mairanovsky defended his doctoral dissertation at VIEM on the topic "The biological effect of products in the interaction of mustard gas with the skin." However, the Higher Attestation Commission under the Committee for Higher Education did not approve the decision to award the degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences, considering that the dissertation needs to be improved.
Meanwhile, in 1943, on the proposal of the People's Commissar of State Security V. Merkulov, a petition was filed to confer on Mairanovsky the degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences and the title of professor on the basis of the totality of works without defending a dissertation. The petition stated that “during his work in the NKVD, Comrade Mairanovsky completed 10 secret works of great operational importance (quote from the Encyclopedia of Secret Services of Russia, M., 2004, p. 609).
In the same 1943 Mayranovsky received the rank of colonel of the medical service.
One fact can serve as an example of the "importance of secret operational work" mentioned by the minister. In 1942, while experimenting with poisons on those sentenced to death, Mairanovsky revealed that when using certain doses of the drug, the “experimental” begins to speak exclusively frankly. The leadership seized on this "discovery" and approved of dealing with the "problem of frankness" during interrogations. After all, this made it possible to obtain additional material for the investigation. Similar experiments were carried out for several years. In those cases when the arrest seemed inconvenient to the top authorities, Mairanovsky's technology was used.
So did the head of the Foreign Department of the GUGB Abram Slutsky. In February 1938, he died suddenly in the office of Deputy People's Commissar Mikhail Frinovsky. According to the perpetrators of the murder, he was given an injection of potassium cyanide. This was the period of the beginning of the purge of intelligence, when its foreign employees began to be called to Moscow. Fearing to frighten off their victims, the organizers of the massacre arranged Slutsky's funeral with all honors. And "Pravda" placed an obituary in which it wrote that he "died at a military post."
Much has been written about the Wallenberg case. But I cannot but refer to the notes of General P. Sudoplatov, who knew the KGB kitchen well, and in particular, the appointment of "Laboratory-X". The general wrote that at the beginning of July 1947, the case of Raoul Wallenberg reached a dead end. He refused to cooperate with Soviet intelligence and was not needed either as a witness to secret political games or as a hostage. The Nuremberg Trials were over by then.
Sudoplatov suggested that the now world-famous Righteous Among the Nations, who saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews, a prisoner of the Soviet authorities, Raoul Wallenberg, was transferred to the special cell of "Laboratory-X", where he was given a lethal injection under the guise of treatment. Meanwhile, the country's leadership continued to assure the Swedes that they knew nothing about the whereabouts and fate of Wallenberg.
The medical service of the prison, of course, had absolutely no idea about what had happened and the death was recorded in the usual manner.
However, Minister of State Security Abakumov, who apparently knew about the real cause of Wallenberg's death, forbade the autopsy of the body and ordered him to be cremated. (See: P. Sudoplatov. "Intelligence and the Kremlin", p. 322).
The zeal of the head of "Laboratory-X" Mairanovsky was encouraged in every possible way by the top authorities. At the beginning of 1942, when the 4th Directorate of the NKVD was created to organize sabotage groups and special agents in the occupied territory, headed by Sudoplatov and his deputy Eitingon, the Directorate was given a special department of the NKVD of the USSR, which was engaged in the development of sabotage equipment. To study and research this technique, it included the department of toxicology and biology, engaged in the study and research of all kinds of poisons. The work of the department was carried out according to the themes and plans approved at the time by the first deputy. People's Commissar Merkulov and Beria.
Poisons developed by Mairanovsky and his collaborators were used during the war years by sabotage groups and special agents in the German rear against the invaders. For this, the head of "Laboratory-X" was awarded military orders and even received a medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War." This "valiant partisan", according to the caustic remark of the historian and journalist Mikhail Nordshtein, who had never been behind enemy lines, "reveled in prosperity."
* * *
Mairanovsky's poisons worked flawlessly. The "great and wise leader" seriously thought about using them to eliminate the objectionable and disobedient Yugoslav President Tito. Stalin planned to involve the Soviet ambassador to Yugoslavia, I. Grigulevich, who was supposed to kill the Yugoslav leader with a poisoned ring. (See: I. Bunin. "Operation "Thunderstorm", vol. 2. St. Petersburg., 1994, p. 429).
In 1947, at the initiative of N. Khrushchev, who was then a member of the Politburo and the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, the archbishop of the Mukachevo diocese, Yuri Teodor Romzha, was liquidated. The sharp dissatisfaction of the party leader caused the influence of Romzha on the believers. Khrushchev and Minister of State Security of Ukraine S. Savchenko in 1947 appealed to Stalin and Minister of State Security of the USSR Abakumov with a request to authorize the assassination of the bishop. Accusing him of collaborating with the underground Ukrainian national movement and the "secret emissaries" of the Vatican, presenting everything as a serious threat to political stability in the region that recently became part of the USSR. Stalin's order followed: "Remove".
The employees of the State Security Service organized a car accident, but Romzha survived, although he was seriously wounded and taken to the Mukachevo hospital. After that, the Minister of State Security of Ukraine Serhiy Savchenko and Grigory Mairanovsky arrived there. The latter's mission was to hand over an ampoule of curara to the nurse-agent of the MGB. She did the fatal injection.
P. Sudoplatov points to four facts known to him of the liquidation of persons dangerous to the Soviet state, carried out with the participation of Mairanovsky in 1946-1947. One of them concerned the prominent leader of the Ukrainian national movement A. Shumsky. Repressed in 1930, later released for health reasons, he was in exile in Saratov, where he established contacts with emigrant organizations. To eliminate him, Mairanovsky was sent to Saratov as part of a special group. After that, the official conclusion stated that Shumsky died in the hospital from heart failure.
Mairanovsky also committed his vile deed against a Polish Jew who was interned in 1939 after the entry of Soviet troops into Western Ukraine. An engineer by profession, Samet was engaged in secret work on the use of captured German equipment on Soviet submarines, which gave a significant advantage in the duration of their stay under water. Samet contacted the British and was about to leave for Mandatory Palestine. To prevent this, Soviet intelligence tried to introduce its agent into Samet's entourage and control his connections with foreigners. Eitingon was sent to Ulyanovsk. Soon Mairanovsky arrived there together with an agent, a doctor at the factory polyclinic, who gave Samet an injection of curare poison during a preventive examination.
The fate of the American communist Isaac Oggins was not easy. Arriving in the USSR on a fake Czechoslovak passport, he sincerely sympathized with communist ideas and was an unofficial member of the US Communist Party. Oggins was an old agent of the Comintern and the NKVD in a number of countries in the Far East and the USA. His wife Nora was part of the NKVD intelligence network in America and Western Europe, assisting in the maintenance of safe houses for Soviet agents in France and the USA in 1938-1941.
In 1938, Oggins was arrested on suspicion of double-dealing and "Trotskyism". Pleading not guilty, Oggins was nonetheless sentenced to eight years in the camps. For some time his wife believed that her husband's presence there was due to operational considerations, but then she realized that he was under arrest.
