Mitral lifesaving surgeries

London – An innovative technique, currently available only into Cardiology department of Calabria University in Catanzaro, that allow to repair the mitral valve with a sort of microscope stapler which, introduced by a leg vein, repair diseased valve has been used at the University Hospital on a 67-years-old woman already operated by-pass grafting surgery, suffering from a severe form of heart failure caused by severe mitral valve insufficiency.

This disease, which prevented the patient to perform a normal daily life, including the usual household chores, has been successfully treated by Cardiology University of Catanzaro. Mitral valve insufficiency is a heart valve disease more frequently reflected in the Western world, with an incidence of 250,000 new cases/year in Europe.

If untreated it determines the onset of a vicious cycle that culminates in heart failure and crippling death. Until today the only possible treatment was to cardiac surgery: in fact, after opening the chest and stopping the heart, you can successfully repair or replace the mitral valve. 

However, due to the high risk associated with cardiac surgery in some patients in serious conditions, the operation cannot be performed because too risky.

The experience of reduction of mitral regurgitation using this new and innovative technique, called MitraClip, arises from the need to offer a therapeutic possibility to many patients with mitral regurgitation and thermodynamically, to who surgical treatment is being denied due to the high operative risk, mainly age, reduced left ventricular contractile function and the presence of co-morbidities. Clinical studies have shown them a good safety profile and effectiveness of this new method.

In particular, in a study conducted in America, called the Everest II study, were obtained results comparable to surgical therapy, where the analysis of the safety profile in 30 days showed a lower incidence of death and stroke among patients treated with the MitraClip.

 

More importantly is the documentation of a significant improvement in quality of life and a significant reduction of symptoms for patients undergoing the MitraClip system, compared to undergo open heart surgery.
This technique, developed in the United State and then made available in Europe, now is only done in some Italian and European hospitals. The project director is Dr. Annalisa Mongiardo.

The Brain a “Perfect machine”

London – Brain’s study has always fascinated millions of people, bringing several scientists to be interest in its many facets. How many people know, the “Perfect machine” is the pinnacle of nervous system of living beings.

But how do this “Perfect machine” works? And why had it always fascinated both scientific and not-scientific words? The brain is composed of about 100 billion nervous cells (neurons) that transmit some information through electrical impulses.

Neurons communicate with each other at special junctions where chemicals help to bridge the distance between one neuron and the next one. Thanks to these nervous cells, you can do many different things such as thinking, doing actions, reacting, etc.

The brain receives these impulses directly from your senses: feel, hear, taste, smell and sight. You are able to recognize the odour of something that it is familiar to you, because the smell fixes better than other senses in your “Perfect machine”.

So now you understand that when you do an action, for example to raise your arm, in your body are transmitted millions of impulses that bring the information to the brain. In the end we can say that nervous impulses are at the base of each single movement. All this occurs in normal condition of the brain; when drugs and alcohol affect it, they break neurons and slow down connections between them. This effect is commonly seen on people that use drugs. In some moments they have peaks of euphoria because drugs help to speed the connections; then when this effect ends, the speed of nervous impulses decreases, destroying connections between neurons. Thus it is important to take care of ourselves, to pay attention to our habits that could be dangerous for our fundamental organs’ functions.

The origin of everything: BIG BANG

London – There is evidence of another possible universe. An eerie glow suddenly appeared in a completely dark space, found by Ranga-Ram Chary, a researcher at the US data centre in California for the European Space Agengy’s Planck telescope.

Some cosmological theories explain that this collision would have been caused a second after the big bang; these same theories suggest that the universe is nothing more than a bubble.

So they could settle more bubbles, but if the inflation is strong in them they would be impossible to analyse because of too much distance.
At the time Dr Chary thought he identified a universe stranger using a map of the stars and of cosmic microwave background and removing it from the stars, gas and dust, but he believes that his idea is temporary as there are complaints unusual.

 

 

 

 

The particle of the masses : Higgs Boson

The particle of the masses : Higgs Boson

One of the most important discoveries of this century has been boson’s discovery… READ MORE

The particle of the masses : Higgs Boson

One of the most important discoveries of this century has been boson’s discovery. Higgs boson was theorized in 1964 by Peter Higgs. Just in 2012 it was observed in the experiments ATLAS and CMS (Content Management System), in a particle accelerator LHC (Large Hadron Collider) in CERN between France and Switzerland. But what is a boson? First of all, bosons (with pheromones) are one of the fundamental classes in which particles are divided. There are 4 types of particles produced into the Big Bang.

