tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90589487609872459222024-02-19T16:38:38.328+00:00bio..storiesThe adventures of a bacterium, a yeast cell and myself in the wild world of scienceec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-11254165197074054332017-10-14T22:03:00.002+01:002017-10-14T22:03:38.297+01:00"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see"<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As you would have probable guessed by now, this blog is a great fan of science-related art projects. So, this post is dedicated to the Nikon Small World Competition. The winners of the 2017 competition have been announced and since then I spend at least one hour every day just looking at these amazing pictures. I mean, they are just mind-blowing!!!</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am posting some of my favorites below but I strongly suggest that you visit <a href="http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/" target="_blank">their site</a> and maybe spend the rest of your life just admiring the miracle of life (and light microscopy).</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJpi5f5NTdL8MYbtmwd14zWmd3ahIYpG44Xzu_97l3FaomRGTMCJ4IqO0tHnGauY-V88tgQCuXjIpk4ZA-ttlilEdb69CrEppRQpwc2gwH0HSFUkTCytbjzV-f2pG3FlJbajw2nB72dQzC/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJpi5f5NTdL8MYbtmwd14zWmd3ahIYpG44Xzu_97l3FaomRGTMCJ4IqO0tHnGauY-V88tgQCuXjIpk4ZA-ttlilEdb69CrEppRQpwc2gwH0HSFUkTCytbjzV-f2pG3FlJbajw2nB72dQzC/s320/1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This came 7th but is the winner in my heart. Dr Ryo Egawa's individually labeled axons in an embryonic chick ciliary ganglion.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmMWfSbw4rHu3J264msNIdHslkR2k2ZWpk2uAGIzbSvMYSnlXo0ucBhkmVyYXC_liRMm38f8-QfATM9Yfu_CZnik8KMLkTd0gu9-SfdDoqrWCEq3P6k98RpOjMkzzEBsHW3xgfsoLbs1aH/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="592" data-original-width="640" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmMWfSbw4rHu3J264msNIdHslkR2k2ZWpk2uAGIzbSvMYSnlXo0ucBhkmVyYXC_liRMm38f8-QfATM9Yfu_CZnik8KMLkTd0gu9-SfdDoqrWCEq3P6k98RpOjMkzzEBsHW3xgfsoLbs1aH/s320/2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">This picture was taken at the Institute for Life Sciences in Southampton by </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Catarina Moura, Dr. Sumeet Mahajan, Dr. Richard Oreffo & Dr. Rahul Tare and it depicts growing cartilage-like tissue in the lab using bone stem cells (collagen fibers in green and fat deposits in red). I think you all agree with me that it looks like an abstract Christmas tree (only 72 days left guys, hang in there!).</span></span></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO86sXFvk_4g4RkirwOrN8WUMsCtB-BNmnlLvnE7u3fje1dC525aubjzi0P7Shkk2kPczMiJ1Z-59Jku4Jh0jvAHbMhyMxf5tqaOAIiYobZWXxTSpYJ9wraB3-wXY_J4oTF7fCvwhjyQGP/s1600/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="640" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO86sXFvk_4g4RkirwOrN8WUMsCtB-BNmnlLvnE7u3fje1dC525aubjzi0P7Shkk2kPczMiJ1Z-59Jku4Jh0jvAHbMhyMxf5tqaOAIiYobZWXxTSpYJ9wraB3-wXY_J4oTF7fCvwhjyQGP/s320/3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The tree of light or </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ganglion cells expressing fluorescent proteins in a mouse retina by Dr. Keunyoung Kim.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISUJEIs16fpIEmENmyfuS4vEkw8Gh6LziwnHDp0YnRLqdy4uCUQyVEGinzVCvfTKFmEKQ0SPIRrZgvd1ZkCGNYgUPbAziRL93sGlVkyfcR_l4vqJ3cU2OwnlG58dlBZAsIYjyrohMofPd/s1600/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="622" data-original-width="640" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISUJEIs16fpIEmENmyfuS4vEkw8Gh6LziwnHDp0YnRLqdy4uCUQyVEGinzVCvfTKFmEKQ0SPIRrZgvd1ZkCGNYgUPbAziRL93sGlVkyfcR_l4vqJ3cU2OwnlG58dlBZAsIYjyrohMofPd/s320/4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dr. Kif Liakath-Ali's: Nerves (in green) under the skin of a mouse (hair follicles are shown in red and blue). Clearly inspired by Van Gogh.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And some information about the constest: The Nikon International Small World Competition first began in 1974 as a means to recognize and applaud the efforts of those involved with photography through the light microscope. Since then, Small World has become a leading showcase for photomicrographers from the widest array of scientific disciplines.</span></div>
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ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-83606802317971386132017-06-08T20:54:00.002+01:002017-10-14T21:29:25.410+01:00Keep calm and pass the exam<div style="text-align: justify;">
It's exams period almost everywhere, a very intense period for all the parties involved.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-RZ86OB9hw4/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-RZ86OB9hw4?feature=player_embedded" style="clear: left; float: left;" width="320"></iframe><br />
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Trying to help, the British Physiological Society has created an animation entitled
"Conquering exam stress: lessons from our bodies". It attempts to explain how stress works in the body and gives a
few tips for how to take control and make stress work for us. Isn't this what we all want after all?!</div>
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So keep calm, exercise, socialize and pass the exam :)</div>
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ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-79826043231667095812014-12-03T10:33:00.001+00:002017-10-14T21:27:27.240+01:00And the award goes to...<div style="text-align: justify;">
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As a scientist, you are expected, to work long hours, in a quite uninspiring environment, usually on your own and with not much interaction with your colleagues or the outside world. Usually, very few people understand what are you doing and your family and friends remain pretty uninterested in your work struggles. So, receiving a lucrative prize from Benedict's Cumberbatch hands can only be a part of your daydreaming between lengthy experiments..or maybe not?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLWv2UcPOiyEul_zdzJ2InHEOsOlsSySzCfRgBOCVRYqhwlKGOf1XmflgdQQPLvgPdY4hvqCPvsGAljK7etGiT3y3BVx_qTH4Ra5ZOo3WvAsDq7L83irkUP7WvmsRykO6A6Omp-UQ-2csr/s1600/breakthrough.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLWv2UcPOiyEul_zdzJ2InHEOsOlsSySzCfRgBOCVRYqhwlKGOf1XmflgdQQPLvgPdY4hvqCPvsGAljK7etGiT3y3BVx_qTH4Ra5ZOo3WvAsDq7L83irkUP7WvmsRykO6A6Omp-UQ-2csr/s1600/breakthrough.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The Breakthrough Prizes is a relatively new constitution, with only two years of life, that have as a goal to celebrate scientific achievements and create excitement about science, focusing on the fields of life sciences, physics and mathematics. Founded by technology and Internet entrepreneurs Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki, Jack Ma and Cathy Zhang, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, the prizes are funded by grants from the Brin Wojcicki Foundation; Mark Zuckerberg's fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation; the Jack Ma Foundation; and the Milner Foundation. What I think is really interesting is that the committee that selects the winners is comprised by prior recipients of the prizes.</div>
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The 2nd Awards ceremony was equivalent of the Oscars (almost); produced and directed by Emmy Award-winning Don Mischer with several first-class actors presenting the awards and Christina Aguilera performing "Beautiful"(!) . </div>
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This whole endeavour contradicts, of course, the away-of-the-spotlight attitude that the majority of the scientists traditionally have but I think any attempt to make the public aware of important scientific accomplishments should be mentioned in this blog. </div>
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<img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-VUBPEjlmwZJ_lhjXGaYC9luKQN-ybCKjKkPjI7eyQcuJ2DFn4VNSsrUow-nAQywm9MuCsC3QCOJaXmYqdWweiqReojsd3sReqZZJ6Pzqi0drRTDAOJzUtOB7wCHVYtgmPLbEZE_m2_vL/s1600/oscar.png" width="400" /></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Thread-00008fc8-Id-00000402;">Alim Louis Benabid, Joseph Fourier University,</span></strong> for the discovery and pioneering work on the development of high-frequency deep brain stimulation (DBS), which has revolutionized the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Thread-00008fc8-Id-00000402;">C David Allis,</span></strong> The Rockefeller University, for the discovery of covalent modifications of histone proteins and their critical roles in the regulation of gene expression and chromatin organization, advancing the understanding of diseases ranging from birth defects to cancer.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Thread-00008fc8-Id-00000402;">Victor Ambros, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Gary Ruvkun, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School,</span></strong> for the discovery of a new world of genetic regulation by microRNAs, a class of tiny RNA molecules that inhibit translation or destabilize complementary mRNA targets.</div>
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J<strong><span style="font-family: Thread-00008fc8-Id-00000402;">ennifer Doudna, University of California, Berkeley, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Emmanuelle Charpentier, Helmholtz Center for Infection Research and Umeå University,</span></strong> for harnessing an ancient mechanism of bacterial immunity into a powerful and general technology for editing genomes, with wide-ranging implications across biology and medicine.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Thread-00008fc8-Id-00000402;">Simon Donaldson, Stony Brook University and Imperial College London, </span></strong>for the new revolutionary invariants of 4-dimensional manifolds.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Thread-00008fc8-Id-00000402;">Maxim Kontsevich, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifique</span></strong>s, for work making a deep impact in a vast variety of mathematical disciplines, including algebraic geometry, deformat.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Thread-00008fc8-Id-00000402;">Jacob Lurie, Harvard University,</span></strong> for his work on the foundations of higher category theory and derived algebraic geometry; for the classification of fully extended topological quantum field theories; and for providing a moduli-theoretic interpretation of elliptic cohomology.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Thread-00008fc8-Id-00000402;">Terence Tao, University of California, Los Angeles,</span></strong> for numerous breakthrough contributions to harmonic analysis, combinatorics, partial differential equations and analytic number theory.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Thread-00008fc8-Id-00000402;">Richard Taylor, Institute for Advanced Study,</span></strong> for numerous breakthrough results in the theory of automorphic forms, including the Taniyama-Weil conjecture, the local Langlands conjecture for general linear groups, and the Sato-Tate conjecture.</div>
ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-42201024597340426382014-11-06T13:10:00.001+00:002017-10-14T21:25:44.385+01:00On cartography<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sometimes I learn about something that shakes my view of the world. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense and I feel a bit idiotic that I didn't think of that before but at that particular moment I get all flabbergasted. Last time I had such a moment was when I heard that there are a lot of areas of the world that remain unmapped. And I don't talk about the sub-lakes of Antartica or the Mount Mabu in Mozambique. I am talking about slums and rural areas where people live in.</div>
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Tomorrow a project called <a href="http://www.missingmaps.org/" target="_blank">missing maps</a> is being launched. It is a collaboration of the Red Cross and Medecins sans Frontiers with the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and it's vision is "to put the world's vulnerable people on the map". Data will be collected by volunteers, local and remote, and all maps will be open and free to all, and most importantly open sourced.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXjrD1ETUdwX-SkpaqRqSwXIGwedZt2AtbLrnQ6Q8z2l3ACOscfUhomtSvL5Z5i3rIDT7dq-wkrF0d45YIJbDSbtrSH7WVbIN1CY8-Jz-ATF0hUKPXtZet5yykpfzHba7_FMJO49SMiES5/s1600/map.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXjrD1ETUdwX-SkpaqRqSwXIGwedZt2AtbLrnQ6Q8z2l3ACOscfUhomtSvL5Z5i3rIDT7dq-wkrF0d45YIJbDSbtrSH7WVbIN1CY8-Jz-ATF0hUKPXtZet5yykpfzHba7_FMJO49SMiES5/s1600/map.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Project #699, mapping Ebola Treatment Centers by the Humanitarian OSM team.</td></tr>
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It is a simple and ingenious idea and was created by the need of these humanitarian groups to be able to reach the areas where they are needed. Having detailed maps of an area will help with defining the epidemiological characteristics of a disease (like Ebola outbreak in West Africa the last few months or cholera outbreak in Haiti after the devastating earthquake in 2010) but they are expected to find more applications such as transit planning, waste removal or housing strategy. And they will definitely help the humanitarian help to reach faster the people in need. </div>
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The Open Street Map platform has been running since 2004 and thanks to the edits from volunteers a lot of communities acquired detailed maps such as Gueckedou, a town in southern Guinea with an estimated population of 221,715, which initially had 9 roads outlined on a map. Now a much more detailed map with hundreds of roads, buildings and streams is available to all.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-e7yhcZZtpouNvkOZKX3BsG0_bVRNWXHzexnTe7FfReyIg3yUXEyM9pkDiIcOfXLLGmjFFBK305XgUU-whUbHuKrrxbO9D0di0D8Yek_ijE745FiGp20iyzxYCzxJ0hWe9pWSOheZ_oIy/s1600/monrovia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-e7yhcZZtpouNvkOZKX3BsG0_bVRNWXHzexnTe7FfReyIg3yUXEyM9pkDiIcOfXLLGmjFFBK305XgUU-whUbHuKrrxbO9D0di0D8Yek_ijE745FiGp20iyzxYCzxJ0hWe9pWSOheZ_oIy/s1600/monrovia.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="element-image__caption">A free digital map of Liberia , thanks to the Humanitarian OSM Team</span> </td></tr>
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This map could then be used by different organizations like the global Red Cross network and MSF to create maps specific to their specialty in the treatment of Ebola. For example, the Red Cross volunteers use such maps to find communities where they are providing education on prevention, while MSF uses the maps to create data visualization of the spread of the disease and coordinate field teams. </div>
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This is a collective effort to put everyone on the map and, most importantly, with the maps remaining accessible to all!</div>
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ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-57482661183489984452014-07-19T14:43:00.000+01:002017-10-14T21:23:45.483+01:00Breaking fund<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEFDJCmuWzVLDN95i2kF317QCsoZOYOfP0gKPpmh-5DT8IOsFmvz0zzNtcSStMX_KHUfXgOK5pBnZyfo-klmN-W1481dpwH-PEIaPPgZaXddtvgq192uKLrsf2aMQePDFSLCaSVJISVGlG/s640/blogger-image-808231874.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEFDJCmuWzVLDN95i2kF317QCsoZOYOfP0gKPpmh-5DT8IOsFmvz0zzNtcSStMX_KHUfXgOK5pBnZyfo-klmN-W1481dpwH-PEIaPPgZaXddtvgq192uKLrsf2aMQePDFSLCaSVJISVGlG/s640/blogger-image-808231874.jpg" /></a></div>
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In November 2012, Ethan Perlstein secured about $25.000 funding via Crowdsourcing for a basic pharmacology project about the cellular distribution of amphetamines (yeah infamous methamphetamine or crystal meth is one of those) along with his collaborators Prof David Sulzer and Daniel Korostyshevsky. To entice more contributors, he promised rewards such as 3D-printed plastic models of a methamphetamine molecules for $25 donations. Daniel Korostyshevsky was the responsible of the
amphetamines distribution project in the Sulzer lab. </div>
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I made a note of his name and went on to follow the progress of his project. One very good thing about the project was the open access to the data via figshare (<a href="http://figshare.com/articles/search?q=perlstein&quick=1&x=0&y=0">http://figshare.com/articles/search?q=perlstein&quick=1&x=0&y=0</a>); although I haven't been able to find a report with the final findings- something like a paper. There were also frequent updates and open protocols. Since then Ethan Perlstein exited academia to become an "indie scientist and biotech entrepreneur" focused on orphan disease drug discovery.</div>
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This was the first time I came across this idea in science, which in my eyes didn't look all that bad. However, I found out very soon that Perlstein's initiative was not the only one of this kind. There are a lot of platforms where scientists can "advertise" research projects and ask for everyone's support.</div>
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<a href="https://experiment.com/" target="_blank">Experiment</a> is one of them that hosts willing-to-fund projects from several scientific fields such as biology, physics, paleontology, ecology but also economics, psycology or education. Usually, these projects demand small amounds and would be short-term projects that wouldn't find funding through the common routes such as funding bodies or governmental grants. For example, a very popular project that managed to concentrate 455% of its inital goal is a study of the optimal form of excersize based on our genetic material. The study undertaken by Linda Pescatello and her group in the university of Connecticut will use deep gene sequencing to a group of volunteer and they hope in the long run to manage to create personalized exercise prescriptions.</div>
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Another crowdfunding platform is <a href="http://www.petridish.org/" target="_blank">Petridish</a>. Their projects are more enviromental biology-orientated, I'd say, and range from saving fossil whales in Virginia's Carmel Church Quarry to using Kepler telescope data to search for the existence of exomoons. Apart from seeing a scientist project getting realised, the supporters can choose from a big array of rewards, such as field experiences, naming rights or personal talks.</div>
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And there are many more; more general <a href="http://www.rockethub.com/" target="_blank">Rockethub</a>, healthcare-related <a href="http://medstartr.com/" target="_blank">MedStartr</a>, <a href="http://sciflies.org/">sciflies.org</a> and energy innovation focused <a href="http://eurekafund.org/" target="_blank">eurekafund</a> are all matchmaking needy scientists with willing donors.</div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></span>A common characteristic of all the scientific crowdfunding projects is that they pledge open access for all to their data; something that goes completely against to how research has been contacted so far, behind closed doors and with absolute secrecy.
