5 Famous Scientists Dismissed as Morons in Their Time

Every nutjob in the world with some out-there theory thinks he's Galileo, rejected for daring to think different. Virtually all of them are, in fact, simply insane.

Yet, there have been brilliant rebels who put their own world-changing ideas on the line, only to end up like Doc Brown in his alternate timeline: humiliated, ridiculed, ignored and/or straight driven to insanity.

Gregor Mendel

You probably know Mendel as the guy who pioneered the science of genetics, and for keeping eighth-graders busy while science teachers watch porn at their desks. Anybody with a high school diploma has filled out those dominant/recessive trait Punnett squares ...
... though astute readers are probably wondering why that technique is called a Punnett square if it predicts patterns Mendel discovered.

What you probably didn't know was that before making his revolutionary discovery, Gregor Mendel flunked his ass out of school and resigned himself to a quiet life as the abbot of a monastery. It had an extensive experimental garden and there Mendel patiently spent the next seven years of his life breeding and cross-breeding peas.

He carefully documented his work and developed what would eventually be known as Mendel's Laws of Inheritance. Then he wrote it up and got it published in an lesser-known journal, the Journal of the Brno Natural History Society in 1866.

His Genius Was Rewarded By ...
A quiet life of complete anonymity. Mendel's work was read by about zero people, even after he took it upon himself to contact the highest minds of his time by personally sending them copies of his theory. It turns out he would have been better off writing it on a paper bag filled with dog shit and leaving the whole flaming mess on porches.

Why did they ignore him? Because the greatest minds of his time couldn't understand him. It wasn't until 16 years after his death that three independent botanists rediscover Mendel's work and started the genetics ball rolling.

Ignaz Semmelweis

We've brought up poor old Semmelweis once before, but just in case you don't have a running loop of Cracked articles going through your head, here's the recap: Back in 1847, Semmelweis found himself in charge of two maternity clinics. The first clinic was a teaching school, with medical students learning birthing, autopsying and everything in between. The second clinic was intended for women who couldn't afford health care and was serviced by midwives, not actual doctors or students.

Yet it was the second clinic that women of all social statuses begged to get into. Why? Because if they went to the first clinic they'd have a 10 percent chance of dying of puerperal fever, a six percent greater rate of death than in the midwife-run hospital. Women literally had a better chance of surviving a birth on the street than in the first clinic. After an exhaustive study, Semmelweis figured out that medical students were smothered in disease cooties from cadavers, and that maybe, just maybe, they should wash their hands in between the autopsy room and the birthing rooms.

He insisted students perform a simple chlorine wash after handling dead guys and immediately got the death rate down to one to two percent. With numbers like that, you'd think the whole continent of Europe, much less the medical community, would have crowned him "king of live babies" or something.

His Genius Was Rewarded By ...
First dementia, then a beatdown at an insane asylum, then death, by virtually the same disease he had eradicated in his own hospital.

Semmelweis didn't just have the disregard of his contemporaries, he had their flat-out scorn. Maybe it was because he didn't get around to explaining himself on paper right away, so no one understood what hand-washing had to do with keeping people alive. Some doctors were actually insulted that he was accusing Viennese medical students being dirty enough to kill people.
Within 14 years of his groundbreaking discovery, Semmelweis just stopped giving a fuck. He got drunk all the time and called all his detractors "ignoramuses" and "murderers." He started chilling with prostitutes and lashing out at family. That last part proved to be a bad move, because in 1865 they had him committed to an insane asylum, where he was promptly beat up and stuck in a dark cellar.

He died two weeks later. It took another 20 years and Louis Pasteur's germ theory for the rest of the world to come around to the concept of washing your hands to keep from getting sick.

George Zweig

The year 1964 was a watershed year by any measure. The Beatles arrived, the Civil Rights Act was passed, Nicolas Cage was born and in two separate parts of the world, two separate scientists proposed the existence of quarks, the teeny-tiny subatomic particles that combine to form matter. If you've been paying attention, you know one of these guys is about to get screwed. (Hint: It's George Zweig.)

Zweig had three things going against him in 1964. One, he was a young graduate student, unpublished and unproven. Two, he was working at a particle research center in Geneva. You'd think that would be an advantage, but it turns out his institute had a stringent model for publication, and his paper on quarks, which he called "aces," didn't meet its standards (even though he had come up with a much cooler name for the particle). And three, an older scientist from his grad school proposed the exact same theory at the exact same time and because of his stature was able to publish that exact same theory with the exact same publication that rejected Zweig's.
At first, both men were called crazy for their insane notions of invisible particles. They had no model of behavior for the buggers and no methods of ever actually looking at them. But eventually the science world came around, and by 1969, Zweig's rival was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work. As for Zweig.

His Genius Was Rewarded By ...
Being blackballed by a major university and accusations of being a "charlatan."

It wasn't until the 1970s that anyone could actually prove the existence of quarks, and by that time, the Nobel Prize committee felt it had already given the little particles enough attention, so it was reluctant to revisit the subject. Nevertheless, in 1977, Zweig and his rival were both nominated, but neither won. Zweig ended up changing his field of study to neurobiology, presumably believing that if he made a seminal contribution to every area of science, he'd eventually get credit for something.

Albert Einstein

Trying to convince you that Albert Einstein was rejected in any way during his lifetime let alone a moron is a hard sell, considering that he was one of the most famous men on the planet at the time. But buried deep in a lifetime of utter brilliance, Einstein was saddled with one big mistake. One that it turned out wasn't a mistake at all.