After the end of the war, Nora turned to the American authorities with a request to find out the whereabouts and release her husband. However, the deterioration of relations between the two countries due to the failure of the Soviet intelligence network in the US and Canada in 1946-1947. aroused Molotov's fears that if Oggins was released, the Americans could bring him to the Commission to investigate un-American activities and use him as a witness against the US Communist Party. In addition, the Soviet secret services suspected Nora Oggins of establishing links with the FBI, which harmed Soviet agents in the United States and France.
Under these conditions, Abakumov proposed the liquidation of Oggins, approved by Stalin and Molotov. I didn't have to look for an artist. In 1947, Mairanovsky, during a medical examination, gave Oggins, who was in prison, a fatal injection. Sudoplatov and Eitingon were instructed to organize the funeral at the Jewish cemetery in Penza. At the same time, for some reason, the date of burial was issued in 1944 or 1945. (See: P. Sudoplatov. Decree. worker, pp. 331-332).
In 1992, General Dm. Volkogonov submitted to the US Congress a list of Americans who died in the Soviet Union during the Second World War, as well as during the Cold War, and on behalf of President Yeltsin expressed regret over their deaths. Oggins was on the list as well. They liquidated him, according to Volkogonov, so that he could not tell the truth about the situation in Soviet prisons and concentration camps.
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"All the work of "Laboratory-X", not only scientific, was well known both to those who were investigating the case of Beria and Abakumov, and to the government and the Central Committee of the party, who observed and directed the course of the investigation into these cases and determined its content. (See: P. Sudoplatov. "Intelligence and the Kremlin", p. 329).
In 1951 Mairanovsky was arrested as a member of the "Zionist conspiracy" in the MGB. According to Sudoplatov, the senior investigator of the Investigative Unit for Particularly Important Cases, the notorious Ryumin, managed to extract "incredible testimony" from Mairanovsky (later he retracted it), and from the arrested deputy head of the secretariat, Abakumov Broverman. But soon the arrested Ryumin was removed from his post, arrested and shot. It was completely impossible to use the materials obtained by him. The ongoing investigation established that the human experiments were carried out in accordance with the procedure established by the government and the Ministry of State Security.
As for the head of the toxicological laboratory, his testimony was not supported by the confessions of the doctors arrested in the Abakumov case, who had no idea about the existence of this secret laboratory. All experiments with poisons on those sentenced to death were carried out by Mairanovsky in accordance with the instructions of the government and the procedures established by the MGB.
Mairanovsky got off with a 10-year prison term for illegal possession of poisonous substances and abuse of office.
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Since 1952, the use of poisons resumed without the participation of Mairanovsky, but, as always, was regulated by the relevant government instructions.
In the meantime, "Laboratory-X" and other similar institutions in the 60s, which received the name of special laboratory number 12 of the Institute of Special and New Technologies, continued to improve the technology of poisoning. In the arsenal of the Lubyanka, substances appeared that penetrate the body from clothes soaked with them.
In October 1957, the main ideologist of the People's Labor Union, Lev Rebet, died of sudden cardiac arrest in Munich.
In 1959, Bogdan Stashinsky in Munich killed Stepan Bandera at the door of his apartment with a poison capsule. Stashinsky was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, which was personally presented to him by the chairman of the KGB, Shelepin. But two years later, Stashinsky fled to the West and told reporters about everything.
The murder weapon was a device in the form of an aluminum tube that sprays an aerosol of potassium cyanide when a button is pressed. Today, this is how an ordinary bottle of eau de toilette works, but then it was a technical novelty that was used to kill a person. Why not progress?!
The service record of the former KGB general Kalugin, who headed the K department (foreign counterintelligence) in the First Headquarters, also included at least two murders. This department was engaged in the liquidation of defectors. Kalugin even received the Order of the Red Banner for the kidnapping of a Soviet defector in Vienna and his liquidation, carried out using toxicological drugs.
As head of the foreign intelligence service of the KGB, Kalugin advised Bulgarian intelligence on the operation to eliminate the dissident writer Markov, who was killed in London, where he worked in 1978 for the BBC. He was pricked in the leg with the tip of an umbrella by a "passerby". After a while, Markov's temperature rose, and his blood pressure dropped sharply, and four days later he died of heart failure. Similarly, another Bulgarian dissident, Vladimir Kostov, was assassinated in Paris. He developed similar symptoms, after two days the fever began to subside, but upon learning of Markov's death, he went to the doctor. He underwent surgery and removed the capsule, in which British experts found traces of ricin. Then they decided to re-examine Markov's body and found the same capsule in him.
There were other ways to kill people. The unsuspecting owner of a personal car took hold of the smeared door handle, opened it, got in and drove off, and two days later he was taken to the hospital, where he was dying of a "heart attack".
Mairanovsky also recalled experiments with a pillow poisoned with poison. And also about how a person was given large doses of sleeping pills, after which the doomed person, having fallen into a dream, no longer woke up.
Filimonov, Grigoriev, Blokhin, Osinkin and others, together with Mairanovsky, were present during experiments with various poisons, a total of 20 scientists. The list of victims of secret poisonings, sanctioned from above, was quite long. Not all laboratory staff could withstand the devilish work with poisons. Some committed suicide, others experienced severe psychological disorders ...
And only Mairanovsky himself was not tormented by conscience. By his own admission, he killed 104 people, although after the death of Beria and his accomplices, more than 250 people were called during interrogations. He tested the effects of this or that poison mainly on prisoners under Article 58.
“We gave poisons,” he admitted, “through food, various drinks, injected poisons with injections with a syringe, cane, pen and other piercing, specially equipped objects.” Poisons were also injected through the skin, sprinkling and watering it.
In one of the Internet materials, he is called "Stalin's Mengele." Even while in prison, Mairanovsky continued to advise the "authorities". As a specialist poisoner, he was taken several times from Vladimir Special Prison No. 2 to Moscow. The restless Grigory Moiseevich tried in every possible way to achieve release, offering services to improve work with poisons in the USSR. From the Vladimir prison solitude in April 1953, Mairanovsky wrote to the then all-powerful Beria about his "merits" and the mistake made towards him.
"I destroyed more than a dozen sworn enemies of the Soviet government, including nationalists of every kind (and Jewish ones) - this is known to Lieutenant General P.A. mighty motherland."
It is possible that Beria could release Grigory Moiseevich, but was soon arrested himself. And Mairanovsky's statements were used by the prosecutor's office against Beria himself, Abakumov and Merkulov. This time Mairanovsky was presented as an accomplice of Beria, who hatched plans to eliminate the country's leadership with the help of poisons.
The revision of the Mairanovsky case, despite all his efforts, did not take place.
After serving a full ten-year term, he was released in December 1961. The efforts for rehabilitation did not give a positive result. He was arrested again and remained in prison until the end of 1962. As a result, his release ended with an order to leave Moscow within 24 hours, and a ban on settling in central cities. The former professor, colonel, was suggested the place of his future work: a provincial biochemical laboratory in Makhachkala. However, he did not have a chance to manage this institution for long. In 1964, "doctor death" died suddenly from acute heart failure. Just like hundreds of people died in his laboratories. An ominous coincidence? Or…
"Laboratories-X" under other names still exist today. Their activities extend both to the Russian Federation and to the near and far abroad ... The former high-ranking officer of the Soviet Foreign Intelligence Service Alexander Kuzminov, an employee of the secret department "C", voluntarily resigned from the authorities in 1992, and a year and a half later he legally emigrated with his family to one of the foreign countries. He defended his doctoral dissertation on international legislation in the field of biotechnology. His book "Biological espionage - special operations of Soviet and Russian foreign intelligence in the West" was published in London.