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With crowdsourcing funding of science gaining a bigger and bigger momentum we've just to wait and see if it will help science to move forward, will provide some stress-relief to scientists struggling for funding and will make us get more and more involved with science since we are the ones now that are giving money to the projects that are of our interest.</div>
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<br />ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-33632608975353853162014-02-19T10:20:00.001+00:002014-02-20T09:56:41.539+00:00BIO-scarsThe 86th Academy Awards are creeping up on us but they are going to be boring for one more time as they have left out the most important category again;<b> the most interesting science-related video!!!</b><br />
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Luckily, there is always the not_one_more_biostory team to fill in such gaps. <br />
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Here are five very cool videos of 2013. <br />
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Which is going to be the winner?!? Oh, what a nail-bitter!!!<br />
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Title: <b>StemCellShorts</b><br />
Writers: Ben Paylor, a PhD candidate in Experimental Medicine at the University of British Columbia<br />
Mike Long, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto<br />
Animation: David Murawsky<br />
Music: James Wallace <br />
Playing (voices):<br />
Dr. Jim Till, who, along with Dr. Ernest McCulloch, first identified stem cells from bone marrow in 1961.<br />
Dr. Janet Rossant, Chief of Research at SickKids Hospital, Ontario, Canada<br />
Dr. Mick Bhatia, Director
of the McMaster Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institut, Ontario, Canada <br />
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Storyline: A series of short animation films giving answers to questions regarding stem cells.<br />
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<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/_hbgeQzmU9U/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/_hbgeQzmU9U&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/_hbgeQzmU9U&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
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Title: <b>Celebrating Crystallography: An animated Adventure</b><br />
Writers: Royal Institution<br />
Animation:company 12foot6<br />
Playing (narration):<br />
Prof Stephen Curry, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College Londo, UK <br />
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Storyline: The film explores the history of crystallography, a technique used to elucidate the three-dimensional structure of molecules.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/uqQlwYv8VQI?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Title: <b>Chromosome and Kinetochore</b><br />
Writers: Narrative of the textbook "E.O. Wilson's Life on Earth"<br />
Animation: WEHI.TV/ Drew Berry<br />
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Storyline: The film depicts a reconstruction of the organisation and structural features of DNA inside a chromosome of a living cell<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/0JpOJ4F4984?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Title: <b>Made Simple...Stephen Hawking's Big Idea</b><br />
Writers: Alok Jha, Matt Hill, Paul Boyd/ The Guardian<br />
Animation: Scriberia<br />
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Storyline: A film about black holes and their fate to shrink into nothingness and then explode with the
energy of a million nuclear bombs. It rewinds to the big bang and the
origin of the universe<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/D6lFGJdwRyo?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Title: <b>How Coffee affects your Brain</b><br />
Writers<span class="yt-ui-ellipsis-wrapper" data-original-html="How much coffee is too much coffee?<br>Subscribe to PHD TV: <a href="http://youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=phdcomics" target="_blank" title="http://youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=phdcomics" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://youtube.com/subscrip...</a><br>More at: <a href="http://phdcomics.com/tv" target="_blank" title="http://phdcomics.com/tv" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://phdcomics.com/tv</a><br><br>Written and Illustrated by Dwayne Godwin and Jorge Cham<br>Animated by Jorge Cham<br>Narrated by Meg Rosenburg<br>Comic originally published in Scientific American Mind<br><br>NOTES: It would be hard - maybe impossible - to OD on coffee. You'd likely vomit before a toxic level was reached. But the equivalent caffeine from pills has been fatal. Caffeine pills cause most caffeine-related ER deaths because of what they do to your heart. Some links:<br><br><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristin-kirkpatrick-ms-rd-ld/coffee-health-benefits_b_2962490.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristin-kirkpatrick-ms-rd-ld/coffee-health-benefits_b_2962490.html" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://www.huffingtonpost.c...</a><br><a href="http://iospress.metapress.com/content/d885346618q57103/?genre=article&amp;issn=1387-2877&amp;volume=16&amp;issue=1&amp;spage=85" target="_blank" title="http://iospress.metapress.com/content/d885346618q57103/?genre=article&amp;issn=1387-2877&amp;volume=16&amp;issue=1&amp;spage=85" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://iospress.metapress.c...</a><br><a href="http://www.newswise.com/articles/moderate-coffee-consumption-offers-protection-against-heart-failure" target="_blank" title="http://www.newswise.com/articles/moderate-coffee-consumption-offers-protection-against-heart-failure" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://www.newswise.com/art...</a><br><a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1112010" target="_blank" title="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1112010" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://www.nejm.org/doi/ful...</a>
"> (and Illustrated) by Dwayne Godwin and Jorge Cham<br />Animation: Jorge Cham<br />Playing (Narration) Meg Rosenburg</span><br />
<br />
<span class="yt-ui-ellipsis-wrapper" data-original-html="How much coffee is too much coffee?<br>Subscribe to PHD TV: <a href="http://youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=phdcomics" target="_blank" title="http://youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=phdcomics" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://youtube.com/subscrip...</a><br>More at: <a href="http://phdcomics.com/tv" target="_blank" title="http://phdcomics.com/tv" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://phdcomics.com/tv</a><br><br>Written and Illustrated by Dwayne Godwin and Jorge Cham<br>Animated by Jorge Cham<br>Narrated by Meg Rosenburg<br>Comic originally published in Scientific American Mind<br><br>NOTES: It would be hard - maybe impossible - to OD on coffee. You'd likely vomit before a toxic level was reached. But the equivalent caffeine from pills has been fatal. Caffeine pills cause most caffeine-related ER deaths because of what they do to your heart. Some links:<br><br><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristin-kirkpatrick-ms-rd-ld/coffee-health-benefits_b_2962490.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristin-kirkpatrick-ms-rd-ld/coffee-health-benefits_b_2962490.html" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://www.huffingtonpost.c...</a><br><a href="http://iospress.metapress.com/content/d885346618q57103/?genre=article&amp;issn=1387-2877&amp;volume=16&amp;issue=1&amp;spage=85" target="_blank" title="http://iospress.metapress.com/content/d885346618q57103/?genre=article&amp;issn=1387-2877&amp;volume=16&amp;issue=1&amp;spage=85" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://iospress.metapress.c...</a><br><a href="http://www.newswise.com/articles/moderate-coffee-consumption-offers-protection-against-heart-failure" target="_blank" title="http://www.newswise.com/articles/moderate-coffee-consumption-offers-protection-against-heart-failure" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://www.newswise.com/art...</a><br><a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1112010" target="_blank" title="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1112010" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://www.nejm.org/doi/ful...</a>
">Storyline: <span class="yt-ui-ellipsis-wrapper" data-original-html="How much coffee is too much coffee?<br>Subscribe to PHD TV: <a href="http://youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=phdcomics" target="_blank" title="http://youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=phdcomics" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://youtube.com/subscrip...</a><br>More at: <a href="http://phdcomics.com/tv" target="_blank" title="http://phdcomics.com/tv" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://phdcomics.com/tv</a><br><br>Written and Illustrated by Dwayne Godwin and Jorge Cham<br>Animated by Jorge Cham<br>Narrated by Meg Rosenburg<br>Comic originally published in Scientific American Mind<br><br>NOTES: It would be hard - maybe impossible - to OD on coffee. You'd likely vomit before a toxic level was reached. But the equivalent caffeine from pills has been fatal. Caffeine pills cause most caffeine-related ER deaths because of what they do to your heart. Some links:<br><br><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristin-kirkpatrick-ms-rd-ld/coffee-health-benefits_b_2962490.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristin-kirkpatrick-ms-rd-ld/coffee-health-benefits_b_2962490.html" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://www.huffingtonpost.c...</a><br><a href="http://iospress.metapress.com/content/d885346618q57103/?genre=article&amp;issn=1387-2877&amp;volume=16&amp;issue=1&amp;spage=85" target="_blank" title="http://iospress.metapress.com/content/d885346618q57103/?genre=article&amp;issn=1387-2877&amp;volume=16&amp;issue=1&amp;spage=85" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://iospress.metapress.c...</a><br><a href="http://www.newswise.com/articles/moderate-coffee-consumption-offers-protection-against-heart-failure" target="_blank" title="http://www.newswise.com/articles/moderate-coffee-consumption-offers-protection-against-heart-failure" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://www.newswise.com/art...</a><br><a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1112010" target="_blank" title="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1112010" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://www.nejm.org/doi/ful...</a>
">How much coffee is too much coffee?</span> </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/hbuCmO8Bwhs?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
And the winner is...<br />
<span class="yt-ui-ellipsis-wrapper" data-original-html="How much coffee is too much coffee?<br>Subscribe to PHD TV: <a href="http://youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=phdcomics" target="_blank" title="http://youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=phdcomics" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://youtube.com/subscrip...</a><br>More at: <a href="http://phdcomics.com/tv" target="_blank" title="http://phdcomics.com/tv" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://phdcomics.com/tv</a><br><br>Written and Illustrated by Dwayne Godwin and Jorge Cham<br>Animated by Jorge Cham<br>Narrated by Meg Rosenburg<br>Comic originally published in Scientific American Mind<br><br>NOTES: It would be hard - maybe impossible - to OD on coffee. You'd likely vomit before a toxic level was reached. But the equivalent caffeine from pills has been fatal. Caffeine pills cause most caffeine-related ER deaths because of what they do to your heart. Some links:<br><br><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristin-kirkpatrick-ms-rd-ld/coffee-health-benefits_b_2962490.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristin-kirkpatrick-ms-rd-ld/coffee-health-benefits_b_2962490.html" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://www.huffingtonpost.c...</a><br><a href="http://iospress.metapress.com/content/d885346618q57103/?genre=article&amp;issn=1387-2877&amp;volume=16&amp;issue=1&amp;spage=85" target="_blank" title="http://iospress.metapress.com/content/d885346618q57103/?genre=article&amp;issn=1387-2877&amp;volume=16&amp;issue=1&amp;spage=85" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://iospress.metapress.c...</a><br><a href="http://www.newswise.com/articles/moderate-coffee-consumption-offers-protection-against-heart-failure" target="_blank" title="http://www.newswise.com/articles/moderate-coffee-consumption-offers-protection-against-heart-failure" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://www.newswise.com/art...</a><br><a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1112010" target="_blank" title="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1112010" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link">http://www.nejm.org/doi/ful...</a>
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ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-17618063814352191112014-02-16T20:50:00.002+00:002017-10-14T21:21:41.697+01:00"There are poisons that blind you, and poisons that open your eyes" *<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL1UnvTz9tSEwDWUmP2dXnjHArED8rnr55LphKj0_qDhZML7OoZ9WTxoYFpRnvkalvjd4eezfSqU43bIIRG0-I9MKIgc1W4vsNIBelbGUCtTuf6Fm4OKTpea0XlTar6rBdH4aGFntVpzln/s1600/%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1+(29).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL1UnvTz9tSEwDWUmP2dXnjHArED8rnr55LphKj0_qDhZML7OoZ9WTxoYFpRnvkalvjd4eezfSqU43bIIRG0-I9MKIgc1W4vsNIBelbGUCtTuf6Fm4OKTpea0XlTar6rBdH4aGFntVpzln/s1600/%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1+(29).JPG" width="508" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From St James Chronicle newspaper</td></tr>
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It is quite rare for an obituary to be written for an animal but this donkey has left a small footprint in human history-even if it was unintentionally. Wouralia was part of an experiment that helped us to understand how the Wourali poison, or more commonly known as curare, works and to open new horizons in medicine.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLArLyhRRlEjtiINqgVzBXjvFD6X09grBQhyphenhyphenMmW-Pvysj-aqG7iW1xzFEGteJ8KpLD7gpPsSN3CDcbWmR9CHoj1XD2WeQLD6jmlPFEjfr73qcN_BfrYTY3LXZLpJkaFBQ5ukI4LWl2xp59/s1600/%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1+(28).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLArLyhRRlEjtiINqgVzBXjvFD6X09grBQhyphenhyphenMmW-Pvysj-aqG7iW1xzFEGteJ8KpLD7gpPsSN3CDcbWmR9CHoj1XD2WeQLD6jmlPFEjfr73qcN_BfrYTY3LXZLpJkaFBQ5ukI4LWl2xp59/s1600/%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1+(28).JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-9sYE9MWEWATcCl7i72kTyd3_GcVH9yQiW68Orkowjd_LzcAJa53gSrmMw2XjibjR8JGn7c3KqpcmK6hgAWckjzcDiR5eAsBHgzFNSpBjPODhHFXKlqrMva3_RPl1t2WuBHivdrMU7UQt/s1600/%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1+(30).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-9sYE9MWEWATcCl7i72kTyd3_GcVH9yQiW68Orkowjd_LzcAJa53gSrmMw2XjibjR8JGn7c3KqpcmK6hgAWckjzcDiR5eAsBHgzFNSpBjPODhHFXKlqrMva3_RPl1t2WuBHivdrMU7UQt/s1600/%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1+(30).JPG" width="200" /></a><br />
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Curare had been used for centuries from the indigenous people of South America, such as the Macusi Indians, at hunting. They would coat their arrows with a mixture where curare was the main ingredient. The poison<span style="text-align: justify;"> would paralyse the animals by not letting them breathe. However, it is not poisonous if indigested; so the indians could eat the meat without any negative effects on them. The properties of curare were so valuable that its recipe was held as a sacred possession.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiov80144q93Ef6SKaCe9DBFtRrWBQxCoTCkkLbn4cebhzPYz370T3Dq-YG8QdRf62xlgauNkSB5hgcbRk4f8Gn2SqdhPf4uL_j0QG0q4Xqg3c1mr9iUycU4U66tdSl8SMUmd9Nhsn-RGvx/s1600/Charles_Waterton.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiov80144q93Ef6SKaCe9DBFtRrWBQxCoTCkkLbn4cebhzPYz370T3Dq-YG8QdRf62xlgauNkSB5hgcbRk4f8Gn2SqdhPf4uL_j0QG0q4Xqg3c1mr9iUycU4U66tdSl8SMUmd9Nhsn-RGvx/s1600/Charles_Waterton.png" width="165" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Waterton" target="_blank">Charles Waterton</a>, an English naturalist and explorer, spent nearly 20 years in South America exploring the Amazonian rainforest. In 1813, he achieved to bring to Europe an amount of the poison big enough to perform several experiments. </div>
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One experiment that helped to redefine the history of 20th century medicine is the one with Wouralia. Together with Professor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sewell_(physician)" target="_blank">William Sewell</a>, the director of the Royal Veterinary College at that time, Waterton tested the effects of the poison to three donkeys. They injected the first one in the shoulder, which then died in twelve minutes. The second donkey had a tourniquet placed around the upper part of one leg and the curare was injected under it. The animal walked around normally for longer than an hour without dying. However, when the tourniquet was released the donkey died within 10 minutes. The third animal, Wouralia, was injected with the same dose as the previous two. As Waterton has described in his Essays "Wanderings in South America" in 1825: </div>
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The earliest clinical use of curare in humans was to ameliorate the tortuous muscle spasms of infectious tetanus, in 1858. Treatment of epilepsy, rabies, parkinson-like rigidity was also attempted by using curare.</div>
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However, it took about 100 more years for curare to find its real use in medicine. In 1912, Arthur Lawen used curare in surgery as an anasthetic but his work was ignored for decades partly because the published report was written in German. In 1942, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Griffith" target="_blank">Harold Griffith</a>, the then chief anesthesiologist of the Montreal Homeopathic Hospital, performed an appendectomy on a young man anesthetized with curare. Satisfactory abdominal relaxation was achieved and the surgery proceeded without incident. He went on and used curare in several more surgeries all with positive results. After Griffith's report of his work, the use of curare and other synthetic curare-related muscle relaxants became the standard practice for several surgical procedures.</div>
