Discovery of Penicillin

In 1928, bacteriologist Alexander Fleming made a chance discovery from an already discarded, contaminated Petri dish. A mold had grown on the Petri dish when it was left unattended for a couple of days. And the mold seemed to have killed the Staphylococcus aureus that had been growing in the dish.

How Penicillin was Discovered

Fleming realized that this mold had potential. Fleming spent several weeks growing more mold and trying to determine the particular substance in the mold that killed the bacteria. After discussing the mold with mycologist (mold expert) C. J. La Touche who had his office below Fleming's, they determined the mold to be a Penicillium mold. Fleming then called the active antibacterial agent in the mold, penicillin. So, the mold that had contaminated the experiment turned out to contain a powerful antibiotic, penicillin. But, Could this be the "wonder drug"? To Fleming, it was not. Though he saw its potential, Fleming was not a chemist and thus was unable to isolate the active antibacterial element, penicillin, and could not keep the element active long enough to be used in humans.

More Detail about Penicillin

In 1929, Fleming wrote a paper on his findings, which did not garner any scientific interest. Twelve years later In 1940, the second year of World War II, Australian Howard Florey and German refugee Ernst Chain began working with penicillin. Using new chemical techniques, they were able to produce a brown powder which was safe and kept its antibacterial power for longer than a few days. Needing the new drug immediately for the war front, mass production started quickly. The availability of penicillin during World War II saved many lives that otherwise would have been lost due to bacterial infections in even minor wounds. Penicillin also treated diphtheria, gangrene, pneumonia, syphilis and tuberculosis. Though Fleming discovered penicillin, it took Florey and Chain to make it a usable product. Though both Fleming and Florey were knighted in 1944 and all three of them (Fleming, Florey and Chain) were awarded the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Fleming is still credited for discovering penicillin.

9 Extraordinary Human Abilities

9 Extraordinary Human Abilities

This list of extraordinary human abilities was inspired The Top 10 Tips to Improve Your Memory when I began thinking about how some people are blessed (or cursed, depending on your point of view) with the ability to recall a scene as if they were looking at a photograph. And how other people can recreate music from memory, such as Mozart’s famed reproduction of Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere after one hearing. What other extraordinary abilities might humans have? I’ve listed nine of the most well understood (i.e. not paranormal or ‘fringe science’) and interesting abilities rated from most common to most interesting and rare. Bear in mind that most of these unusual abilities are genetic and cannot be controlled by the person affected but are an inherent quality of their physical self.

9. Supertasters

People who experience taste with greater intensity than the rest of the population are called supertasters. Having extra fungiform papillae (the mushroom shaped bumps on the tongue that are covered in taste buds) is thought to be the reason why these people have a stronger response to the sensation of taste. Of the five types of taste, sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami, a supertaster generally finds bitterness to be the most perceptible.

Scientists first noticed the differing abilities of people to taste a known compound when a DuPont chemist called Arthur Fox asked people to taste Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC). Some people could taste its bitterness; some couldn’t – whether people could depended on their genetic make-up (a variant of this test is now one of the most common genetic tests on humans). While about 70% of people can taste PTC, two thirds of them are rated as medium and only one third (approximately 25% of the wider population) are supertasters.

Supertasters will often dislike certain foods, particularly bitter ones, such as brussel sprouts, cabbage, coffee, and grapefruit juice. Women, Asians, and Africans are most likely to have the increased number of fungiform papillae that make them supertasters.

8. Absolute Pitch

People with absolute pitch are capable of identifying and reproducing a tone without needing a known reference. It is not simply a better ability to hear but the ability to mentally class sounds into remembered categories. Examples of this include identifying the pitch of everyday noises (e.g. horns, sirens, and engines), being able to sing a named note without hearing a reference, naming the tones of a chord, or naming the key signature of a song. Doing any of these is a cognitive act – it requires one to remember the frequency of each tone, be able to label it (e.g. ‘A’, ‘C#’, or ‘F-flat’), and sufficient exposure to the range of sound within each label. Opinions vary as to whether absolute pitch is genetic or a learned ability that is strongly influenced to one’s exposure to music at crucial developmental stages – much like how a child’s ability to identify colors by their frequency depends on the type and level of their exposure to it.

