John Paul II

A tribute to John Paul II
http://www.vatican.va/special/anniversario_gpii/documents/index_en.htm

SETI forced to close

"The multi-million dollar American Seti Institute has fallen victim to government cuts.
It has had to shut down a series of telescopes that have been scanning the universe for extra-terrestrial communications."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13223633

Icy telescope

"The Baikal underwater telescope NT-200 in Russia has been set up to capture elusive neutrino particles in a bid to unravel the secrets of the formation of the Universe.
At 1.1 km beneath the surface of the world's deepest lake and pointing towards the centre of the Earth, it is one of the most unusual telescopes on the planet."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11384614

Plasma for textiles

My paper on the Plasma treatment advantages for textiles has been selected by

Ball’s ‘n’ fire
The best of the rest from the arXiv this week

http://arxivblog.com/?p=281

Leonardo Da Vinci sketch

My paper on the Digital Restoration of Da Vinci's Sketches has been selected by
Chops 'n' changes
The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv this week

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/23135/

More at

http://arxiv.org/abs/0903.1448

Digital restoration of ancient papyri

My paper on the Digital Restoration of Ancient Papyri has been selected by
Drives 'n' droves
The best of the rest from the physics arXiv this week
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/23293/

Egyptian faience

"Egyptian faience is a non-clay based ceramic displaying surface vitrification which creates a bright lustre of various blue-green colours. Having not been made from clay it is often not classed as pottery. It is called "Egyptian faience" to distinguish it from faience, the tin glazed pottery associated with Faenza in northern Italy. Egyptian faience, both locally produced and exported from Egypt, occurs widely in the ancient world, and is well known from Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean and in northern Europe as far away as Scotland." Wiki

Faience bowl blue-glazed decorated with lotus flowers and the face of the goddess Hathor, symbol of rebirth are the decoration.

Faience. Provenance unknown. New Kingdom, dynasty XVIII-XX (1350-1070 B.C.)
Egyptian Museum, Turin.

Fishes and flowers

Ciotola decorata con pesci e fiori di loto
Faience azzurra con decorazioni nere, provenienza sconosciuta
Bowl decorated with fishes and flowers.
Blue faience,  unknown origin.
First period of XVIII Dinasty (XV century BC)
Berlino, Aegyptisches Museum und Papyrussammling

Three-fold rotational symmetry in the decoration of this bowl.
Note the eye of the fishes at the center of the bowl.
It seems a Escher's creation!

It is amazing that very old creations (pottery and seals) show symmetry in their decorations.

For a discussion on symmetry of the engraved images on seals, see:

Symmetries in Images on Ancient Seals, Amelia Carolina Sparavigna
Abstract: We discuss the presence of symmetries in images engraved on ancient seals, in particular on stamp seals. Used to stamp decorations, to secure the containers from
tampering and for owner's identification, we can find seals that can be dated from Neolithic times. Earliest seals were engraved with lines, dots and spirals. Nevertheless, these very  ancient stamp seals, in the small circular or ovoid space of their bases, possess bilateral and rotational symmetries.  The shape of the base seems to determine the symmetries of images engraved on it.  We will also discuss what could be the meaning of antisymmetry and broken symmetry for images on seals.

http://arxiv.org/abs/0809.3566

Michael Archangel and his balance

Chemistry and Materials Science Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry
Volume 62, Number 2, 579-580, DOI: 10.1023/A:1010151912165
Michael Archangel and Balance , by E. Robens

"Michael escorts the deceased to God's throne and acts as a weigher of the soul at the Last Judgement."

Weighing of the Heart

"In Egyptian religion, the heart was the key to the afterlife. It was conceived as surviving death in the nether world, where it gave evidence for, or against, its possessor. It was thought that the heart was examined by Anubis and the deities during the Weighing of the Heart ceremony. If the heart weighed more than the feather of Maat, it was immediately consumed by the monster Ammit."
Wiki

Egyptian Museum Torino