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Before 1942, the patients had to inhale large, dangerous amounts of ether or chloroform before they would undergo surgeries that needed muscle relaxation. Curare had a profound effect on the transformation of anasthesia. Sedated and paralyzed patients could now successfully undergo the major physiologic trespasses of several types of surgery. Curare has since been replaced with manufactured muscle relaxants, but it pointed the way to a new era of safety in the field of anesthesia.</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>A little bit of science:</i> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">The skeletal muscles get stimulated by a chemical named acetylcholine. Acetylcholine molecules get released in junctions between nerves and muscles; curare attaches to this junction blocking the transmission of acetylcholine. Until curare disintegrates, the nerve cannot trigger the muscle to act and the muscle stays paralyzed.</span><br />
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It is needless to say that there were several more scientists that studied the function of curare and helped to shape the science of anesthesia as we know it today that are not mentionned in this post.<br />
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<i>*August Strindberg, The Ghost Sonata</i><br />
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Further reading:<br />
1. Waterton and Wouralia, AT Birmingham, Br J Pharmacol, 1999 April; 126(8): 1685-1690<br />
2. Curare and a Canadian connection, Charles Czarnowski, Can Fam Physician, 2007 September; 53(9): 1531-1532<br />
3. Wanderings in South America, the North-West of the United States, and the Antilles, in the years 1812, 1816, 1820 and 1824: with original instructions for the perfect preservation of birds, &c for Cabinets of Natural History, Charles Waterton, 1825, London: J.Mawmanec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-29639377485158969342013-10-15T10:20:00.003+01:002014-02-20T09:57:31.068+00:00Finding Ethel<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">In 1815<b> </b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace" target="_blank">Augusta Ada Byron</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 21.9844px;"> was born. She was </span>the only offspring of Lord Byron from his wedding with <span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 21.9844px;">Anne Isabella Milbanke. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 21.9844px;">She is also known as Ada Lovelace because of her wedding with William King, Earl of Lovelace. She had an impressive mathematical talent and contributed to the writing of a paper on an Analytical Engine (a predecessor of computers-that was never constructed) entitled </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 21.9844px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 21.9844px;">“Sketch of the Analytical Engine, with Notes from the Translator”. Her notes are considered to be the first computer program. This paper was a major inspiration on Turing's work on modern computers several decades later.</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBn7j_ix6NLuqB5oJwnRNMG69bL-brq4AEHj_NwGr6imAowcZbAZ2g6KSPxdXgwWwUReETtjB2IvNxg2TpPWI9e1IiENxfSNylWQJiFw9kv1hRCXx1oFUw8CiM74Ivvw7qJXHoWjbLbwga/s1600/ada_lovelace_quote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBn7j_ix6NLuqB5oJwnRNMG69bL-brq4AEHj_NwGr6imAowcZbAZ2g6KSPxdXgwWwUReETtjB2IvNxg2TpPWI9e1IiENxfSNylWQJiFw9kv1hRCXx1oFUw8CiM74Ivvw7qJXHoWjbLbwga/s320/ada_lovelace_quote.jpg" height="320" width="251" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-size: small; line-height: 21.9844px;"> She could also foresee the vast abilities of computers suggesting that they could be used in music or to solve problems of any complexity while her contemporary scientists considered computers as mere number-crunching devices.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Unfortunately, Ada Lovelace died few years after the publication of this paper at the age of 36. However, she has been a powerful symbol of women in technology and science ever since.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">On October 15th we are<a href="http://findingada.com/" target="_blank"> honouring Ada Lovelace and all the achievements of women in science and technology</a>. One of these women whose contribution has been, according to my opinion, under-recognised is Ethel Browne Harvey. Born in 1885 in Baltimore, she did her PhD in Columbia University under the supervision of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Beecher_Wilson" title="Edmund Beecher Wilson">Edmund Beecher Wilson</a>. She spent the biggest part of her research career at Princeton University but she also worked at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) at Woods Hole, in Massachusetts, at the Cornell Medical College, and also contacted research in Japan, Bermuda, North Carolina, California, Monaco and Naples. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIGbH6NFIIJiwOQ4zHGu6ZqBj3SrGTuWFQiNHhng-xsbBm7oMk-XArtI43jQcQjXhgKcCnOQQkNWw3EUSsV2WaAVVssblnQFBNn05bfeylxcCIoLlwvgWPas11UAkOqV9Yx3hOlpjyfgE_/s1600/ethelbrowne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIGbH6NFIIJiwOQ4zHGu6ZqBj3SrGTuWFQiNHhng-xsbBm7oMk-XArtI43jQcQjXhgKcCnOQQkNWw3EUSsV2WaAVVssblnQFBNn05bfeylxcCIoLlwvgWPas11UAkOqV9Yx3hOlpjyfgE_/s200/ethelbrowne.jpg" height="200" width="145" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">She developed a lifelong interest in the role of the nucleus and cytoplasm in inheritance and development studying mainly sea urchins. Her work on differentiation and development was impressive and she was one of only three women that were invited to give a talk at the prestigious Friday Evening lectures at the MBL over the 50 first years of the existence of the institute.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, for the biggest part of her career she was financially unsupported. From 1931 til 1962, while she was working as an independent investigator at Princeton she only got a grant in 1937 from the American Philosophical society while Princeton only provided office space for her and covered the summer fees for her research at the MBL. She was never admitted to the Princeton faculty and never held a regular scientific appointment. During her career she had mainly benefited from education in women's institutions and fellowships for women. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Her 1909 paper titled "The production of new hydranths in hydra by the insertion of small grafts" was the first published experimental result demonstrating that a transplant could induce a second axis of polarity at the host organism. More specifically, in that set of experiments Harvey grafted the tissue that makes up the mouth of an hydra to a certain site in the body wall of another hydra and proved that this was enough to provoke the development of a new "hydrath" at that site.</span></span><br />
<img alt="" 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" /> </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Original drawings from Ethel Browne's paper (1909). At her experiments, she
removed a part of the hypostome with a single tentacle of an hydra and
transplanted it to the side of another hydra. This induced a second
axis of polarity (2) which resulted in the growing of a secondary
hydrath (3). <i>Picture taken from Lenhoff H, Biol.Bull. 181:72-80, 1991</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Later <a href="http://notonemorebiostory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-farm-of-cloned-animals-instead-of.html" target="_blank">Spemann and Mangold</a> showed the same phenomenon in salamander eggs which resulted in Spemann being awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1935. Spemann didn't cite Harvey's findings in his paper and we are not sure whether he was aware of them or not although Lenhoff -in his paper "Ethel Browne, Hans Spemann, and the Discovery of the Organizer Phenomenon"- shows evidence that Spemann had indeed read Harvey's paper before designing his famous experiments. We also don't know whether the Nobel Prize committee was unaware of her discoveries before they awarded the Nobel to Spemann.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Harvey was a pioneer in developmental biology that I don't think that she received the recognition she deserved for her contributions. However, her determination and devotion to what she loved doing make her one of my personal heroes.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZyL6LUDczZ05X4TzxiXeRmucwOcYDlvkK7kmpIYgIOenlfmbJmrS9TlSXCFcY_-CxSxADOS0U9fGqSFLuJIMEjtQYiej6MuiqYUmqJ2erfgZt0FIHR1HEgmNigHJrKBHkpDby4mO7iLS-/s1600/lovelaceday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZyL6LUDczZ05X4TzxiXeRmucwOcYDlvkK7kmpIYgIOenlfmbJmrS9TlSXCFcY_-CxSxADOS0U9fGqSFLuJIMEjtQYiej6MuiqYUmqJ2erfgZt0FIHR1HEgmNigHJrKBHkpDby4mO7iLS-/s400/lovelaceday.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Happy Ada Lovelace Day!!!</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Further reading.... </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">1. Notable American Women: The Modern Period : a Biographical Dictionary, </span></span><span class="addmd">by Barbara Sicherman, Carol Hurd Green, </span><span itemprop="publisher">Harvard University Press</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">2. <a href="http://www.biochem.uci.edu/steele/pdfs/ethelbrowne.pdf" target="_blank">Howard Lenhoff, <i> </i></a></span></span><a href="http://www.biochem.uci.edu/steele/pdfs/ethelbrowne.pdf" target="_blank"><i>Ethel Browne, Hans Spemann, and the Discovery of the Organizer Phenomenon</i>, Biol. Bull. 181: 72-80. 1991 </a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></h1>
ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-60573967306631298372013-09-29T13:23:00.000+01:002017-10-14T21:19:28.860+01:00The farm of cloned animals (Instead of prologue)<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The history of cloning of complex organisms has it all...I</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">nnovation, </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">competition, turnovers, deceits, love and hate....</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And it is so long that for the first time in the history of this blog, I will dedicate two posts to it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Page from </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaas_Hartsoeker" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; line-height: 15.82px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;" title="Nicolaas Hartsoeker"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Nicolaas Hartsoeker</span></a><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-size: x-small; line-height: 15.82px; text-align: left;">'s </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 15.82px; text-align: left;">book </span></span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;">where </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;">he described the homunculus </span></span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-size: x-small;">-little child- that</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-size: x-small;">he observed in the </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;">sperm. Taken from </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Nicolaas Hartsoeker, <em>Essay de dioptrique</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Paris: Jean Anisson, 1694, p. 230.</span></div>
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<br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">For over two centuries, from the 17th till the 20th, a very heated argument over how life is created had been taking place. There were two dominating theories; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preformationism" target="_blank">Preformationism</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenesis_(biology)" target="_blank">Epigenesis</a>. P<span style="line-height: 19.18px;">reformationism</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18px;"> supported</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18px;"> that organisms develop from miniature versions of themselves while the followers of </span>Epigenesis believed<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18px;"> that "each embryo or organism is gradually produced from an undifferentiated mass by a series of steps and stages during which new parts are added." (Magner 2002, p. 154)</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiywDFWvbVmFqAUiV1jhIAtOpKYaPIbGQ7hSrWGFWxhY7zrtaURYX3V5n57EFJy5jjHWHTj2DslEF_EWejFAWwIpQLAS0S4DkmYeLKLz6423QHLRJ5JnHKgmvl_Yup1U47ec50nsL-qSzmE/s1600/weismann_portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiywDFWvbVmFqAUiV1jhIAtOpKYaPIbGQ7hSrWGFWxhY7zrtaURYX3V5n57EFJy5jjHWHTj2DslEF_EWejFAWwIpQLAS0S4DkmYeLKLz6423QHLRJ5JnHKgmvl_Yup1U47ec50nsL-qSzmE/s200/weismann_portrait.jpg" width="200" /></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-family: inherit;">In 1883, August Weismann, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at the University of Freiberg and one of</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-family: inherit;"> the most influencial biologists of his era </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">proposed the first testable model of cell specification, the </span>germ plasm theory<span style="font-family: inherit;">. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Of all the hypothetical theories on morphogenesis of that era, the germ plasm theory</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"> can claim to be at the same time the most logical and the most elaborated and it have had the greatest influence on his peers.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In his theory, Weismann supported that the chromosomes carried the inherited potentials, determinants, of a new organism. However, not all the determinants on the chromosomes were thought to enter every cell of the embryo; the chromosomes of a fertilized egg wouldn't be divided equally in the cells of the embryo but different chromosomal determinants enter different cells. Only the nuclei of those cells destined to become gametes (the germ cells) would retain all types of determinants while the nuclei of all other cells would have only a subset of them. Hence, although the fertilized egg would carry the full complement of determinants, certain somatic cells would retain the “blood-forming” determinants while others would retain the “muscle-forming” determinants, etc. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO5o79Yilhf9BgJxpx0vNIHG_JMuYagURYZEmWlhpsyvIfm0Roey7dnT7_g31qnSxTziY0FrAyqvGD0_XTKGSl-Rn-lgwLThCt2LWIuV8ZRX1tx7FZf7QcsNZ7uK_smA3dH6m_PtePvwI-/s1600/weismann.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO5o79Yilhf9BgJxpx0vNIHG_JMuYagURYZEmWlhpsyvIfm0Roey7dnT7_g31qnSxTziY0FrAyqvGD0_XTKGSl-Rn-lgwLThCt2LWIuV8ZRX1tx7FZf7QcsNZ7uK_smA3dH6m_PtePvwI-/s400/weismann.jpg" width="347" /></span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Illustration showing how according to Weismann the heritable substance combined in the cell’s nucleus during sexual reproduction. His view that this heritable substance was distinct from, and unaffected by, the rest of the organism’s body, would later underlie the genetic theory of inheritance. <i>Taken from August Weismann's The Germ-Plasm: A Theory of Heredity translated by W. N. Parker in 1893</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">At the same time his student Wilhelm Roux, who also studied under <a href="http://notonemorebiostory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/civilisation-and-life-of-nations-are.html" target="_blank">Ernst Haeckel</a>, proposed a hypothesis that could explain the embryo differentiation by a "mechanistic" process that was similar to Weismann's theory and would later be known as the Roux-Weismann hypothesis of mosaic development. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif0NIPf4IF3dEEO0XmSCn6uhmAQ7QRtIb9S4oxPBShZ248Pl9y41CbDHgg1ZlDxDZfQ2tKpFVmqylct5G47XVtl8-rfxQePQ9CqhOOQcGiy5nGW6jbmgPDX8ZaMbEpe2RqPqAOeCeC5x3K/s1600/roux2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif0NIPf4IF3dEEO0XmSCn6uhmAQ7QRtIb9S4oxPBShZ248Pl9y41CbDHgg1ZlDxDZfQ2tKpFVmqylct5G47XVtl8-rfxQePQ9CqhOOQcGiy5nGW6jbmgPDX8ZaMbEpe2RqPqAOeCeC5x3K/s200/roux2.jpg" width="109" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 1888, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">while working in the Anatomical Institute in Wroclaw -part of Germany at the time-,<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> Roux published a series of experiments that corroborated </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">this theory and became the starting point of experimental embryology</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">. He took 2- and 4- cell frog embryos </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">and destroyed half of the cells of each embryo with a hot needle. If the mosaic development theory was </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">correct then only half embryos would be formed because the remaing cells would only contain the </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">determinants for the characteristics of the cells of that type. Indeed the embryos that survived till the stage of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastrulation" target="_blank">gastrulation </a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">produced half-embryos which was a victory for the mosaic theory. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">T</span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.294118);">hree years later</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> Hans Dreisch, another of Haeckel's students, started experimenting with sea urchins trying to confirm Roux's findings while working at the Marine Biological Station in Naples. He chose sea urchins as his animal model because they have large embryo cells, and grow independently of their mothers. Dreich took a 2-cell embryo of a sea urchin and shook it in a beaker full of sea water until the two cells separated. He</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> expected each cell to develop into the corresponding half of the animal to which it has been destined or preprogrammed, but instead found that each developed into a complete sea urchin. This also happened at the 4-cell stage: physiological sea urchins were formed although they were smaller than usual. