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Today
I finished the book First Pulse, A Personal Journey in Cancer Research
by Dr. Merrill Garnett [1], kindly sent to me from Joy Garnett, whose
paintings inhabit the pages of the book, bringing the abstract microscopic
world of cell research into visibility. My
initial encounter with the work was online their project's website. [2]
There, for the first time, I read excerpts and saw the paintings of First
Pulse [3] and became intrigued by the role of electricity in Dr. Garnett's
cancer research. I've
known for a long enough time that electricity has played a transformative
role in medicine, with everything from the x-ray machine to the cat-scan,
from labs equipped with electrical apparatus to electrical mass manufacturing
of medicines, from electrical pacemakers to surgical tools. My
memory recounts a recent visit to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where I experienced
the newly renovated Bakken, [4] `a library and museum of electricity in
life.' As their website states, the Bakken was founded by Earl Bakken who
invented the first transistorized cardiac pacemaker with Medtronic, Inc. The
museum's and library's aim is electrical research, but also has a specific
focus of the role of electricity in medicine, guided by its founder's vision.
i cannot help but imagine Dr. Garnett's work would find support from this
innovative institution. That
said, I must name my preconceptions of First Pulse, in what may be due to my
own issues of mortality. Upon receiving the book, I immediately looked at
every of the book's numerous paintings by Joy Garnett. They are images at
once ghostly and haunting, and beautiful and sublime, of various stages of
cell growth and decay, in vibrant yet subdued colors, as if viewed through a
microscope. This
visualization of various stages of cancerous growth and subsequent images of
treatment in painted form has the quality of a Francis Bacon painting. [5]
The horror of Bacon's Study of Pope Innocent X or Figure with Meat, [6] are
somehow aesthetisized within the scraping lines of paint, which at once blur
and etherealize the subject. These same streaking lines are present in Joy
Garnett's paintings, and my first reaction was an association of cancer with
this Baconian visualization of horror. But, the paintings somehow made the
disturbing mystery of cancer into something tangible, aesthetic, and even
neutral. Somehow, the beautiful painted light which visualizes scientific
exploration and understanding portrays that journey itself as an artistic
venture. The
paintings illuminate the cancerous cell, and bring the science of an esoteric
and highly specialized field of research into a public domain, where it
should be. I
would not have thought this to be true, but after reading the words of Dr.
Garnett alongside the painted images of his daughter, I am left with a sense
of awe at what First Pulse could represent- a new model of treating cancerous
cells, based on electrical knowledge. Dr.
Garnett took a different path for his research and experimentation. His
dedication to understanding cancer centered around a belief that the model of
killing off cancerous cells with toxic treatment was one model, and that
there could be another model, based on the metabolism of energy in a cell.
Instead of destroying the cell, the treatment could restore the vitality of
the cancerous cell. [7] Dr. Garnett's search was on for finding such a
treatment... Only
another electrochemical scientist could say what kind of personal journey it
would be to have created and tested 30,000 chemical compounds in this search.
But somehow, the quest for truth allows for such determination and belief.
And it was the belief about this new 'electrogenetic' model of medicine which
would ultimately prove rewarding. Dr.
Garnett knew intuitively that there was a vital "pulse" in the
cell, which was absent when the cell died away. to explore this dimension was
to explore the question of life itself: that is, what makes something alive?
