A BRITISH weapons lab shrouded in mystery has finally spoken out on claims it is storing alien bodies in the secret facility.
Porton Down is the UK’s most confidential chemical weapons lab.
ReutersThe Porton Down facility in Wiltshire is the UK’s most confidential weapons lab[/caption]
Kevin DunnettScientists carrying out laboratory research work at Porton Down[/caption]
AFP or licensorsThe entrance to the Porton Down science park[/caption]
In 1999, it was the subject of a novel by Nick Pope, who worked for the Ministry of Defence, and even had to be cleared prior to publication.
The fictional “what if” book deals with UFOs and “alien abductions” and Pope speculated that alien bodies could have been taken to Porton Down, near Salisbury in Wiltshire.
The facility was founded in 1916 as Britain’s chemical and biological weapons laboratory.
Defence ministry scientists carried out secret experiments involving some 20,000 servicemen, leading to the death of one from exposure to sarin nerve gas.
Since the 1960s, it has focused on developing countermeasures and defence and security technology.
But its secret structure has led to speculation about its activities, especially among flying-saucer theorists.
“No aliens, either alive or dead have ever been taken to Porton Down,” the government’s website reads.
Posting to debunk the theories, the page is titled “The Truth about Porton Down: Answering the myths and misconceptions”.
“In the interests of national security much of this work is secret.
“Inevitably this has led to many myths and misconceptions springing up about Porton Down and the wider work carried out by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.
“No aliens, either alive or dead have ever been taken to Porton Down or any other Dstl site.”
UK reveals new £1billion Mars robot to find alien life on Red Planet
By Millie Turner
THE UK has completed the build of its first-ever Mars rover, designed to search for signs of alien life on the Red Planet in 2030.
It is a landmark feat for the UK, and will be the first European-built rover to ever fly to Mars.
Its job will be to drill out two-metre cylinders of Martian dirt to check for signs of past or present life – such as fossilised microbes.
Samples obtained by the rover could be up to 4billion years old.
The Mars-bound robot, dubbed the Rosalind Frank rover, has cost roughly £1billion from start to finish.
It gets its name from British scientist Rosalind Franklin, whose work was central to understanding the molecular structures of DNA.
The Rosalind Frank rover is due to launch in 2028 aboard a rocket organised by Nasa, and land on Mars in 2030.
It added: “Dstl and its predecessors do not and have never grown cannabis at Porton Down.”
This follows the false myth spread by some claiming the government are growing the drug there.
The top secret defence base was instrumental in helping identify the nerve agent used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Queen Elizabeth also visited the top secret base in 2020, after the coronavirus lockdown.
During their trip, the late queen and Prince William met the Porton Down staff and military personnel who were involved in the Novichok clear-up operation, along with scientists helping the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The formal purpose of the trip was to open the lab’s new Energetics Analysis Centre, where the queen and the prince were given a demonstration of a forensic explosives investigation.
They also toured the lab’s Energetic Enclosure to see a display of weaponry and tactics used in counter intelligence.
What is Porton Down and why did people think aliens were there?
By Summer Raemason
PORTON Down has always been shrouded in mystery in the interest of national security.
Secrecy surrounding the base has led Brits to speculate there could be extra-terrestrial beings and experiments taking place.
But, it is really used to conduct research to ensure the UK’s military and wider public benefit from the latest technical and scientific developments.
Porton Down is responsible for developing countermeasures to threats posed by chemical and biological weapons.
To do this, scientists there make very small amounts of chemical and biological agents which are securely kept and disposed of.
According to Gov.UK, “no aliens, either alive or dead have ever been taken to Porton Down or any other Dstl site”.
Instead, there are a number of testing programmes and purposes that unfold behind Porton Down’s mysterious walls.
These include:
Animal Testing
Used for the production of Nerve Agent Pretreatment Set (NAPS) Tablets, ComboPen containing atropine, P2S and avizafone, Doxycycline and Ciprofloxacin antibiotics.
Human Volunteers
Since 1916 over 20,000 volunteers have taken part in studies at Porton Down.
The Volunteer Programme carries out trials with human volunteers to make the protective equipment easier to wear and to develop better training procedures.
Ebola
Dstl has an active research programme on Ebola and played an important role in the UK’s support to Sierra Leone during the recent outbreak.
Destruction of Chemical Weapons
Each year small amounts of old chemical weapons are found in the UK.
Dstl possesses the only licensed UK facility for the receipt, storage, breakdown and safe disposal of old chemical weapons.
AFPThe late Queen Elizabeth and Prince William view a demonstration of a Forensic Explosives Investigation at Porton Down in 2020.[/caption]
Getty – ContributorWarning signs near Porton Down in Wiltshire[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