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The question is legitimate: is the use of drugs or poisons justified in the fight against terrorism? Of course, the death sentence or the destruction of even the most notorious terrorist should be carried out only in strict accordance with the requirements of the law. However, the danger of using such a powerful weapon by the ruling regime to destroy unwanted people, political opponents and rivals, as was the case in the history of the Soviet country, must be ruled out. Weekly "Secret" (velelens.livejournal.com)
An article by the well-known Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva about the biological laboratories of the Pentagon in the territory of the former USSR.
Military scientists who are in the diplomatic field are testing artificially created viruses in Pentagon laboratories in 25 countries. Hundreds of thousands of people are systematically exposed to infections from dangerous pathogens and diseases. The US biolabs are funded by the DTRA military agency, a $2.1 billion CBEP program, the countries of the former USSR (Georgia and Ukraine), the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Africa.
Biological laboratories of the Pentagon in 25 states as part of the US military program.
Georgia - biological weapons zone
Lugar Center in the Georgian capital Tbilisi - The Pentagon Biological Laboratory, located just 17 km from the US Air Force Vaziani. The military program is being carried out by biologists from the US Military Medical Group in Georgia (USAMRU-G) and private contractors under a federal contract with DTRA. The biological laboratory with the third degree of biosecurity is available only to US citizens with access to classified information. They have diplomatic immunity granted to them under the Intergovernmental Agreement with Georgia on Defense Cooperation (2002).
An agreement between the United States and Georgia gives diplomatic status to US military and civilian personnel working on the program.
According to the US Federal Register, activities at the Lugar Center include the study of biological agents (anthrax, tularemia), viral diseases (such as Crimean hemorrhagic fever in the Congo) and "obtaining biological material for future experiments."
Private companies under diplomatic cover
DTRA military program managers are private companies. They are not directly accountable to Congress and can circumvent the law due to a lack of direct oversight. Civilian personnel also enjoy diplomatic immunity, although they are not diplomats. Consequently, private companies can operate on behalf of the US government under diplomatic cover without direct control from the host state - Georgia. This practice is often used by the CIA for undercover agents.
Three private US companies operate at the Lugar Center CH2M Hill, Battelle and Metabiota. With the exception of the Pentagon, they manage federal biological research projects, the CIA, and other government agencies.
CH2M Hill has a $341.5 million contract with DTRA under the Pentagon's biological laboratory program in Georgia, Uganda, Tanzania, Iraq, Afghanistan, Southeast Asia. Half of this amount ($161.1 million) is under contract for the Lugar Center in Georgia.
According to CH2M Hill's presentation on the project, the US company provides storage for biological agents at the Lugar Center, where it works with biological specialists who have been involved in the production of biological weapons in the past. These are scientists from another American company that participated in the Pentagon program at the Battle Memorial Institute in Georgia.
Battelle is a $59 million contract subcontractor. The company has experience with biological agents as it has worked on the US Arms Program for 11 US Army contracts in the past (1952-1996). Battelle works in Pentagon biopasswords in Afghanistan, Armenia, Georgia, Uganda, Tanzania, Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam. The company conducts research and testing using highly toxic chemicals and pathogenic bioactives for a wide range of US government agencies. Battelle has $2 billion in government procurement and is ranked 23rd on the Top 100 US Contractors list.
Operation CIA Clear Vision
Operation Clear Vision (Clear Eyes - Author) (1997, 200) was developed jointly with the CIA and Battelle to establish a Soviet anthrax bomb in order to study distribution methods for which the CIA allegedly studied in the former USSR. The covert operation of the CIA and Battelle was omitted from US statements to the United Nations, which should support countries that have acceded to the international treaty.
Top secret experiments
For the past decade, Battelle has operated the Highest Biology Lab (National Biosafety Center - NBACC) at Fort Detrick, Maryland under contract to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The company entered into two ten-year federal contracts for $344.4 million (2006-2016) and $19.9 million (2015-2026).
NBACC is a secret laboratory in Fort Detrick, Maryland.
Some of the secret experiments conducted by Battelle at the NBACC include: Dust Spray Technology Evaluation; Evaluation of the hazardous effects of aerosol toxins; Virulence (potency) assessment of B. pseudomallei (Meliodosis) in the form of an aerosol in primates. Melioidosis has potential for biological weapons. The bacterium is classified as a category B biological agent and has been studied by the United States in the past as a possible biological weapon. In addition to military experiments at the Lugar Center, Georgia, Battelle manufactures bioactive substances at the Secret Biology Laboratory at Fort Detrick, USA. According to NBKAK documents, the biological laboratory performs: genetic engineering of pathogens and assessment of their potential as agents of bioterrorism, new non-traditional routes of infection by such agents, erosion tests with primates.
Pentagon biolabs at the epicenter of the Ebola epidemic
American company Metabiota Inc. received $18.4 million under the DTRA program in Georgia and Ukraine for scientific and technical advisory services. In its official Internet profile, the company offers its clients the following consulting services: on-site research on biological threats, pathogen discoveries, epidemic response and clinical trials. Metabiota Inc. was hired by the Pentagon on the DTRA project before and during the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. The company received $3.1 million (2012-2015) for its work in Sierra Leone, one of the countries most heavily affected by the Ebola virus infection.
At the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak, where three of the US military labs are located
A report by doctors from Viral Hemorrhagic Consistency Fever dated July 17, 2014 accuses Metabiota Inc. in culturing blood cells in a Sierra Leone lab and misdiagnosing healthy patients that the company diagnosed as sick. The company officially denies these allegations.
2011, Opening Ceremony at the Lugar Center in Georgia, Andrew Webber (R), then U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense (2009-2014), Deputy Defense Department Coordinator for the Ebola Crisis in Africa (2014-2015), currently an employee of the contractor Pentagon in Georgia and Ukraine
Military experiments with biting insects
Entomological warfare is a type of biological warfare in which insects are used to spread infectious diseases. Documents from the program in Georgia show that the Pentagon performs such insect tests.
Fly bites in Georgia
In 2014, the Lugar Center is equipped with a special insect breeding plant and starts the Sand Fly project in Georgia and the Caucasus. The project also covers the territory outside of Georgia - the Caucasus. In 2014-2015 Sand flies of the Phlebotomine species have been captured and investigated in another project, Acute Fever Surveillance Activities. Female flies are tested for infectivity. The third project, including catch and fly analysis, examines the characteristics of their salivary glands.
Insects fly in a bathhouse in Tbilisi. The same type of fly predominantly lives indoors and can be seen throughout the year in Georgia, regardless of the season.
In 2015, biting flies attacked the capital city of Tbilisi. They live indoors, mostly in baths, throughout the year, which is not typical for this type of fly (usually their breeding season in Georgia is very short, from June to September). Witnesses say flies have appeared in their baths and they bite while bathing.
Since the beginning of the FRS project in Georgia and the Caucasus in 2014, the same insects as in Georgia have been attacking neighboring Dagestan (Russia). According to locals, they cause rashes in their bite, live in sewers, and appear in bathtubs.