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <i style="line-height: 18px;">a</i><sub style="line-height: 18px;"><i>1</i></sub><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">and</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"> </span><i style="line-height: 18px;">b</i><sub style="line-height: 18px;"><i>1:</i></sub><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"> Normal gastrula and normal pluteus. </span><i style="line-height: 18px;">a</i><sub style="line-height: 18px;"><i>2</i></sub><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"> and </span><i style="line-height: 18px;">b</i><sub style="line-height: 18px;"><i>2:</i></sub><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"> “Half”—gastrula and “half”—pluteus, that </span><i style="line-height: 18px;">ought</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"> to result from one of the two first blastomeres, when isolated, according to the theory of “evolutio”. </span><i style="line-height: 18px;">a</i><sub style="line-height: 18px;"><i>3</i></sub><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"> and </span><i style="line-height: 18px;">b</i><sub style="line-height: 18px;"><i>3:</i></sub><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"> The small </span><i style="line-height: 18px;">but whole</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"> gastrula and pluteus, that actually </span><i style="line-height: 18px;">do</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"> result. </span><span style="line-height: 18px;"><i>Driesch's drawing t</i></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><i>aken from his Gilfford Lectur</i>e.</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK313XvIPvVCloITfm27eAEtM21-MGYV1wJ_uDHHZhI8RtOJ1R-tyoolDBhGnjTxgPo5Lsle2tgGpgatRzZvb1Axd5Mz_wmOPLWGOmKiMQohu0tGzUaKIWPdqWUU8sNduqdz1aMcFnHi0G/s1600/driesch+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK313XvIPvVCloITfm27eAEtM21-MGYV1wJ_uDHHZhI8RtOJ1R-tyoolDBhGnjTxgPo5Lsle2tgGpgatRzZvb1Axd5Mz_wmOPLWGOmKiMQohu0tGzUaKIWPdqWUU8sNduqdz1aMcFnHi0G/s200/driesch+%25281%2529.jpg" width="147" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">His experiments contradicted the mosaic theory but also resulted in him abandoning science. <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Driesch renounced the study of developmental physiology and became a philosophy professor few years later, in 1909,</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> proclaiming </span><b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitalism" target="_blank">vitalism</a></b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitalism" target="_blank"> </a>(the doctrine that living things cannot be explained by physical forces alone) until his</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> death in 1941.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzzAygr0FDXBFLx8101jr6z5xH24sGUQzwQKeSjZYrpNb3fUCequ4wbkmgi05nBzdpOf3-_EPuYZk5-p21sVRT2dFY1FxK-gc8_iBLeawbEdPUkgAqYlxkCDY_mW81O4GIAb7H07B_G9_j/s1600/spermann_cartoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzzAygr0FDXBFLx8101jr6z5xH24sGUQzwQKeSjZYrpNb3fUCequ4wbkmgi05nBzdpOf3-_EPuYZk5-p21sVRT2dFY1FxK-gc8_iBLeawbEdPUkgAqYlxkCDY_mW81O4GIAb7H07B_G9_j/s200/spermann_cartoon.jpg" width="200" /></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 1897, Hans Spemann started experimenting with salamander embryos<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18px;"> at the </span>University of Würzburg in Germany. He had been inspired by Weismann's book <i style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18px;">The Germ Plasm: A Theory of Heredity </i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18px;">which he had read one year earlier while guaranteed in the Alpes trying to recover from Tuberculosis. In 1902, trying to give an answer to the Roux-Driesch dispute</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> he used a revolutionary, but yet rather simple method, to divide embryo cells by constructing a nose with his baby daughter's hair. Spemann tied this loop around the middle of the jelly-like membrane that salamander embryos have and squeezed it so that the two divided cells were formed into opposite halves of the egg's membrane. From these two newly formed cells two identical salamander embryos were developed both of them whole and normal. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">Spemann had documented the first in-vitro animal clone!</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18px;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">He continued working with salamander embryos and with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilde_Mangold" target="_blank">Hilde Mangold</a> they published a series of ingenuous experiments in 1924. In one of them t</span><span style="background-color: white;">hey attempted the transfer of the </span>nucleus<span style="background-color: white;"> of a sixteen-cell embryo to a single salamander embryo cell with no nucleus. The cell took up the nucleus and developed into a normal salamander. With this process, Spemann and Mangold completed one of the first cloning experiments using the nuclear transfer method.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Original pictures from Spemann's experiments. Top: drawing from the brain of a double headed embryo, 1902. Bottom: Double headed embryos after an incomplete constriction along the first cleavage turrow, 1900.</span></div>
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Unfortunately, Hilde Mangold died at the same year from a gas heater explosion in her house. She didn't live to see her thesis on the salamander embryos' work get published neither the Nobel Prize that was awarded to her mentor Hans Spemann in 1935 for their revolutionary work.</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In 1938 Spemann published a book with his results entitled <b><i> </i></b><i>Embryonic Development and Induction. </i>He wondered whether cells that have already been differentiated would be able to form new organisms and speculated about the possibilty of creating a new organism by transferring the nucleus from a differentiated cell into an enucleated egg. As he explained it: "Decisive information about this question may perhaps be afforded by an experiment which appears, at first sight, to be somewhat <strong>fantastical</strong>. This experiment might possibly show that even nuclei of differentiated cells can initiate normal development in the egg protoplasms."</span></div>
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......<i>to be continued....</i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Further reading..</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">1. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; text-align: justify;">August Weismann: The Germ-Plasm: A Theory of Heredity translated by W. N. Parker in 1893</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">2.</span><a href="http://www.giffordlectures.org/Browse.asp?PubID=TPSAPO&Volume=0&Issue=0&ArticleID=4" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Dreisch's Gillford Lecture</a><span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-family: inherit;"> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dr. Ann A. Kiessling and Scott C. Anderson: </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/076372341X/scienceforpeo-20" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Human Embryonic Stem Cells: An Introduction to the Science and Therapeutic Potential</a></span><br />
<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37221/37221-h/37221-h.htm#Footnote_14_14" target="_blank">4. Oscar Hertwig: The Biological Problem of Today</a><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-family: inherit;"> </span>ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-19986137908781785492013-09-09T10:45:00.000+01:002017-10-14T21:14:38.585+01:00Is there finally going to be a drop OR a very emotional storyIn 1927 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor" title="Professor">Professor</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Parnell_%28scientist%29" title="Thomas Parnell (scientist)">Thomas Parnell</a> of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Queensland" title="University of Queensland">University of Queensland</a> in Brisbane,
Australia, set up an experiment to demonstrate to students that some substances that appear
to be solid are in fact very-high-viscosity fluids.<br />
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He used bitumen, also known as asphalt, a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum" title="Petroleum">petroleum</a>. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product; it is a substance classed as a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_%28resin%29" title="Pitch (resin)">pitch</a>. <br />
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Parnell poured a
heated sample of pitch into a sealed funnel
and allowed it to settle for three years. In 1930, the seal at the neck
of the funnel was cut, allowing the pitch to start flowing. A glass
dome covers the funnel and it is placed on display outside a lecture theater. It was named the <a href="http://smp.uq.edu.au/content/pitch-drop-experiment" target="_blank">pitch drop experiment</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The set up of the pitch drop experiment</td></tr>
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And then the experimenters would wait to watch pitch drops fall....<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFGGTIkE57VYVjdYsoTRgcZ4DdetHsX-RQC-afo2w_C42U-XHrSocGXD4IDJeqfVsWOyK4VywDjqZ6W-pbidxcGpPuSRqLZClginnjsqL4AM_qmnZJ40wkF0XTEXE46kk1ezZkdPG1AXVC/s1600/waiting1.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFGGTIkE57VYVjdYsoTRgcZ4DdetHsX-RQC-afo2w_C42U-XHrSocGXD4IDJeqfVsWOyK4VywDjqZ6W-pbidxcGpPuSRqLZClginnjsqL4AM_qmnZJ40wkF0XTEXE46kk1ezZkdPG1AXVC/s320/waiting1.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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and wait...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0WKdXtPEgEViJi9eYuqi4-fGxE_OS1y7XFJGDocIVhFelc3FD0xlxCQALfsQ5-nhEJevFyVD6BMSfukTofWutC-3azuhL6aC-ZlaVt9Q3UDSxVALxT3zNo01kbhXvdMn7-THGNEthN00N/s1600/waiting3.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0WKdXtPEgEViJi9eYuqi4-fGxE_OS1y7XFJGDocIVhFelc3FD0xlxCQALfsQ5-nhEJevFyVD6BMSfukTofWutC-3azuhL6aC-ZlaVt9Q3UDSxVALxT3zNo01kbhXvdMn7-THGNEthN00N/s320/waiting3.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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and wait.......</div>
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Only eight drop have emerged from the funnel in the past 83 years. The last one fell on 28 November 2000, allowing experimenters to calculate that the pitch has a viscosity approximately 230 billion (2.3<span style="margin: 0px 0.15em 0px 0.25em;">×</span>10<sup>11</sup>) times that of water. </div>
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The strange thing is that no one has ever seen a drop fall and excitement is rising as a ninth drop looks set to emerge from the pitch block in the very near future. "No one has actually seen a drop emerge, so it is getting quite nervy
round here," said Professor Mainstone, custodian of the experiment since 1960, when interviewed last April. "The other eight drops happened while
people had their backs turned. For the last drop, in 2000, we had a
webcam trained on the experiment, but it broke down … in 1988, when the
previous drop was about to emerge, I popped out for a coffee and missed
it. This time we have got several cameras trained on the pitch sample to
make sure we get a sight of it dropping. It will take only about a tenth
of a second, however. On the other hand, I am 78, and the next drop is
unlikely to fall for at least another 10 years, so this might be my last
chance to see it happen."</div>
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Unfortunately Professor John Mainstone will not witness the 9th pitch drop as he died on 23rd of August 2013 but his devotion to his cause and his perseverance is an inspiration for me and I hope for many others as well.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMZzwFH8bqzGPPuWy25galsdrpKY2xSu-HfbPd9KrxawOQP5S2zFJf7IhUgJcZVswXZdtEr2Q9Pd00w6ANH0O1CF3hAOQspjClsa5kmw9lOOYsUXfXNxXhUmVIHsnEZKR_c1hyphenhyphenZboe97iA/s1600/220px-Pitch_drop_experiment_with_John_Mainstone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMZzwFH8bqzGPPuWy25galsdrpKY2xSu-HfbPd9KrxawOQP5S2zFJf7IhUgJcZVswXZdtEr2Q9Pd00w6ANH0O1CF3hAOQspjClsa5kmw9lOOYsUXfXNxXhUmVIHsnEZKR_c1hyphenhyphenZboe97iA/s1600/220px-Pitch_drop_experiment_with_John_Mainstone.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Professor John Mainstone with the pitch drop experiment in 1990</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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The ninth drop hasn't still emerged..</div>
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<em>Very exciting update: </em>The ninth drop emerged on the 24th of April 2014. Faithfull to its previous cinematographic tradition it only fell when the new custodian of the experiment Prof Andrew White tried to change the beaker containing the previous eight drops. Apparently, it has been decided for the experiment to go on for another eighty years, so there will be plenty of time for more drops...or not??</div>
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<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-pife_1-0"></sup><br />
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<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-pife_1-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_drop_experiment#cite_note-pife-1"></a></sup><br />ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-13899588985541377132013-08-27T11:46:00.001+01:002013-09-08T10:07:40.713+01:00“Civilisation and the life of nations are governed by the same laws as prevail throughout nature and organic life.” *<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 22.390625px;">As you have probably guessed by now, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 22.390625px;"> people who are attempting to cross the boundaries between science and art impress me greatly</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 22.390625px;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeMsZONcv9jPf7aEeEC7gHv7rZNKT67TB5ZH_fQHZ9giR2pwQT_ndptJ8S5ED5d9oFXCATpcqzTuJKWwWQWZBvuUHeEy1h7Zxg5kr3CYQA1GEM4hS524cuFzlsiMc2YdsGq529evCrHfMe/s1600/haeckel_portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeMsZONcv9jPf7aEeEC7gHv7rZNKT67TB5ZH_fQHZ9giR2pwQT_ndptJ8S5ED5d9oFXCATpcqzTuJKWwWQWZBvuUHeEy1h7Zxg5kr3CYQA1GEM4hS524cuFzlsiMc2YdsGq529evCrHfMe/s200/haeckel_portrait.jpg" width="160" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 22.390625px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Haeckel" target="_blank">Ernst Haeckel</a> (1834-1919) was one of them. A</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 22.390625px;">lthough not many people recognise his name nowdays, he was t</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 22.390625px;">he most influential evolutionary theorist of his era; he</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"> discovered, described and named thousands of new </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; line-height: 19.1875px; text-decoration: none;" title="Species">species</a><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;">, mapped a </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogical" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; line-height: 19.1875px; text-decoration: none;" title="Genealogical">genealogical</a><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"> tree relating all life forms, and coined many terms in </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; line-height: 19.1875px; text-decoration: none;" title="Biology">biology</a><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;">, including</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"> </span><i style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;">ecology</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;">, </span><i style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phylogeny" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Phylogeny">phylogeny</a></i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;">, </span><i style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_cell" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Stem cell">stem cell</a></i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;">, and the kingdom </span><i style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protista" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Protista">Protista</a>.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 22.390625px;">Moreover he is responsible for the prints of the Art Forms of Nature (</span><i style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;">Kunstformen der Natur),</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;">translated from sketch to print by lithographer Adolf Giltsc</span><i style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"><b>. </b></i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"> Originally published in sets of ten between 1899 and 1904,</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"> it consists of 100 prints of various organisms, many of which were first described by Haeckel himself, and enjoyed a very broad audience at its time. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW2somzH6xrxyOK35a4dR9nHG_zVRpHfGOxpVqBOx3-sROEGjG8aaxNKbn9k-b5t_4KHmzkx3v7HsYRGsIGbiSMwyRCvy99OyhCMbUgvdtSWsD3oq8gqNtNh-KFMKAqMwQT0MW6OBmAEM8/s1600/%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1(6).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW2somzH6xrxyOK35a4dR9nHG_zVRpHfGOxpVqBOx3-sROEGjG8aaxNKbn9k-b5t_4KHmzkx3v7HsYRGsIGbiSMwyRCvy99OyhCMbUgvdtSWsD3oq8gqNtNh-KFMKAqMwQT0MW6OBmAEM8/s640/%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1(6).JPG" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_roHQ1qc-L41UEIaOYdZqLnl1IHjLO1Z2-qqvfeIEZIlOBWYGhMdIwAhgEZZGZm4aaZlGXK_zMcyv0y-Vb6yZrITfZ4WzANb79qYoQcudXxyusT7CYUTN3igw9sf10SG-I1VHNDgH9_qc/s1600/haeckel_prints2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_roHQ1qc-L41UEIaOYdZqLnl1IHjLO1Z2-qqvfeIEZIlOBWYGhMdIwAhgEZZGZm4aaZlGXK_zMcyv0y-Vb6yZrITfZ4WzANb79qYoQcudXxyusT7CYUTN3igw9sf10SG-I1VHNDgH9_qc/s640/haeckel_prints2.jpg" width="425" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;">In his prints Haeckel has attempted to portray nature as an art form in itself focused on its symmetry and organisation. Many artists of the 21st century have been influenced by Art Forms' prints; from </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.65625px;"> from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Rockman" target="_blank">Alexis Rockman</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Taaffe" target="_blank">Philip Taaffe</a>, who have borrowed from Haeckel's prints directly; to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Ross" target="_blank">Alex Ross</a>, Karen Arm, and <a href="http://triciakeightley.com/home.html" target="_blank">Tricia Keightley</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.65625px;">A contemporary artist directly influenced by Haeckel's prints is <a href="http://roganbrown.com/home.html" target="_blank">Rogan Brown</a>. He creates paper sculptures</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">re-presenting </span><span style="background-color: white;">both mineral and vege</span><span style="background-color: white;">tal </span><span style="background-color: white;">natural organic forms</span><span style="background-color: white;">.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> His work looks very complex and intricate and very delicate at the same time.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh7oQs86R1uBJfeWqELHp11UV_k6mE02BpKu_kkl68cXFusd1DKfpTntizSgSC1dbC70kt8Pn2MoIF3rZwa543oZ9NFCjzu6MZ_q5kKfiBZr_QKrBXi2_ENzk6nkjimQdMtnn2h3eUWnVh/s1600/rogan_cutpod.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh7oQs86R1uBJfeWqELHp11UV_k6mE02BpKu_kkl68cXFusd1DKfpTntizSgSC1dbC70kt8Pn2MoIF3rZwa543oZ9NFCjzu6MZ_q5kKfiBZr_QKrBXi2_ENzk6nkjimQdMtnn2h3eUWnVh/s320/rogan_cutpod.jpg" width="176" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div id="artwork_info">