They are: muon, electron, W boson and quark top. In physics the boson is a particle that obeys to Bose-Einstein statistics and, according to the spin-statistics theorem, then have integer spin.

Higgs boson is part of this particles. But what is the Higgs boson? It consists in analysing the product of the collision of elementary particles, accelerated by some big magnet.

It’s the particle that give mass to all the other particles. When the Universe is invaded by the Higgs field, this particles are slowed down and change their energy in mass.

So the Higgs boson is a quantum of the Higgs field. But why it’s called the “God particle”? This nickname comes from a misunderstanding of the censorship of the name “Goddamn” that the physical Lederman gave it.


Its microscopic mass is very close to that theorized Higgs of 126 GeV. Moreover Higgs boson need a specific quantity of energy to compared, equal to 13,9 TeV.

In fact, when particle collider in CERN get this amount of energy, Higgs boson compared. It has been proved that God particle doesn’t have spin, also Higgs field should have a spin, than the mass of an object should depend on its orientation in the space, but the relation mass-orientation has never been observed.

So it has been concluded than Higgs’ boson has no spin according to boson definition by Bose-Einstein statistics.
CERN

Biogem:meeting Prof. Zichichi: from the beauty of creation to the superworld.

London ( dalla nostra inviata Mirella Orsi) – When we talk about research, especially in Italy, it is often related to some problem or hitch, but not this time. In fact, I want to talk about an event that celebrated research and popularization of science in one of the best possible perspectives.

In Southern Italy, there is a small town called Ariano Irpino where there has been an innovative research campus called Biogem since 2006.
This campus is organised into three different areas: Genetics and translational medicine (GTM), Medicinal Investigational Research (MIR) and Mind science school (LIMSS).

This institute is outstandingly led by Prof Ortensio Zecchino as a place where the words research and knowledge are key in guiding every choice made. Just to give you some numbers, Biongem works in partnership with Italian universities and international research institutes, it takes part as the operative unit on 21 MIUR projects and it is co-patent holder of 5 inernational researching patents.I had the pleasure to learn about this place because of the 2 cultures event that took place there last week. These events want to link science with liberal art, with a different theme every year. This year’s theme was “Beauty”. Hence, experts and professors talked about beauty from every angle possible for four days: beauty of nature, in art, in science. To understand the value andimportance of beauty and how much we need it.

One of the guests was Prof Antonino Zichichi: he gave a speech about the beauty of creation. Prof Zichichi is a physic and a highly cited ISI researcher; he has served as President of the World Federation of Scientists and as a professor at the University of Bologna. He has collaborated to several important discoveries in the field of subnuclear physics and has worked in some of the most important research laboratories in the world (Fermilab in Chicago, CERN in Geneva, etc.).

He is also a great populariser of science, both as the author of numerous books and essays and because of his appearances on television programs. In this work of popularization, Zichichi, places great emphasis on trying to demonstrate that there is no contradiction between science and the Catholic faith in which he strongly believes. Just to understand how strong his contribution to science popularization is, we have to think that his H-index is 62, that is the same of Stephen Hawking.

Prof Zichichi started from some historical facts to bring all audiences on a special journey in the secrets of nature and the beauty of creation touching upon many scientific discoveries in human history. He has the ability is to explain everything in the easiest way possible and to give his audience the chance to think about nature and physics phenomena from the bottom up. Thanks to that, the audience can think that things such as antimatter are not that difficult, but are at your fingertips.