A US Army report entitled "Arthropods of Medical Significance in Asia and the European Part of the USSR" (1967) lists all native insects, their habitats, and the diseases they carry. Bites from flies that live in sewers are also mentioned in the document. Their natural habitat, however, is in the Philippines, Georgia and Russia.
Operation Whitecoat: Infected flies infect volunteers with fever
According to declassified reports from the US Army (US Army Activities in the US, Biological Warfare Programs, 1977, vol. II, p. 203) in 1970 and 1972, experiments with fever caused by the sting of the San fly were carried out with volunteers in Operation Whitecoat . Although the US bioweapons program was officially terminated in 1969, in 1982 USAMRIID (Izdledovatelski Army Medical Institute) conducted an experiment, sand flies and mosquitoes can be carriers of such diseases by the Pentagon, which is investigating their potential as biological weapons: Rift Valley virus, dengue fever, chikungunya , eastern equine encephalitis.
insect killers
The Pentagon has a history of using insects to spread infections. According to a partially unpublished 1981 US Army report, a series of insect experiments were carried out as part of the US Biological Weapons Program.
Pentagon: how to kill 625,000 people for only 29 cents per victim
A 1981 report compares two scenarios: 16 simultaneous attacks on a city by mosquito-like ticks of the A. Aegupti type and an aerosol attack with tularemia, as well as an assessment of their cost effectiveness and number of victims.
Big Buzz - 1 million A. aeugupti mosquitoes were created in the laboratory, 1/3 of them were placed in ammunition and released from an aircraft or scattered from the ground. Mosquitoes survive the descent from an airplane and look for blood in humans after landing.
Parts of the report, such as the mass production of the Aedes Aegypti, have not been declassified, meaning the operation is still ongoing. Aedes Aegypti is a carrier of diseases such as dengue fever, chikungunya and cica (a virus that causes genetic malformations in newborns).
Operation Bellweather: The US Chemical Research Command (Biological Warfare Division) tests mosquito samples to evaluate the number of bites and factors that influence mosquito bites. Experiments with soldiers taking place in Dougai Deutsch, Utah in 1960.
Source Outdoor Studies of Mosquito Smoking Activity, Project Bellweather I, 1960 , technical report, US Army
Military experiments with tropical mosquitoes and ticks in Georgia
These types of mosquitoes and fleas (previously trained under the Military Biological Weapons Program) are being studied and collected for research and testing at the Lugar Center in Georgia. The tropical mosquito of the species Aedes Albopictus was first detected in Georgia in 2014 by the DTRA project "Viruses and other arboviruses in Georgia" (viruses infected by mosquitoes and tick viruses) in Georgia, and after 60 - the mosquito of the species Aedes Aegypti.
Both types of mosquitoes are carriers of yellow fever, dengue, shikagunia and zika. With the exception of western Georgia, the Aedes albopictus mosquito, according to the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention, is also found in neighboring Russia (Krasnodar - to the border with Georgia) and Northern Turkey (on the border with Georgia). Their distribution is not common to this part of the world.
Aedes Aegupti is distributed only in Georgia, Southern Russia and Northern Turkey. They were seen for the first time in 2014 after the start of the DTRA program in Georgia.
In another DTRA project, Epidemiology of Tularemia in Georgia (2013-2016), 6,142 ticks were collected from the ground, 5,871 were cattle, 1,310 fleas, and 731 were tortured for research. In 2016, another 21,590 turtles were collected and sent for analysis to the Lugar Center.
Anthrax epidemic in Georgia and human clinical trials
In 2007, Georgia suspended mandatory annual anthrax vaccination for pets. As a result, the epidemic broke out, and the incidence peaked in 2013. This year, NATO began human clinical trials on a new anthrax vaccine at the Lugar Center.
In 2007, the Georgian government put an end to compulsory anthrax vaccination for 7 years, despite the outbreak. In 2013, NATO starts a new vaccine trial in Georgia.
The Pentagon is studying Russian anthrax
Anthrax is one of the bioterrorism agents that has been developed as a weapon for the US military in the past. Despite the Pentagon's claim that the current program is only defensive, the facts point to the contrary. In 2016, US scientists at the Lugar Center conducted a study on the "Genome Sequence/Russian Soviet Bacillus Siberian Vaccine Strain 55-VNIIVViM" funded by the DTRA program in Tbilisi led by Metabiota (contractor under the US Department of Defense federal project in Georgia).
34 people infected with Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever in Georgia
Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever is caused by infection with a tic-carrying virus. In 2014, 34 people (including a 4-year-old child) were diagnosed with the disease, three died, and an outbreak was noted. At the same time, Pentagon biologists are studying a virus in Georgia developed by DTRA "Epidemiology of Febrile Disease Caused by Dengue and Other Arboviruses in Georgia." The project includes testing patients with symptoms of fever and collecting ticks for laboratory analysis as possible carriers of Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever.
The source of the epidemic remains unknown to this day. According to a report from the Department of Veterinary Medicine in Georgia, only one tick of all the ticks collected in the villages where the epidemic is observed is positive for the dangerous virus. Despite claims by local authorities that the virus is spreading to animals, all animal blood samples come back negative. The absence of infected ticks and animals is inexplicable, given the spike in the disease in humans, which means that the virus is spread by man-made rather than natural means. In 2016, another 21,590 ticks of DNA databases were collected for future research at the Lugar Center of another Pentagon project related to the virus, the causative agent of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever "Assessment of seroprevalence and genetic diversity of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) and hantaviruses in Georgia".
Military biological laboratory at the epicenter of a deadly epidemic in Afghanistan
237 cases of Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF), 41 of which were fatally reported in Afghanistan in December 2017. According to the Afghan Ministry of Health, the majority of infections occur in the capital Kabul (71 cases, 13 deaths), and the province of Herat is on the border with Iran (67 people).
Afghanistan is one of 25 countries in the world where the Pentagon's biolaboratories are located. The project in Afghanistan is part of the US CBEP funded by DTRA. Companies recruited under the program in Afghanistan also operate at the Lugar Center in Georgia - CH2M Hill and Battelle. CH2M Hill has a $10,400,000 contract (2013-2017). Contractors in Georgia and Afghanistan are the same as the diseases that spread to the local population.
Why is the Pentagon collecting and studying bats?
Bats are believed to be the source of Ebola, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and other lethal diseases. However, how these viruses reach humans is not yet known. DTRA has a number of projects to study military pathogens in bats under the Cooperative Biological Collaboration Program (CBEP).
221 bats are euthanized at the Luger Research Center in 2014
Bats are the alleged source of the deadly Ebola infection in Africa (2014-2016). However, he did not provide conclusive evidence of how the virus "jumped" from the bat to humans, raising suspicions of an artificial, not naturally occurring route of infection.
Genetic engineering of viruses is legal in the United States
MERS-CoV is thought to be a virus that originates in bats and spreads directly to humans or jumps onto camels and then humans. However, like the Ebola virus, the exact means of transmission are not yet known. As of June 2017, according to the WHO, there were 80 cases worldwide, 699 of which were fatal, in 15 countries.
