The Origin ...of everything

Questionnaire: What do you thonk about the recent crisis?


is

Dystopias

There are so many novels, stories and movies belonging to this literary genre.
Give a look: http://hem.passagen.se/replikant/dystopia_categorisation.htm

In the second half of the 19th century, apart from Oscar Wilde's picture, there's the story of another portrait: The Oval Portrait written by E.A. Poe in 1850.

What are the similarities and/or the differences that strike your attention?
Replay your comment.

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz and radio waves

Something about Rudolf Hertz....

Luca Libertini

The first machine gun or "Gatling Gun"

Richard Gatling is the american inventor who, in 1861, designed the first machine gun, and he patented it in 1862.

It’s not casual that this weapon was invented at the beginning of the American Civil War: infact it was been used by the Union Army.

This mechanism presented a single firing chamber connecting to multiple barrels, each barrel rotating into place for a single round before rotating out again to cool off.

The system allows higher rates of fire without overheating the barrel.

Alberto Giusti

Cocaine and ether

THE USE OF COCAINE AND ETHER AS ANAESTHETIC

COCAINE
The first discovered local anaesthetic has been cocaine, a natural compound isolated by the coca’s leaf. In a first moment these leaves were used by the people from Peru to work tireless. The cocaine was isolated in 1860 and used like anaesthetic in 1884 by Karl Kohler.


Cocaine's chemical formula

But cocaine is very toxic and cause addiction. So similar molecule was synthesized with collateral and less serious effect such as “procaine” and “lidocaine”. In Australia it is currently prescribed as a local anesthetic for conditions such as mouth and lung ulcers .
Today cocaine is considered an illegal drug. The effects of the substance occur more or less rapidly and consist mainly of:
Effects psychotropic
Distortion and cognitive capabilities receptive, feeling increased perceptions
Accentuation responsiveness physical and mental
Reduction of fatigue
Reduction of sleep and the feeling of hunger
Euphoria
Physiological Effects
Increased heart rate
Increased left ventricular contractility
Increased blood pressure
Iper-production of adrenaline
Increased production of endothelin
Decreased production of nitric oxide
Speeding up the process atherosclerotic, with considerable risk of thrombosis, myocardial infarction and permanent damage to the cardio vascular system.
Hypertension Long-term effects
Depression, anxiety, insomnia, irritability, paranoia and other psychosis
Weight loss
Destruction of the immune system
Nasal septal rupture in the event of repeated borrowing by intranasally
Impotence
Overdose
Agitation, hostility, hallucinations, seizures, hyperthermia, stroke, muscular paralysis and respiratory death.


ETHER

The pharmacist Craword Long was the first to use ether in a operation. In 1842 he used ether to take away a tumour of the neck. The patient remained amazed when he noticed that he didn’t feel pain. The operation costed 2 dollar. It was born modern anaesthesia, a very important chapter in the chemical history.


Craword Long

Vannucchi Francesco

Koch and Cholera Bacillus

Robert Koch was born at Clausthal, in Germany, in 1843 and in 1866 he got a degree in medicine.

In 1883 Koch was send in Egypt as the leader of the German Cholera Commission. There he discovered the vibrio that causes cholera (Vibrio cholerae asiaticae) and brought back pure cultures of it to Germany. He also studied cholera in India.

In 1884 he isolated cholera’s vibrio.

He analysed the infection modalities, established the rules to control the cholera’s epidemics and formed the basis of the methods of control which are still used today.

For his work on cholera a price of 100,000 Marks was awarded to him.

In 1905 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine and died on May of 1910 in Baden Baden.

Andrea Antico