Nanoparticle-based imaging technique creates detailed three-dimensional images of melanoma

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So far no imaging technique has been up to the task of defining the melanoma's boundaries accurately enough to guide surgery. Instead surgeons tend to cut well beyond the visible margins of the lesion in order to be certain they remove all the malignant tissue. Two scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have developed technologies that together promise to solve this difficult problem.

DFI’s Largest Glass Chemical Vapor Deposition Chamber Implemented in Spain

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Diamon-Fusion International, Inc. announced today the completion of its largest all-glass vapor chamber, certified and implemented by DFI in Spain for its licensee CRISTEC VIPLA S.L., a highly-reputable Cataluna-based company dedicated to the fabrication and processing of a wide-range of glass products reaching a diversity of market segments, including aluminum, PVC, furniture, and other industries.

A healthy heart slows brain aging

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A team of researchers from Boston University has determined that the healthier your heart is, the slower your brain ages. On the flip side, those with less-than-optimal heart health experience more rapid brain aging than those whose hearts have a more healthy blood flow.

The team evaluated 1,500 people for the study and found that, as the brain ages, it actually begins to shrink. When the heart is pumping blood at a healthy rate, the brain is able to keep "fit". But in people whose blood flow is restricted by poor cardiac function, their brains age roughly two years quicker on average.

Interestingly, it is not just old people with heart disease whose brains age quicker; otherwise healthy people in their 30s who have less-than-par blood flow to the heart experience more rapidly aging brains than those with healthy flow. Read more...

Improve your memory

Digital pathology in clinical consultation practice

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Interesting article in Journal of Pathology Informatics on digital pathology in clinical consultation practice by Subodh Lele at the University of Nebraska.

Abstract:

Digital pathology or whole slide imaging technology in clinical consultation practice to me translates into convenient, effective and efficient communication. A not so old method of communication that we still use today is the wired telephone. As we all know, it has limitations in its usage due to it being "wired" and therefore not convenient to use, say for example, while walking down the street. Search for a better device eventually led to the development of the cellular phone. This provides for the required convenience factor without compromising the other features of the standard telephone. Cellular phones have evolved quite dramatically over the last few years such that the most recent versions of the phone with their numerous applications have become almost indispensable for daily use for many. However, the full potential of this device has still not been realized, especially in the field of telemedicine and telepathology. With the development of the new tablet computer/phone, one may not only read the newspaper but could also view whole scanned slides. Soon, it may be possible to read whole slide scans and also sign them out as one would do in his/her office, essentially from anywhere at anytime, using such portable devices!

Evan Michelson of Obscura Antiques and Oddities, "The Culture of Curiosity," Lecture, Coney Island Museum, Sunday August 15, 4:30

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Next Sunday at 4:30 PM as part of the Coney Island Museum's "Ask the Experts" Series, Evan Michelson--co-proprietor of Obscura Antiques and Oddities and Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in Residence--will be giving a reprise of her popular "Culture of Curiosity" lecture, which some of you might have seen at Observatory last November.

If you missed it the first time, or were made curious enough [sic] about the topic to want to know more, do yourself the favor of heading down to Coney to hear Evan wax poetic [sic] in a new and expanded discussion of "the continuing appeal of curated chaos in the home."

Full details follow; very much hope to see you there!

"The Culture of Curiosity"
An illustrated lecture by Evan Michelson of Obscura Antiques and Oddities
Date: Sunday, August 15
Time: 4:30 PM
Admission: $5
Location: The Coney Island Museum

From humble parlor to Princely treasury, the Culture of Curiosity has endured for hundreds of years. In equal parts uncanny obsession, camp statement, melancholy musing, frivolous commentary and timeless metaphor, ultimately it's all about mystery.

Come and join Evan Michelson (Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence) in an exploration of the continuing appeal of curated chaos in the home.

Evan Michelson is an inveterate collector and museum aficionado. She has spent a lifetime obsessing over specimens, lurking in crypts, touring necropoli and gathering information on all things fading from the collective memory.

For about two decades Evan was in and out of various aggressively confrontational/decadent bands. She is currently co-owner of Obscura Antiques and Oddities, and Scholar-in-Residence at the Morbid Anatomy Library. She lives in Victorian excess with her husband, a few pets, and many esoteric and uncanny objects.

You can find out more about the event by clicking here. Hope to see you there!

The above photo is a Wax Department Store Mannequin from the Early 20th Century from Evan Michelson's incredible home collection, as seen in my recent exhibition The Secret Museum. You can find more images of her collection here.

A Strange and Macabre Collection, From Bram Stoker's "Lair of the White Worm," 1911

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...He had, in Castra Regis, a large collection of curious and interesting things formed in the past by his forebears, of similar tastes to his own. There were all sorts of strange anthropological specimens, both old and new, which had been collected through various travels in strange places: ancient Egyptian relics from tombs and mummies; curios from Australia, New Zealand, and the South Seas; idols and images--from Tartar ikons to ancient Egyptian, Persian, and Indian objects of worship; objects of death and torture of American Indians; and, above all, a vast collection of lethal weapons of every kind and from every place--Chinese "high pinders," double knives, Afghan double-edged scimitars made to cut a body in two, heavy knives from all the Eastern countries, ghost daggers from Thibet, the terrible kukri of the Ghourka and other hill tribes of India, assassins' weapons from Italy and Spain, even the knife which was formerly carried by the slave-drivers of the Mississippi region. Death and pain of every kind were fully represented in that gruesome collection.

That it had a fascination for Oolanga goes without saying. He was never tired of visiting the museum in the tower, and spent endless hours in inspecting the exhibits, till he was thoroughly familiar with every detail of all of them. He asked permission to clean and polish and sharpen them--a favour which was readily granted. In addition to the above objects, there were many things of a kind to awaken human fear. Stuffed serpents of the most objectionable and horrid kind; giant insects from the tropics, fearsome in every detail; fishes and crustaceans covered with weird spikes; dried octopuses of great size. Other things, too, there were, not less deadly though seemingly innocuous--dried fungi, traps intended for birds, beasts, fishes, reptiles, and insects; machines which could produce pain of any kind and degree, and the only mercy of which was the power of producing speedy death....

This quotation is drawn from chapter 11--entitled "Mesmer's Chest"--of Bram Stoker's 1911 publication Lair of the White Worm which went on to inspire Ken Russell's suitably over-the-top film of the same name.

You can read this book in its entirety by clicking here. You can purchase a print copy by clicking here. You can find out more about the film by clicking here. You can also come visit my copy of Lair of the White Worm at the Morbid Anatomy Library, where it resides in the "gothic" section.

The image you see above is sourced from the exhibition catalog Darwin: Art and the Search for Origins which was published to accompany an exhibition held last year at the Frankfurt museum Schirn. The photo is captioned: "View into the Zoological and Anthropological section of Gabriel von Max's 'Scientific Collection,' circa 1892." To check out (and purchase) the catalog for the exhibition (highly HIGHLY recommended!) click here. To watch musician/performance artist Momus (!!!) giving a tour of the exhibition--including the installation of the von Max collection--click here. For a more traditional walk through the exhibition, click here.

Special thanks to Christine Edmonson of the Cleveland Museum of Art for turning me onto this wonderful book and exhibition.