May 252013
 

Doctors at the medical center in Gliwice, southern Poland, announced on Wednesday that they performed world’s first emergency face transplant surgery carried out in order to save the life of a patient (scroll down for video).

Computerized tomography  courtesy of the Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology in Gliwice, Poland, shows the skull of a 33-year-old Polish man after it was damaged in a work accident, right,  alongside the healthy skull of another person.

Computerized tomography courtesy of the Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology in Gliwice, Poland, shows the skull of a 33-year-old Polish man after it was damaged in a work accident, right, alongside the healthy skull of another person.

While face reconstruction surgeries have been performed before, this one if the first when a quick action was needed for saving the victim. Patients normally need to wait a couple of years before being prepared for a face transplant surgery, but after a work incident left a Polish man disfigured and at risk for life-threatening infections, surgeons had to take a fast decision.

“This is the first full face transplant of its kind made in Poland and in the world and the emergency procedure was necessary for saving the patient’s life,” said Anna Uryga, spokesperson at the Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology in Gliwice.

On April 23, a 33-year-old man named Grzegorz, was left without a large part of his face during an accident caused by stone cutting machine. A first attempt failed to reconstruct the his facial traits, instead it was able to save his vision and the lower part of his face. Man’s life was still in danger because of the extent and the depth of the injury, said Ms Uryga.

Poland Full Face Transplant

World’s quickest face transplant on record was performed in Poland (Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology/AP Photo)

During a 27-hour surgery on May 15, a group of doctors managed to achieve the face engraftment with the patient’s consent. “He and his family approved the plan of action and at the same time found out also the risks. He was really enthusiastic,” told media Dr. Adam Maciejewski, the leader of the medical crew who performed the operation.

After seven days, “his condition still remains serious, because the intervention was extremely difficult,” said the doctor, adding that the patient “breathes independently. He does not talk, but communicates through movements of his head and hands.”

According to the doctor, “the patient can eat, breathe and see. Than eight months should regain traction across the face.”

Gliwice facial transplant emerged seven and a half years after the world’s first face grafting came out successful on November 27, 2005 in a hospital from Amiens, France.

Warning: The video below may be disturbing for some people
Polish man gets face transplant in life saving surgery in Gliwice

May 242013
 

Panic at Heathrow airport, where a British Airways passenger plane made ​​an emergency landing after one of its two engines caught fire (scroll down for video).

A319 fire Heathrow

BA plane lands at London’s Heathrow airport after catching fire

The plane, an Airbus A319 was on a route from London to Oslo when forced to return to the airport. A person on the ground managed to film the burning aircraft as it flew over the central part of Britain’s capital city.

According to witnesses, the jet took fire and then began releasing a mix of smoke and flames from its rear. The airport was temporarily closed, and authorities said the incident is not related to terrorism.

All passengers and crew got off the plane safely. Several firefighting brigades reached the scene and extinguished the blaze.

Apparently, the flames emerged after the aircraft hit a flock of birds. The traffic at Heathrow airport, the busiest in Europe, was resumed.

Video: British Airways plane catches fire, lands at Heathrow in London

May 242013
 

The soldier killed brutally Wednesday night in London by two terrorists was identified as Lee Rigby, a 25-year-old drummer from the second battalion of the Royal Regiment of Infantry (Fusilier). He was married and had a 2-year-old son.

Lee Rigby

Drummer Lee Rigby known also as “Riggers”, was killed in terror street attack in Woolwich, London (BBC)

The young man originated from Middleton and was an ardent fan of the football team Manchester United.

His family issued a statement in which they described his life: “Lee was adorable. He did anything for anyone, always took care of his sisters and always protected them. He always undertook the role of big brother against anyone “. The family related how Lee wanted to join the army since his early age. “He wanted to live and enjoy the life. Family meant everything to him. He was a son, husband, father, brother, uncle and loving friend for everybody”, concluded the family of the man who was killed in the gruesome beheading attack in London’s neighborhood of Woolwich on Wednesday by two attackers of Muslim origins.

Also the British Ministry of Defense spoke in terms of admiration for Lee Rigby: “A very pleasant and intelligent soldier, drummer Rigby had a personality larger than the whole unit of Drummers and was well-known, liked and respected by the entire Fusilier Battalion”. Rigby joined the army in 2006, according to the BBC. Wednesday night, he was struck and decapitated in the street by two men now considered terrorists, who reasoned their act as an angry retaliation to the military involvement in wars in the Islamic world.

After murdering Rigby, the two assailants did not flee the crime scene, instead they remained on the site where confronted subsequently the police officers who shot and arrested them. Two people, a man and a woman were arrested later in connection with the attack. One of the two killers was identified as Michael Adebolajo, a Muslim extremist well-known to the British security services.

