About Mandalas

Pronounced mahn-DAH-la, meaning 'house' or 'palace', the mandala represents a Buddha's divine place of residence. There are hundreds of mandalas representing each of the different tantric deities, each with its own unique set of details. To the practitioner, the mandala represents the activities and teachings of the particular deity represented in the mandala, and can be described as the residences of the respective deities and their retinues. 
Whether made of sand, cloth, or metal, mandalas are used to aid in visualizing these dwellings. Sand mandalas are one of the most magnificent types of mandala construction and are associated with the most profound and elaborate Buddhist ceremonies in Tibet. Every color, dot, and line in the mandala represents an essential part of the deity and Buddhist philosophy. Each component must be placed in exactly the same place every time the mandala is constructed. Although sand mandalas are made on a flat surface they are, to the devout, a three dimensional palace, representing the mind of the Buddha. The person contemplating the mandala enters into it, as they would a building or an enclosure.

The mandala construction itself is the result of long and disciplined effort, but it is nonetheless a temporary work. When the monks are finished, there is a dissolution ceremony where the deity is released by the dismantling of the mandala. The sand is cast into a body of water to emphasize and highlight the impermanence of all things and the importance of nonattachment. When the sand enters the water, the kindness and compassion of the deity are disseminated into the world to benefit all beings.

Mandalas are immensely complex symbolic structures, with many layers of meaning and beauty. Although very beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, mandalas are meant for religious use, and are not intended as museum works of art. It is only in recent years that the Dalai Lama has permitted mandalas to be made in public, as a means of teaching about Tibetan culture.

The teaching of the mandala is passed through an oral tradition started by Shakyamuni Buddha over 2500 years ago. It has been passed down over the ages and can be traced back through the lineages to the historical Buddha. 

In its most basic form, Tibetan Buddhism can be broken down into two schools of study. First, the study of sutras is perfected; these are the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha. The next phase of study is tantra, which was also taught by the Buddha to advanced practitioners. Tantra is the study of meditation on a deity, or Buddha, and is considered to be the swift path to enlightenment. Traditionally, a student of Buddhism is required to study the sutras before being allowed to study tantra. This still holds true for traditional monastic scholars in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

In 1988, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism allowed the first construction of a mandala in the west to be open to the public. This mandala was the Kalachakra Mandala and was constructed in sand by the Namgyal Monks from Dharamsala India at the Natural History Museum in New York City. His Holiness opened up the viewing of the mandala as a cultural offering, and as a means to preserve Tibetan culture. His Holiness felt that it would be a benefit to the world, as it would enhance the lives of all living beings near the construction site.

A mandala is thought to bring peace and harmony to the area where it is being constructed. Simply viewing a mandala is believed by Buddhists to be enough to change one's mind stream by creating a strong imprint of the beauty of perfection of the Buddha's mind, as is represented in the mandala itself. As a result of this imprint, one may be able to find greater compassion, awareness, and a better sense of well-being.

His Holiness also wished to open this practice to the west as there was much confusion and misunderstanding concerning the purpose of the mandala. Since the construction of the first mandala in the west, many mandalas have been created all over the world. Many people are said to feel strong emotions upon viewing a mandala, regardless of the culture or part of the world they are from.

History of antibiotics

The Ancient Egyptians, the Chinese and Indians of central America all used molds to treat infected wounds. However, thy didn't understand the connection of the antibacterials properties of mold and the treatment of diseases. 

Late 1800's

The search for antibiotics began in the late 1800s, with the growing acceptance of the germ theory of disease, a theory which linked bacteria and other microbes to the causation of a variety of ailments. As a result, scientists began to devote time to searching for drugs that would kill these disease-causing bacteria.

1871

The surgeon Joseph Lister, began researching the phenomenon that urine contaminated with mold would not allow the successful growth of bacteria.

1890s

German doctors, Rudolf Emmerich and Oscar Low were the first to make an effective medication that they called pyocyanase from microbes. It was the first antibiotic to be used in hospitals. However, the drug often did not work.

1928

Sir Alexander Fleming observed that colonies of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus could be destroyed by the mold Penicillium notatum, demonstrating antibacterial properties.

1935

Prontosil, the first sulfa drug, was discovered in 1935 by German chemist Gerhard Domagk (1895–1964).

1942

The manufacturing process for Penicillin G Procaine was invented by Howard Florey (1898–1968) and Ernst Chain (1906–1979). Penicillin could now be sold as a drug. Fleming, Florey, and Chain shared the 1945 Nobel Prize for medicine for their work on penicillin.