<div id="artwork_media">
<span class="accent">Cut Pod</span>, 2013 Handcut Paper</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLDlMlKOTx4iHL8RbGBhSl7Yyu1OraVDeAu7Q_uk56YncCRpE-UtQROPTWF29j3cxftVfkzIylx1Q4ODiTUA6MGEPQB5AuQrODGNGGsMCWENF_FiAHlwgLiykPWXvKULqnKZO2E0QlKClY/s1600/rogan_kernel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLDlMlKOTx4iHL8RbGBhSl7Yyu1OraVDeAu7Q_uk56YncCRpE-UtQROPTWF29j3cxftVfkzIylx1Q4ODiTUA6MGEPQB5AuQrODGNGGsMCWENF_FiAHlwgLiykPWXvKULqnKZO2E0QlKClY/s320/rogan_kernel.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kernel, 2013, Hand cut paper<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhreHESEsWS5oKMNgdM7fJLLGI6VwB9g9ycyFlggnUpPbifEztGpuuMZXKm4S0bV8NdEDY6BzJw_qxZEryA_enF-hSZDZfrVSR1yK8pRdSxOfH4_Eik9OQFbJSh3MnYDJIGJTVpru6YFTsV/s1600/rogan_spore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhreHESEsWS5oKMNgdM7fJLLGI6VwB9g9ycyFlggnUpPbifEztGpuuMZXKm4S0bV8NdEDY6BzJw_qxZEryA_enF-hSZDZfrVSR1yK8pRdSxOfH4_Eik9OQFbJSh3MnYDJIGJTVpru6YFTsV/s320/rogan_spore.jpg" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="autoscroll" id="info_and_description">
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<span class="accent">Spore, </span>2013, Handcut paper sculpture
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.390625px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.390625px;"><i> * Quote by Ernst Haeckel</i></span><br />
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<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"></sup><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; line-height: 18.6562px;">For further reading on the influence of Haeckel's prints on 21st century artists read:</span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">David Brody, "Ernst Haeckel and the Microbial Baroque"</span></span> <a href="http://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/7/ernsthaeckel.php">http://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/7/ernsthaeckel.php</a>ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-70820244375313945562013-05-30T14:43:00.000+01:002017-10-14T21:11:41.159+01:00"Don't tell me the moon is shining, show me the glint of light on broken glass"*<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">T4 bacteriophage virus. This virus infects E. coli bacteria and has been seen to have potential
as a therapy against multi drug resistant strains of many bacteria. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">H1N1 influenza virus, commonly referred to as “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swine_flu" title="Swine flu">swine flu</a>“.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmNtYdb4XD-v9ABkUxTVYucDLysbLuETFul3yG_jI8R_hW3BLVK-UtIBdm01bHF2GDgAS_LFo0iNie_ibyGiJfBHEM7sVFE_CC4od-H1TC6e5kuJZNRv3ZhEV9GVm1L9GV0lBU7gVHHLbv/s1600/%25CF%2586%25CF%2589%25CF%2584%25CE%25BF%25CE%25B3%25CF%2581%25CE%25B1%25CF%2586%25CE%25AF%25CE%25B1%25283%2529.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmNtYdb4XD-v9ABkUxTVYucDLysbLuETFul3yG_jI8R_hW3BLVK-UtIBdm01bHF2GDgAS_LFo0iNie_ibyGiJfBHEM7sVFE_CC4od-H1TC6e5kuJZNRv3ZhEV9GVm1L9GV0lBU7gVHHLbv/s640/%25CF%2586%25CF%2589%25CF%2584%25CE%25BF%25CE%25B3%25CF%2581%25CE%25B1%25CF%2586%25CE%25AF%25CE%25B1%25283%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adenoviruses are a group of viruses that cause respiratory
(breathing) illnesses, such as a common cold, conjunctivitis (an
infection in the eye), croup and bronchitis.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Escherichia coli, commonly abbreviated E. coli,
is a rod-shaped bacterium that is commonly found in the
lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms. Ec892894 is one of them! </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">EC892894's self portrait currently shown in MoMA in NY, USA</td></tr>
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You can see more about Luke Jerram's amazing work <a href="http://www.lukejerram.com/glass/" target="_blank">here.</a><br />
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*Anton Chekhovec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-23233997057237707712013-05-28T12:20:00.000+01:002017-10-14T21:09:57.535+01:00"Bobby from school said science is a sham and shouldn't be taken seriously"Today ec892894 and sc3439 are giving their place to some different science-related comic strips.<br />
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Since 2006 the <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/about/" target="_blank">Union of Concerned Scientists </a>has been organizing a cartoon contest about the challenges and the strains of the relationship between science and society. These strips then form the Editorial Cartoon Calendar of the Union.This year it is an <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/science_idol/2013-cartoon-contest-contestants.html" target="_blank">All-Star Contest</a> among the best strips of the past seven years.<br />
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We proudly present our 8 all time favorites. Which are yours?<br />
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Unfortunately, I couldn't find many details about the contestants but they all manage to do a very sharp and to the point criticism of the public misconceptions of science. Hats off to them!ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-82225130493510372762012-12-11T11:18:00.001+00:002017-10-14T20:38:39.223+01:00A tale of the city OR time-travelling in the history of Pathology in London2012 is the National Pathology Year and the Royal College of Pathologists is suggesting <a href="http://www.rcpath.org/Resources/PDF/rcp_tour_crp.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="color: #999999;">a tour of places in London</span></span></a> that are of major importance in the history of Pathology. The tour includes the <a href="http://www.imperial.nhs.uk/aboutus/museumsandarchives/index.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: #999999;">Fleming</span></a> and the <a href="http://www.hunterianmuseum.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #999999;">Hunterian </span></a>Museums, the <a href="http://www.rcpath.org/the-college/guide-to-the-college" target="_blank"><span style="color: #999999;">Royal College of Pathology</span></a> (duh!), passing by the plaque of<span style="color: #999999;"> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Simpson_%28pathologist%29" target="_blank"><span style="color: #999999;">Prof Cedric Keith Simpson</span></a></span>, famous for "carrying out more post mortem examinations than anyone else in the world" and entering the National Portrait Gallery to admire the portraits of <a href="http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp06449/sir-edward-abraham" target="_blank"><span style="color: #999999;">Sir Edward Abraham</span></a>, <a href="http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp08463/dame-barbara-clayton?search=sas&sText=barbara+clayton&OConly=true" target="_blank"><span style="color: #999999;">Dame Barbara Evelyn Clayton</span></a>,<span style="color: #cccccc;"> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lister,_1st_Baron_Lister" target="_blank"><span style="color: #999999;">Sir Joseph Lister</span></a></span> and many more.<br />
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Inspired by this tour, I embarked on a slightly altered pathology-in-the-capital expedition.<br />
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I started from the <a href="http://www.thegarret.org.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #999999;">Old Operating Theater Museum</span></a> in London Bridge. The entire museum is at the roof of St Thomas church, built in 1703, which was then part of St Thomas' hospital. At that time, the rich people would get treated at home and only the poor people would seek medical treatment at the hospitals. The surgeons of early 19th century would perform amputations, removal of bladder stones or small operations in the human skulls (tephinations). However, anesthetics and antiseptic conditions were introduced quite later, in 1846 and 1865 respectively, so I can only imagine how a surgery would be before that.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture of how an operation used to be before anesthetics, amputation saws and bandages.</td></tr>
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The operating theater in the museum is the oldest surviving in Europe, built in 1822.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The operating theater. Picture taken from the museum's website.</td></tr>
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Apart from the theater, you can also see a collection of surgical objects and an apothecary of the medications that were used at that time.<br />
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The museum has the coolest entrance (see picture below) and the steepest staircase I've ever seen and it's definitely worth the visit. <br />
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The next destination was quite different. The well-hidden <a href="http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/cms/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #999999;">Florence Nightingale museum</span></a> is dedicated to the life of the famous nurse, or the "Lady with the Lamp" as she has been called but also tries to give a broader description of the condition of the hospitals at that time.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj78aavAQ9udYB9H2_snj1JrqeGMm_o6F9EANzThYeiFYBo7UKiZwEtBzufkwbftT07A1FWrAuIW36d4-cAIndpETcD59KgK-4XRmJpnRldAZOAgyuCeBw07e6O0XeqyusIriSXk9mmGEc/s1600/n.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj78aavAQ9udYB9H2_snj1JrqeGMm_o6F9EANzThYeiFYBo7UKiZwEtBzufkwbftT07A1FWrAuIW36d4-cAIndpETcD59KgK-4XRmJpnRldAZOAgyuCeBw07e6O0XeqyusIriSXk9mmGEc/s320/n.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bed book by Susan Stockwell. A ghostly mattress formed by pages from Nightingale''s own book, notes on nursing, her biographies as well as hospital litterature.</td></tr>
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The museum is a very pleasant space and by involving interactive media is trying to help us understand what the life of this amazing woman involved.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRoHL5fPODYi-_9qR-kIYHY_lMmKrEfT5NmxxiKSIXMBQaLDIZ9ej4tp6ZWif5Hw8Vi4Bi9zmYDBBHFNf3LFzdZJ69uF9_xzqgSJXiZGacbX17PXHXxdewzvhTkPr4soZwktDbgIU0fa1e/s1600/trypes.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRoHL5fPODYi-_9qR-kIYHY_lMmKrEfT5NmxxiKSIXMBQaLDIZ9ej4tp6ZWif5Hw8Vi4Bi9zmYDBBHFNf3LFzdZJ69uF9_xzqgSJXiZGacbX17PXHXxdewzvhTkPr4soZwktDbgIU0fa1e/s320/trypes.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We peeped through small holes.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDgsxqVbdyeW719RXCEgJgqmpKq8tSpVl1hMYaR8Uijtq0jLuYe36VY3siesRWJDh0TNZwD2c6vCCUJYkKxwysvHEYrYS-eI7h0ML2wIiiOrzqytLlZwepswdNIuxMn6TGVpQ6XY3e-QJJ/s1600/game.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDgsxqVbdyeW719RXCEgJgqmpKq8tSpVl1hMYaR8Uijtq0jLuYe36VY3siesRWJDh0TNZwD2c6vCCUJYkKxwysvHEYrYS-eI7h0ML2wIiiOrzqytLlZwepswdNIuxMn6TGVpQ6XY3e-QJJ/s320/game.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tried to imagine what we would do if we were Florence Nightingale (not very successfully..)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjLp8oBzMl3q12c4u4gqLAs7IW4YmT2RsyerhwVYhR7lc52AQs87-p7D011RdZ0BJYAMz8zwHZw-RZT3FGSyghZRCcFq1ZI2fLwN2IPFqXr55-AgChf8fHUxqJ1nNygg6BoPyTs9VSCxUs/s1600/audio.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjLp8oBzMl3q12c4u4gqLAs7IW4YmT2RsyerhwVYhR7lc52AQs87-p7D011RdZ0BJYAMz8zwHZw-RZT3FGSyghZRCcFq1ZI2fLwN2IPFqXr55-AgChf8fHUxqJ1nNygg6BoPyTs9VSCxUs/s320/audio.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heard the story of the Crimean War from its heroes and used very cool audio. </td></tr>
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My tour ended at the John Snow pub. <br />
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-<i>Wait...wait...Do you mean this Jon Snow?</i><br />
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-<i>Noo..I mean this John Snow</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvs0eq5YfhyphenhyphenH_vB0QfTYU61Ba1eAdwpKhDw8y8wlkOBdfi0g11b52GyJR7vXhxe9bxVkgHEMUPSmeSLuVzOT2yhskN2kQvIuZi_HgFLV7IL2MY1ktTvlkEy6UAI_fCk-tjhFBXDq-mARCg/s1600/John_Snow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvs0eq5YfhyphenhyphenH_vB0QfTYU61Ba1eAdwpKhDw8y8wlkOBdfi0g11b52GyJR7vXhxe9bxVkgHEMUPSmeSLuVzOT2yhskN2kQvIuZi_HgFLV7IL2MY1ktTvlkEy6UAI_fCk-tjhFBXDq-mARCg/s200/John_Snow.jpg" width="153" /></a></div>
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The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow_%28physician%29" target="_blank"><span style="color: #999999;">famous physician </span></a>who traced the source of the most intense cholera outbreak in Victorian London and is considered to be one of the fathers of modern epidemiology. He analysed the geography of water supply and mortality patterns in Soho. He noticed that nearly 500 people infected by cholera were living in houses within a few blocks of a single water pump on Broad Street (now Broadwick and Lexington Street). This pump drew water from the heavily contaminated urban stretch of the Thames as well as a nearby well. John Snow associated the pump with the cholera outbreak and the pump handle was removed soon after. The pump used to be at the side entrance of the John Snow pub. <br />
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I have to say that his pathology-in-the-town tour was really enjoyable as it introduced me to all these people who helped to change the history of medicine and to a time when receiving medical treatment was a luxury.<br />
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<br />ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-23533401766415806112012-11-22T18:22:00.004+00:002017-10-14T21:07:23.732+01:00Super-mice!Once upon a time...there was<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"> <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://marvel.com/universe/Wolverine_%28James_Howlett%29" target="_blank">Wolverine</a></span></span>...<br />
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He could climb...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl39dqdY0j8-vElj16t8Q_lPYYmZ6A7Nh0HWyxaJ15Q9hjT-QqjChistaVCWnbM2RJ2kMnCfO-U3P13NKpc7trVoRsUALdNOqh5c6_QBqQYx73jTU-KtP_0ZRvr7_OfH4npHdkJp5mBenK/s1600/werineclimbs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl39dqdY0j8-vElj16t8Q_lPYYmZ6A7Nh0HWyxaJ15Q9hjT-QqjChistaVCWnbM2RJ2kMnCfO-U3P13NKpc7trVoRsUALdNOqh5c6_QBqQYx73jTU-KtP_0ZRvr7_OfH4npHdkJp5mBenK/s640/werineclimbs.jpg" width="281" /></a></div>
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he could run...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtCWESRR17_o1JCgKaUaRY0U0DeCspwno2fWnVaTedqnjbQx26MWlamSqgm9KS30OKpDYj10HFa4yvtyR7mVr5oVRmOgzJ_4i971_zlVYcKOzwpKU8C7OI4jHlyH2wf0GROIjaR37yfStT/s1600/wolverine_running.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtCWESRR17_o1JCgKaUaRY0U0DeCspwno2fWnVaTedqnjbQx26MWlamSqgm9KS30OKpDYj10HFa4yvtyR7mVr5oVRmOgzJ_4i971_zlVYcKOzwpKU8C7OI4jHlyH2wf0GROIjaR37yfStT/s320/wolverine_running.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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and you couldn't hurt him because he would heal fast.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqJgvtv8wwPOSSTwGcgckRW7gJm_75_XkY_hiZ7aEWgEZ7-TY18OmYLNoFStXAiZrfQUKWHB5xJTOaBwan8ZMzzBzL1vNyPQFFkMFVwuUIO6U1O26iFw81LWu7RhcAnh8o0nRT3ZPwoeRj/s1600/wolverinehealing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqJgvtv8wwPOSSTwGcgckRW7gJm_75_XkY_hiZ7aEWgEZ7-TY18OmYLNoFStXAiZrfQUKWHB5xJTOaBwan8ZMzzBzL1vNyPQFFkMFVwuUIO6U1O26iFw81LWu7RhcAnh8o0nRT3ZPwoeRj/s640/wolverinehealing.jpg" width="555" /></a></div>
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But now Wolverine is scared...he is scared of the Kemp’s spiny mice. <br />
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Because the Kemp’s spiny mice..<br />
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can climb... <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkVAGVK5A5K4PgtjRgzJR6cukXk5Qtv4sHhpc65r1wGb_JOMNLcW-Jv8ybsZpRQqs7Vgpzeb4d-_fgp6tBnW6y29SefheZpBgVOG53fgxSI_mR2kVZ7OkVAl670WthquRcwHral2I2tvo0/s1600/spinyclimbing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkVAGVK5A5K4PgtjRgzJR6cukXk5Qtv4sHhpc65r1wGb_JOMNLcW-Jv8ybsZpRQqs7Vgpzeb4d-_fgp6tBnW6y29SefheZpBgVOG53fgxSI_mR2kVZ7OkVAl670WthquRcwHral2I2tvo0/s320/spinyclimbing.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
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can run...<br />
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and certainly can heal very fast.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><i><u><br /></u></i>
</span><span style="background-color: #999999;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v489/n7417/full/nature11499.html" target="_blank">Ashley Seifert and his collaborators at the University of Florida, USA, have shown that two species of African spiny mouse (Acomys kempi and Acomys percivali) are the only mammals known to date that are capable of skin autotomy</a></span><u>. </u></span></span><span style="background-color: white;">That means that these animals can easily shed their skin, usually as a self-defense mechanism trying to elude</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span>a predator, and their skin can re-grow later. <br />
