Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Angioplastica coronarica
"L’angioplastica consente di ristabilire il flusso del sangue al cuore, riaprendo le coronarie ristrette per la presenza di placche aterosclerotiche, senza bisogno di aprire lo sterno con un intervento chirurgico, come si fa nei by-pass, ma arrivando direttamente ai vasi ostruiti risalendo lungo un’arteria perforata attraverso la pelle."..."A metà degli anni ottanta si pensò di inserire nell’arteria, di solito dopo averla dilatata col palloncino, un cilindro cavo formato da una retina metallica che si apriva impedendo che il vaso si restringesse di nuovo. Questo strumento, che viene lasciato in quella posizione al termine della procedura, è detto stent". ..."A metà degli anni novanta nascono i cosiddetti stent medicati, retine metalliche identiche alle precedenti ma ricoperte di un farmaco che viene rilasciato apoco a poco e che riduce la proliferazione delle cellule responsabili del restringimento all’interno del canale."
Self-Organization of Helical Assemblies
"Organisms in nature can assemble themselves into highly functioning structures. Understanding the unique architectural principles that prompt this self-organization offers important clues into economical ways of solving complex material and design challenges."
Very interesting APS Physics http://www.aps.org/about/physics-images/nanobristles.cfm
Scientists explore nature’s designs
"A Harvard physical chemist Joanna Aizenberg acquired a passionate curiosity about — of all things — sponges. She particularly liked the ones made of glass, whose apparent fragility belied the fact that they could withstand terrific pressure in the deep sea"
More http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/12/scientists-explore-nature%E2%80%99s-designs/
"To illustrate the kind of work done at her laboratory, Aizenberg focused on Venus’ Flower Basket, a milky-looking undulant sponge shaped like a tapering tube... native to the deep ocean, thriving in cold, crushing pressures a thousand feet below the surface... Venus’ Flower Basket is an intriguing package. At 500 million years old, it’s very low on the evolutionary tree. But its layered superstructure of glass illustrates how strong nature makes things, and with what apparent ease."
"To illustrate the kind of work done at her laboratory, Aizenberg focused on Venus’ Flower Basket, a milky-looking undulant sponge shaped like a tapering tube... native to the deep ocean, thriving in cold, crushing pressures a thousand feet below the surface... Venus’ Flower Basket is an intriguing package. At 500 million years old, it’s very low on the evolutionary tree. But its layered superstructure of glass illustrates how strong nature makes things, and with what apparent ease."
Sponges and glass fibers
The Venus' Flower Basket, or Euplectella aspergillum, is a deep ocean sponge. In traditional Asian cultures, this particular sponge, in the dry state, was given as a wedding gift. The reason is that this sponge is the house for a couple of small shrimp. The shrimp inside of the basket clean it, and in return, the basket provides food by trapping it in its fiberglass-like strands, and then releasing it into the body of the sponge for the shrimp. The sponge is also bioluminescent.
The glassy fibers that attach the sponge to the ocean floor, are of interest to fiber optics researchers. The sponge extracts silicic acid from seawater and converts it into silica, then forms it into an elaborate skeleton of glass fibers. Other sponges can also produce glass biologically. The current manufacturing process for optical fibers requires high temperatures and produces a brittle fiber. A low-temperature process for creating and arranging such fibers, inspired by sponges, could offer more control over the optical properties of the fibers.
More http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus'_Flower_Basket
The glassy fibers that attach the sponge to the ocean floor, are of interest to fiber optics researchers. The sponge extracts silicic acid from seawater and converts it into silica, then forms it into an elaborate skeleton of glass fibers. Other sponges can also produce glass biologically. The current manufacturing process for optical fibers requires high temperatures and produces a brittle fiber. A low-temperature process for creating and arranging such fibers, inspired by sponges, could offer more control over the optical properties of the fibers.
More http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus'_Flower_Basket
Friday, January 7, 2011
A dinosaur in church
Very interesting: in marble objects and decorations of churches we can find remains of past eons.
See the item DINOSAUR SKULL FOUND IN CHURCH, by Rossella Lorenzi. "Encased in pinkish marble-like slabs supporting a balustrade, this dinosaur - or what's left of it - has for centuries been the most faithful presence in the Cathedral of St. Ambrose in Vigevano, a town about 20 miles from Milan. The rock contains what appears to be a horizontal section of a dinosaur’s skull.
See the item DINOSAUR SKULL FOUND IN CHURCH, by Rossella Lorenzi. "Encased in pinkish marble-like slabs supporting a balustrade, this dinosaur - or what's left of it - has for centuries been the most faithful presence in the Cathedral of St. Ambrose in Vigevano, a town about 20 miles from Milan. The rock contains what appears to be a horizontal section of a dinosaur’s skull.