To understand, you have to know a little bit about Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. Not a whole lot, just the fact that it didn't allow for a static universe. Einstein believed the universe had to be static, or else the forces of gravity would cause the whole universe to contract onto itself, which it apparently wasn't doing. So, to make up for this weird conundrum, he invented something called thecosmological constant, an unknown, unchanging force that allowed him to have his cake (General Theory of Relativity) and eat it, too (stand by a static-universe model).

But not too long after Einstein came up with the cosmological constant, Edwin Hubble burst his little unmoving universe bubble by finding evidence that the whole shebang was expanding. Einstein called the cosmological constant his "biggest blunder" and went to his grave thinking he was an idiot for having proposed it. And so did everyone else. For a while.


His Genius Was Rewarded By ...

Einstein didn't get heaped with scorn like some of the other geniuses on this list, so he got off with a little self-deprecation with a side of regret. And he also dropped the whole idea of the cosmological constant. But here's the thing -- it turns out he may have been right all along. Not about the universe being static, of course, but that this mysterious, unknown entity existed in the first place.
In the 1990s, scientists discovered that the universe was expanding faster than they had previously thought and that the rate of expansion was being fueled by a mysterious, unknown entity. There are several contenders up for consideration as the cause, but everyone's favorite? You guessed it: Einstein's cosmological constant. His math of the constant magically fit the bill. Also because you never go wrong when you bet on Einstein.


Ludwig Boltzmann 

Ludwig Boltzmann had the unfortunate luck of being born with a genius brain at the wrong time. Back in the 19th century, there was a huge debate over the nature of matter. Boltzmann not only had the audacity to presuppose the existence of atoms at a time when the atomic model was still controversial among scientists, but also built every one of his brilliant theories as if there was no debate at all. How brilliant? Hang on to your test tubes, because thing are about to get sciencey.

For one, he pioneered the study of statistical thermodynamics, which is a field of physics that provides a framework for predicting how a large number of particles will behave in a system. So, let's say you're camping and you start a fire. Boltzmann was the guy who tried to figure out what the crap was going on in those logs on a molecular level that allowed the fire to kindle, and he used fancy math formulas to figure it out. His work ultimately paved the way for the field of quantum mechanics, which eventually paved the way for the greatest time travel show ever.

His Genius Was Rewarded By ...

Death. He got death.
Back then, defending the existence of atoms was akin to defending creationist version of the origins of man today. Boltzmann wasn't just forced to defend something that would be accepted as fact within a few years, he was shamed for his stubborn refusal to yield and for his so-called materialist beliefs.
Nobody ever told scientists that nonmaterial science is already called philosophy. A long series of uneven debates left nearly every other supporter of atoms silent, leaving Boltzmann as their chief defender. Even colleagues who originally agreed with him began to question atoms' existence when his work seemingly undermined previously understood laws of physics.

The emotional burden of being the only right guy in the world, coupled with what was probably undiagnosed bipolar disorder, proved too much for Boltzmann to handle, and he hung himself in 1906, only three years before another scientist proved the undeniable existence of atoms. Nice job, science.

Kitten Gets Really Wild Purr-tection

Recently the extraordinary scene appeared in a zoo of the Indonesia. A wild monkey has stunned animal fans after becoming very purr-tective of his new furry friend.

Sources:http://www.atautocar.com

Driverless van crosses Europe to Asia

A driverless van has completed the longest-ever trip by an unmanned vehicle, beginning in Italy and arriving in China, covering 13,000 kilometers (8,077 miles), researchers said.

The van arrived at the Shanghai World Expo on Thursday, after leaving Italy on July 20.

The three-month trip took the van through Eastern Europe, Russia and Kazakhstan; across China through the Gobi Desert; and finally along the Great Wall, before arriving for a celebration at the expo. The driverless van relied solely on electricity.

The vehicle weathered three months of rain, blizzards and sun, and arrived in Shanghai with no major problems, according to researchers tracking its progress. The van even stopped to pick up hitchhikers outside of Moscow.

"We are really happy. It's a real milestone in our field of vehicular robotics," said lead researcher Alberto Broggi.

The van, designed by Italian tech company Vislab, featured 12 refined sensors, including cameras, a carbon dioxide sensor, a GPS device and an off-road laser scanner.

"This driverless trip to China shows how science can capture people's imagination through achievements that would recently have been unthinkable ... [and] provide major environmental and economic benefits," said Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, head of research, innovation and science for the European Commission.

The record-setting journey comes in amid of major developments in driverless vehicle technology.
Earlier this month, Google announced that its self-driving vehicle had successfully traveled about 350 miles [563 kilometers] from its headquarters in Mountain View, California, to Santa Monica, California. Google, which engages in energy-related businesses along with its core Internet search-engine service, says its self-driving cars have logged more than 140,000 miles. General Motors, Volkswagen and Stanford University are also developing driverless vehicles.

No maps were used as Vislab's van traveled from Italy, then off-road through much of Siberia and China. The van topped out at 37 miles per hour and traveled about four hours a day to allow for adequate battery recharging.

As for human intervention during the van's three-month journey, "We had to intervene manually only on limited occasions, such as in the Moscow traffic jams and when passing toll stations," said lead researcher Broggi, who also is a professor at Italy's University of Parma.
Two engineers rode in the van to prevent dangerous situations. The vehicle was part of a four-vehicle caravan, which included a leading van that was occasionally driven by two engineers, but mostly operated without human guidance.