May 242013
 

The controversial Italian scientist Andrea Rossi claimed a while ago that he attained huge amounts of energy at low temperature, and now his results are reportedly confirmed for the first time by an independent team of credible researchers who published on May 16, 2013 a the paper titled “Indication of anomalous heat energy production in a reactor device”.

E-Cat cold fusion device

Andrea Rossi’s E-Cat device reported to generate energy by cold fusion (Forbes.com)

Rossi’s energy catalyst dubbed as the E-Cat HT device, works using a low energy nuclear reaction (LERN) that produces large amounts of energy from a few grams of hydrogen; the results triggered waves of controversy and criticism among scientists. Otherwise known as cold fusion, this approach is one generally avoided by physicists and regarded with skepticism.

Fusion or illusion?
Well, it appears that independent third parties performed two test runs in December 2012 and March 2013 and confirmed the veracity of Rossi’s cold fusion device, according to Forbes.com. “Unless this is the most elaborate scientific hoax in the world, it seems that the mankind is just about to witness an unprecedented energy revolution, and that depends only on Rossi himself” wrote the editors of the prestigious American magazine.

The E-Cat device employed for cold fusion reaction is presented as:
… a high temperature development of the original apparatus which has also undergone many construction changes in the last two years – is the latest product manufactured by Leonardo Corporation: it is a device allegedly capable of producing heat from some type of reaction the origin of which is unknown.
… a cylinder having a silicon nitride ceramic outer shell, 33 cm in length, and 10 cm in diameter. A second cylinder made of a different ceramic material (corundum) was located within the shell, and housed three delta-connected spiral-wire resistor coils. Resistors were laid out horizontally, parallel to and equidistant from the cylinder axis, and were as long as the cylinder itself. They were fed by a TRIAC power regulator device which interrupted each phase periodically, in order to modulate power input with an industrial trade secret waveform. This procedure, needed to properly activate the E-Cat HT charge, had no bearing whatsoever on the power consumption of the device, which remained constant throughout the test. The most important element of the E-Cat HT was lodged inside the structure. It consisted of an AISI 310 steel cylinder, 3 mm thick and 33 mm in diameter, housing the powder charges. Two AISI 316 steel cone-shaped caps were hot-hammered in the cylinder, sealing it hermetically.
(Forbes.com)

Video: Controversial cold fusion may solve all energy issues

May 232013
 
Australia to kill 10,000 wild horses using helicopter-based hunting

Authorities in Australia have initiated a plan of culling approximately 10,000 wild horses which they say destroy land and water sources. According to the Central Land Council, which is formed by indigenous representatives of the Northern Territory, the animals (horses, donkeys and camels) die because of the lack of food and water, and that’s why [READ MORE...]

May 232013
 
Google's Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie expected to hit market in 2013

Internet giant Google is purportedly working on Android’s 5th version called Key Lime Pie which is rumored to be rolled out by the end of 2013, according to high-tech sources. During an I/O event, Google unveiled mostly various improvements developed for the current applications. However, the company showed also several videos that revealed details about [READ MORE...]

May 232013
 
VIDEO: British soldier beheaded in London terrorist attack

A British soldier was killed in a beheading terror attack committed by two suspects who were subsequently injured during a police shooting in the Woolwich district in south-east London (scroll down for video) Media sources reported that the two suspects, who are allegedly Islamists, first hit the soldier -identified later as drummer Lee Rigby- with [READ MORE...]

May 222013
 
Oklahoma tornado stronger than Hiroshima atomic bomb

A precise combination of wind, humidity and precipitation triggered a deadly tornado in Oklahoma on Monday. The twister which left at least 24 dead, including nine children, and some 237 injured. The impressive amount of energy dissipated is now believed to be much greater than the atomic bomb that destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima [READ MORE...]

May 222013
 
5 Myths and facts about breast cancer women must know

Breast cancer is a disease commonly affecting the women aged over 50. The risk of breast cancer for women between 30 and 40 is about 1 in 250, while for women between 40 and 50 is 1 in 70. Here are some facts and myths about breast cancer, clarified to some extent by experts on [READ MORE...]

May 222013
 
How to increase lifetime of iPhone battery by 120%: Mophie Juice Box

Smartphones major problem that most manufactures have failed to solve it so far is linked to the battery lifetime, and the only solutions are the additional batteries. However, the good news is that the third Mophie Juice Box for the Apple iPhone 5 was recently released. The Juice Box is a smartphone case that contains [READ MORE...]