In the technical language of medicine, the conclusion centered around the
concept of electron transfer, which is another specialized name for general
electrical phenomenon that exists in between the microcosm and macrocosm of
the universe. To
me this all sounded oddly familiar, as I myself am an electrical researcher,
who has a theory of the electrical evolution of the universe. [8] But the
mystery, to me, has always blurred from the point of cellular evolution up to
that of human beings. It is easy to realize the significance of electricity
in relation to our electrical senses, nervous system, brain, and
consciousness, but less so on the microscopic scale, when analyzing the
effects of single electrons upon the macrocosm of the human body- but this is
exactly what the field of electro- chemistry and Dr. Garnett in particular
have accomplished. In
fact, this electronic interaction is the First Pulse that Dr. Garnett
and myself believe constitutes life. That is, along with the structural
information in a chain of molecules, say, making up DNA, is a flow of energy
which keeps the cell, and thus the body, healthy. This pulse is a vibration,
the result of a frequency of shaking molecules, a literal 'music of the
spheres' to be heard by those listening to its signal. [9] What
is amazing is that, while Dr. Garnett has an understanding of this
microscopic level, he goes on to compare the electrical nature at the
cellular level with that of the macroscopic level of the electrical
infrastructure, with a good understanding of both Edison's and Tesla's
contributions to electrical science and technology, and in turn relates their
electrical theories of alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) to
his work with this vital spark of the energetic electron. [10] It is this
universality of electrical knowledge which is so inspiring. Ultimately,
this electronic First Pulse is metabolic: the cell's food is electrical which
in turn the DNA utilizes to create an electrical field. [11] Filling in a
piece of the mysterious puzzle of electrical evolution, Dr. Garnett states:
"The schematic is complete. The cell has its first pulse, which makes an
active energy exchange between the internal and external... And this first
pulse resonates with many other cells, and the packed cells carry on their
pulsations with the environment. They resonate with each other and set each
other off by inductive influence so that their pulses increase. And the
tissue pulses appear, and the heart beats and the brain discharges and the
muscles evolve. The organelles modulate and use this in contractile
structures, converting the pulse to organic phosphates and other high-energy
bonds. But the cell pulse is first and provides the raw electrical energy for
all the physiologic pulses." [12] Thus,
the cosmologists believe that the universe evolved out of electromagnetic
radiation and the birth of electrically charged particles, creating matter in
the void. Now, there is an electrical theory of life, constituted on the
knowledge of electricity at the molecular level up to the human being. It is
an important accomplishment for this field of electrical research, and
specifically so for the medical field. This
is because Dr. Garnett's research work, grounded in the pragmatics of trial
and error scientific (and artistic) experimentation, led to a treatment
called the palladium complex (LAPd), based on this new electrogenetic
understanding of cancer, restoring the cells energy instead of killing the
cancerous cells off, as in traditional chemotherapy treatment. This unique
approach to cancer treatment was the result of an investigation into
corrosion engineering and the electrical properties of metals. in the end,
Dr. Garnett's hard work and vision have produced a new model for cancer
research, and the LAPd complex is in the testing stage, after having restored
mice from full-blown cancer to full health. [13] In
all, the work of Dr. Garnett, and the visualization of this miraculous
revitalization of a cell's energy flow via the LAPd complex by his daughter
Joy Garnett is a victory for the fields of both the science and art of
living. My congratulations go to them in their vital and public journey. [1]
First Pulse, A Personal Journey in Cancer Research [2]
First Pulse Projects website: [3]
Excerpts of the book First Pulse: [4]
The Bakken Museum [5]
The Francis Bacon Image Archive: [6]
Francis Bacon's Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X [7]
I am limited in my knowledge of cells, so my statements may not be wholly accurate
from a technical point of view. But Dr. Garnett wrote close enough to a
layperson's language that I am taking the liberty to try to reiterate that
which I think I have learned from reading the book. [8]
The Story of the Electrical Assemblage (1998) [9]
Guy Murchie's books, Music of the Spheres, and The Seven Mysteries of Life,
are both intriguing and educational science books for the layperson which
explains a spectrum of electrical phenomenon. [10]
"Energy is the shake in things. It is rapidly converted from molecular
shake and electron shake to a very localized hum in a bond between two
chemicals, then to heat or the emission of light from the shaking of
electrons by the voltage. Everything is convertible, and they're all forms of
energy. The cell, the tissue, the organ, the house, and the utility company
agree that electrons are the best way to manage energy and convert it to all
uses, from biological systems to appliances that make light, mechanical,
sound, or heat energy." p. 85 [11]
First Pulse, pp.66-67. "It seems that organisms have learned to
incorporate the environmental challenges into their systems and into their
cycles. It's as if the environment becomes part of us. But the environment
comes to us as stress. We can eat the environment as the environment eats us.
but we are transfigured in the process. Electricity was first. It was the
first meal. the first breakfast was electrons." p. 63 [12]
ibid. p.67 [13]
The humanism of Dr. Garnett is demonstrated in his policy of letting his
laboratory mice free after they have lived through having cancerous tumors
after being administered the LAPd complex. Published on the Electricity-List
06/2000 |