Michelangelo seems to have hidden an anatomy gem into his image of God in the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Looking closely at God's neck, it resembles the anatomical representation of the brainstem and beginning of the spinal cord.
Michelangelo was a master anatomist, dissecting cadavers as early as 15 years old. Despite his mastery of anatomy, the awkwardness of God's neck in Separation of Light From Darkness originally baffled scholars. The neck is lumpy and the beard curls only around the jaw. "Michelangelo definitely knew how to depict necks -- he knew anatomy so well," says Rafael Tamargo, M.D., a professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "That's why it was such a mystery why this particular neck looked so odd."
This irregularity led researchers to study the painting in more depth, eventually realizing the neck strongly represented the brainstem. This anatomical "easter egg" isn't unusual for Michelangelo.
One could argue that the added anatomical specificity to God, resembles Michelangelo's depiction of God as a more human deity than a ubiquitous being ...
This video visualizes the US Military's budget through the use of CGI M1 Abram tanks! The visualization shows 88k tanks being piled up, each representing $6.2 million, but in the end it looks like a lot less. Still, it must have been a lot of work to put this together.
It's made by a design studio called Moustache that makes really neat CGI shorts (ads, visualizations, etc.).
A few weeks ago, I realized medical school life was going to be anything but normal: living life exam to exam, using bathroom breaks as relaxation time and most importantly, having little time to devote to outside interests. I decided I needed a hobby to reduce the everyday stresses associated with the lifestyle. So, I picked up sketching.
Why Sketching? Sketching is quite different from finished art work. It is sometimes just doodles, sometimes a thought process, and sometimes a practice. Often, it is not meant to be seen. Even when making silly doodles on the side of my notes while studying, I found myself feeling relaxed, not worrying about the stresses of the situation. In school we're taught everything we do must have a purpose, but, to me, sketching seemed blissfully purposeless.
As I started observing pictures and objects to sketch, I discovered some amazing intricacies in the simplest subjects. It was as if I was seeing these objects for the first time. Everything in our daily routine is familiar, easy to take for granted … when you stop and really start looking at those objects to sketch them you are gonna have some great, maybe even surprising, discoveries.
In general any hobby that has some repetitive motion associated with it (i.e. pottery, knitting, etc.) elicits the relaxation response, a feeling of "serenity", marked by lower blood pressure. In fact some research suggest that repetitive-style hobbies strengthen immunity. A Swedish study showed that people who regularly engaged in hobbies such as playing an instrument or sewing were less likely to suffer mental decline.
So, maybe picking up a hobby is the best way to keep things in perspective.
Here are some of my most recent sketches. They're not perfect or maybe even good, but it turns out that's not so important =)
If you've ever wondered why when you sprinkle drops of water on a skillet to gauge the temp, the water scatters across the metal and takes longer to evaporate, here's your answer. It's known as the Leidenfrost Effect.
Here's Wikipedia's explanation:
"TheLeidenfrost effectis aphenomenonin which a liquid, in near contact with a mass significantly hotter than the liquid'sboiling point, produces an insulatingvaporlayer which keeps that liquid fromboilingrapidly."
Here're soome cool visual demonstrations of the Leidenfrost Effect
(Scroll down for more info on how it works)
A double oscillation with water on a hot plate
Hand vs Liquid Nitrogen and the Leidenfrost Effect
Two drops collide on a hot plate of 350 degrees celcius
Excellent Explanation of the Leidenfrost Effect
Great demonstration of Leidenfrost Effect
via Wikipedia:
"The effect can be seen as drops of water are sprinkled into a pan at various times while it is heating up. Initially, as the temperature of the pan is below 100 °C (212 °F), the water just flattens out and slowly evaporates. As the temperature of the pan goes above 100 °C (212 °F), the water drops hiss on touching the pan and evaporate relatively quickly. Later, as the temperature goes past the Leidenfrost point, the Leidenfrost effect comes into play. On contact the droplets of water do not evaporate away so quickly. This time, they bunch up into small balls of water and skitter around, lasting much longer than when the temperature of the pan was much lower. This effect lasts until a much higher temperature causes any further drops of water to evaporate too quickly to cause this effect.
