Spring salad

Happy Easter!

I'd like to share with you a recipe for a simple spring salad.

I made layers because I didn't have a proper bowl, starting with:


teared lettuce,

sliced cucumber,

sweet corn,

chopped tomatoes,

sliced red onion,

garlic,

fete (salty cheese from Greece),

vinegar with favourite herbs,

chopped chives on top.

Easter's coming!

Hello!
As everything is already cleaned, the furniture are tidy and (almost) everything is cooked, I would like to show you some results of my Easter's preparations. As I'm not a good cook at all, I only made with my mum a cake (Babka). Surprisingly, it's eatable and looks quite good. I'm not going to write here the recipe for babka, couse it's very simple and available on every cooking Website.

My own cake:)

However, I took care of something I like a lot more, which is
decorating Easter eggs. This year I decided to use a woollen yarn to decorate the eggs. Different colours of it and a glue are the most important things required. The rest is up to you and your imagination. So, it would be good, if you add some other accesories like stickers etc. If you don't have a woolen yarn and a patience (it's essential while wraping wool around the egg), you can use some other simple and tested concption, namely felt- tip pens or markers. The result could be also very satisfying! I picked the ladybirds to be my egg pattern and it looks quite cute ( picture on the right). I also noticed that felt- tip pens look much better on white eggs! Around the Easter time they are normally available in every grocer's.

Well, that's all for now. In the end, I would like to send you best Easter wishes:

Have a decorated egg,

a jellybean or two,

But mostly have a happy heart

this Easter all day through!

My Easter eggs

Anniversary of the first flight into space

50 years ago, 12 April 1961, the Russian Yuri Gagarin made a breakthrough - the first ever flown into space. He was captain of the ship Vostok 1, by which circled the Earth once. Flight lasted 108 minutes and he traveled more than 40 000 km.

Describing his mission later said: "Orbiting around Earth in a spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. The people will protect and augment the beauty, not destroy them!"

Before the man flew into space, the animals were sent there. The first flew a container with friut flies but it exceed a height of 100 km and fell to the ground. Some time later the Americans sent into space monkeys, and the Russian dogs.

4 October 1957, the first artificial Earth satellite was the Soviet Sputnik 1. A month later, the first dog in orbit was Laika, but she didn't survive the flight. Two successful flights of dogs with mannequins in March 1961 finally led to the flight of Yuri Gagarin's April 12, 1961 year.

In my opinion the first flight into space was very important for the overall development of the whole world. It stressed the importance of excellence and innovation of new techniques and technologies. What's more it has positive influenced to the development of science and human thought.

For centuries, scientists have studied the cosmos and its impact on the ours planet, but only the successful flights of Yuri Gagarin gave the chance to keep the real and more reliable research.

If in the future, I would have a chance to fly into space, I would do it with pleasure, but it would have to be completely safe :)

More about it, You found here:

www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/11/us-russia-gagarin-anniversary-idUSTRE73A2Z720110411

www.studentnews.pl

COOL HOTELS!

I feel honored to be the 4^th (not awarded unfortunately) person to post smth on our blog. In order not to make it all so serious and strictly scientific, I would like to present you 3 of the most interesting hotels I have ever heard about. Hilton or Sheraton seem to be not interesting at all comparing to these located in Zaandam (Netherlands), Fiji and Tokio.

The 1^st hotel in Netherlands (The Inntel Hotel) looks like a pile of houses. The building features overlapping green wooden façades typical of traditional houses in the region. The 11-storey hotel is forty metres tall and includes 160 rooms. The Inntel hotel in Zaandam is without a shadow of a doubt already the main eye-stopper in the town cenre.

The 2^nd hotel, called Posseidon Undersea Resort located on Fiji, is really spectacular. Build forty feet below the surface of the clear blue Fijian Lagoon, the underwater suites are accessible by elevator. 70 percent of each suite is enveloped in Acrylic walls that allow for marvelous views of the ocean. If only I could ever afford to spend there a night or two…

And finally the Capsule Inn in Tokio which seems to be less comfy because it actually provides more a capsule, than a room. These capsules, which are made of reinforced plastic, have all the required amenities, like TV, radio, lighting, and alarm clock access. But a night there could be a little claustrophobic, I think.