From Italy to Russia to China, the driverless van baffled onlookers. During a special demonstration on the outskirts of Moscow on September 10, a police officer approached the vehicle as it maneuvered in a pedestrian zone, only to find a driver missing.

"He realized there was no driver!" engineers wrote on the van's official trip blog. "He then looked around and tried to find a clue of what was happening. He really seemed puzzled!"

"We talked to him ... explained this is a big test," Broggi said. "It was extremely difficult, but in the end we avoided getting the first ticket to an autonomous vehicle."

Other challenges along the way included replacing a 430-kilogram battery in Moscow, lengthy and complicated border crossings due to customs clearances, and several frigid nights camping along the van's route in Siberia.

"We weren't worried about not making it," though, Broggi said. "This big trip was an intermediary step in a longer process. We have something new planned for 2012."

The European Research Council primarily funded the expedition, to develop technology to increase road safety and fuel efficiency by supplementing driver decisions at the wheel. The project used low-cost technologies that could be integrated in most current vehicles' chassis, researchers said.

More than 1.2 million people die annually in auto crashes, according to the World Health Organization.

Source:CNN,http://branham.org

Going, going, GONE! Pigeon shuns chance of great escape after being scooped up by hungry pelican in London park

When a pigeon was gobbled up by a greedy pelican, it looked like instant game over for the little bird.
But when the predator unexpectedly opened up his huge beak again, the pigeon was given a chance to save himself and fly away.

Confusingly, however, the dopey bird instead chose to simply sit in the beak taking in the view - and missed his only opportunity to escape.
Not surprisingly, he was eaten up

Photographer Paul Mansfield, 44, captured the remarkable scene while on a day trip to London with his family.
The pigeon had been pecking at crumbs in St James' Park, Westminster, when he was targeted by the pelican.
Mr Mansfield said: 'I noticed a small crowd gathered at the side of a lake that was 'oohing' and 'arghing'.
'On closer inspection I could see what all the fuss was about.
'On the grassy bank a pelican had managed to gobble up a pigeon.'


Mr Mansfield, from Brighton, East Sussex, added: 'The crowd was willing it to escape, with shouts of "Come on, you can do it!".'
'During one such moment the pigeon stood inside the peak, head peering out, with its body silhouetted on the pelican's pouch
.
There was another big gulp and you could see the pigeon slide further down the pouch.

'Then another and it was gone. There were gasps of disbelief from many in the crowd.'

Unbelievably the same pelican then gulped another bird nearby and the whole process started again.

Mr Mansfield said: 'I had seen enough and headed for more pleasant vistas along the South Bank.'

Just hanging around: The illusionist who defies the laws of gravity

it just doesn't seem right.

Hanging in the air with his arm casually pressed against the wall Johan Lorbeer appears to defy the laws of gravity and be able to float 10ft off the ground.

The German-born artist chats with the audience during the performance and encourages them to buy into the belief that is indeed floating.

His 'still life' performances have built up a steady following across Europe and his repertoire of illusions include one where he appears to be standing horizontally out from a street wall dressed as a street cleaner.

Johan has been working on his act since the late 1970s and believes his work is defined in the 'dynamic area between act and sculpture'.

In these pictures the illusionist performs his act before bewildered people in the streets of Madrid.

Remaining in these positions for hours at a time he says that he is acting in the manner of a sculpture or statue.

Quite how he manages the illusions remains his secret. However it is rumoured to involved ladders, mirrors and fake arms. One theory has it that Johan holds on to a fake arm attached to the wall and then balances against it.

Johan, however, offers a more enigmatic explanation: 'My point of view standing on the wall acts normally; that is to say vertically.

'The optical perception redefines the wall as the floor, which is why from my position I perceive the observers as positioned against the wall.'

'Shaming' her in-laws costs 19 year old her nose, ears

"When they cut off my nose and ears, I passed out," 19-year-old Bibi Aisha of Afghanistan says with chilling candor.

Her beauty is still stunning and her confidence inspiring. It takes a moment for the barbaric act committed against her to register in your mind and sight.

Wearing her patterned scarf and with roughly painted nails she shares her story.

"It felt like there was cold water in my nose, I opened my eyes and I couldn't even see because of all the blood," she remembers.

It was an act of Taliban justice for the crime of shaming her husband's family. This story began when Aisha was just 8 years old.

Her father had promised her hand in marriage, along with that of her baby sister's, to another family in a practice called "baad."

"Baad" in Pashtunwali, the law of the Pashtuns, is a way to settle a dispute between rival families.

At 16, she was handed over to her husband's father and 10 brothers, who she claims were all members of the Taliban in Oruzgan province. Aisha didn't even meet her husband because he was off fighting in Pakistan.

"I spent two years with them and became a prisoner," she says. (Watch more of the interview with Aisha)

Tortured and abused, she couldn't take it any longer and decided to run away. Two female neighbors promising to help took her to Kandahar province.

But this was just another act of deception.

When they arrived to Kandahar her female companions tried to sell Aisha to another man.

All three women were stopped by the police and imprisoned. Aisha was locked up because she was a runaway. And although running away is not a crime, in places throughout Afghanistan it is treated as one if you are a woman.