 

It has been a great pleasure to interview him about his ongoing work and research. We talked about the importance of networking, the exchange of knowledge and experience scientists can achieve across borders and independently from third parties. Later, he told me about his next projects and challenges such as building a particle accelerator that can be the main step to prove his theory called “Superworld”. The “Superworld” was one of the topics of his speech and of the interview as well. So let’s try to look into and explain this theory.
Initially, we need to give some basics related to this topic: for example, what is supersymmetry? What is a boson? Let’s see…

Everything in the universe is found to be made from a few basic building blocks called fundamental particles, governed by four fundamental forces: strong force, weak force, electromagnetic force, and gravitational force. These forces work over different ranges and have different strengths. Gravity is the weakest but it has an infinite range. Electromagnetic force also has infinite range, but it is many times stronger than gravity. Weak and strong forces are effective only over a very short range and dominate only at the level of subatomic particles. Strong force is the strongest of all four fundamental interactions. The Standard Model is a physics theory developed in the early 1970s and explaining how these basic building blocks of matter interact, governed by three fundamental forces. In fact, this theory includes the electromagnetic, strong and weak forces and all their carrier particles, but, gravity, the most familiar force that we face in our everyday lives, is not part of the Standard Model.

To make matters worse, we know that fitting gravity in this framework has proved to be a difficult challenge. The quantum theory used to describe the micro world, and the general theory of relativity used to describe the macro world, are difficult to fit into a single framework. Supersymmetry is a conjectured symmetry of space and time — and a unique one. An automatic consequence of having this symmetry in nature is that every type of particle has one or more superpartners, that is other types of particles that share many of the same properties, but different in a crucial way. This theory is an extension of the Standard Model and aims to fill some of its gaps. This theory relates, for example, two basic classes of elementary particles: bosons and fermions. Bosons, is a particle that follows Bose–Einstein statistics, they have an integer-valued spin, and fermions are particles characterized by Fermi–Dirac statistics, which have a half-integer spin. If a particle is a fermion, its super-partner is a boson. If a particle is a boson, its super-partner is a fermion.
“Superworld” is a term coined by the Sicilian scientist for his hypothesis related with Supersymmetry. We know our world has 3 dimensions plus one dimension for time; following this hypothesis, our reality has 43 dimensions where one is for time. However, three of these dimensions (length, width and height) expanded and created our realty. As Prof Zichichi said, superworld hypothesis would be useful to fill for example the gap between the quantum mechanics and general relativity. Evidence of this hypothesis could be found studying Neutralinos, a particle hypothesized in supersymmetry.
To sum up this event at the Biogem campus has been a celebration of the many shapes beauty has: beauty of nature, of knowledge. The greatest achievement of the conventions is to show culture at its best in a place like the South of Italy, which is too often linked with decay.

As Prof Zecchino said, they chose this topic because we need beauty, especially at this time; we need to surround ourselves with beauty. It seems to me that they definitely reached the goal, with amazing work throughout the event, they made a bridge between art and science where, all the guests were able to see how much beauty is around us. Physicist P. Kusch said, “Science shows us truth and beauty and fills each day with a fresh wonder of the exquisite order which governs our world.” This is the kind of science that science buffs dream about every night waiting for the new day to bring to us new wonders.

Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli Back in the space 2017

ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli will be heading for space a third time, as part of Expeditions 52 and 53 to the International Space Station.

Paolo Nespoli will be launched on a Soyuz vehicle in May 2017 on a five-month mission. The new mission is part of a barter agreement between NASA and Italy’s ASI space agency involving ESA astronauts.

It will be ASI’s third long-duration flight, following Luca Parmitano’s Volare in 2013 and Samantha Cristoforetti’s Futura this year. Paolo’s first spaceflight was his two-week Esperia mission on the Space Shuttle’s STS-120 in 2007, ASI’s second short-duration flight under the barter agreement. One of his main tasks was to help install the Node-2 module on the Space Station. He returned to the Station in 2010 for ESA’s 160-day MagISStra mission as part of Expeditions 26 and 27.

In addition to his many experiments, he was involved in the dockings of two cargo craft: Europe’s second Automated Transfer Vehicle and Japan’s second HII Transfer Vehicle. Following his second flight, Paolo worked at ESA’s ESRIN centre in Italy and at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne. He recently began training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre near Moscow, Russia, for his new adventure.This is  Third spaceflight for astronaut Paolo Nespoli.


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SAMANTHA CRISTOFORETTI IS COMING BACK!

 She’s called “The woman of the Stars”. She’s the …

 

 

Discovery of new Polio-like virus in America highlights magnitude

The discovery of a new Polio-like virus in America, which has led to 100 children developing paralysis, underlines how much work is still to be done to eradicate Polio says national charity, The British Polio Fellowship.