Profiles - Ibn al-Haytham
"The Scholar and the Caliph" by Jennifer Ouellette is a work of fiction, a imagining of a 10-year period in the life of the medieval Muslim polymath Ibn al-Haytham (AD 965–1040) considered by many historians to be the father of modern optics. He lived during the golden age of Arabic science, creating an early version of the scientific method, two hundred years before scholars in Western Europe. He is most celebrated for his Book of Optics.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Ivory from the melting permafrost
Trade in the ivory from the tusks of dead mammoths has occurred for 300 years and continues to be legal. Mammoth ivory is rare and costly, because mammoths have been extinct for millennia: in fact this trade does not threaten any living species. However, this uncontrolled extraction of mammoth remains from the melting Siberian permafrost is a problem. from Wiki
From a NY Times item:"There's a kind of discomfort when you're a scientist and you see something that could have scientific value being carved up and destroyed," Haynes said. "But this is the trade-off," he added. "I see the businessman's arguments, too. Mammoths are already extinct and people need an economy." In addition, the Russian government examines the tusks to make sure none bearing disease, prehistoric human markings or other scientifically valuable elements are exported.
Scared of being hit by a meteor?
A very interesting article discussing a book on dinosaurus, meteorites and volcanos.
"But Dr Nield’s book even excuses the meteorite from wiping out the dinosaurs. He cites one scientist, Professor Gerta Keller of Princeton University, who claims there were signs of them on Earth 300,000 years after the meteorite struck. The suggestion is that while the meteorite dealt the dinosaurs an all-but-fatal blow, what finally finished them off was a massive volcano. Just before the dinosaurs died, there was a huge eruption of volcanic rock and gas in India, with a truly stupendous outpouring of lava with toxic exhalations that would have had a catastrophic effect on the atmosphere."
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1343905/Scared-hit-meteor-Dont-dinosaur.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
"But Dr Nield’s book even excuses the meteorite from wiping out the dinosaurs. He cites one scientist, Professor Gerta Keller of Princeton University, who claims there were signs of them on Earth 300,000 years after the meteorite struck. The suggestion is that while the meteorite dealt the dinosaurs an all-but-fatal blow, what finally finished them off was a massive volcano. Just before the dinosaurs died, there was a huge eruption of volcanic rock and gas in India, with a truly stupendous outpouring of lava with toxic exhalations that would have had a catastrophic effect on the atmosphere."
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1343905/Scared-hit-meteor-Dont-dinosaur.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Saturday, January 1, 2011
New Horizons in Space Missions
New Horizons is a NASA spacecraft mission currently moving toward Pluto. It is expected to be the firsts pacecraft to fly by and study this dwarf planet and its moons, Charon, Nix, and Hydra.
New Horizons was launched on January, 2006. It flew by Jupiter on February, 2007, and orbited Saturn on June, 2008. It will arrive at Pluto on July, 2015, after which it will continue into the Kuiper belt.
Pluto is the largest object of the Kuiper belt, which is the region of the Solar System extending from the orbit of Neptune (at 30 AU) to approximately 55 AU from the Sun. The belt consists mainly of small bodies, remnants from the Solar System's formation. It is the home to at least three dwarf planets – Pluto, Haumea, and Makemake. Some of the Solar System's moons, such as Neptune's Triton and Saturn's Phoebe, are also believed to have originated in the region.
More info Wiki
New Horizons was launched on January, 2006. It flew by Jupiter on February, 2007, and orbited Saturn on June, 2008. It will arrive at Pluto on July, 2015, after which it will continue into the Kuiper belt.
Pluto is the largest object of the Kuiper belt, which is the region of the Solar System extending from the orbit of Neptune (at 30 AU) to approximately 55 AU from the Sun. The belt consists mainly of small bodies, remnants from the Solar System's formation. It is the home to at least three dwarf planets – Pluto, Haumea, and Makemake. Some of the Solar System's moons, such as Neptune's Triton and Saturn's Phoebe, are also believed to have originated in the region.
More info Wiki
Friday, December 31, 2010
Where is Voyager 1?
"NASA Probe Sees Solar Wind Decline. The 33-year odyssey of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has reached a distant point at the edge of our solar system where there is no outward motion of solar wind."
7 Exoplanets (Amazing video)
"Hundreds of planets around other stars have been discovered recently, but many centuries may pass before human eyes actually see them up close. Interpreting current data, Hugo award-winning artist Ron Miller takes us to seven of the most fascinating of these worlds."
Wonderful!
"And while we are not quite ready for something like Star Trek’s United Federation of Planets, the almost daily discovery of new planets has brought the number of known worlds to well over 450."
"And while we are not quite ready for something like Star Trek’s United Federation of Planets, the almost daily discovery of new planets has brought the number of known worlds to well over 450."
T-Rex bad reputation got worse
It seems that the largest land predators, which ever stalked the earth, were cannibals. As reported among news in Telegraph UK (15 Oct 2010), the reserchers noticed bite marks on the bones of the dinosaurs. Comparing the marks, the scientists realised that a T-Rex was the only animal large enough to have caused them.
T-Rex, Museo Scienze