There are also many other, equally amazing hotels like Jumbo Hostel in Stockholm, World's First Aircraft Inn. An abandoned Boeing 747 jumbo jet was saved from being trashed metal to become a 25-room hotel sited in Stockholm's Arlanda airport. Staying there for a night might not be very comfy, but still, it must be an amazing experience. There is also a Dog Bark Park Inn (Idaho, US) in a beagle's shape! Looks cool! Another incredible hotel is the one located in a breathtaking area of Turkey, Cappadocia, where guests sleep in… caves. Sleeping in a cave, according to the management of Gamirasu Cave Hotel, is surprisingly comfortable. You can check it out on this website: www.gamirasu.com

Well, there many more astonishing hotels in the world, but I can’t describe all of them in here. If you’re interested, I recommend you to visit www.oddee.com. It’s pretty awesome!

Robots in healthcare

I know that probably everyone heard about it, but it's interesting and changing quite rapidly.

Robots in healthcare is a huge advance. They have developed over time from simple basic robotic assistants to semi-autonomous one.

The fully autonomous surgical robot that is a feature of science fiction literature and screen entertainment is unlikely to appear in the near future.

Possibly the most glamorous application of robots in medicine is that they can perform surgery through very small incisions, thus reducing the risk to patients. They are something that helps make operations safer and better.

They are also useful for diagnosis, rehabilitation, prosthetics, pharmaceuticals.

The use of robots in surgery has provided additional tools, but it is a big capital investment.

More about it

Idea from: www.robotsnob.com, news.bbc.co.uk

"Sexmission"

21st century on the Earth. We are looking for the planets, where people could live, we’re trying to create spaceship for interstellar journeys, planning to colonize cosmos. But it turned out that the technological progress isn’t the only one thing that we need to make it. Scientists found out that in the cosmos people can’t have babies! Sperm doesn’t like changes in a gravity. Lack of the gravitation makes that male reproductive system produces less sperm and in the end loses fertility. Similarly in women – long stay in the space would start a menopause. There is also no chance for in-vitro or cloning methods. Without the gravity embryos couldn’t grow properly, and children would have physical or mental diseases. And the biggest problem are cosmic rays, that are deadly for embryos. Even if in such conditions a girl was born, she probably would be barren. For now this is very likely (but still) theory that is supported by studies and experiments only on animals (because NASA doesn’t want to let scientists do the tests on astronaut’s sperm – “the Privacy Policy” they said). This discovery is a big problem and there is a challenge for us – to find a solve with this situation. Only in that case the cosmic colonization will be possible.

Based on article from “Newsweek Polska” 14/2011; s. 78.

the YeZ

I think I'll be this brave student....

Last year the biggest event in China was World Expo 2010. The theme was: "Better city- better life" (over 75 mln visitors and 250 exhibitiors). Many engineers and designers tried to create something interesting and Environmentally friendly. The made many visual presentation about future cities too. One of the most interesting things they presented was "Leaf car", which was designed by SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) with General Motors from Chinese-market presented new type of vehicle. 100% ecological and zero-emission car, that car doesn't produce fumes but also make oxygen! It is designed to run on solar and wind energy, but also "the roof will be able to capture carbon dioxide from the ambient air, and release fresh oxygen back into the air".

The vehicle will be used by people in 2030. Is it really possible?
Interested? SAIC-GM YeZ Concept Car Eco-Friendly

Waiting for the first brave student :)

I'm still waiting for the brave student to write. Just in case you're not sure what your first task is: find some interesting scientific fact/information/news and tell us about it.
Well, I can tell you that "the average person accidentally eats 430 bugs each year of their life". Yummy, isn't it? (http://listverse.com/2007/12/19/top-20-amazing-science-facts/).
By the way, you might find an interesting speech on eating insects right here: Why not eat insects? Have fun!

photo by dichohecho