Thanks to the incredible support of our backers, our crowdfunding campaign has now come to a successful finish! This truly wouldn’t have been possible without our sponsors’ support. In fact, more than half of the donations we received were redirected to our project page from pages we hadn’t advertised on. You guys and girls really did an awesome job getting out there and spreading the word, and we owe this exposure–and indeed this whole project–to you. As a side note, we really appreciate the enthusiasm of those of our backers who offered to become test subjects themselves. Unfortunately, however, that’s not within our budget; more importantly, it would be illegal and unethical for us to perform experiments on subjects other than ourselves without the oversight of an IRB.
Now, onto the next steps! Over the next few days we’ll be finalizing and placing our order with Mr. Rhinehart for the VAD Soylent we’ve requested as our control diet. This has not been budgeted for because we will be paying for it out-of-pocket; we discussed it and all agreed it would be unethical for us to use project money to pay for our food over the course of several months. Once we begin this experiment, we will begin adhering strictly to a diet of VAD Soylent and filtered water, barring any emergent medical complications.
The next step will be purchasing and assembling our data collection equipment. Jeff actually purchased all of the equipment for a single ERG unit out-of-pocket a few weeks ago to ensure we had a workable design by the time our campaign was up. He’s reported that the ERG is clear and begun on the near infrared LED array for the stimulation portion of the data collection equipment. ERG testing will be once weekly for the duration of the experiment, including control samples before and after beginning A2 supplementation.
Each test subject began collecting a range of biometrics 1-2 weeks ago, including weight, temperature, blood pressure, and heart rate daily. We’ve also been monitoring our body fat percentages and working to get them down below approximately 8% for optimal depletion of vitamin A when the experiment starts. All subjects are either already within the 8% limit or within a percentage point or two and working steady to burn that fat. All subjects will have abstained from smoking, drinking, recreationals, and most OTC medication at least 1 month prior to beginning.
Last will be purchasing the retinoic acid and 3,4-dehydroretinol for supplementation. Once we’ve purchased this the experiment really gets going. Be sure to subscribe to our blog at https://scienceforthemasses.org and follow us on Twitter @science_ftm. Blog updates will be weekly, Twitter updates daily. Also feel free to contact us with any questions you may have through either of the previously mentioned mediums or via email at projects@scienceforthemasses.org.
Thank you so much for all your support! Let’s open up a whole new world to the eyes of humanity!
Regards,
The SftM Team