Scientists in the USA believe that this new virus is linked to Polio after a six year old girl with paralysis tested positive for enterovirus C105. Although this is a newly discovered virus, it is in the same family as Polio. Worryingly, the virus has spread across 34 different states in America, meaning the chances of controlling the virus have been lowered drastically.

“This is very saddening news,” said Ted Hill MBE, CEO of The British Polio Fellowship. “Setbacks like this only make us stronger though and even more determined to eradicate Polio in all its forms once and for all.” Since 1988, a global initiative to eradicate Polio was established, leading to the number of cases being lowered by more than 99% in 30 years. Through routine vaccination, an estimated 350,000 cases in 1988 were reduced to a reported 650 in 2011. However, the fight against Polio still goes on, as this recent news shows.

“There’s still a lot more work to be done to be rid of Polio for good,” said Ted. “At The British Polio Fellowship, we strive to empower those in the UK living with the late effects of Polio and Post Polio Syndrome through support groups across the country. We also spread awareness of the disease as many people forget it exists in today’s world.”

To find out more about The British Polio Fellowship and to learn about the late effects of Polio and Post Polio Syndrome visit the charity’s website at www.britishpolio.org.uk.

About Post Polio Syndrome (PPS)
Post Polio Syndrome (PPS) is a neurological condition which can occur in up to 80% of those who have had Polio. It is estimated that around 120,000 people in the UK are living with PPS today. After an interval of several years of stability, individuals can develop increasing weakness, fatigue and pain in previously affected or unaffected muscles, a general reduction in stamina, breathing, sleeping and/or swallowing problems and cold intolerance. PPS usually begins very slowly, although it can appear suddenly and often following triggers such as falls, surgery or immobility. There is no specific cure for PPS, but properly managed it may stabilise or only progress slowly and lessen the cost on the NHS whilst increasing the quality of life of those affected. Much can be done to retain independence, including self-management strategies such as pacing and energy management, appropriate use of adaptive equipment, looking after your general health, and social and emotional support.

 

To the sky and beyond

London – It is a well-known that the only London’s planetarium is the spectacular Peter Harrison Planetarium, situated in Greenwich Park.
It was opened on 25 May 2007, and it is a part of the National Maritime Museum and it is situated at the Royal Observatory .The Planetarium is housed in a Cone and it is one of the single largest uses of bronze in the world; it is considered the centrepiece of the “Time and Space” project”.

A variety of stunning astronomy related films are shown on the new digital laser planetarium projector giving the audience a chance to view the earth and the solar system from space and explore the stars and galaxies of our universe.
Read more: http://www.tourist-information-uk.com/planetarium.htm#ixzz3ecw28ELP .

[photo – Lens used by Herschel]
A fascinating thing is that the shape of the Cone is related to the stars and is unique to its location in Greenwich. Moreover, the top of the Cone is sliced at an angle parallel to the Celestial equator, the north side is aligned with the point in the Sky perpendicular to the Greenwich local horizon and the planetarium is finally aligned with the local meridian.

The sliced plane is covered in several stratums of reflecting glass which allows people to barely see the changing of sky and space. Inside the Cone people can be in very close contact with the space thanks to the visualizations based on real scientific data and real astronomers take the audience on amazing tours of the night sky and a sight of the Solar System, Galaxy and the Universe.

A game in the PlanetariumThink of a Planetarium as a tour bus of the Universe taking you on amazing journeys to explore and experience the wonders of the night sky.

The Planetarium can fly you into the heart of the Sun, transport you to distant galaxies, show you the birth of a star or land you on Mars. New shows throughout the day. You can experience a spectacular journey across the Universe at the Peter Harrison Planetarium. [photo A game in the Planetarium]

A short journey inside the endless Universe

London- At least once in a lifetime, it has happened to every one of us to look up at the limitless sky and get lost in its endless beauty. In that moment, lots of questions invaded our minds: ‘’Who owns the space?’’, “Can we live in the space’’ or “What really does surround the earth?”. Men, since ancient times, have tried to find answers to these questions.

In the Science Museum of London, in the Space Centre section, you can give a look at what man has been able to do until nowadays.