A three-year sentence was reduced to five months when President Hamid Karzai pardoned Aisha. But eventually her father-in-law found her and took her back home.



That was the first time she met her husband. He came home from Pakistan to take her to Taliban court for dishonoring his family and bringing them shame.

The court ruled that her nose and ears must be cut off. An act carried out by her husband in the mountains of Oruzgan where they left her to die.

But she survived.

And with the help of an American Provincial Reconstruction Team in Oruzgan and the organization Women for Afghan Women (WAW), she is finally getting the help and protection she needs.

Offers have been pouring in to help Aisha, but there are many more women suffering in silence.

The United Nations estimates that nearly 90 percent of Afghanistan's women suffer from some sort of domestic abuse. This in a country where there are only about eight women's shelters to provide sanctuary from the cruelty they face. And all of the eight are privately run.

"Bibi Aisha is only one example of thousands of girls and women in Afghanistan and throughout the world who are treated this way - who suffer abuses like this, like this and worse," says board member for WAW, Esther Hyneman.

In 2001, the situation of Afghan women and Taliban brutality received plenty of attention. Now organizations like WAW say the international community is strangely silent on the issue.

Hyneman says not enough is being done to help the women in Afghanistan and that feeds into the hands of the insurgency.

"When you have ... 50 percent of a population on their knees, it's very easy for extremists, tyrants to take over a country," she adds. "They have a ready-made enslaved population."

Aisha is reminded of that enslavement every time she looks in the mirror.
But there still times she can laugh. And at that moment you see her teenage spirit escaping a body that has seen a lifetime of injustice.

– This story is part of CNN's Impact Your World project.

Broome tourist survives tussle with 5m saltwater crocodile .

A DRUNKEN Broome visitor is lucky to be alive after climbing onto the back of a 5m crocodile and trying to ride the giant predator. 

The man, who had earlier been turfed out of a Broome tavern for being drunk, told police he climbed into the croc's enclosure at a local crocodile park because he wanted to give him a pat.

``He made his way into the crocodile park and then climbed into the compound with a large, male 5m saltwater croc named Fatso,'' Sergeant Roger Haynes told AAP.

``He has attempted to sit on its back and the croc has taken offence to that and has spun around and bit him on the right leg.

``For an unknown reason, the crocodile has let him go and he's managed to scale the fence and exit the park.''
Crocodile park owner Malcolm Douglas said the man was incredibly lucky to survive his brush with the 800kg "Fatso'' who was relocated about 20 years ago from a Northern Territory river where it had been attacking boats.
Mr Douglas said the cooler night in Broome had probably made "Fatso'' a bit more sluggish than he would normally have been, contributing to the miracle escape from a near-certain fatal attack.

The man managed to clamber back over the perimeter fence and made his way back to the nearby tavern to get help after the attack, about 10.15pm on Monday.

Mr Douglas said it is believed the man is an itinerant drifter. Earlier Police said they thought he had been in the town for several weeks.

Sgt Haynes said the man was extremely lucky to be alive.

``No person in their right mind would try to sit on a 5m crocodile,'' he said.

``We do know he's from the eastern states and he doesn't seem to have a very good understanding of the nature of saltwater crocs in the Kimberley.''

He said the 36-year-old had some ``very nasty lacerations'' and would spend some time in hospital, as croc wounds are prone to infection.

``Saltwater crocodiles . . . once they get hold of you, are not renowned for letting you go. He's lucky to have escaped with his life.''

Driving while blind? Maybe, with new high-tech car

Could a blind person drive a car? Researchers are trying to make that far-fetched notion a reality.

The National Federation of the Blind and Virginia Tech plan to demonstrate a prototype vehicle next year equipped with technology that helps a blind person drive a car independently.

The technology, called "nonvisual interfaces," uses sensors to let a blind driver maneuver a car based on information transmitted to him about his surroundings: whether another car or object is nearby, in front of him or in a neighboring lane.

Advocates for the blind consider it a "moon shot," a goal similar to President John F. Kennedy's pledge to land a man on the moon. For many blind people, driving a car long has been considered impossible. But researchers hope the project could revolutionize mobility and challenge long-held assumptions about limitations.

"We're exploring areas that have previously been regarded as unexplorable," said Dr. Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind. "We're moving away from the theory that blindness ends the capacity of human beings to make contributions to society."

The Baltimore-based organization announced its plans for the vehicle demonstration at a news conference Friday in Daytona Beach, Fla.

A blind person, who has not yet been chosen, will drive the vehicle on a course near the famed Daytona race track and attempt to simulate a typical driving experience.

Maurer first talked about building an automobile that the blind could drive about a decade ago when he launched the organization's research institute.

"Some people thought I was crazy and they thought, 'Why do you want us to raise money for something that can't be done?' Others thought it was a great idea," Maurer said. "Some people were incredulous. Others thought the idea was incredible."

The vehicle has its roots in Virginia Tech's 2007 entry into the DARPA Grand Challenge, a competition for driverless vehicles funded by the Defense Department's research arm. The university's team won third place for a self-driving vehicle that used sensors to perceive traffic, avoid crashing into other cars and objects and run like any other vehicle.

Following their success, Virginia Tech's team responded to a challenge from the National Federation of the Blind to help build a car that could be driven by a blind person. Virginia Tech first created a dune buggy as part of a feasibility study that used sensor lasers and cameras to act as the eyes of the vehicle. A vibrating vest was used to direct the driver to speed up, slow down or make turns.