MERS-CoV is one of the viruses that has been genetically engineered in the United States and has been studied at Pethagone. Proof of this is President Obama's temporary ban on public funding for MERS-related genetic engineering projects in 2014, as well as influenza and SARS. In 2017, the moratorium was lifted and scientific experiments continued. They are aimed at increasing the infectivity and potency of pathogens. Such dual use experiments are legal in the United States.
Tureremia as a biological weapon
Tureremia, also known as rabbit fever, has been classified as a bioterrorism agent and has been studied by the US military in the past. However, the Pentagon's interest in this disease and its transporters - ticks and rodents - continues to this day. DTRA is running a number of tularemia and other highly dangerous pathogen projects in Georgia. Called. extremely dangerous pathogens pose a serious threat to public health and can become biological weapons. Evidence of their military importance is the following: Epidemiology and ecology of Tularemia in Georgia (2013-2016) (60,000 carriers of the disease collected for scientific research - isolation of new strains and genomics); Epidemiology of human tularemia in Georgia; Human disease epidemiology and high-risk pathogen surveillance in Georgia (study of high-risk pathogens in patients with fever of unknown origin and hemorrhagic fever/septic shock).
F. tularensis is a bacterium that has bioweapon potential. There is a danger that it is used for aerosol attack in bioterrorism.
Biodocumentation of the Pentagon on the spread of the disease in Ukraine
Military scientists under diplomatic cover
Among the series of agreements between the US and Ukraine is the establishment of a Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU) - an international organization funded primarily by the US government, being granted diplomatic status. The STCU officially funds the projects of scientists who worked on the Soviet Biological Weapons Program. Over the past 20 years, the center has invested $285 million in 1850 projects by scientists involved in the past in the production of weapons of mass destruction.
364 swine flu deaths in Ukraine
One of the Pentagon's biolabs is located in Kharkiv, where in January 2016, 20 Ukrainian soldiers died from swine flu in just two days, and another 200 were hospitalized. The government of Ukraine does not report the death. By March of that year, 364 people had died from influenza in Ukraine (81.3% of cases were caused by A(H1N1) pdm09, the strain that caused the 2009 swine flu pandemic.
Police investigate infection of indigestible disease
Hepatitis A has been the cause of an unexplained epidemic in southeastern Ukraine over the past few months, where most of the Pentagon's bio-passwords are located.
In January 2018, 37 people were hospitalized in Nikolaev. Local police were investigating "contamination with the human immunodeficiency virus and other indiscriminate diseases." Three years ago, more than 100 people in one city contracted cholera. Both epidemics are thought to be caused by contaminated drinking water.
60 people with hepatitis A were hospitalized in Zaporozhye in the summer of 2017. The cause of the infection remains unknown. In the Odessa region, 19 children from an orphanage were hospitalized due to an infectious disease in June 2017. 29 cases of hepatitis A were registered in Kharkiv in November of the same year. The virus is shed in contaminated drinking water. Kharkiv has one of the Pentagon's biological labs suspected of being the source of the swine flu epidemic that killed 364 Ukrainians two years ago.
Cholera epidemic in Ukraine and Russia
In 2011, 33 people were infected with cholera in Ukraine. The epidemic repeats itself in 2014, when more than 800 Ukrainians are diagnosed with a dangerous disease. In 2015, more than 100 new cases of cholera were registered in Nikolaev.
A new and extremely dangerous strain of cholera (Vibrio cholera) with the same genetic structure as in Ukraine strikes Moscow in 2014. The genetic testing carried out proves that the isolated strain in the Russian capital is the same as the causative agent of the epidemic in neighboring Ukraine.
One of the American companies working in Ukraine, the Southern Research Institute, has projects and research related to cholera, as well as influenza and ziku, a disease of military importance to the Pentagon.
In addition to the Southern Research Institute, two American companies - Black & Veatch and Metabiota - are working in biologists in Ukraine.
Black & Veatch Special Project Corp. signed a $198.7 million contract with DTRA to create and equip biologists in Ukraine (two five-year contracts in 2008 and 2012 for a total of $128.5 million), as well as Germany, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Thailand, Ethiopia, Vietnam , Armenia.
Metabiota Inc. received $18.4 million under the DTPA program in Georgia and Ukraine. The company received another $3.1 million (2012-2015) for its work in Sierra Leone, one of the countries most affected by a severe Ebola virus infection.
The Southern Research Institute has been the main subcontractor for the Ukrainian program since 2008. The company is one of the main contractors for the US Biological Weapons Program with 16 contracts between 1951 and 1962.
Former Soviet scientist produces anthrax for the Pentagon
The Southern Research Institute is a subcontractor for military research on anthrax research in 2001. The main contractor of the Pentagon is Advanced Biosystems, and Ken Alibek (a former Soviet scientist from Kazakhstan who emigrated to the United States in 1992. Ken Alibek was the first deputy director of Biopreparat, where he was responsible for the USSR Biomass Program, and was also the chief anthrax production specialist for the the same program as the Pentagon and receives the US citizen Tion.
$1.28 million to lobby Congress, the State Department and the Pentagon
The Southern Research Institute lobbies the US Congress and the State Department for the US Intelligence Project and the Defense Development Project. The lobbying reports coincide with the start of the US Biological Labs Program in Ukraine and other former Soviet republics. The company paid $250,000 to lobby Senator Jeff Tiles (currently US Attorney General appointed by Danal Trump) in 2008-2009 when he received a number of federal commissions.
Over a period of 10 years (2006-2016), the Southern Research Institute paid $1.28 million to lobby Congress, the State Department, and the Department of Defense. Assistant to Geoff of the Capitol sessions is Donald Watson, currently the chief research institute in the South.
Police investigate butolinov poisoning in Ukraine
115 cases of botulism, 12 of which were fatal, were reported in Ukraine in 2016. In 2017, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine confirmed 90 new cases, 8 of which were deaths from poisoning with botulinum toxin, one of the most toxic biological toxins). According to local health authorities, food poisoning is the cause of the epidemic. The police are investigating the causes of mass poisoning with botulinum toxin. In 2014, the Ukrainian government stopped the supply of botulinum toxin, and during the epidemic (2016-2017) there were no vaccines available in Ukraine.
Botulism is a rare and extremely dangerous disease caused by a toxin isolated from the bacterium Clostridium botulinum.
1 gram of toxin can kill 1 million people
Botulinum neurotoxin is one of the major bioterrorism threats due to its extremely potent toxin activity and its easy production and transportation. This causes muscle paralysis, respiratory failure, and ultimately death if emergency medical care is not immediately available. 1 gram of the toxin, distributed under optimal conditions and inhaled into the body, could kill 1 million people. Modes of spread - through an aerosol or contaminated food and water.
The Pentagon Produces Live Viruses, Bacteria and Toxins
According to the Pentagon report, botulinum toxin has been tested as a biological weapon by the US Army in the past, as well as anthrax, brucella, tularemia, etc. Despite the official end of the program in 1969, documents from the US Army show that the same military experiments are still going on. The Pentagon manufactures and tests biological agents in the same military unit as in the past, Dugway Proving Ground.
