Baroque Blood Vessels
A scanning electron microscope (SEM) image zooms in on the baroque branching structures that send blood to the human brain’s cortex. The vessels are organized such that the large blood vessels surround the surface of the brain (top of image), sending thin, dense projections down into the depths of the cortex (bottom of image).
(via Inside the Brain)
Credit: Alfonso Rodrigues-Baeza & Marisa Ortega-Sanchez, 2009
Posts tagged "Medicine"
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Source livescience.com
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How X-rays Work.
X rays hold a certain fascination in their ability to peer into the unknown and see bizarre things like snakes that have ingested light bulbs but like a lot of good things in science, X-rays were discovered entirely by accident. They’re usually attributed to Wilhelm Rontgen who noticed that a film across his lab begun to fluoresce during experiments with a Crooke’s Tube despite taking action to block radiation (in the form of a sheet of black card). It was then discovered that by moving his hand in between the Crooke’s tube and fluorescing screen he could see the bones in his hands.
The ability for X rays to penetrate flesh and render hidden things visible lies in the amount of energy contained within them. They simply cannot be absorbed by most atoms because there is not enough of an energy difference between electron orbitals, as such they pass through most molecules and atoms unhindered. However heavier elements, such as calcium, are capable of absorbing X rays and so effectively block them. The formation of X rays lies in the reverse process. To produce high energy electromagnetic radiation electrons are accelerated and fired at a metal (typically tungsten) plate. These high velocity electrons ionize the metal by bumping off one of electrons in a lower energy orbital causing a higher energy electron to fall to the lower state and emit the difference of energies in the process as an X ray photon.Source 14-billion-years-later -
Plants found in ancient pills offer medicinal insight →
DNA extracted from 2,000-year-old plants recovered from an Italian shipwreck could offer scientists the key to new medicines.
Carrots, parsley and wild onions were among the samples preserved in clay pills on board the merchant trading vessel that sank around 120 BC. It’s believed the plants were used by doctors to treat intestinal disorders among the ship’s crew.
Such remedies are described in ancient Greek texts, but this is the first time the medicines themselves have been discovered.
“Medicinal plants have been identified before, but not a compound medicine, so this is really something new,” says Alain Touwaide, director of the Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions, which has the world’s largest digital database of medical manuscripts. Read more.
Source archaeologicalnews