The blind organization was impressed by the results and urged the researchers to keep pushing. The results will be demonstrated next January on a modified Ford Escape sport utility vehicle at the Daytona International Speedway before the Rolex 24 race.

The latest vehicle will use nonvisual interfaces to help a blind driver operate the car. One interface, called DriveGrip, uses gloves with vibrating motors on areas that cover the knuckles. The vibrations signal to the driver when and where to turn.

Another interface, called AirPix, is a tablet about half the size of a sheet of paper with multiple air holes, almost like those found on an air hockey game. Compressed air coming out of the device helps inform the driver of his or her surroundings, essentially creating a map of the objects around a vehicle. It would show whether there's another vehicle in a nearby lane or an obstruction in the road.

A blind person, who has not yet been chosen, will drive the vehicle on a course near the famed Daytona race track and attempt to simulate a typical driving experience.

Dr. Dennis Hong, a mechanical engineering professor at Virginia Tech who leads the research, said the technology could someday help a blind driver operate a vehicle but could also be used on conventional vehicles to make them safer or on other applications.

Hong, who directs the school's Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, said they hope to turn the technology into a consumer product. But he added, "This is not going to be a product until its proven 100 percent safe."

Advocates for the blind say it will take time before society accepts the potential of blind drivers and that the safety of the technology will need to be proven through years of testing. But more than anything, they say it's part of a broader mission to change the way people perceive the blind.

Mark Riccobono, executive director of the NFB's Jernigan Institute, said when he walks down the street with his 3-year-old son, many people might think he, as a blind person, is being guided by his son.

"The idea that a 3-year-old takes care of me stems from what they think about blindness," Riccobono said. "That will change when people see that we can do something that they thought was impossible."

The world's most giant underwater museum

Visitors to a national park in Cancun could soon come face-to-face with life-sized sculptures in human form fixed in the seabed, as plans to create what could be the world's largest underwater museum start to become a reality.

On 19 November, four sculptures are due to be submerged in the Caribbean waters, off the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico's eastern state of Quintana Roo.

They will be the first of many hundreds of figures, which will be dotted around an area of the region's national park.

The sculptures will be made of PH-neutral concrete, which, it is hoped, will attract algae and marine life and give the local ecosystem a boost.

According to the park's director Jaime Gonzalez, one of the aims is to reduce the pressure on the natural habitat in other areas of the park by luring tourists away from existing coral reef, which has suffered damage from hurricanes and human activity.

Some 750,000 people visit the park a year, said Mr Gonzalez, with about 450,000 of them visiting Punta Nizuc, an area of just four hectares.

Fewer visitors could allow the coral in the area to regenerate, giving it a greater chance of withstanding hurricane damage, said Mr Gonzalez.

One of the first sculptures to be installed is called La Jardinera de la Esperanza, which features a young girl lying on garden patio steps, cultivating pot plants. Situated just four metres below the surface, it will include propagated coral that is expected to prosper in its new environment.

"It all happens rather quickly - within two weeks, we will see green algae," says artist Jason deCaires Taylor, who is in charge of the project. "Then within a few months, juvenile algae will appear and the project will progress from there."


The sculptures have been designed to be durable and, according to Mr deCaires Taylor, will have no detrimental effect on the local ecosystem.

"We carried out an environmental survey beforehand," he said.

The conservation of coral is at the forefront of many environmentalists' minds.

Coral reefs make up less than a quarter of 1% of the ocean's floor. Yet they are a key source of food, income and coastal protection for around 500 million people worldwide.

The project has an initial budget of $350,000 (£210,000), with a significant proportion of the funding being provided by the Mexican government. The rest has been donated by individuals and organisations with an interest in promoting the area.

Mr Gonzalez said: "We already have $160,000 but if this is successful, then who knows when the project will end."

Mr deCaires Taylor is travelling around the country looking for people from various backgrounds to pose for the exhibition.

"The other day I was in a cafe and saw a really fascinating man with strong character lines and expressions, so in my bad Spanish went over to him to explain about the project. Next thing, he was in his underpants in my studio being cast in plaster alginate."

One aim of the subterranean museum is to attract more tourism to the region.

This year, 4.6 million international tourists visited Mexico compared with 5.2 million in the same period last year.

Robert Diaz, president of one of the project's key sponsors, Cancun Nautical Association, said the area had been badly affected by the recession and other factors, such as Mexico's narcotics war and negative publicity surrounding the H1N1 (swine flu) virus.

Dr Paul Jepson, a lecturer in conservation at the UK's University of Oxford, welcomed the idea of the museum.

"Conservationists need to find different ways of engaging with the world. Artists should get involved in environmental matters so it is not just scientists trying to get the message out there," he said.

The idea of underwater museums are not new. A number already exist around the world.

In Egypt, Unesco has voiced its support for a planned underwater museum in Alexandria, which would host treasures belonging to Queen Cleopatra. And in May this year China's Baiheliang Underwater Museum in Chongqing opened to the public.

Made from a natural ridge in the Yangtze River, visitors can see inscriptions by poets and writers, some of which are thousands of years old.

Source:Flepedia 

Entire Family Maps Its Genes

                                          

From food to fashion, the thriving market in human hair

From food to fashion, the thriving market in human hair

The trade in human hair is a growing - and very lucrative - market, with a new film by US comedian Chris Rock looking at the industry. But what can human hair be used for?

