Jizo Bosatsu

Il bodhisattva Jizo
Legno laccato e dipinto
Giappone, fine del periodo Muromachi, XV-XVI sec.

Jizo Bosatsu, il bodhisattva Jizo, è venerato in Giappone come colui che interviene a trarre i fedeli dagli inferni in cui possono essere caduti. Nell’iconografia del Buddhismo giapponese è ritratto nelle vesti di un monaco dalla testa rasata, munito del bastone del pellegrino e del “gioiello che esaudisce tutti i desideri”. L’assenza di corona e ornamenti è compensata dall’eleganza regale del manto e della tunica decorati con ricami dorati di ispirazione cinese e centro-asiatica. La statua faceva parte della collezione del barone Wilhelm von Bode.

Buddha assiso

Buddha assiso - Gandhara

Le figure sono ricavate all’interno di un arco. L’arco poggia su due lesene con capitelli che richiamano le foglie di acanto dei capitelli corinzi. Sui capitelli sono collocati due grifoni dalle code fiammeggianti. Il Buddha è assiso, la gamba sinistra piegata a terra e il ginocchio destro sollevato su cui poggia il gomito destro. La mano destra mancante era sostegno al volto inclinato in atteggiamento pensoso. Al disopra della spalla destra del Buddha si scorge la figura di Vajrapani che impugna il simbolo del fulmine di Indra. Il fregio alla base del pannello presenta scene dalla vita di Shakyamuni e la sua figura emaciata dalle pratiche ascetiche intraprese prima dell’Illuminazione.

Museo Arte Orientale, Torino 

Le sorgenti del Nilo

Nerone promosse nel 62, o 67 d.C., una spedizione per scoprire le fonti del Nilo. Fu comandata da due legionari, che risalirono il Nilo verso l'Africa equatoriale partendo da Meroe, vicino a Karthoum, l'attuale capitale del Sudan.
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Leonardo's dream

"A research team at Festo has developed SmartBird, a biomechatronic bird that can take off, fly and land autonomously. Festo claims that SmartBird flies, glides and moves through the air like its counterpart in nature — the herring gull — with no additional drive mechanism."

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Festo's biomechatronic bird flies and lands autonomously | News | The Engineer

Superconductivity from nowhere

"In just over a week scientists will celebrate the centenary of superconductivity: the discovery, in 1911, that some materials cooled towards absolute zero allow electric charge to flow without resistance. But now one physicist believes superconductivity can appear when there is no material at all. According to Maxim Chernodub ... superconductivity can appear – provided there is a very strong magnetic field – in the vacuum of empty space. If Chernodub is correct, the phenomenon could explain the origin of the extensive magnetic-field patterns seen in the cosmos."

Superconductivity from nowhere - physicsworld.com

The candy floss of rocks

"The earliest rocks in the solar system, from which the terrestrial planets were born, were more like candy floss than hard rock, according to a new analysis carried out by a team including researchers in the UK and Australia. This is the first geological evidence to support the idea that the first solid material in the solar system was extremely porous before it was subsequently compacted into larger bodies, which become the planets we know today."

Earth grew from 'candy floss' rocks - physicsworld.com

Physicists put a new twist on graphene

"Physicists in the US and UK have worked out why different samples of multilayer graphene can have very different electronic properties. The answer, according to the team, lies in the relative rotation between layers and the discovery could lead to a new way of controlling the electronic properties of the material."
Physicists put a new twist on graphene - physicsworld.com

Europa, Ganymede, Callisto

PIA01656: Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto: Surface comparison at high spatial resolution, NASA, JPL
"These images show a comparison of the surfaces of the three icy Galilean satellites, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, scaled to a common resolution of 150 meters per picture element (pixel). Despite the similar distance of 0.8 billion kilometers to the sun, their surfaces show dramatic differences."Catalog Page for PIA01656

Undergraduates build power system for moon orbiter

Final-year engineering undergraduates from Warwick University are building the power system for a micro-satellite that will orbit the moon in 2014.Undergraduates build power system for moon orbiter | News | The Engineer

Ethanol made from corn

ENERGY, Ethanol Blamed for Record Food Prices
A more flexible policy could ease the impact of ethanol mandates on worldwide markets.
"Earlier this month, the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization reported that global food prices had risen for eight consecutive months, reaching the highest levels since the agency started tracking prices in 1990. The prices are high in large part because of steadily growing worldwide demand for food, and because of natural disasters that have hurt harvests, but they're also affected by government policies."

More http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/37019/?p1=A2