09 março 2015

Galaxy and Cluster Create Four Images of Distant Supernova



What are the unusual spots surrounding that galaxy? They are all images of the same supernova. For the first time, a single supernova explosion has been seen split into multiple images by the gravitational lens deflections of intervening masses. In this case the masses are a large galaxy and its home galaxy cluster. The featured image was captured last November by the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. The yellow-hued quadruply-imaged Supernova Refsdal occurred in the early universe far behind the cluster. Measuring the locations and time-delays between the supernova images should allow astrophysicists to recover the amount of dark matter in the galaxy and cluster. With patience and luck, a fifth image of the supernova will also be recovered nearby in the next few years.



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First human head transplant could happen in two years IT’S heady...





First human head transplant could happen in two years


IT’S heady stuff. The world’s first attempt to transplant a human head will be launched this year at a surgical conference in the US. The move is a call to arms to get interested parties together to work towards the surgery.


The idea was first proposed in 2013 by Sergio Canavero of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group in Italy. He wants to use the surgery to extend the lives of people whose muscles and nerves have degenerated or whose organs are riddled with cancer. Now he claims the major hurdles, such as fusing the spinal cord and preventing the body’s immune system from rejecting the head, are surmountable, and the surgery could be ready as early as 2017.


Canavero plans to announce the project at the annual conference of the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopaedic Surgeons (AANOS) in Annapolis, Maryland, in June. Is society ready for such momentous surgery? And does the science even stand up?


The first successful head transplant, in which one head was replaced by another, was carried out in 1970. A team led by Robert White at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, transplanted the head of one monkey onto the body of another. They didn’t attempt to join the spinal cords, though, so the monkey couldn’t move its body, but it was able to breathe with artificial assistance. The monkey lived for nine days until its immune system rejected the head. Although few head transplants have been carried out since, many of the surgical procedures involved have progressed. “I think we are now at a point when the technical aspects are all feasible,” says Canavero.


This month, he published a summary of the technique he believes will allow doctors to transplant a head onto a new body (Surgical Neurology International, doi.org/2c7). It involves cooling the recipient’s head and the donor body to extend the time their cells can survive without oxygen. The tissue around the neck is dissected and the major blood vessels are linked using tiny tubes, before the spinal cords of each person are cut. Cleanly severing the cords is key, says Canavero.


The recipient’s head is then moved onto the donor body and the two ends of the spinal cord – which resemble two densely packed bundles of spaghetti – are fused together. To achieve this, Canavero intends to flush the area with a chemical called polyethylene glycol, and follow up with several hours of injections of the same stuff. Just like hot water makes dry spaghetti stick together, polyethylene glycol encourages the fat in cell membranes to mesh.


Next, the muscles and blood supply would be sutured and the recipient kept in a coma for three or four weeks to prevent movement. Implanted electrodes would provide regular electrical stimulation to the spinal cord, because research suggests this can strengthen new nerve connections.


When the recipient wakes up, Canavero predicts they would be able to move and feel their face and would speak with the same voice. He says that physiotherapy would enable the person to walk within a year. Several people have already volunteered to get a new body, he says.


The trickiest part will be getting the spinal cords to fuse. Polyethylene glycol has been shown to prompt the growth of spinal cord nerves in animals, and Canavero intends to use brain-dead organ donors to test the technique. However, others are sceptical that this would be enough. “There is no evidence that the connectivity of cord and brain would lead to useful sentient or motor function following head transplantation,” says Richard Borgens, director of the Center for Paralysis Research at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.


If polyethylene glycol doesn’t work, there are other options Canavero could try. Injecting stem cells or olfactory ensheathing cells – self-regenerating cells that connect the lining of the nose to the brain – into the spinal cord, or creating a bridge over the spinal gap using stomach membranes have shown promise in helping people walk again after spinal injury. Although unproven, Canavero says the chemical approach is the simplest and least invasive.


But what about the prospect of the immune system rejecting the alien tissue? Robert White’s monkey died because its head was rejected by its new body. William Mathews, chairman of the AANOS, says he doesn’t think this would be a major problem today. He says that because we can use drugs to manage the acceptance of large amounts of tissue, such as a leg or a combined heart and lung transplant, the immune response to a head transplant should be manageable. “The system we have for preventing immune rejection and the principles behind it are well established.”


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Michael Jackson Facts follow NowYouKno for more













Michael Jackson Facts follow NowYouKno for more


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destinyrocks-andallthatjazz:swoilli:interesting-linkz:20 People...

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The word “karaoke” means “empty orchestra” in Japanese (kara + ōkesutora).

The word “karaoke” means “empty orchestra” in Japanese (kara + ōkesutora).


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Homem arranca os próprios olhos durante missa na Itália




Um homem arrancou os seus próprios olhos durante uma missa que estava a ser realizada na catedral de San Andre, na localidade de Vilareggio. O homem, de 46 anos, nascido na Inglaterra que estava a ouvir uma missa, começa repentinamente a gritar e arrancou os seus olhos com as próprias mãos, de acordo com os relatos das testemunhas. Ele explicou aos funcionários do serviço que cometeu este ato após ter ouvido uma voz que lhe dizia para arrancar os olhos, segundo as autoridades. A mãe dele estava ao seu lado e viu tudo o que tinha sucedido.