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In their experiments, the skin of the mice would tear very easily under low tension and hair follicle would regenerate fast in the wounds. What is even more interesting is that the <i>Acomys</i> mice were shown to be able to heal ear holes, where the hair follicles, sebaceous glands, skin and cartilage would be completely regenerated.<br />
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If I was Wolverine I would have lost my sleep by now as a new super-hero is discovered!<br />
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Further reading:<span class="fn"> </span><br />
<span class="fn">Ashley W. Seifert</span><span class="comma">,</span><span class="fn"> Stephen G. Kiama</span><span class="comma">,</span><span class="fn"> Megan G. Seifert</span><span class="comma">,</span><span class="fn"> Jacob R. Goheen</span><span class="comma">,</span><span class="fn"> Todd M. Palmer</span>, <span class="fn">Malcolm Maden</span>. 2012. Skin shedding
and tissue regeneration in African spiny mice (Acomys). Nature <span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature11499">http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature11499</a></span></span><br />
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<br />ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-67144816280222554442012-10-20T01:07:00.000+01:002017-10-14T21:05:19.684+01:00Taming steam power<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
This post is about a completely different subject than what we normally write. You see, neither me nor<span style="background-color: white;"> <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "trebuchet" , "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 16px;">ec892894 and sc3439</span></span> know
much about engineering but we attempted to write a post to honor Thomas Newcomen and his engine that contributed significantly to the industrial
progress of the last 300 years. <br />
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300 years ago the first steam engine was installed at a coalmine at Dudley
Castle in Staffordshire, UK.</div>
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The engine could pump 45 liters of water a minute from a depth of 50 meters and, by pumping away dangerous levels of water, enabled mining at greater depths and made coal cheaper and more available. This invention kick-started the industrial revolution in Britain.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzknGuxgE-_UnPxe_r6_Td5m_IXju4efZxeJ21PhkOXiSVAiWELQINOdRmU3mQAOCLo28hkwutbcbvPQz0KxTveChFzIhkO2FBJ-0bvR7WAXusNGCVjKtp7C2GOqj6C7P2Rvh9KGz725_h/s1600/Newcomen_stamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzknGuxgE-_UnPxe_r6_Td5m_IXju4efZxeJ21PhkOXiSVAiWELQINOdRmU3mQAOCLo28hkwutbcbvPQz0KxTveChFzIhkO2FBJ-0bvR7WAXusNGCVjKtp7C2GOqj6C7P2Rvh9KGz725_h/s1600/Newcomen_stamp.jpg" /></a></div>
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At the late seventeenth century the standard methods to remove the water from the mines was manual pumping or horses hauling buckets on a rope. At the same time, several people were experimenting with steam power and vacuums. In the late 1670s, the French<i><u> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Papin" target="_blank">Denis Papin</a></u></i> invented a “steam digester”, an early form of pressure
cooker. Twenty years later, he built a model of the first steam piston engine. Meanwhile, English military engineer <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Savery" target="_blank">Thomas Savery</a></i> invented a primitive form of steam engine for pumping water. However, it presented a lot of problems and could draw water only from 9 meters deep.</div>
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Thomas Newcomen, an English blacksmith from Dartmouth, was influenced by both inventors and, with his partner John Calley, started experimenting on building an effective steam engine for raising water from deep mines.</div>
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He
devised a model of an atmospheric engine, which employed both
low-pressure steam and atmospheric pressure. In his system, a boiler produced
steam which drove a piston upward. A valve then sealed the piston
chamber from the boiler and cold water was pumped into the piston
chamber that condensed the steam, dropped the pressure and pulled the
piston back down. The vertical motion of the piston moved a beam which pivoted on a
central fulcrum, with the other side of the beam being attached to a chain that went down into the mine to the water pump.The beam was heavier on the main pump side with gravity pulling down that
side of the beam. Once the piston was pulled down, the valve was reopened and the process repeated. It was the
first practical engine to use a piston in a cylinder. A very good animation of Newman's engine can be found<u><i> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20%20http://www.animatedengines.com/newcomen.html" target="_blank">here</a></i></u>.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg832CBNkaufu9zF79YoB9QNHR7ULhckYv00G2Soy8FFOCxbAPABmQ1KdYavhPWgpxWqkIUTW1IzB0ysurS85ZWR7aKv738m984j-8WXMyk33tCbVNXt61n_86cUw5QXrZfhSvpeT3wezUs/s1600/220px-Newcomen6325.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg832CBNkaufu9zF79YoB9QNHR7ULhckYv00G2Soy8FFOCxbAPABmQ1KdYavhPWgpxWqkIUTW1IzB0ysurS85ZWR7aKv738m984j-8WXMyk33tCbVNXt61n_86cUw5QXrZfhSvpeT3wezUs/s400/220px-Newcomen6325.png" width="306" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Diagram of a Newcomen's engine. The picture was taken from www.wikipedia.com</span></td></tr>
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Thomas Newcomen died on August 5, 1729, in London. However, Newcomen's engine was used to drain mines for many years. It was later modified, around 1769, by James Watt, a Scottish inventor
and engineer, who created a steam condenser that increased the efficiency of
the engine. Despite Watt's improvements, Common Engines (as they were called)
remained in use for a considerable time. Finally, the Watt engine almost entirely replaced the Newcomen engine by 1790.</div>
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In July, several events are being organised in Devon to celebrate the 300 anniversary of<i> <a href="http://www.devonmuseums.net/Celebration-week-of-Thomas-Newcomen-300th-anniversary-of--the-first-successful-engine/Events/" target="_blank">the first steam engine</a>.</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , "helvetica"; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-78375140380051336592012-10-17T15:07:00.000+01:002017-10-14T21:02:36.424+01:00A Tale of the city OR When art and physics jiggle.....the <i><a href="http://jigglingatoms.org/" target="_blank">Jiggling Atoms</a> </i>exhibition is created.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtGIBKDavfmaIWTVz-lWEe2XhrXcxz5mlG6Kx2C-xadXXGh8NOSwGQA9GbPyjAt7E1Eps70MzXDR19gFnzyF4mCwn5hR3nRikmTDPylt2PKsXDLdX1XMx9NMP5ygMA5Gn0_gApDK2R3CUd/s1600/equation.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtGIBKDavfmaIWTVz-lWEe2XhrXcxz5mlG6Kx2C-xadXXGh8NOSwGQA9GbPyjAt7E1Eps70MzXDR19gFnzyF4mCwn5hR3nRikmTDPylt2PKsXDLdX1XMx9NMP5ygMA5Gn0_gApDK2R3CUd/s200/equation.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
Jiggling Atoms was the most interesting science-related artistic exhibition that I have seen for a long time.<br />
<br />
It is the baby of a collaboration between artists and physicists. 25 artists attended a series of lectures in Physics at Imperial College and then tried to explain and interpret some of the phenomena through their art.<br />
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The exhibition took part in the<i><a href="http://www.ragfactory.org.uk/" target="_blank"> Rag factory</a></i> in Bricklane. It was a little different from the usual exhibitions that involve science as there were<br />
<br />
cocktails<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_0Ae0_m2Q8PvNBmZvcpi-mbNx-wMRkMPjM59f_bN4A_iQSBgLD84SP16t9ATDz2TWuwslnW5TGOC6ibhXRaae7b_3-suExyMGvaH-vbzg76-r6J8N1LhW1ZDYsHMEGZ61Uce4VNa2piVX/s1600/drinks+%282%29.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_0Ae0_m2Q8PvNBmZvcpi-mbNx-wMRkMPjM59f_bN4A_iQSBgLD84SP16t9ATDz2TWuwslnW5TGOC6ibhXRaae7b_3-suExyMGvaH-vbzg76-r6J8N1LhW1ZDYsHMEGZ61Uce4VNa2piVX/s320/drinks+(2).JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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and music<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhos5bNIafOb2AYyMB__3OJU1Cl87TwuzMIwisP5q0__Kr7BrSzJGDq-vB5kN5v1DcPdErfjvUBE80b2vIJ4To0X4Mct1HfAk64510apFGkvey1o1K4vBc0tQwDe2pw001wtMLfuhlETpji/s1600/music+%282%29.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhos5bNIafOb2AYyMB__3OJU1Cl87TwuzMIwisP5q0__Kr7BrSzJGDq-vB5kN5v1DcPdErfjvUBE80b2vIJ4To0X4Mct1HfAk64510apFGkvey1o1K4vBc0tQwDe2pw001wtMLfuhlETpji/s320/music+(2).JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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that made us relax and want to interact more.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCRtHj_O-87_ui-xf_d_HHEaUy2ECELPZxwHmK8w8fu8FaReRDmEd6FLcBg92Ox4PYIfJ9jeYBWiTuR1lR3yRL0b8U_GMrIfgnKTHETo3ydjH82azPJy2y_wrdb18HuimEe1cVqMmkKXVz/s1600/interact.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCRtHj_O-87_ui-xf_d_HHEaUy2ECELPZxwHmK8w8fu8FaReRDmEd6FLcBg92Ox4PYIfJ9jeYBWiTuR1lR3yRL0b8U_GMrIfgnKTHETo3ydjH82azPJy2y_wrdb18HuimEe1cVqMmkKXVz/s320/interact.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The work of the artists was interesting and inspiring, made me think, introduced me to unknown physical phenomena and terms and made me want to learn more.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1NF4JgksUGnuSnXBPp54ubEQ4kpSlNgf3ScvHbZJhGT3Z-GfUcwJciGx2LiYhUmqht5TegUg5LU6zsiU26MBPHYHSTUNlahz70cmXFklOJiN9AYAn2XCjxB-3khHP65zFW7M1zhS5CtkA/s1600/artists.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1NF4JgksUGnuSnXBPp54ubEQ4kpSlNgf3ScvHbZJhGT3Z-GfUcwJciGx2LiYhUmqht5TegUg5LU6zsiU26MBPHYHSTUNlahz70cmXFklOJiN9AYAn2XCjxB-3khHP65zFW7M1zhS5CtkA/s400/artists.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I went back home satisfied that night. And a little tipsy I might say.ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-13279722244889447622012-10-03T13:50:00.001+01:002017-10-14T21:01:06.789+01:00Flying frogs, flirtitious ostriches and dogs-to-human translation devices<div style="text-align: justify;">
Inspired by the recent <i><a href="http://www.improbable.com/ig/2012/" target="_blank">IgNobel award ceremony</a></i>, I prepared a list of the 17 most interesting prizes given since 1991, when this institution was initiated.</div>
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According to the organisers: "The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people <b>laugh</b>,
and then make them <b>think</b>. The prizes are intended to celebrate
the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people's interest in science,
medicine, and technology."</div>
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The Ig Nobels are a tribute to scientists who have dedicated their time
in answering "smaller" scientific questions or are highlighting absurd
discoveries that natural world throws up to them. The 10 prizes, the categories differ from year to year, are not only given to scientists but they are also a type of criticism of what is happening around us. The Ig Nobels are not funny, it is the combination of the work of the winners with the
type of the prize that they are awarded and the justification given
that can make one laugh.</div>
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So, here is my list (in a random order):</div>
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<b>Management prize, 2010:</b> Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea
Rapisarda, and Cesare Garofalo of the University of Catania, Italy,<i> <a href="http://oldweb.ct.infn.it/cactus/peter_principle_sup_material.html" target="_blank">for demonstrating mathematically that organizations would become more efficient if they promoted people at random</a></i>.</div>
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<b>Linguistics prize</b><b>, 2007:</b> Juan Manuel Toro, Josep B. Trobalon and Núria Sebastián-Gallés,
of Universitat de Barcelona, for<a href="http://neurociencia.df.uba.ar/publico/curso_lenguaje_papers/nespor_mehler_otros/toro_BK_speech_rats.pdf" target="_blank"> <i>showing that rats sometimes cannot tell the difference between a person speaking Japanese backwards and a person speaking Dutch backwards</i></a><i>.</i></div>
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<b>Physics</b><b>, 2003</b>: Jack Harvey, John Culvenor, Warren Payne, Steve Cowley, Michael Lawrance, David Stuart, and Robyn Williams of Australia, for their irresistible report "<i><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003687002000716" target="_blank">An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep over Various Surfaces</a></i>."</div>
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<b>Biology, 2003:</b> Ben Wilson of the University of British Columbia, Lawrence Dill of Simon Fraser University [Canada], Robert Batty of the Scottish Association for Marine Science, Magnus Whalberg of the University of Aarhus [Denmark], and Hakan Westerberg of Sweden's National Board of Fisheries, for showing that <i><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1809969/" target="_blank">herrings apparently</a> <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0990744003000172" target="_blank">communicate by farting.</a></i></div>
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<b>Biology, 2002</b>:
N. Bubier, Charles G.M. Paxton, Phil Bowers, and D. Charles Deeming of the United Kingdom, for their report "<i><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00071669888629" target="_blank">Courtship Behaviour of Ostriches Towards Humans Under Farming Conditions in Britain</a>.</i>"</div>
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<b>Economics</b>, <b>2001</b>: Joel Slemrod, of the University of Michigan Business School, and Wojciech Kopczuk,
of University of British Columbia [and who has since moved to Columbia University],
for their conclusion that<a href="http://www.columbia.edu/~wk2110/papers/dying.html" target="_blank"> <i>people find a way to postpone their deaths if that would qualify them for a lower rate on the inheritance tax</i></a><i>. </i></div>
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<b>Technology, 2001</b>:
Awarded jointly to John Keogh of Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia, for patenting the wheel in the year 2001, and to the Australian Patent Office for granting him Innovation Patent #2001100012.</div>
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<b>Psychology, 2000</b>: David Dunning of Cornell University and Justin Kruger of the University of Illinois, for their modest report, "<i>U<a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1999-15054-002" target="_blank">nskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments.</a></i>"</div>
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<b>Physics, 2000</b>: Andre Geim of the University of Nijmegen, Netherlands, and Sir Michael Berry of Bristol University, UK, for u<i><a href="http://www.physics.bristol.ac.uk/people/berry_mv/the_papers/Berry285.pdf" target="_blank">sing magnets to levitate a frog</a></i>. </div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Andre Geim won also a Nobel Prize in Physics, in 2010, for his work on graphene. On his Nobel Prize lecture he said about the frog experiment: "...With this idea in mind and, allegedly, on a Friday night, I poured water inside the lab’s electromagnet when it was at its maximum power. Pouring water in one's equipment is certainly not a standard scientific approach, and I cannot recall why I behaved so ‘unprofessionally’. Apparently, no one had tried such a silly thing before, although similar facilities existed in several places around the world for decades. To my surprise, water did not end up on the floor but got stuck in the vertical bore of the magnet...As a result, we saw balls of levitating water. This was awesome. It took little time to realise that the physics behind was good old diamagnetism..Out of the many objects that we had floating inside the magnet, it was the image of a levitating frog that started the media hype</span>".</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSrh4-B98o1MZax7yx0byI7bKP3hbOYC0RMLiPnb96oxqSz2Qz_j932fDbhP2cmDUkjDtXVaMAHrvCNRLqbfcOKnuvHwFEEq6XQ_gLokbwiSsapecN-PC5IWmQ_TzRTXhiBHVEk9y1C58E/s1600/levitatedfrog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSrh4-B98o1MZax7yx0byI7bKP3hbOYC0RMLiPnb96oxqSz2Qz_j932fDbhP2cmDUkjDtXVaMAHrvCNRLqbfcOKnuvHwFEEq6XQ_gLokbwiSsapecN-PC5IWmQ_TzRTXhiBHVEk9y1C58E/s320/levitatedfrog.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flying frog</td></tr>
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<b>Chemistry,</b> <b>2000</b>:
Donatella Marazziti, Alessandra Rossi, and Giovanni B. Cassano of the University of Pisa, and Hagop S. Akiskal of the University of California, for their discovery that,<i> <a href="http://www.biopsychiatry.com/lovesero.htm" target="_blank">biochemically, romantic love may be indistinguishable from having severe obsessive-compulsive disorder</a></i>.</div>
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<b>Statistics, 1998</b>: Jerald Bain of Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto and Kerry Siminoski of the University of Alberta for
their carefully measured report, "<i><a href="http://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF00849563" target="_blank">The Relationship Among Height, Penile Length, and Foot Size</a>."</i></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Nutrition</b>, <b>1995</b>: John Martinez of J.
Martinez & Company in Atlanta, Georgia, for Luak Coffee,
the world's most expensive coffee, which is made from coffee beans ingested
and excreted by the luak (aka, the palm civet), a bobcat-like animal native
to Indonesia. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0EfZAbfdEoVdhM798RQcw94EabQMaSRTOZ1iLxu8emAC-guZ6avnwAXdR7lZ_StalFQZvFUGZZ0rvxdrha84tWpkgHjoBgoryZEqNEaLFcbo17RiBdQYsQi9FsYekkJpOxib5p7IlOaiy/s1600/luak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0EfZAbfdEoVdhM798RQcw94EabQMaSRTOZ1iLxu8emAC-guZ6avnwAXdR7lZ_StalFQZvFUGZZ0rvxdrha84tWpkgHjoBgoryZEqNEaLFcbo17RiBdQYsQi9FsYekkJpOxib5p7IlOaiy/s1600/luak.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b>Medicine, 1994</b>: This prize was awarded in two parts. First, to Patient X, formerly
of the US Marine Corps, valiant victim of a venomous bite from his
pet rattlesnake, for his determined use of electroshock therapy --
at his own insistence, automobile sparkplug wires were attached to
his lip, and the car engine revved to 3000 rpm for five minutes.