There's no such thing as a bad hair day for some people.

Not for the chef using it to get the perfect pizza crust, or the fashion designer charging up to £20,000 for clothes created using human hair. Certainly not for the hairdresser charging up to £2,500 for extensions.

Human hair is now big business in the UK and US and other parts of the world. It's also extremely lucrative for some. American comedian Chris Rock explores the international trade in his new documentary film Good Hair, released in this country on Friday.

Last year alone nearly £15m worth of treated human hair - it has been washed and sometimes dyed - was imported into the UK, according to Customs and Excise. It comes mainly from India, China and Europe. On top of that almost £10m worth of wigs, false beards, eyebrows and eyelashes made from the stuff were also imported. Those in the trade estimate the hair extension industry alone is worth £60m in this country, although there are no official figures.

When it comes to our tresses, the rarest and most expensive is natural blonde hair, says Des Tobin, a professor of cell biology at Bradford University, who has studied hair and the trade.

"About 90% of the world's population has dark brown hair," he says. "It's actually really hard to get natural, adult hair that is blonde. The rarity of hair colour will dictate the price. Blonde hair can cost up to three times as much as dark hair."

European hair, which tends to be finer and so easier to work with, is more sought after in the UK. The price for 100g of blonde, European hair is about £1,000.

So what is our hair - right down to the clippings from a hairdresser's floor - used for?

FOOD

The thought may be an appetite killer, but human hair can be used to make an additive that is found in foods such as the dough for pizza crusts and bagels.

Your mop top is a rich source of L-cysteine, an amino acid that can be extracted from hair and used as a flavour enhancer or flour improver. It is sometimes listed as E920 on food packaging. As well as being found in dough it can be used to give food a meat-like flavour, especially in dog food.

Ten to 15 years ago human hair was a main source of L-cysteine. Producers, mainly based in China, extracted it from hair clippings from salons, even strands collected from hairbrushes.

But as people became more aware of what was in their food, they simply didn't like the thought of human hair having anything to do with what they ate. More Chinese people also started perming their hair, which made extracting the amino acid more difficult.

"As more people found out where L-cysteine came from they thought 'yuck, human hair, don't fancy that'," says a spokesman for Premium Ingredients, a major distributor of ingredients for the food, fragrance and pharmaceutical industries.

"It was also extracted from mainly Chinese hair because it is straight, making the process much easier and cheaper. But more and more people started using perm lotions which made the process more complicated and costly."

Now L-cysteine comes mainly from chicken and duck feathers, which can be collected in larger quantities than hair. In recent years it has also started to be manufactured synthetically. Premium Ingredients, for one, no longer uses human hair.

"People find this more palatable," says the spokesman. The synthetic stuff can also be eaten by vegans and is considered by most to be halal and kosher.

FASHION

In 10 years we'll all be wearing clothes made of human hair, says designer Charlie Le Mindu. We just need to get our heads round the fact. One person who already has is pop singer Lady Gaga, who has sported some of Le Mindu's creations.

"Human hair is beautiful to wear and it's so interesting to work with," he says. "People just need to get over the fact they are wearing something from their body. They seem to think it is still living and that freaks them out."

From hair pieces and hats, to whole outfits, Le Mindu charges up to £20,000 for his creations. They have been exhibited in London's V&A museum and featured in Vogue magazine. And where the fashion industry goes, the rest of us usually follow.

He prefers to use European hair for his designs, which can be used and treated in more ways. Indian and Chinese hair tends to be stronger and harder to manipulate.

"Once people get their heads round wearing human hair I think it will become mainstream," he says. "It will be like wearing fur, a luxury."

Some less scrupulous people in the fashion industry also uses human hair to thicken the pile of fur coats. It means coats can be made for less money.

MOPPING UP OIL

BP's ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico has highlighted a very environmentally-friendly use for human hair - as a mop for the crude oil.

Each hair follicle has an enormous surface area and is "spiky", so the oil "sticks" to it. This is because it is adsorbent, not absorbent like a sponge. It's why we wash our hair, because it collects the oils our bodies produce. It is also the case with fur and wool.
Hair is an extremely efficient material for taking in all kinds of oils including petroleum," says Lisa Gautier, founder of the ecological charity Matter of Trust, which runs an international Hair for Oil Spills programme.

The hair is stuffed into nylon tights to make "booms", which are shaped like sausages. It is also packed together as mesh-covered hair mats. These help soak up the mess in oil disasters.

The Hair for Oil Spills is an international programme that collects off-cuts from hair salons and pet groomers, sheep farmers and individuals from around the world.

It says more than 370,000 salons and pet groomers worldwide have taken part in the operation to mop up the oil still being spewed out off the coast of Louisiana. The charity says in just one month enough hair, fur and wool was donated to make 25 miles of booms.

The idea of using human hair to mop up oil spills was the brain child of US hair stylist Phil McCory. Watching the Exxon Valdez disaster unfold on TV in 1989, he noticed how hard it was for volunteers to clean oil from otters because it was trapped in their fur. He tested to see if it was the same with human hair and it was.

HAIR EXTENSIONS

Yak wool hair extensions - probably not what you paid for but what you possibly might get. Maybe one of the biggest indications of the money to be made from human hair extensions is the fact that crooks are now trying to cash in. Fakes, made from yak wool, are being sold to unsuspecting clients.