This works because, at temperatures above theLeidenfrost point, when water touches the hot plate, the bottom part of the water vaporizes immediately on contact. The resulting gas actually suspends the rest of the water droplet just above it, preventing any further direct contact between the liquid water and the hot plate and dramatically slowing down further heat transfer between them. This also results in the drop being able to skid around the pan on the layer of gas just under it.
The temperature at which the Leidenfrost effect begins to occur is not easy to predict. Even if the volume of the drop of liquid stays the same the Leidenfrost point may be quite different with a complicated dependence on the properties of the surface as well as any impurities in the liquid. Some research has been conducted into a theoretical model of the system, but it is quite complicated.[3]As a very rough estimate, the Leidenfrost point for a drop of water on a frying pan might occur at 160 °C (320 °F).
The effect was also described by the eminent Victorian steam boiler designer,Sir William Fairbairn, in reference to its effect on massively reducing heat transfer from a hot iron surface to water, such as within a boiler. In a pair of lectures on boiler design,[4]he cited the work of one M. Boutigny & Professor Bowman ofKing's College, Londonin studying this. A drop of water that was vaporized almost immediately at 334 °F (168 °C) persisted for 152 seconds at 395 °F (202 °C). Lower temperatures in a boiler firebox might evaporate watermorequickly as a result; compareMpemba effect. An alternative approach was to increase the temperature substantially, beyond the Leidenfrost point. Fairbairn considered this too, and may have been contemplating theflash steam boiler, but considered the technical aspects insurmountable for the time.
TheLeidenfrost pointmay also be taken to be the temperature for which the hovering droplet lasts longest[5]."
Yea, it's a French short about biology. Like CSI: Paris, but with actual biology.
MEPE is entirely in French and this version doesn't have subtities, but even if you don't speak the language you can appreciate the style and quality ... and maybe even some humor.
Many bus stops are just a pole with a plate or sign attached.
Frequently, they are so positioned that they cast a shadow when the sun is shining.
If a suitable pattern of lines were painted radially from the base of the pole, it would act as a sundial. Since the poles are quite tall, fairly accurate time indication would be possible.
A reminder would be needed to apply an adjustment for Daylight saving time (where and when applicable).
In overcast conditions, or at night, bus passengers would be thrown back on their own resources as regards timekeeping.
Note:
Ordinary, simple sundials aren't that accurate, either. They can be as much as 16 minutes off. To accurately tell time by the sun, you've got to take into account the "equation of time"; that is, you've got to add or subtract a correction factor that varies according to the time of the year. Accurate sundials are possible, but their markings are so complicated it would be a challenge for most people to learn how to read them.
University of Colorado researchers have discovered that the brain of mice used in research can be profoundly affected by the use of a cage. They show that differences in cage type brought unexpected effects on aggressive behavior and neuroanatomical features of the mouse olfactory bulb. If these results are repeatable, this study can bring up some very interesting questions in current/past research. However, if human-clinical trials of "brain" drugs support the animal studies (caged mice among them), then I'm not entirely sure this study is too much more than an interesting question ...
Those hard of hearing often rely on being able to read a speaker's lips. Often the speaker is not aware of the listener's handicap and moves too far away, turns away from the listener, cover's their mouth while wiping their face, speaks very softly with little lip movement, etc. Another issue would be while on the phone, hearing aids can only help so much.
I would like to see a cell phone-like device or an iPhone app that would convert speech to lip movements on an animated character's face on a cell phone-like screen. The character's lips would parrot the lip movements of the speaker in detail. The cell phone-like device could also act as a hearing aid and feed sound to the listener's earphone. The device / app could also translate frequencies the listener can't hear the frequencies of.
Would love some links that show any research in this area, please!