Estimates of the portion of the population having absolute pitch range from 3% of the general population in the US and Europe to 8% of those (from the same areas) who are semi-professional or professional musicians. In music conservatories in Japan however, about 70% of musicians have absolute pitch. Part of the reason for this significantly larger percentage may be because absolute pitch is more common among people who grew up in a tonal (Mandarin, Cantonese, and Vietnamese) or pitch accent (Japanese) language environment. Absolute pitch is also more common in those who are blind from birth, have William’s Syndrome, or have an autism spectrum disorder.

7. Tetrachromacy

Tetrachromacy is the ability to see light from four distinct sources. An example of this in the animal kingdom is the zebrafish (Danio rerio), which can see light from the red, green, blue, and ultraviolet sections of the light spectrum. True tetrachromacy in humans is much rarer however – according to Wikipedia only two possible tetrachromats have been identified.

Humans are normally trichromats, having three types of cone cells that receive light from either the red, green, or blue part of the light spectrum. Each cone can pick up about 100 graduations of color and the brain combines colors and graduations so that there are about 1 million distinguishable hues coloring your world. A true tetrachromat with an extra type of cone between red and green (in the orange range) would, theoretically, be able to perceive 100 million colors.

Like supertasting, tetrachromacy is thought to be much more common in women than men – estimates range from 2 – 3% to 50% of women. Interestingly, colour-blindness in men (much more common than in women) may be inherited from women with tetrachromacy.

6. Echolocation

Echolocation is how bats fly around in dark forests – they emit a sound, wait for the echo to return, and use that sound of the echo in each ear plus the return time to work out where an object is and how far away. Surprisingly (well, maybe not on this list!), humans are also capable of using echolocation. Use of echolocation is probably restricted to blind people because it takes a long time to master and heightened sensitivity to reflected sound.

To navigate via echolocation a person actively creates a noise (e.g. tapping a cane or clicking the tongue) and determines from the echoes where objects are located around them. People skilled at this can often tell where an object is, what size it is, and its density. Because humans cannot make or hear the higher pitched frequencies that bats and dolphins use they can only picture objects that are comparatively larger than those ‘seen’ by echolocating animals.

People with the ability to echolocate include James Holman, Daniel Kish, and Ben Underwood. Perhaps the most remarkable and well-documented of cases is the story of Ben Underwood, who lost both his eyes to retinal cancer at the age of three.

5. Genetic Chimerism

In the Iliad Homer described a creature having body parts from different animals, a chimera, from this mythological monster comes the name of the genetic equivalent – chimerism. Genetic chimerism, or tetragametism, in humans and other animals happens when two fertilized eggs or embryos fuse together early in pregnancy. Each zygote carries a copy of its parents DNA and thus a distinct genetic profile. When these merge, each population of cells retains its genetic character and the resulting embryo becomes a mixture of both. Essentially, a human chimera is their own twin.

Chimerism in humans is very rare; Wikipedia states that there are only about 40 reported cases. DNA testing is often used to establish whether a person is biologically related to their parents or children and can uncover cases of chimerism when DNA results show that children are not biologically related to their mothers – because the child inherited a different DNA profile to the one shown by a blood test. This is what happened in the case of Lydia Fairchild: DNA tests of herself and her children led the state to think that she was not actually their mother.

People born with chimerism typically have immune systems that make them tolerant to both genetically distinct populations of cells in their body. This means that a chimera has a much wider array of people to choose from should they need an organ transplant.

4. Synesthesia

Imagine consistently associating numbers or letters with certain colours, or hearing a specific word which triggers a particular sensation of taste on your tongue. These are two forms of a neurological condition called synesthesia. Synesthesia is when stimulation of a particular sensory or cognitive pathway leads to an involuntary (i.e. synesthesia is not learnt) response in other sensory or cognitive pathways.

Synesthesia is most often genetic and the grapheme (letters, numbers, or other symbols) to colour form of synesthesia is the commonest. Other synesthetes can experience special-sequence synesthesia (e.g. where dates have a precise location in space), ordinal linguistic personification (when numbers have personalities), or sound to colour synesthesia (where tones are perceived as colours).

Although synesthesia is a neurological condition it shouldn’t be thought of as a disorder, because generally it does not interfere with a person’s ability to function. Most people are not even aware that their experiences of life elicit more sensory responses than other peoples might and the ones that are rarely consider synesthesia to have a negative impact on their lives.