"It just shows you how lucrative the market is when people try to make some fast money," says Nev Mehmet, whose company Wonderful Hair imports the human variety for cosmetic extensions.

The explosion in the popularity of extensions is largely down to endorsements from celebrities like Cheryl Cole. No longer a luxury of the rich and famous, extensions using human hair are now available on most High Streets.

Like many other importers, Mr Mehmet gets his "ethically-sourced" hair from sales by temples in India. The practice of Hindu pilgrims shaving their heads has created a multi-million pound business. The religious ritual called "tonsuring" symbolises the pilgrim's desire to overcome their ego. Millions of devotees shave their heads each year and it is sold at auctions. The money made is said to be ploughed back into charitable foundations.

More often than not the hair is bought by Italian importers, who wash and process it to make it ready for another person's head. It is then imported into the UK by the likes of Mr Mehmet. Hair is bought in weight and length, the longer hair being more expensive.

Most human hair is exported from India and China, but Indian hair is preferred because it is finer and less coarse. Even easier to work with is European hair.

To buy the hair to add extensions to a head of shoulder-length hair costs an importer roughly £250, a salon then charges anything up to £2,500. It can take an experienced stylist up to four hours, depending on which technique they use.

There is definitely money to be made and more and more people are cashing in. There are even websites to advertise your flowing locks for sale. So next time you're having a hair cut, maybe you should catch the clippings.

Stem cells reverse blindness caused by burns

  

LOS ANGELES – Dozens of people who were blinded or otherwise suffered severe eye damage when they were splashed with caustic chemicals had their sight restored with transplants of their own stem cells — a stunning success for the burgeoning cell-therapy field, Italian researchers reported Wednesday.
The treatment worked completely in 82 of 107 eyes and partially in 14 others, with benefits lasting up to a decade so far. One man whose eyes were severely damaged more than 60 years ago now has near-normal vision.


"This is a roaring success," said ophthalmologist Dr. Ivan Schwab of the University of California, Davis, who had no role in the study — the longest and largest of its kind.

Stem cell transplants offer hope to the thousands of people worldwide every year who suffer chemical burns on their corneas from heavy-duty cleansers or other substances at work or at home.
The approach would not help people with damage to the optic nerve or macular degeneration, which involves the retina. Nor would it work in people who are completely blind in both eyes, because doctors need at least some healthy tissue that they can transplant.


In the study, published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers took a small number of stem cells from a patient's healthy eye, multiplied them in the lab and placed them into the burned eye, where they were able to grow new corneal tissue to replace what had been damaged. Since the stem cells are from their own bodies, the patients do not need to take anti-rejection drugs.

Adult stem cells have been used for decades to cure blood cancers such as leukemia and diseases like sickle cell anemia. But fixing a problem like damaged eyes is a relatively new use. Researchers have been studying cell therapy for a host of other diseases, including diabetes and heart failure, with limited success.


Adult stem cells, which are found around the body, are different from embryonic stem cells, which come from human embryos and have stirred ethical concerns because removing the cells requires destroying the embryos.
Currently, people with eye burns can get an artificial cornea, a procedure that carries such complications as infection and glaucoma, or they can receive a transplant using stem cells from a cadaver, but that requires taking drugs to prevent rejection.
The Italian study involved 106 patients treated between 1998 and 2007. Most had extensive damage in one eye, and some had such limited vision that they could only sense light, count fingers or perceive hand motions. Many had been blind for years and had had unsuccessful operations to restore their vision.


The cells were taken from the limbus, the rim around the cornea, the clear window that covers the colored part of the eye. In a normal eye, stem cells in the limbus are like factories, churning out new cells to replace dead corneal cells. When an injury kills off the stem cells, scar tissue forms over the cornea, clouding vision and causing blindness.
In the Italian study, the doctors removed scar tissue over the cornea and glued the laboratory-grown stem cells over the injured eye. In cases where both eyes were damaged by burns, cells were taken from an unaffected part of the limbus.


Researchers followed the patients for an average of three years and some as long as a decade. More than three-quarters regained sight after the transplant. An additional 13 percent were considered a partial success. Though their vision improved, they still had some cloudiness in the cornea.


Patients with superficial damage were able to see within one to two months. Those with more extensive injuries took several months longer.
"They were incredibly happy. Some said it was a miracle," said one of the study leaders, Graziella Pellegrini of the University of Modena's Center for Regenerative Medicine in Italy. "It was not a miracle. It was simply a technique."

The study was partly funded by the Italian government.

Researchers in the United States have been testing a different way to use self-supplied stem cells, but that work is preliminary.

One of the successful transplants in the Italian study involved a man who had severe damage in both eyes as a result of a chemical burn in 1948. Doctors grafted stem cells from a small section of his left eye to both eyes. His vision is now close to normal.

In 2008, there were 2,850 work-related chemical burns to the eyes in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Schwab of UC Davis said stem cell transplants would not help those blinded by burns in both eyes because doctors need stem cells to do the procedure.

"I don't want to give the false hope that this will answer their prayers," he said.

Dr. Sophie Deng, a cornea expert at the UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute, said the biggest advantage was that the Italian doctors were able to expand the number of stem cells in the lab. This technique is less invasive than taking a large tissue sample from the eye and lowers the chance of an eye injury.
"The key is whether you can find a good stem cell population and expand it," she said.

The 9-year-old Microsoft genius

                                 

Skopje, Macedonia (CNN) -- A colorful mural runs along the outside the Blaze Koneski public school in Macedonia, but it's been vandalized by graffiti artists who spray their tags all over the school.