1943

In 1943, American microbiologist Selman Waksman (1888–1973) made the drug streptomycin from soil bacteria, the first of a new class of drugs called aminoglycosides. Streptomycin could treat diseases like tuberculosis, however, the side effects were often too severe.

1955

Tetracycline was patented by Lloyd Conover, which became the most prescribed broad spectrum antibiotic in the United States.

1957

Nystatin was patented and used to cure many disfiguring and disabling fungal infections.

1981

SmithKline Beecham patented Amoxicillin or amoxicillin/clavulanate potassium tablets, and first sold the antibiotic in 1998 under the tradenames of Amoxicillin, Amoxil, and Trimox. Amoxicillin is a semisynthetic antibiotic.

The Penicillin ( II )

It was not until 1939 that Dr. Howard Florey, a future Nobel Laureate, and three colleagues at Oxford University began intensive research and were able to demonstrate penicillin's ability to kill infectious bacteria. As the war with Germany continued to drain industrial and government resources, the British scientists could not produce the quantities of penicillin needed for clinical trials on humans and turned to the United States for help. They were quickly referred to the Peoria Lab where the scientists were already working on fermentation methods to increase the growth rate of fungal cultures. On July 9, 1941, Howard Florey and Norman Heatley, Oxford University Scientists came to the U.S. with a small but valuable package containing a small amount of penicillin to begin work.
Pumping air into deep vats containing corn steep liquor (a non-alcoholic by product of the wet milling process) and the addition of other key ingredients was shown to produce faster growth and larger amounts of penicillin than the previous surface growth method. Ironically, after a worldwide search, it was a strain of penicillin from a moldy cantaloupe in a Peoria market that was found and improved to produce the largest amount of penicillin when grown in the deep vat, submerged conditions.


Andrew J. Moyer 


By Novemeber 26, 1941, Andrew J. Moyer, the lab's expert on the nutrition of molds, had succeeded, with the assistance of Dr. Heatley, in increasing the yields of penicillin 10 times. In 1943, the required clinical trials were performed and the penicillin was shown to be the most effective antibacterial agent to date. Penicillin production was quickly scaled up and available in quantity to treat Allied soldiers wounded in D-Day. As production was increased the price dropped from nearly priceless in 1940, to $20 per dose in July 1943, to $0,53 per dose by 1946.
As a result of their work, two members of the British group  were awarded the Nobel Prize. Dr. Andrew J. Moyer from the Peoria lab was inducted into the inventors Hall of Fame and both the British and Peoria laboratories were designated as International Historic Chemical Landmarks.

The Penicillin

In 1928 Sir Alexander Fleming observed that the colonies of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus could be destroyed  by the mold Penicillium notatum, proving that there was an antibacterial agent there in principle. This principle later lead to medicines that could kill certain types of disease-causing bacteria inside the body.

At that time, however, the importance of Alexander Fleming's discovery was not known. Use of penicillin did not begin until the 1940s and Howard Florey and Ernst Chain isolated the active ingredient and developed a powdery form of the medicine.

History of Penicillin

Originally noticed by a French medical student, Ernest Duchesne in 1896. Penicillin was rediscovered by bacteriologist Alexander Fleming working at St. Mary's Hospital in London in 1928. He observed that a plate Staphylococcus has been contaminated by a blue-green mold and that colonies of bacteria adjacent to the mold were being dissolved. Curios, Alexander Fleming grew the mold in a pure culture and found that it produced a substance that killed a number of disease-cause bacteria. Naming the substance penicillin, Dr. Fleming in 1929 published the results of his investigations noting that his discovery might have therapeutic value if it could be produced in quantity. 

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin used x-rays to find the structural layouts of atoms and the overall molecular shape of over 100 molecules including penicillin. Dorothy's discovery of the molecular layout of penicillin helped lead scientists to develop other antibiotics.


The Source of the post is www.about.com

Solar Flares

Who discovered them?

 The two astronomers who saw it were called Carrington and Hodgeson. They were independently studying the Sun using special equipment, which enabled them to make observations in visible light safely. They certainly can't have been making X-ray observations. William Röntgen, the German scientist who would later discover X-rays, was only 6 years old at the time!

What was it that Carrington and Hodgeson had seen? We now know they had observed a very large flare because only the very largest can be seen in visible light. Flares are most easily detected in X-rays or ultraviolet radiation.

Check out these two images of the Sun One is taken in X-rays and one in visible light. Very different things can be seen in each one. That's why it's very important that we look at as many different wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum as possible when we study the Sun - if we don't we might miss some vital clue to what's going on.