Apesar de ter sido levado imediatamente para o hospital Versilia, onde foi operado, os médicos não puderam fazer nada para evitar a sua cegueira. O médico Gino Barbacci, responsável das urgências desse hospital, afirmou que para fazer algo como isto, seria necessário ter uma força sobre-humana e que em 26 anos de serviço nunca tinha visto nada igual. Acrescentou também que o homem chegou tranquilo ao hospital, numa ambulância. Embora o seu rosto tivesse coberto de sangue, ele não se queixava e também não parecia sentir dor.

A imprensa italiana revelou que o homem tinha problemas psicológicos e que tinha deixado de tomar os comprimidos que lhe foram receitados. O padre, Lorenzo Tanganelli, continuou a missa após a chegada dos serviços médicos que levaram o homem para o hospital.










Adaptado de: blog-estranhouniverso





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Source for more facts follow NowYouKno





Source for more facts follow NowYouKno


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What Would Happen If Gravity Disappeared?

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Taking a Closer Look at Orion After Successful Flight Test



Engineers across the country have been busy taking a closer look at NASA's Orion spacecraft and the data it produced during its successful flight test in December 2014. Inside the Launch Abort System Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Orion was lifted using a special crane for removal of its heat shield on Feb. 13, 2015. In the background, technicians move the heat shield on a work stand. The spacecraft’s heat shield protected Orion as it reentered Earth’s atmosphere at searing temperatures. Removing the back shell allows the team to get a closer look at Orion’s systems to see how they fared during the trip to space. The heat shield was removed in preparation for shipment to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where special equipment will be used to remove its ablative material. From there, the heat shield will be shipped to NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, where it will be outfitted on a test article for water impact testing. Meanwhile, NASA and Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for Orion, continue to take a look at the data the flight test produced to validate pre-flight models and improve the spacecraft’s design. Analysis of data obtained during its two-orbit, four-and-a-half hour mission Dec. 5 will provide engineers detailed information on how the spacecraft fared. Photo Credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann



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Source for more facts follow NowYouKno





Source for more facts follow NowYouKno


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destinyrocks-andallthatjazz:swoilli:interesting-linkz:20 People...

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(From CDC)





(From CDC)


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Source for more facts follow NowYouKno





Source for more facts follow NowYouKno


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destinyrocks-andallthatjazz:swoilli:interesting-linkz:20 People...

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March 9th 1841: United States v. The AmistadOn this day in 1841,...



Depiction of the Amistad revolt





Sengbe Pieh - or Joseph Cinqué (1814-1879)





The Supreme Court's decision in the Amistad case



March 9th 1841: United States v. The Amistad


On this day in 1841, the Supreme Court issued their decision in United States v. The Amistad on the case of the 1839 mutiny aboard a slave ship. The rebellion occurred on the Spanish ship The Amistad as it was bound for Havana, Cuba, where captured men would be sold to a Caribbean plantation. The mutiny of fifty-three abducted men from Sierra Leone was led by Joseph Cinqué, and they killed the captain and ordered the sailors to turn the ship around and return to Africa. However, the ship was soon seized by an American ship off the coast of Long Island, New York. The mutineers were imprisoned on murder charges, while a debate over what to do with them gripped the United States. Abolitionists led the effort to free the men, fighting ownership claims of the Spanish government which were supported by President Martin van Buren. A state court referred the Amistad case to the federal judicial system, and it reached the Supreme Court in 1841. In a landmark decision, the Court ruled in favour of the Africans - who were defended by former President John Quincy Adams. The Court declared that the men were illegally held as slaves, and decreed that they were free to return to their homeland. While slavery was legal in the United States, the importation of slaves had been banned in 1808, thus ruling that the men had been kidnapped and were justified in using violence to escape their condition.


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"It’s 1856 Britain, and an 18 year old chemistry student is messing around in the laboratory trying..."

“It’s 1856 Britain, and an 18 year old chemistry student is messing around in the laboratory trying to make quinine out of coal tar to save some lives and expand the glorious empire etc, but as early chemistry is a bit ham-fisted, instead he manages to make a seemingly useless bright purple solution. For funzies he dips some silk in the solution, and is rather impressed with the result. Hand-wave over some really boring history of mordants and patent laws, and he manages to get a dye firm interested in his creation, and the world’s first commercially available artificial dye is soon available, and much more cheaply than any natural dye on the market. Not only is it the first artificial dye, but it is the first use of anything produced through chemical research in an exclusively commercial application. So the birth of the modern chemical industry started with a garish purple dye. The dye also was useful to biological science because it could be used to stain things for examination under microscopes.”



- a quick argument for why the invention of mauveine, aka purple dye, is one of the most influential and important inventions in modern history
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(From Chicago Department of Public Health via Advisory Committee...





(From Chicago Department of Public Health via Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices)


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