Second, to Dr. Richard C. Dart of the Rocky Mountain Poison Center
and Dr. Richard A. Gustafson of The University of Arizona Health
Sciences Center, for their well-grounded medical report: "<a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0196064405823893" target="_blank"><i>Failure of Electric Shock Treatment for Rattlesnake Envenomation</i>.</a>"</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Psychology</b>, <b>1993</b>: John Mack of Harvard Medical School and David Jacobs
of Temple University, mental visionaries, for their leaping
conclusion that people who<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0671797204/annalsofimprobabA/" target="_blank"> believe they were kidnapped by aliens from outer space, probably were — and especially for their conclusion "the focus of the abduction is the production of children</a></i>.
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Visionary Technology, 1993</b>: Presented jointly to <i><a href="http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AASB&p_theme=aasb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EA07480075E09A0&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM">Jay Schiffman</a> </i>of Farmington Hills, Michigan, crack inventor of <i><a href="http://www.manta.com/coms2/dnbcompany_0k5rl6">AutoVision</a></i>,
an image projection device that makes it possible to drive a car and
watch television at the same time, and to the Michigan state
legislature, for making it legal to do so.</div>
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<b>Economics</b>, <b>1992</b>: The investors of<i> <a href="http://www.lloyds.com/">Lloyds of London</a></i>, heirs to 300 years of dull
prudent management, for their bold attempt to insure disaster by <i><a href="http://www.uniset.ca/lloyds_cases/lloyds_cases.html">refusing to pay for their company's losses</a></i>. </div>
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<b>Literature</b>, <b>1992</b>: <a href="http://www.lmcp.jussieu.fr/iucr-top/people/struchko.htm"><i>Yuri Struchko</i>v</a>, unstoppable author from the Institute of
Organoelemental Compounds in Moscow, for the 948 scientific papers
he published between the years 1981 and 1990, averaging more than
one every 3.9 days. </div>
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So, cheers to the winners and to all the scientists that are not afraid to use their imagination and make absurd discoveries!!</div>
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The winners of the <b>Peace IgNobel Prizes</b> deserve to be mentioned separately. I am posting them exactly as they were described by the IgNobel committee.</div>
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<b>2011</b>:
<i><a href="http://www.zuokas.lt/">Arturas Zuokas</a></i>, the mayor of Vilnius, LITHUANIA, for demonstrating that the problem of illegally parked luxury cars can be solved by running them over with an armored tank.</div>
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REFERENCE: <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-fWN0FmcIU">VIDEO</a></i> and <i><a href="http://www.vilnius.lt/newvilniusweb/index.php/116/?itemID=94256">OFFICIAL CITY INFO</a></i> </div>
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<b>2009</b>: Stephan
Bolliger, Steffen
Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael
Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland, for
determining <i><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1752928X08001728" target="_blank">— by experiment — whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty bottle</a></i>.</div>
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<b>2008</b>. <i><a href="http://www.ekah.admin.ch/en/">The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (ECNH)</a></i> and the citizens of Switzerland for <i><a href="http://www.ekah.admin.ch/en/topics/dignity-of-creation/index.html" target="_blank">adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity</a></i>. </div>
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<b>2005</b>: Claire Rind and Peter Simmons of Newcastle University, in the U.K., for electrically <i><a href="http://intl-jn.physiology.org/content/68/5/1654.abstract" target="_blank">monitoring the activity of a brain cell in a locust while that locust was watching selected highlights from the movie "Star Wars.</a></i>" </div>
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<b>2004</b>: Daisuke Inoue of Hyogo, Japan, for <i><a href="http://www.time.com/time/asia/asia/magazine/1999/990823/inoue1.html">inventing karaoke</a></i>, thereby providing an <i><a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4057291">entirely new way</a></i> for people to learn to tolerate each other. </div>
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<b>2003</b>: <i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/24/world/24INDI.html?ex=1083211200&en=3394201d75ddfea1&ei=5070">Lal Bihari</a></i>, of Uttar Pradesh, India, for a triple accomplishment: First, for <i><a href="http://www.time.com/time/asia/asia/magazine/1999/990719/souls1.html">leading an active life even though he has been declared legally dead</a></i>; Second, for waging a <i><a href="http://ww.smashits.com/index.cfm?Page=Video&SubPage=STFSnoopView&BBID=1236">lively</a></i> posthumous campaign against <i><a href="http://fecolumnists.expressindia.com/full_column.php?content_id=25367">bureaucratic inertia and greedy relatives</a></i>; and Third, for creating the <i><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/08/05/wind05.xml">Association of Dead People</a></i>.</div>
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Lal Bihari overcame the
handicap of being dead, and managed to obtain a passport from the
Indian government so that he could travel to Harvard to accept his
Prize. However, the U.S. government refused to allow him into the
country. His friend Madhu Kapoor therefore came to the Ig Nobel
Ceremony and accepted the Prize on behalf of Lal Bihari. Several
weeks later, <i><a href="http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEO20031104143738&Title=This%2Bis%2BIndia&Topic=0">the Prize was presented to Lal Bihari himself in a special ceremony in India</a></i>.</div>
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<b>2002</b>: Keita Sato, President of Takara Co., Dr. Matsumi Suzuki, President of Japan Acoustic Lab, and Dr. Norio Kogure, Executive Director, Kogure Veterinary Hospital, for promoting peace and <i><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2285509.stm">harmony between the species</a></i> by inventing <i><a href="http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/www.advancedpetproducts.com/pdf/BowSciencePages.pdf">Bow-Lingual</a></i>, a computer-based automatic <i><a href="http://www.takara-usa.com/bowlingual.html">dog-to-human language translation device</a></i>. </div>
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<b>
2000</b>:
Charl Fourie and Michelle Wong of Johannesburg, South Africa, for inventing an <i><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_232000/232777.stm">automobile
burglar alarm</a></i> consisting of a detection circuit and <i><a href="http://cnn.com/WORLD/africa/9812/11/flame.thrower.car/">a
flamethrower</a></i>. (Patent WO/1999/032331, "<i><a href="http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/fetch.jsp?LANG=ENG&DBSELECT=PCT&SERVER_TYPE=19-10&SORT=41297288-KEY&TYPE_FIELD=256&IDB=0&IDOC=69&C=10&ELEMENT_SET=B&RESULT=1&TOTAL=1&START=1&DISP=25&FORM=SEP-0/HITNUM,B-ENG,DP,MC,AN,PA,ABSUM-ENG&SEARCH_IA=AP1998000012&QUERY=%28FP%2fsecurity%29+AND+%28WO%2fwo9932331%29+">A
Security System for a Vehicle</a></i>") </div>
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<b>1999</b>:
The British Royal Navy, for ordering its <i><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/757788.stm" target="_blank">sailors to stop using live cannon shells, and to instead just shout "Bang!"</a></i> </div>
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<b>1994</b>: John Hagelin of Maharishi University and The Institute of Science,
Technology and Public Policy, promulgator of peaceful thoughts,
<i><a href="http://istpp.org/crime_prevention/" target="_blank">for his experimental conclusion that 4,000 trained meditators caused an 18 percent decrease in violent crime in Washington, D.C.</a></i>
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<b>1993</b>: The Pepsi-Cola Company of the Phillipines, suppliers of sugary hopes and dreams, for sponsoring a contest to create a millionaire, and then <i><a href="http://www.pepsi349.com/">announcing the wrong winning number, thereby inciting and uniting 800,000 riotously expectant winners</a></i>, and bringing many warring factions together for the first time in their nation's history. </div>
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<b>1992 </b>: Daryl Gates, former Police Chief of the City of Los Angeles, for
his uniquely compelling methods of<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots" target="_blank"> bringing people together in the LA riots. </a></i></div>
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<i> </i> </div>
ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-89671236199736618242012-09-26T10:10:00.001+01:002017-10-14T20:59:25.328+01:00In my free time i read. DNA books.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt70GVpFQ-LQmljhJg0qNMTUdKzeeW3hguTBVFAl-vhOMmHL0i-caYYjBZNuN_qsGt8PTnmL63m2zwK1ZQvXrf2eHvewc41If2TAWR4Lv_7Nj_j0MPgFo_ChUuApFrrJsuL4KDDmG08-ye/s1600/_%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1(20).JPG_" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt70GVpFQ-LQmljhJg0qNMTUdKzeeW3hguTBVFAl-vhOMmHL0i-caYYjBZNuN_qsGt8PTnmL63m2zwK1ZQvXrf2eHvewc41If2TAWR4Lv_7Nj_j0MPgFo_ChUuApFrrJsuL4KDDmG08-ye/s640/_%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1(20).JPG_" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCC5IhIRrj2X6gjdJXjDgsydPi4Wb5k3-Jeh3YRJrN3F9svfziPWUzTIcr3UCXufjy2p5DuuPHsKVD3Ggog1_ASZgW38_gCLKpjVwmbpkywA9vQSgFTvGJTcUuHiV4ZPgxCb6gp0tFj1Iv/s1600/_%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1(21).JPG_" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCC5IhIRrj2X6gjdJXjDgsydPi4Wb5k3-Jeh3YRJrN3F9svfziPWUzTIcr3UCXufjy2p5DuuPHsKVD3Ggog1_ASZgW38_gCLKpjVwmbpkywA9vQSgFTvGJTcUuHiV4ZPgxCb6gp0tFj1Iv/s640/_%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1(21).JPG_" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
*The scheme of DNA storage was taken from Supplementary Materials for "Next-Generation Digital Information Storage in DNA" by George M. Church, Yuan Gao and Sriram Kosuri published in Science.<br />
<br />
<br />
For further reading...<br />
<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Church%20GM%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=22903519">Church GM</a>, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Gao%20Y%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=22903519">Gao Y</a>, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Kosuri%20S%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=22903519">Kosuri S</a>. <span style="font-size: small;">Next-Generation Digital Information Storage in DNA. Science, </span>2012 Aug 16.<br />
<br />ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-57415571100448897432012-09-25T10:37:00.000+01:002017-10-14T20:58:33.079+01:00A tale of the city OR In the era of i..There was <a href="http://igem.org/About" target="_blank">iGem </a>(international Genetically Engineered Machine). <br />
<br />
The UCL iGEM 2012 team proposes a synthetic biology approach for the degradation of micro-plastic pollutants (plastic waste that is gradually broken down by solar energy and the mechanical action of the sea) within the marine environment, with emphasis on regions of excessive debris accumulation, such as the North Pacific ‘garbage patch’.<br />
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Apart from their research they tried to engage the public into synthetic biology. Their first idea was to run a lab in an art gallery so that everyone could come and see them. But it was quite complicated so they decided to run workshops where the public could participate. Yesterday they teamed up with a group of "<a href="http://wiki.london.hackspace.org.uk/view/Project:Biohacking" target="_blank">biohackers</a>" to create the world's first "Public BioBrick" at the Grant Museum of Zoology in London. The biohackers is a group of biology enthusiasts that run their own biological experiments. <a href="http://c-lab.co.uk/home.html" target="_blank">C-lab</a> also participated in the event.<br />
<br />
The event took place in the UCL Museum of Zoology, which I hadn't visited before although I have been around this area for four years. It's an impressive building and the museum is definitely worth-visiting. <br />
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The night was fun.<br />
There was music..<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_O8LJBJzQkBf-Xj7zNxQp-0uqAS7obVflmP4TpP70iiRz8WUEHxZAp809tKHHIEeMC8GV_HJaKQGY4Tvj_qRD6GlXj0WpXJvlWhAnp3btOmI1hSrymDtEgOYww3rqtL8Vpxdn9ns6txpW/s1600/music.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_O8LJBJzQkBf-Xj7zNxQp-0uqAS7obVflmP4TpP70iiRz8WUEHxZAp809tKHHIEeMC8GV_HJaKQGY4Tvj_qRD6GlXj0WpXJvlWhAnp3btOmI1hSrymDtEgOYww3rqtL8Vpxdn9ns6txpW/s200/music.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
a molecular cocktail bar..<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzDeVUxzU89v0PT8aSFqN2FFULpznARVovfQ-WgZPUomwKVdzzN1h3OE5YoCoqwEE3HZ4RnMXj8nuQxvevEyPYohKrYDZii6Rt4hSjI0MKk2scqTqBN3ZlMs86WLH3RAyynhg6N9hgeNuv/s1600/drinks.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzDeVUxzU89v0PT8aSFqN2FFULpznARVovfQ-WgZPUomwKVdzzN1h3OE5YoCoqwEE3HZ4RnMXj8nuQxvevEyPYohKrYDZii6Rt4hSjI0MKk2scqTqBN3ZlMs86WLH3RAyynhg6N9hgeNuv/s200/drinks.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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we ran experiments..<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9PA4cLDbSU0pFmjR83GkYG50tzCzQA3KIYktCDI28clBIzZ65iYiLbY3y6zG6nKv8g1st2ALGg5haAaMsBq0yUspFF-CaYdnIqINPCiM5K-0naN_64pN6eThzDDYejBY5jVw8A9QqfcRD/s1600/exp.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9PA4cLDbSU0pFmjR83GkYG50tzCzQA3KIYktCDI28clBIzZ65iYiLbY3y6zG6nKv8g1st2ALGg5haAaMsBq0yUspFF-CaYdnIqINPCiM5K-0naN_64pN6eThzDDYejBY5jVw8A9QqfcRD/s200/exp.JPG" width="200" /></a> </div>
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and read comics about synthetic biology and about the iGEM project.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrBhWdV9rWdufJoZ2mmJ4eyxWBSGyMr3Ce7SO_iQ-XCySxtavv5w2VjBFAFjEAYrASn3YuKIcY1xDMDHfnhKWF6PJLxlE0ux5WBwF0bd53PiKY-GXxXbENNfgHCY0KheucHLRSTGeE4_mE/s1600/props.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrBhWdV9rWdufJoZ2mmJ4eyxWBSGyMr3Ce7SO_iQ-XCySxtavv5w2VjBFAFjEAYrASn3YuKIcY1xDMDHfnhKWF6PJLxlE0ux5WBwF0bd53PiKY-GXxXbENNfgHCY0KheucHLRSTGeE4_mE/s320/props.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
The students were very enthusiastic, ready to talk to everyone, explain their project and get everyone involved. So were the biohackers.<br />
<br />
And who knows, maybe one day we will use synthetic micro-organisms to degrade the plastic waste concentrated in the marine environment. And maybe this day won't be very far away..ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-84934838485113973162012-09-18T14:32:00.001+01:002017-10-14T20:54:53.958+01:00To be (a doctor) or not to be? That is the dilemma.<div style="font-family: inherit;">
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<span style="font-size: small;">During the summer, the<a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/the-doctors-dilemma" target="_blank"> National Theatre</a> chose to stage the "Doctor's Dilemma" by Bernard Shaw. Set in London of the early 20th century, the play is a critic on the dangers of privatised medical practice, at a time when NHS wasn't yet founded.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The main character of the play is a newly honoured doctor, Sir Colenso Ridgeon, who has developed a revolutionary new cure for tuberculosis by inoculating the pathogen to the patients. Serendipitously, the first successful attempt in immunization against tuberculosis took place in 1906 by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Calmette" title="Albert Calmette">Albert Calmette</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Gu%C3%A9rin" title="Camille Guérin">Camille Guérin</a>, the same year as the play was first staged. However, Bernard Shaw's inspiration of his hero was the bacteriologist Sir <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almroth_Wright" target="_blank">Almorth Wright </a>who </span><span style="font-size: small;">developed an anti-typhoid vaccine in 1892. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf0q8Gdj-zULWtzU7bfhvXHy5icPPg557Hp1QP3K2mRH7CnX5tb74VptPJAEsXtLkhMhD5K2txKf_d7MVp6y-zuxpeM0wiYxxR-9frjtt6wMur6fMLz0CUmYeocJ4NSyA4mOTO-JNLG6O9/s1600/antityphoid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf0q8Gdj-zULWtzU7bfhvXHy5icPPg557Hp1QP3K2mRH7CnX5tb74VptPJAEsXtLkhMhD5K2txKf_d7MVp6y-zuxpeM0wiYxxR-9frjtt6wMur6fMLz0CUmYeocJ4NSyA4mOTO-JNLG6O9/s320/antityphoid.jpg" width="191" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Bernard Shaw has been very critical of his contemporary health system (or the lack of one) and of doctors, in general. He questioned whether doctors are men of science; "It does happen exceptionally that a
practicing doctor makes a contribution to science;