Field tests now:
Field trials in the past:
American bioweapons factory
The US Army manufactures bioactive substances at a special military facility in Utah's Daugava Unit, according to a US Army report in 2012. The test site is subordinate to the Test and Evaluation Command of the Department of Defense. Responsible for the production of bioactive substances is a separate division - the Division of Life Sciences (LSD) in Dugway. According to a military report, the division's scientists produce and test biological agent aerosols at a dedicated testing facility, the Lothar Saloman Life Sciences Test Facility (LSTF).
Lothar Salomans Life Sciences Test Facility (LSTF), where biological agent aerosols are produced and tested.
Biological agents manufactured by the US Army in Dugway, Utah, USA.
The division consists of two divisions: aerosol technology and microbiology. The aerosol unit creates aerosols, and their fellow microbiologists produce bacteria, toxins, viruses, and biological mimics that are tested in aerosol chambers or field-tested - outdoor tests.
Aerosol experiments with botulinum neurotoxin and anthrax
Documents prove that the US Army manufactures, holds and tests an aerosol of the deadliest toxin known so far, botulinum neurotoxin. In 2014, the Department of the Army purchased 100mg of botulinum toxin from Metabiologics to test the Dugway test site.
The experiments date back to 2007, when an unintentional amount of the toxin was delivered by the same company. According to a 2012 military report, aerospace testing of botulinum neurotoxin and anthrax, as well as aerosols from other biological agents, is being conducted at the Dugway military facility.
Source 2012 Opportunity Report, West Desert Test Center
Outdoor testing
Military newspapers and photographs from the Dugui test site show that the Pentagon has developed various methods of distributing agents for bioterrorism, including explosives.
Source 2012 Opportunity Report, West Desert Test Center
The Forage Division activity report lists various spray technologies, including aerosol aerosols. According to army documents, they can be mounted on a vehicle or carried on the back as a backpack, with the option of installing a pump for greater propagation accuracy. These sprays can spray 50 to 500 ml of bioaerosol per minute from 12 liter containers.
United States tests bacteria from Saddam Hussein's bio-weapons factory
Bacillus thuringiensis is an insect pathogen that is used as a biopesticide. The same bacterium B. thuringiensis (BT) Al Hakam was discovered in Iraq in 2003 by the UN Special Commission. The bacterium is called Al-Hakam, which is the name of the Iraqi biological weapons factory. In addition to Pentagon field testing, the same bacterium is commonly used in the United States to produce genetically engineered corn that is resistant to pests. Photos released by the CIA confirm that the bacterium was found by the United States in Iraq. According to the CIA ampoules containing the biopesticide, they were found in the home of a scientist at the Al-Hakam plant.
According to information from the US Federal Register of Registries, the Pentagon is testing bacteria produced and captured by Saddam Hussein's bioweapons factory in Iraq.
Federal DTRA project for laboratory analysis and field trials with bacteria
Field trials using biosimulators (bacteria)
The U.S. Army has conducted the same biological weapons biology tests in the past. From 1949 to 1968, 27 field trials were conducted in public places.
Field trials in Chechnya
DTRA, the agency that manages the military program at the Lugar Center in Georgia, is suspected of being involved in an incident in Chechnya in the spring of 2017. Local residents report a drone spraying white powder near the Russian border with Georgia. The Georgian Border Police did not comment on the incident.
An audit in US federal treasury documents shows that DTRA has full access to the borders of Georgia's $9.2 million federal project. The activities of the Georgian road safety project are entrusted to a private company - Parsons Government Services International, which has already implemented similar projects for borders of Libya, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria under contracts with the Pentagon.
Genetically modified insects contain genetically modified viruses
Last year, the Pentagon invested $65 million in genetic engineering. The Defense Research Agency (DARPA) has awarded contracts to seven insecticide, insect, rodent and bacteria engineers under the Safe Genes program. Genetic changes must be made with the new CRISPR-Cas9 technology.
In another military program, Insect Allies, new genes are being inserted into insects so they can carry genetically engineered viruses into plants. The $10.3 million DARPA program involves engineering insects and the viruses they carry.
Ecological Niche-preference Engineering is the third military program designed to create genetically modified organisms that can withstand certain temperatures, change habitats and food sources.
genetically modified people
In addition to genetically engineering insects and the viruses they carry, the Pentagon wants to change the genetic makeup of humans. DARPA Advanced Tools for the Mammal Genome Project aims to find a new biological platform in the human body to introduce new genetic information and change people at the DNA level.
DARPA wants to insert a new artificial chromosome 47 into a human cell. This chromosome will carry new genes that will be used to genetically modify humans. The American company SynPloid Biotek LLC has two software contracts for a total of $1.1 million: 2015-2016. - $100,600 for the first stage of the project; 2015—2017 - $999,300 for work not listed on the Federal Contracts Register. The company has only two employees and has no experience in previous biological research.
Top secret research on synthetic viruses
Between 2008 and 2014, the US invested $820 million in synthetic biology. The bulk of these investments are made by the Ministry of Defense. Most research is classified information. Among them are a number of secret studies by a scientific group of military scientists - Jason (JASON group) - for example. New viruses, genetic engineering and synthetic viruses.
Jason is a science group providing advisory services to the US government in the areas of defense and scientific technology. It was created in 1960. Much of her research has been classified. For administrative purposes, the activities of the Group are managed by MITER Corporation, a company that contracts with the Department of Defense, the CIA and the FBI. Since 2014, MITER has entered into contracts with the Ministry of Defense in the amount of $27.4 million.
While Jason's research is classified, the US Air Force report Biotechnology: Genetically Engineered Pathogens provides some insight into some of the scientific work of military scientists. They are investigating 5 groups of genetically modified pathogens that can be used as biological weapons. These are "double" biological weapons (a deadly combination of two viruses), diseases that change the host (animals "jump" on people - for example, the Ebola virus), latent viruses, designer diseases. Designer diseases can be designed to attack a specific ethnic group or genotype and be used as an ethnic bioweapon.
Ethnic bioweapon
An ethnic biological weapon (biogenetic weapon) is a weapon that theoretically attacks predominantly ethnic groups or genotypes. Although the official development of such weapons has never been publicly confirmed, documents show that the US is collecting biological materials from certain ethnic groups - Russians and Chinese.
The US Air Force is specifically collecting Russian RNA and sinus tissue samples from the federal project: Russian RNA and Synovial Tissue Samples, which is published on the US Public Acquisition Registry.
In addition to the Russians, according to information from the Government Procurement Register, the United States collects biological material from healthy and cancer patients in China. The National Cancer Institute is collecting biological material from 300 Chinese from Linxian, Zengzhou and Chengdu.
Another federal project (study on the discovery of serum biomarkers by metabolosis in the area of esophageal squamous cell cardiosomes in China) involves the analysis of 349 serum samples from Chinese.
Chinese biological material is being collected and studied by a number of federal projects, including saliva and cancerous tissue. The following purchases of Chinese samples have been published in the US Federal Registry: DNA genotyping samples, breast cancer tissue blocks, saliva samples from 50 families, genotype 50 SNP for DNA samples, genotypes from 3,000 gastric cancer cases and 3,000 controls.
tobacco vaccines
How is the Pentagon helping tobacco companies cash in on Ebola?
The Department of Defense Agency DPAA (DARPA) has invested $100 million in the production of vaccines against dangerous leaf tobacco viruses. The companies involved in the project are owned by the largest tobacco companies: Mediacago Inc. is co-owned by Philip Morris and Kentucky BioProcessing, a subsidiary of Reynolds America, is owned by British-American Tobacco. They currently manufacture influenza and Ebola vaccines.