There are metal bars on the windows and the building itself is run down and dilapidated. We are here to interview a "child prodigy" for CNN's i-List Macedonia.

Marco Calasan is the youngest Microsoft systems engineer in the world, holds four Microsoft certificates and has written a 312-page book on Microsoft's Windows 7.

As we enter the classroom a young boy with a warm smile and dark, curly shoulder length hair pulled back in a ponytail, extends his hand and introduces himself.

Marco is just nine years old; he's an only child and a computer genius. He takes us on a tour of the school computer lab, as if it were his home. Marco only lives across the road but spends endless hours in here working away each day, well and truly after the school bell has rung.
Asked why he loves computers so much, Marco responds sagely that, "with knowledge, everything is possible." He goes on to give a detailed explanation of IPTV - the content delivery network system that he set up all by himself.

With his sweet, innocent voice, Marco explains how he streams high quality video throughout Macedonia and even provides a service for the country's disabled.

Throughout the conversation, the word "Microsoft" peppers every single sentence and it becomes clear this child is obsessed with Bill Gates' creation.

And while you'd think his impressive resume at such a young age would give him the right to be precocious, Marco is the complete opposite.

He's humble, friendly and so very patient as I ask him to repeat and re-explain the computer jargon that flies over my head.

I ask whether he sees himself as special and gifted. He tells me he's just a regular kid, and forgets that he has all this knowledge in his head when he plays with his friends.

But Marco is anything but normal. He speaks three languages and is learning a fourth and while English is not his mother tongue, his command of the language and vocabulary is mind-boggling. In finite detail he explains the ins and outs of computers and the curriculum he's teaching his peers and adults. He even educates his own teachers.

Later this month he's going to Montenegro where the government has asked him to give a presentation on his IPTV system.

Marco's brain function is quite extraordinary. Professor Elena Achkovska-Leshkovska at the Institute of Psychology in Skopje tested Marco when he was seven years old. She found that his brain operated the same as a child over the age of 12. But just as fascinating was his high level of emotional and social skills. Something not normally found in such gifted children.

As Marco chats away with the crew, his mother Radica stands proudly in the background. With her jet back hair, slender figure and smiling face, this pretty young mum watches as her son dazzles the room.

Their bond is exceptionally close as they describe each other as best friends. Radica works seven days a week running a computer business to make ends meet and every cent she earns goes straight to Marco and furthering his education.

Last month Radica had a health scare when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She spent a week in hospital having the tumor removed and when she got home, Marco had printed off more than 200 pages of information on breast cancer treatments, and what his mom should eat to make a full recovery.

Doctors have told Radica she must undergo chemotherapy but she's reluctant to do so because she's concerned she won't be able to care for her little boy. Her other concern is Marco's future. She knows he needs opportunities and an education system that exists only in expensive overseas schools. Something she cannot afford.

Despite the obstacles and challenges that await them both, a sense of calm and optimism surrounds this little boy and his mother. They walk us out of the school and watch us leave, Radica with her arm lovingly around her gifted son.

The most famous Sinkholes in the World!!

         

 1-A sinkhole is seen in downtown Guatemala City on May 31. Authorities blamed the heavy rains from tropical storm Agatha as the cause of the crater that swallowed a three-story building, and say they will also be conducting further studies to determine the cause. In April 2007, another giant sinkhole in the same area killed three people.

2-A Los Angeles, Calif., fire engine sinks into a sinkhole while responding to a water-main break in September 2009. None of the firefighters were hurt and it took hours to get the fire engine out of the hole.

3-A sinkhole in Dunedin, Fla., is seen here in April 2007.

4-Workers assess damage done by a sinkhole near Chattanooga, Tenn., on May 18. The sinkhole was about 35 feet deep, 40 feet long, and 18 feet wide.

5-A sinkhole that formed in Spring Hill, Fla., is seen here in April 1998. The hole formed behind the Handy TV store in the morning, causing the back part of the store to fall into the hole.

6-A sinkhole caused by recent rise in Guatemala City is seen here on May 30.

7-The Bimmah Sinkhole, a limestone sinkhole, is seen here between Quaryat and Sur in Oman.

8-Chinese workers inspect a sinkhole in a Beijing street in February.

Scientist Infects Himself with a Computer Virus

  

 The University of Reading’s Dr. Mark Gasson has an unusual distinction: He’s the first human to become infected with a computer virus. After corrupting a small electronic chip with the malware, the British scientist inserted the device into his hand and was able to pass on the virus to external systems.

The chip itself uses a technology called RFID to send information back and forth. It allows Dr. Gasson to gain access through security doors and activate his cellphone — all of which still sounds odd and futuristic enough, though the technology has been used for applications as mundane as paying for drinks in upscale nightclubs already for years.


The whole concept is admittedly a bit of a stunt, but it does address some of the issues we will start to face as implantable electronics become more prevalent. When you’re talking about putting a chip inside your body, “blue screen of death” takes on a whole new meaning, as do the potential consequences of hacking and malicious security breaches.

Dr. Gasson himself admits the self-infection is mostly “proof of principle” but warns about the implications of implantable electronics particularly in the realm of medical devices. The fear that hackers could go after your pacemaker isn’t exactly new either, but the risks remain and grow perhaps even more severe as medical implant technology becomes ever more sophisticated.