Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
Last year, I was treated to The Physics Book by Clifford A Pickover, which took a huge and sometimes-difficult subject and broke it down into delightful bite-sized pieces anyone can understand. This year, Dr. Pickover has done the exact same thing with an even more universal subject: health. In The Medical Book: From Witch Doctors to Robot Surgeons, there are 250 topics, one page each, with gorgeous illustrations. The topics are presented in more or less chronological order of the subject's discovery or a scientific breakthrough, so The Medical Book is also a history book. Flipping through the topics gives you a sense of how astonishingly recent our knowledge about how human bodies work really is.
Of the 250 topics, it was hard to select just a few to share, but these intrigued me. You'll find others in the book that particularly appeal to you.
10,000 B.C. Witch Doctor
For thousands of years, human health, illness, and injury were all magical concepts.
Shamanic practices, involving healers who appear to be in contact with a spirit world, probably originated in Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) times. For example, evidence for Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) shamanism was found in Israel in the form of an old woman from a burial dating to around 10,000 B.C. The importance of this woman, along with her possible close association with nature and animals, is suggested by the special arrangement of stones by her body, along with 50 complete tortoise shells, a human foot, and remains of birds, boars, leopards, cows, and eagles. Today, the vast majority of the traditional Nguni societies of southern Africa make use of sangomas who employ herbal medicine, divination, and counseling.
Thousands of years later, the science of human biology and the healing arts began to advance in fits and starts, through trial and error, involving a lot of misery on the way to enlightenment. But advance it did, and many of those discoveries are recorded in The Medical Book.
1346 Biological Weapons
Not all those advances were positive. An understanding of germ theory was not necessary to see the nefarious possibilities of contagious diseases, especially in causing harm to one's enemies.
Biological warfare has been conducted for millennia. In 184 B.C., the soldiers of Hannibal of Carthage threw clay pots filled with venomous snakes onto enemy ships. In 1346, Tatar forces threw warriors who died of plague over the walls of Kaffa, a Crimean city, and an outbreak of plague followed. In 1763, representatives of the Delaware Indians were given blankets exposed to smallpox. In 1940, Japanese warplanes flew over China and dropped ceramic bombs filled with fleas carrying bubonic plague.
Yet the goal most medical research is to help the sick and injured. Bodies were dissected, medicines tried, patients suffered and died, and scientists and physicians built upon the knowledge of those who came before.
1683 The Zoo Within Us
Dutch microbiologist Anton Philips van Leeuwenhoek built his own microscope and studied his own body. In 1683, he observed "little living animalcules" in scrapings of his dental plaque. This discovery led to our knowledge of the human microbiome, in which a diverse collection of microbes help our bodies function.
Beneficial and harmful microbes typically reside on and in the skin, mouth, gastrointestinal tract, vagina, nose, and other various orifices. More than 500 species of bacteria live in the human intestines, motivating researchers to think of this population as comprising a "virtual organ." The creatures in our gut can ferment food to aid in digestion, produce vitamins for our bodies, and prevent the growth of harmful species. Such bacteria rapidly colonize a baby's intestines starting from birth.
Hail, hail, the gang's all here -whether you like it or not!
1929 Maggot Therapy
Look at this adorable sand kitten! Or is it called a sand cat kitten? Or a sand cat cub? Either way, this baby is one of a collection of desert-dwelling wild animals photographed in their infancy, the way we rarely get to see them. How cute is a baby hyena? A caracal? A springbok? A kangaroo rat? The collection of photos at Environmental Graffiti includes one critter that is so ugly it will raise your maternal sympathies. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Charles Barilleaux)
How big can one webcomic panel be? Randall Munroe pushes the limits in one xkcd panel. Click and drag to explore the world, but be aware of the passing of time. I still haven't seen it all! Link -via John Walkenbach
Methinks Bob did not quite understand the original phrase. From Bob the Squirrel by cartoonist Frank Page. Link (Thanks, Frank!)
This neon sign recreating the Ghostbusters movie poster is in the window at the Mexican restaurant Touche Hombre in Melbourne, Australia. Read a review of the quirky eatery at My Food Trail. Link -via Mr. Whaite
It rhymes, and it's funny, but Dave, wouldn't it have been easier to just print up a t-shirt? Link
How do you come up with a "new idea" for a television show? It's really simple. You just take the list of magic words and combine a couple of them. You can use your combination as a title or as a premise. NPR posted this, inspired by the new series Mob Doctor and Revolution.
MOB
DOCTOR
LAW
JUSTICE
CUPCAKE
CHICAGO
FORCE
911
STORM
REVOLUTION
HEAT
FOREVER
TEAM
PETS
AMERICA
CELEBRITY
ALASKA
TRUCKER
LOVE
MYSTERY
How many shows have already used this list? Too many to count! And you can count on more to come. Metafilter is already working on Cupcake Justice. Link -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Flickr user Kevin Simpson)
There was an old lady who lived in a shoe ...but did she take a bath in one, too? This fashionable pump is a custom bathtub from the Italian design company SICIS. It's just one of collection of strange and wonderful tubs that seem more for show than for everyday use. Of them all, I'd probably be most comfortable in the wooden tub. Link
(Image credit: SICIS)
It's time for our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog. Put on your thinking cap and figure out what the pictured item is -or just make up something ridiculous!
Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many guesses as you'd like in separate comments. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.
Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?
For additional pictures of this object, check out the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!
Update: the pictured object is an electrical connecting device for neon signs for connecting the luminous tube electrode to an electrical conductor, patent number 2,072,042. The first person who knew that was Tofui, who wins a t-shirt! Although I suppose it could also make a good egg separator. The funniest answer came from ColShorts, who declared it to be The "One Cup At A Time" moonshine still. (Good to the last drop) ;). That's good for a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! Thanks to everyone who played, and thanks to the What Is It blog, where you can find quite a few mystery items every week and the answers on Friday.
If you needed some motivation to get into the spirit of Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19), Krispy Kreme has just the thing -free doughnuts!
Krispy Kreme is celebrating by giving away a free glazed doughnut if you talk like a pirate or wear an eye patch. If you dress up in full pirate regalia, you get a whole dozen.
Just remember -weapons are not allowed in Krispy Kreme outlets, so no cutlasses. Link
British green army men attempt to fight their way out of the garden. Contains NSFW language, cow poop, and bad puns. Animator Chris Butcher invites you to see the making-of video as well. -via The Daily What
Unemployment can make it harder to get a job. That sounds strange, but it's a truism in the placement and recruiting industry. Once you spend any amount of time without a job, getting one at all become more difficult. Even though corporation have unfilled job openings, they tend to not hire the unemployed.
According to 36 percent of recruiters, it becomes “difficult” for an applicant to find a job if he or she is unemployed for as little as six months. Twenty-one percent say that spells of joblessness shorter than six months could kill your hiring prospects. In short, “unemployment can lead to being unemployable.”
In a slack labor market, many workers survive by hopping from job to job. But even that makes an applicant look bad. The survey reports that a 55-year-old with steady employment will find it easier to find a new job than a 30-year-old who has left a company before one year of work. And that’s despite the fact that 70 percent of recruiters say that candidates in their 30s are the easiest group to place.
I think I'm starting to see why these job opening go unfilled. Maybe we need some "new blood" in these recruiting positions. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Andreas Klinke Johannsen)
The cat is just trying to get comfortable. I think he eventually succeeded. -via The Daily What
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