The $100 million Blue Angel program began in 2009 in response to the swine flu pandemic. Medicago received $21 million from DARPA to produce 10 million doses of swine flu vaccine in just one month. Pentagon Blue Angel Program Manager Dr. John Julius explains, "Although many other plants are being tested for vaccines, the US government has chosen to invest in tobacco vaccines."
The production of factory-made vaccines works like this: scientists isolate an antigen (which causes an immune response in the human body) from a specific virus against which a vaccine is to be produced. The protein from this antigen is injected into bacteria that infect plant leaves. Infected artificial plant leaves begin to produce a protein that is extracted and ready to be used in the form of vaccines.
It is not clear why the Pentagon is investing in "tobacco vaccines." Lobbying reports one of the companies - Alfalfa, whose co-owner Philip Morris testifies that the tobacco company paid $495,000 for lobbying the Department of Defense, Congress and the United States Department of Health funding to develop technology readiness to support public health. The Pentagon funds tobacco companies to develop new technologies and use vaccines.
Biological experiments are war crimes
Chapter 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines biological experiments as war crimes. However, the United States is not a party to an international treaty and cannot be held accountable for war crimes.
Some projects of secret laboratories are aimed at improving the world and humanitarian goals. Others aim to develop new high-tech products for market launch. Others may have completely different tasks. Before you is a dozen secret laboratories, demonstrating the whole variety of work carried out behind closed doors.
Founded in 2010, this research facility is housed in a nondescript brick building next to the company's main office. The mission of Google X is to develop space technologies, incredible projects that require impressive investments. Self-driving cars and Google Glasses are two of the lab's most prominent examples. Eric "Astro" Teller, head of the Google X research center, said: "We will take on anything that could be a serious problem on the scale of humanity, if it is in our power to solve it."
Two of the nearly 100 secret lab ideas currently being worked on at Google X involve internet-connected light bulbs and robotic workers that could do basic office and household chores. By and large, robots will be able to go to work, and people just stay at home.
Google X is also experimenting with high-altitude networked balloons to bring internet to the farthest corners of the earth. A fleet of such balloons will broadcast Internet services supported by unmanned devices capable of launching a new balloon every half hour. During the last tests, the balloons were in the air for 187 days. The experiment, known as Project Loon, successfully transmitted data between balloons at a distance of 100 km in the stratospheric layers of the atmosphere, providing a connection speed of up to 10 megabits per second.
At Apple's secret lab in Berlin, 20 employees with expertise in engineering, programming, hardware and sales are working to create their version of the self-driving car. The end result of their collaboration could be assembled from Magna parts, which also make parts for BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
The team's efforts are supported from time to time by automotive experts from Tesla, Ford, and Mercedes-Benz. According to plans, the self-propelled Apple car will be presented to the public in 2019 or 2020.
Amazon's secret lab in Cambridge, England, is working on developing courier drones capable of delivering packages to homes in as little as half an hour. The use of 3D printing technology significantly speeds up the production process. Thanks to GPS technology, Amazon Prime Air Service drones can fly up to 122 meters high, recognize tags, and deliver cargo using a sense and avoid system that helps aircraft avoid obstacles. on his way.
The unmanned aerial device will be under the supervision of a "security operator". If the drone detects an insurmountable obstacle while searching for a path to deliver the package, it will be forced to cancel the mission and land in order to avoid a collision. Parcels weighing up to 2 kg can be delivered up to 24 km.
At the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show, Samsung Creative Lab shared three of its latest innovations: smart belt, motion controller and smart watch band.
The WELT strap monitors its owner, measures the size of his wrist, monitors his eating habits, activity, number of steps and the amount of time spent sitting in one place. The motion controller, based on the principle of a hand-worn roller, allows its wearer to experience "a more intuitive and detailed way of interacting with virtual reality." The TipTalk watch allows its wearer to hear phone calls better in noisy environments. All you have to do is just touch your ear with your finger.
Located in New South Wales, the secret laboratory of the Australian telecommunications company Telstra consists of several departments and premises. Among them is a shielded room to cancel out any interference so that you can test your products in ideal conditions. There is also a "blue room" in which the walls are covered with carbon-filled micro-cones. From this premises, Telstra works to address issues affecting rural and regional communities. The lab tests mobile devices and software to prevent costly errors.
eBay's secret lab in San Jose, California is revolutionizing the world of online shopping. The eBay Research Center works with stores that serve customers both virtually and on the premises. The laboratory, also known as the Bat Cave, employs 17 people. Her projects include collaborations with fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff, for whom eBay is helping to open new boutiques in New York and San Francisco using technology solutions such as smart fitting rooms. The mirrors in these booths will display style and size guides, but the main highlight of the boutiques will be the 5-meter "iWall" that responds to touch like a touch screen in a giant smartphone. This "wall" cost Rebecca Minkoff $300,000.
In addition, the lab has developed a "connected kiosk" located at Simon Property Group's shopping center in Palo Alto, California. This kiosk works like a large touch screen and helps visitors to the center navigate the stores, as well as find and order products.
Copenhagen's meat-packing district may seem like an odd place for a corporate lab, but that's where IKEA has based its Space 10 research center. Space 10 lab brings together artists, designers, and technologists to develop a variety of prototypes on display at the corporation's trade shows and workshops.
In addition to the 3D-printed fake meatball, the lab has produced crunchy insect balls (Crispy Bug Ball, a provocative delicacy), a veggie roll (Urban Farmer’s Ball) and a food scrap ball (Wonderful Waste Ball). These innovations are designed to tell about revolutionary trends in the food industry, including the cultivation of meat and edible algae in the laboratory. This 3-D technology for the production of nutritional supplements (protein based on algae, beet leaves or insects) is designed to meet the expectations and growing needs of consumers.
Other projects the Space 10 secret lab is hard at work on include a high-tech hydroponic farm and advanced tools (such as laser knives and 3-D printers) for recycling waste.
Fecaloid Laboratory
Incredibly, once in the USSR there was a secret laboratory for the analysis of feces. During the regime of Joseph Stalin, the secret police collected the excrement of Mao Zedong and other important personalities, analyzing their excrement to create "psychological portraits". Igor Atamanenko, a former Soviet agent, uncovered this laboratory while researching the archives of the Russian secret service.
Thomas Jefferson Laboratory
As a project manager involved in the reconstruction of the Rotunda of the University of Virginia, Matt Scheid (Matt Scheidt) wanted to know the thickness of the walls and drilled a hole in it, as a result of which he discovered a chemical laboratory organized by Thomas Jefferson himself. The laboratory was built in the 1820s after the completion of the Rotunda. In 1840 it was fenced off with a wall. As a result, she survived both the fire of 1895 and the overhaul of the building in 1970.
Until October 2015, when Shade infiltrated the Rotunda, the lost laboratory remained secret and unknown to the scientific world. As one of the few such ancient birthplaces of chemical laboratories, Jefferson's Secret Laboratory has become part of the Rotunda Tour Center exhibit.