‘’Who owns the space?’’
Since October 4th 1957, a big conflict for the control of the space has involved United States and Russia. At the beginning, the second one had the absolute supremacy thanks to the launching of the first satellite (‘’Sputnik 1’’) and of the first man, Juri Gagarin, into the space. Then, with ‘’Apollo 11’’ mission, the Americans gained the upper hand by the landing of ‘’Eagle’’ on the Moon .This allowed Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin to do ‘’a small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind’’. It is possible to admire the faithful replica of the Russian satellite and the American spacecraft in the Science Museum of London. It is also worth remembering that this Museum has the real Aldrin’s spacesuit.

In the last years, Space exploration has interested also women. In 2005, the Russian born Valentina Vladimirovna Tereskova was the first female astronaut to be sent int the space. Also Italy has achieved this purpose with Samantha Cristoforetti,  the first woman who completed 7 months permanence in the space.

Anyhow we mustn’t  forget UK’s own commitment on aerospace exploration :in November Tim Peake will be the first English man to be launched .

space3

‘’Can we live in the space?’’

As we can see in the Museum: yes, we can. But it’s not a joke. For example, space food must be light in weight, not take up too much room and remain edible for a long time. Also, you’ll be shocked to know that astronauts have to be strapped in when asleep. Astronauts also need to keep clean but must use far less water than us. You will have the chance to know much more in the museum.

‘’What does really surround the Earth?’’
In the Space section you can also find The Hubble Space Telescope’s reproduction. It is a lost satellite that has captured stunning images of exotic star systems and galaxies far more complex and distant than we’ve never seen before. The beauty of these images has made Hubble famous to millions.

 

sapce2 1Everyone who wants to visit this incredible section, has to follow simple instructions:
To get there, you can take the District, the Circle and the Piccadilly lines and get off at South Kensington Station.
The Science Museum is free and open from 10 am to 6 pm. The Space section is at the ground floor and the duration of the visit is about 15 minutes. 

 

CERN First images of collisions at 13 TeV Last night

 Preview news – protons collided in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the record-breaking energy of 13 TeV for the first time. These test collisions were to set up systems that protect the machine and detectors from particles that stray from the edges of the beam. A key part of the process was the set-up of the collimators.

These devices which absorb stray particles were adjusted in colliding-beam conditions. This set-up will give the accelerator team the data they need to ensure that the LHC magnets and detectors are fully protected. Today the tests continue. Colliding beams will stay in the LHC for several hours. The LHC Operations team will continue to monitor beam quality and optimisation of the set-up. This is an important part of the process that will allow the experimental teams running the detectors ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb to switch on their experiments fully. Data taking and the start the LHC’s second run is planned for early June.


 

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 <p>(Foto Max Brice, Cern)</p> Large Hadron Collider (LHC) started delivering physics data for the first time in 27 months. After an almost two year shutdown and several months re-commissioning, the LHC is now providing collisions to all of its experiments at the unprecedented energy of 13 TeV, almost double the collision energy of its first run.

This marks the start of season 2 at the LHC, opening the way to new discoveries. The LHC will now run round the clock for the next three years.

“With the LHC back in the collision-production mode, we celebrate the end of two months of beam commissioning,” said CERN Director of Accelerators and Technology Frédérick Bordry. “It is a great accomplishment and a rewarding moment for all of the teams involved in the work performed during the long shutdown of the LHC, in the powering tests and in the beam commissioning process. All these people have dedicated so much of their time to making this happen.”

03/06/2015  at 10.40am, the LHC operators declared “stable beams”, the signal for the LHC experiments that they can start taking data. Beams are made of “trains” of proton bunches moving at almost the speed of light around the 27 kilometre ring of the LHC. These so-called bunch trains circulate in opposite directions, guided by powerful superconducting magnets.

Today the LHC was filled with 6 bunches each containing around 100 billion protons. This rate will be progressively increased as the run goes on to 2808 bunches per beam, allowing the LHC to produce up to 1 billion collisions per second2.

During the first run of the LHC, the ATLAS and CMS experiments announced the discovery of the so-called Higgs boson, which was the last piece of the puzzle known as the Standard Model, a theory that describes the fundamental particles from which everything visible in the universe is made, along with interactions at work between them.


“The first 3-year run of the LHC, which culminated with a major discovery in July 2012, was only the start of our journey. It is time for new physics!” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. “We have seen the first data beginning to flow. Let’s see what they will reveal to us about how our universe works.”