but it happens much oftener that he draws disastrous conclusions from
his
clinical experience because he has no conception of
scientific method, and believes, like any rustic, that the handling of
evidence and statistics needs no expertness". He was skeptical about statistical illusions; "here may be a doctor here and there
who in dealing with the statistics of disease has
taken at least the first step towards sanity by grasping the fact that
as
an attack of even the commonest disease is an
exceptional event, apparently overwhelming statistical evidence in
favour of
any prophylactic can be produced by persuading the
public that everybody caught the disease formerly". He underlined the surprises of attention and neglect, the power of "fashion" on the chosen therapies and he suggests a more equal and fair system.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">However, he managed in his play to expose the lethal absurdity of the medical service without treating the doctors as caricatures. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The satire is sharp and lines like:</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>"I've tried these modern inoculations myself. I've killed people with them; and I've cured people with them; but I gave them up because I never could tell which I was going to do",</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>"I have forgotten all my science:what's the use of my pretending I haven't? But I have great experience: clinical experience; and bedside experience is the main thing, isn't it?"</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> or <i>"I know your surgeons and their like. They've found out that a man's body's full of bits and scraps of old organs he has no mortal use for. Thanks to chloroform, you can cut half a dozen of them out without leaving him any the worse, except for the illness and the guineas it costs him"</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">manage to set the scene about how doctors were seen at the beginning of the last century with a very elaborate sense of humor.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhngRl4TJ9KcFEoooErHCHYtItH-r8zno81LygTW8HY4STbR5RTXVyMvem75o7jxXIVsoslm-hWnflE83AoaZ9Ki-8V5LSS2K71dY8vpaLxcHF_rI-ozdz2RHqujy5H7MeDNx2e_pjbOkqh/s1600/bernard_shaw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhngRl4TJ9KcFEoooErHCHYtItH-r8zno81LygTW8HY4STbR5RTXVyMvem75o7jxXIVsoslm-hWnflE83AoaZ9Ki-8V5LSS2K71dY8vpaLxcHF_rI-ozdz2RHqujy5H7MeDNx2e_pjbOkqh/s320/bernard_shaw.jpg" width="308" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bernard Shaw by Einar Nerman, a swedish artist who moved to London in 1921 and chronicled its social and artistic life for 19 years.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The Doctor's Dilemma is a very interesting and a witty depiction of the medical science of the early 20th century that inspired William Beveridge to lay the foundation for the National Health Service, although I must admit that I got bored of the romantic part of the play.</span></div>
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ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-20328656497104496552012-08-24T15:02:00.002+01:002017-10-14T20:48:40.862+01:00Sci-ArtIn 1952 a young Research Assistant in King's College London took an X-ray picture of DNA molecules. This picture, called "Photo 51", was one of the basic experimental evidence on which Watson and Crick based the theory of the structure of the DNA and this Research Assistant was Rosalind Franklin*.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGOSXv2suYbQ9GQ2EYek2ABUF9FRG-lh80ifR-QzGdMzq32O1UCPjRlUhkXGJVolSjlZcFvRcda2SdliU2y3rPQeWqF028lRoPhPOzJAJmiB2tetPY_EnkfxqeSGYYYOPHfxp8Tiz3sr_I/s1600/photo-51.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGOSXv2suYbQ9GQ2EYek2ABUF9FRG-lh80ifR-QzGdMzq32O1UCPjRlUhkXGJVolSjlZcFvRcda2SdliU2y3rPQeWqF028lRoPhPOzJAJmiB2tetPY_EnkfxqeSGYYYOPHfxp8Tiz3sr_I/s200/photo-51.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Photo 51" of the DNA molecule taken by Rosalind Franklin</td></tr>
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Apart from the structure of DNA, Franklin had a major contribution on the study of the structures of RNA, tobacco mosaic and polio viruses. She died from ovarian cancer at the age of 37, in 1958.<br />
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However, her work still inspires people and not only scientists.<br />
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At a random search on the internet I came across some really interesting pieces of art by <a href="http://www.wyllieohagan.com/" target="_blank">Wyllie O Hagan</a>. The artists were inspired by "Photo 51" and, breathing life into it, they transformed it into vibrant and stimulating artworks that have been exhibited at the Smith Killian Gallery in Charleston, SC, USA in 2007.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSjZKI627Xzp0dTw7stYpHEkFQlxBEG3YUJIP-rz192mwq8MXFmPHuPp7vmhXNF-Srzt_Htjonuqwumsi81Sp84LKtvw1URusGkWmL5YyrckwCStZEmMqZ5EFQSqvHUeYojIt2qAdNuyT8/s1600/_%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1(13).JPG_" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSjZKI627Xzp0dTw7stYpHEkFQlxBEG3YUJIP-rz192mwq8MXFmPHuPp7vmhXNF-Srzt_Htjonuqwumsi81Sp84LKtvw1URusGkWmL5YyrckwCStZEmMqZ5EFQSqvHUeYojIt2qAdNuyT8/s320/_%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1(13).JPG_" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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The titles from top left are: A Vision of Rosalind 1, A Vision of Rosalind 2,</div>
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A Vision of Rosalind 3 and A Vision of Rosalind for OCNA</div>
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Science seems to be a recurrent theme of their work as they have also done another exhibition titled "Transformation in Science and Art", created during an Arts Residency with the Cancer Research UK group in
the Department of Oncology at University College London.<br />
Here are some more pieces of their science-related work that have impressed me.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwOaSIC2_0ICbPmVD8iUU6vVDbvrsBfvbrEyFpwYruhYfuE6DDXIFp8xd2zKu3Zz_V5cJNDcxWjhsZkm2QGJCbVB-cuzP1RB9dNnbtxgZ86Qndve9t4DfD13EBd2mjFLMXQ1QQTPiSxyO3/s1600/_%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1(14).JPG_" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwOaSIC2_0ICbPmVD8iUU6vVDbvrsBfvbrEyFpwYruhYfuE6DDXIFp8xd2zKu3Zz_V5cJNDcxWjhsZkm2QGJCbVB-cuzP1RB9dNnbtxgZ86Qndve9t4DfD13EBd2mjFLMXQ1QQTPiSxyO3/s320/_%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1(14).JPG_" width="320" /></a></div>
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Moreover, a monumental 40 meter digital print of their work
hangs in The Royal Mint Building in London.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGd20YSEbUeWIKhUqIy4dcSoRTQIzeaniUwF1QQU4xamj1HAB6MHRs_5VBbjby4zX2jqpLoYPhbSb8A8CHCRHgfc2hqrWIeCpQYg2lMrZBsXYpBc6f0DcfpZCosFPzryM0bQe8bkBMUV2s/s1600/_%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1(15).JPG_" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGd20YSEbUeWIKhUqIy4dcSoRTQIzeaniUwF1QQU4xamj1HAB6MHRs_5VBbjby4zX2jqpLoYPhbSb8A8CHCRHgfc2hqrWIeCpQYg2lMrZBsXYpBc6f0DcfpZCosFPzryM0bQe8bkBMUV2s/s320/_%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1(15).JPG_" width="240" /></a></div>
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My absolute favorite is the "Vision of Rosalind for OCNA". I just find it captivating. I am always amazed when people are able to look at science through a different prism and appreciate its beauty.<br />
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* Rosalind Franklin took the picture with Raymond Gosling- a PhD student assigned to help her<br />
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** All the pictures were taken from Wyllie O Hagan's official site and copies for most of the paintings can be bought <a href="http://www.wyllieohagan.com/pages/sale-franklin.html" target="_blank">here.</a>ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-58508928086530153152012-07-12T18:59:00.000+01:002017-10-14T20:46:08.332+01:00A tale of the city OR The Big Bang Fair<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yesterday, i was here:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ZQfKp1UHeCB3lpuyFZYEXWwg_-YCkgTuMBfa1smTFe_wm9RTBOWEvhwRsc35WWl7Ga_QJAu4eoq7JCO9fHX7QDd6PiWnq64mjXZ3l9r6vSBTN1ZQAfd_qfwe4p9vnwPiOGatND4FJ4M1/s1600/%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1+(14).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ZQfKp1UHeCB3lpuyFZYEXWwg_-YCkgTuMBfa1smTFe_wm9RTBOWEvhwRsc35WWl7Ga_QJAu4eoq7JCO9fHX7QDd6PiWnq64mjXZ3l9r6vSBTN1ZQAfd_qfwe4p9vnwPiOGatND4FJ4M1/s200/%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1+(14).JPG" width="200" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.thebigbangfair.co.uk/about_us.cfm" target="_blank">Big Bang Fair</a> is a competition, more like a celebration as the organisers describe it, in STEM subjects. Pupils from 11 till 18 years old can take part in the regional Big Bang Fairs either as individuals or in groups and the best projects are selected to go through to the <a href="http://www.thebigbangfair.co.uk/nsec.cfm" target="_blank">National Big Bang Fair</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was great fun.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We made<a href="http://www.jeremykingengineeringinschools.co.uk/" target="_blank"> stools from newspapers</a>:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmfKlrNLQ6DU1V4h64lSPjQFdQ-C5yVKjE12YioZXZB5drhnq8PByt__FQFt5wK3PE7OQwTcdagp_mZdBQC4jXLfJl5teA5YhjPQIcNqyvi-GkXz4QHPpbRgHMXUoEdnVuJsD7dcPFGNuq/s1600/Diptic_1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmfKlrNLQ6DU1V4h64lSPjQFdQ-C5yVKjE12YioZXZB5drhnq8PByt__FQFt5wK3PE7OQwTcdagp_mZdBQC4jXLfJl5teA5YhjPQIcNqyvi-GkXz4QHPpbRgHMXUoEdnVuJsD7dcPFGNuq/s320/Diptic_1.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Played with colorful solutions:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin2pA2rlQrGY4pOYFSUwCkWY0Nwft_f34yzKwmiYRnBX_fttmZTjHRSKBf3hWFZexHPIkR4VIG6syDN6hyphenhyphennhv8pkVO_kShzEHLVzmaxy5vIRtqoo_ESSfhOJ_ol_41TMr_5SQk_tGthdF4/s1600/_%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1(9).JPG_" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin2pA2rlQrGY4pOYFSUwCkWY0Nwft_f34yzKwmiYRnBX_fttmZTjHRSKBf3hWFZexHPIkR4VIG6syDN6hyphenhyphennhv8pkVO_kShzEHLVzmaxy5vIRtqoo_ESSfhOJ_ol_41TMr_5SQk_tGthdF4/s320/_%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1(9).JPG_" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And with cards:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6MFkvgdIgjgqgZZpwTP2fXWMaukZz8pEEaLp9HoCOVGUNpNFTH6rcu1dxvO98dFUgxNzGgTtd66DzzRohhp1sqcw9sBlOEh91TLihjpFAfW1t27JEkWE5W4J6kTQilQDt9R1jAeaCW5b7/s1600/_%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1(10).JPG_" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6MFkvgdIgjgqgZZpwTP2fXWMaukZz8pEEaLp9HoCOVGUNpNFTH6rcu1dxvO98dFUgxNzGgTtd66DzzRohhp1sqcw9sBlOEh91TLihjpFAfW1t27JEkWE5W4J6kTQilQDt9R1jAeaCW5b7/s320/_%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1(10).JPG_" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But also some serious science took place. There were hydrolic robots, screw drivers, projects on the life on Mars and the power of circular movement.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiowzxQ9AhiHiPAAeCMtHmUnoszl4jMtUnkWdci63gnH9ftpu7TrEXPV0bF0_Q00eowMo54NRykhQyX5PPJtbjhmuc2B-jJ3gUETK9TMSW3y367gh4dMwUp3etsPoUOvwk4jlSPXWcJONJ/s1600/Diptic_2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiowzxQ9AhiHiPAAeCMtHmUnoszl4jMtUnkWdci63gnH9ftpu7TrEXPV0bF0_Q00eowMo54NRykhQyX5PPJtbjhmuc2B-jJ3gUETK9TMSW3y367gh4dMwUp3etsPoUOvwk4jlSPXWcJONJ/s320/Diptic_2.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> And there were winners...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYJGlvdMgczwl4yOA72C18yRmddYlifqnBK7KbdFYVKY2TF0HkHeMpKfv7Gd6AMu7rxWHweq-hbRJldjS3LCupXaE6XMK2oPCQInyZmXOWHVFiXFFpn7gmpedYdPqRq7l4qxlKUYwv7XsI/s1600/%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1+(12).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYJGlvdMgczwl4yOA72C18yRmddYlifqnBK7KbdFYVKY2TF0HkHeMpKfv7Gd6AMu7rxWHweq-hbRJldjS3LCupXaE6XMK2oPCQInyZmXOWHVFiXFFpn7gmpedYdPqRq7l4qxlKUYwv7XsI/s320/%CF%86%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1+(12).JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But what i loved yesterday was the enthusiasm in the eyes of the students when they were talking about Science and their projects. </span></div>
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ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-11579450243045832052012-06-29T14:55:00.003+01:002017-10-14T20:42:50.086+01:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Yesterday i went to the Royal College of Arts Graduate Exhibition.<br />
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Every summer, the graduates from all the departments of the RCA show their degree projects to family and friends, art-world insiders and even potential buyers. The exhibition takes places across the College’s two campuses in Battersea and Kensington.</div>
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I went to the Kensington campus where the exhibition is massive covering all eight departments of the College. I was really impressed by the imagination and the creativity of all the students but i spent most of my time at the Innovation Design Engineering section.</div>
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Several projects tried to address sustainability issues, some attempted to develop new communication platforms while others tried to develop new materials. Most of them involved cutting-edge technology and all the projects were really really interesting.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0bBMJq8DPyyOKueMlppWd9byJphKTmc1gA1T6iwMdgonggXkAE-ATUPfPCLLj48YfdkgwHIhh_Qc0_-6kzsqopWw-HcyJaQdiA-fBFbJEXrOPEbBap8fEYcuVQvqyR20TxFtB6efGLPzc/s1600/_%25CF%2586%25CF%2589%25CF%2584%25CE%25BF%25CE%25B3%25CF%2581%25CE%25B1%25CF%2586%25CE%25AF%25CE%25B1%25285%2529.JPG_" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0bBMJq8DPyyOKueMlppWd9byJphKTmc1gA1T6iwMdgonggXkAE-ATUPfPCLLj48YfdkgwHIhh_Qc0_-6kzsqopWw-HcyJaQdiA-fBFbJEXrOPEbBap8fEYcuVQvqyR20TxFtB6efGLPzc/s320/_%25CF%2586%25CF%2589%25CF%2584%25CE%25BF%25CE%25B3%25CF%2581%25CE%25B1%25CF%2586%25CE%25AF%25CE%25B1%25285%2529.JPG_" width="320" /></a></div>
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Some of them made a particular impression on me:</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://show2012.rca.ac.uk/12_ide_david_stevens/" target="_blank">David Steven</a>s designed a new cast that could help the patients with fractures to heal faster and with less pain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.riivercheng.com/" target="_blank">Ho-Tzu Cheng</a> constructed a fume extractor aiming to protect more efficiently the health of the person that is cooking.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">To be honest, i was completely ignoring the fact that cooking fumes are considered as a prevailing factor for lung cancer in non-smokers. Apparently there are several epidemiological studies mostly focused on Asian populations like <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1081/GNC-120021371?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3dpubmed&" target="_blank">this </a>but also in the <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/323m5n686wq6750t/fulltext.pdf" target="_blank">USA</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Another project that i found very interesting was the platform Genobi designed by <a href="http://www.joeltrotter.com/#%21portfolio" target="_blank">Joel Trotter</a>. This platform will help people understand their genetic background and make the necessary lifestyle adjustments to optimise their health.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.lucfusaro.com/en/healthcare/touch/touch.php" target="_blank">Luc Fusaro</a> constructed the SmartTouch, a smart and easy to use monitor for the glucose level in our organisms. Diabetics only need to have a smartphone where they adjust this small device. This project made me think of Peter Diamandis's <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_diamandis_on_our_next_giant_leap.html" target="_blank">TED lecture</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">All in all, it was a very interesting evening and i can't wait to see all these projects being used in our everyday life!! </span><br />
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ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9058948760987245922.post-31096250221249246562012-06-08T16:19:00.001+01:002017-10-14T20:41:01.304+01:00Selective Erasure of a Fear Memory: Science fiction or reality??<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US">Further reading</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">JS Haan et al, Selective Erasure of a Fear Memory, Science, </span><cite><span class="slug-pub-date" itemprop="datePublished">13 March 2009:
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<span class="slug-vol">
Vol. 323
</span><span class="slug-issue">
no. 5920
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pp.
1492-1496
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</cite><span lang="EN-US"> </span></div>
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ec892894 and sc3439http://www.blogger.com/profile/07569249844056039183noreply@blogger.com0