Laboratory Hedy Lamar (Hedy Lamarr)
Heidi Lamar was not just a beautiful and successful actress from Hollywood's golden age, she was also an amateur scientist who ran a secret laboratory in her bedroom. While living in Germany, she was married to an arms magnate, from whom Heidi peeped some of the technological aspects of his business. After she moved to the United States and with the outbreak of World War II, Heidi wanted to make her own contribution to the fight against the aggressors.
Realizing that torpedo signals were often jammed by enemies, Heidi and composer George Antheil, inspired by piano music, developed and patented a frequency that could "change and switch like a pianist", making torpedoes immune to interference. Their frequency is still used in modern technologies such as Wi-Fi, mobile telephony and Bluetooth.
Some secret lab projects are supposed to make our world a better place.
Others are looking to bring new high-tech products to market. The third ones are quite incomprehensible at first glance.
Here are ten secret laboratories that will show you what can sometimes happen behind the closed doors of protected facilities.
Google X
Established in 2010, the Google X Research and Development Center is housed in an unremarkable brick building near the company's main location. His task is to develop incredible projects that require huge capital expenditures. Self-driving cars and Google Glass are their handiwork. Eric Teller, director of Google X, says that "we will sign up to solve any major problem for humanity if we find a way to fix it."
Two of the 100 or so other Google X ideas currently focus on internet-connected light bulbs and robots capable of performing basic tasks at home and in the office. In principle, robots could go to work while people are at home.
Google X is also experimenting with a network of high-altitude balloons to provide Internet access to all remote parts of the globe. A fleet of such balloons could provide Internet access and automatically raise a new balloon every half hour. During the tests, the balls were able to stay in the air for up to 187 days. This experiment, known as Project Loon, successfully transmitted data between balloons 100 kilometers into the stratosphere and provided a connection at speeds up to 10 megabits per second.
Apple Lab
At Apple's secret lab in Berlin, about 20 workers with skills in engineering, programming, hardware and sales are working on their own version of a self-driving car. The final product can be assembled by auto parts manufacturer Magna, who also assembles BMW and Mercedes-Benz parts.
The team's efforts are supported from time to time by the expertise of automotive experts from Tesla, Ford and Mercedes-Benz. Self-driving car Apple will be released in 2019-2020.
Amazon Lab
Amazon's secret lab in Cambridge, England is working on 30-minute home deliveries using drones. Using 3D printing technology to create parts of these same drones. With the help of GPS, Amazon Prime Air Service drones can climb to a height of 122 meters, locate markers there and deliver their cargo, deploying an object detection and avoidance system that allows them to avoid obstacles.
The drone will be monitored by a "security operator". If the drone detects an unexpected object along the delivery path, it will cancel the delivery and try to avoid a possible collision. Cargoes up to 2 kilograms can be delivered over a distance of 24 kilometers.
Samsung Lab
To showcase its innovative Creative Lab program, Samsung exhibited three inventions at CES 2016: a smart belt, a motion sensor, and a smart watch strap.
The WELT belt tracks the wearer's waist size and monitors the wearer's eating habits, how many steps they take and how long they sit. The bracelet, a motion sensor that wraps around the arm, allows its wearer to experience "a more intuitive and subtle way to interact with virtual reality." The TipTalk watch allows the wearer to better hear phone calls in noisy environments by placing a finger on the ear.
Telstra laboratory
Based in New South Wales, the Australian telecommunications company Telstra maintains a secret lab with shielded rooms to ensure there is no interference and an ideal testing environment can be obtained. This lab tests mobile devices and software updates to prevent costly mistakes.
The purpose of testing is quality control. "Our specialist engineers perform 3,450 unique tests for each device - covering protocol, performance, antenna or receiver sensitivity, user experience, audio quality, and data rate," explains a Telstra spokesperson. One of the more unusual devices staff tested in the lab in 2016 was the Telstra Nighthawk M1, capable of 1 gigabit per second download speeds and allowing users to connect to multiple Wi-Fi devices simultaneously.
eBay Lab
eBay's secret lab in San Jose, California is trying to revolutionize the shopping experience by marrying online opportunities to retail stores and other traditional businesses. The lab, known to its 17 employees as Batcave, has partnered with fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff to help her open boutiques in New York and San Francisco with technological improvements like a smart locker room. Mirrors reflect instructions for choosing size and style; but the highlight of the boutiques is a $300,000, 5.2-meter "wall" that instantly responds to touch like a giant smartphone.
The lab is also developing a "connected kiosk" at the Stanford Shoppong Center in Palo Alto, Calif., and deploying touch screen technology in stores to help users navigate the store and find things to order.
IKEA laboratory
Copenhagen's meat-cutting district may seem like an odd location for the company's lab, but that's where IKEA has placed Space 10, a research and demonstration center. Space 10 brings together artists, designers and technologists to develop a variety of prototypes that are then shown at exhibitions and workshops.
In addition to the 3D printed meatballs, the lab is serving up other fancy meat balls to showcase and enforce new trends in food production, including in vitro meat and seaweed harvesting. 3D printers are being used to create customized food made from algae proteins, beet leaves, or even insects.
Other Space 10 projects include an automated hydroponic farm and advanced tools (like laser cutters and 3D printers) to recycle single-use materials.
feces laboratory
Once the Russian government was working on a secret laboratory for analyzing stool samples. Even under the regime of Joseph Stalin, the secret police collected the excretions of Mao Tse-tung and others, analyzed them in order to create a "constructive psychological portrait." Igor Atamanenko, a former Soviet agent, uncovered the operation while investigating the secret archives of the Russian secret services.
In those days, it was impossible to put a listening device in the room, so Russian experts decided to collect and analyze human excrement. The chair, according to the researchers, could give an idea of the psyche of people of interest for intelligence. For example, a high level of tryptophan would indicate that the person is calm and approachable. On the other hand, a lack of potassium was seen as a sign of nervous restlessness and insomnia.
To collect samples of Mao, agents set up special toilets with secret boxes. When Mao's feces indicated a bad time to come to terms with him, Stalin didn't. Nikita Khrushchev, who replaced Stalin in office, closed the project and the secret laboratory.
Thomas Jefferson Laboratory
Matt Scheidt wanted to know how thick the walls of the rotunda were, so he crawled through a hole in one of them and discovered Thomas Jefferson's chemistry lab, according to a project leader who oversees the renovation of the rotunda at the University of Virginia. The laboratory was built in the 1820s towards the end of the rotunda, and walled off in 1840 due to the advent of better teaching methods. The rotunda then survived a fire in 1895 and a major renovation in the 1970s.
In October 2015, when Scheidt entered the rotunda, the lost laboratory was discovered. Now it is shown as an exhibition hall of one of the oldest "chemical hearths" to the visitors of the rotunda.
Laboratory of Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr was not just a beautiful and successful star of Hollywood's golden age; she was also an amateur scientist who kept a "secret lab" in her bedroom. When she lived in Germany, she married an arms dealer from whom she learned about technology. After moving to the United States and facing World War II, she decided to do her part and help the military.
Realizing that torpedo signals were often jammed, she and composer George Antheil, inspired by piano music, created and patented a frequency that could be "changed and switched like a piano", making torpedoes resistant to stun. Their frequency is still used in modern Wi-Fi, phones and Bluetooth.