Predictions of the percentage of people with synesthesia vary widely, from 1 in 20 to 1 in 20,000. Studies from 2005 and 2006, using a random population sample, suggested 1 in about 23 people have synesthesia. Examples of people with synesthesia include the author Vladimir Nabokov, composer Olivier Messiaen, and scientist Richard Feynman. Daniel Tammet, who is mentioned in the next section of this list, is a synesthete (in addition to being a mental calculator) who sees numbers with shapes and texture.

3. Mental Calculators

The most extraordinary group of people adept at performing complex mental calculations is those who are also autistic savants. While there are many trained people who can work out multiplications of large numbers (among other calculations) in their head extremely fast – mostly mathematicians, writers, and linguists – the untrained ability of autistic savants is the most interesting. The majority of these people are born with savant syndrome (only an estimated 50% of people with savantism are also autistic), which is still poorly understood, few develop it later in life, usually due to a head injury.

There are less than 100 recognised prodigious savants in the world and of the savants with autism who are capable of using mental calculation techniques there are even less. Recent research has suggested that a blood flow to the part of the brain responsible for mathematical calculations of six to seven times the normal rate is one of the factors that enables mental calculators to work out math much faster than the average person.

Examples of people with extraordinary calculation skills include Daniel McCartney, Salo Finkelstein, and Alexander Aitken. Daniel Tammet is one of few who are also autistic savants.

2. Eidetic Memory

When a person has photographic memory or total recall this is called eidetic memory. It is the ability to recall sounds, images, or objects from one’s memory with extreme accuracy. Examples of eidetic memory include the effort of Akira Haraguchi who recited from memory the first 100,000 decimal places of pi and the drawings of Stephen Wiltshire (who is also an autistic savant) – his recreation of Rome is shown in the video above. Kim Peek, the inspiration for the autistic (Peek is not actually autistic though) character of Raymond Babbit in the movie Rainman, also possesses eidetic memory – among other things he can recall some 12,000 books from memory.

Whether true photographic memory exists in adults is still a controversial issue, but it is accepted that eidetic abilities are distributed evenly between men and women. One also cannot become an eidetiker through practice.

1.  Immortal cells

There is only one known case of a person having immortal cells (cells that can divide indefinitely outside of the human body, defying the Hayflick Limit) and that is of a woman named Henrietta Lacks. In 1951, 31 year old Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer, which she died from within the year. Unknown to her and her family (i.e. without informed consent) a surgeon took a tissue sample from her tumor that was passed on to a Dr. George Gey. A scientist for the John Hopkins University Tissue Culture Laboratory, Gey propagated Lacks’ tissue sample into an immortal cell line – the HeLa cell line (pictured above). The cells from Lacks’ tumour have an active version of the telomerase enzyme (telomerase is the mechanism by which cells age or are aged) and proliferate abnormally fast. On the day of Henrietta Lacks’ death, Dr. Gey announced to the world that a new age in medical research had begun – one that might provide a cure for cancer.

HeLa cells were utilised in 1954 by Jonas Salk to develop the cure for polio. Since then they’ve been used in researching cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic substances, and for mapping genes, among other things.

Today, the HeLa cells are so common in laboratories that they contaminate many other cell cultures and have rendered some biological studies invalid through their presence. There are also more HeLa cells alive today than when Henrietta Lacks was alive – they outweigh her physical mass by many times. Tragically, Lacks was never told of the immensely valuable contribution her cells made to science and her family was not informed until many years later that her cells were being used for research purposes (a 1990 court ruling later verified Lacks’ hospital as the owner of her discarded tissue and cells).

Hitachi Surprises with 7mm 7200RPM 320GB HDD

There are many ways that a new storage solution can cause jaws to be inadvertently dropped. Usually, it is because the read and/or write speed is spectacular, or because some new feature or another is supported. Other times, a device would stand out through being the first of its kind, as it happened with the first SSDs and, later, with the first PCI Express solid state drives. It appears, however, that there might be another way of turning heads.

Toshiba has combined inventiveness with experience in order to come up with a hard disk drive that stands out through being smaller than all of its peers. To be more specific, the SATA 3.0Gbps Travelstar Z7K320 that the hardware maker presented today, though it uses the same 2.5-inch form factor that all compact HDDs come with, is much thinner than one would expect. In fact, it is so thin that it will probably make its way into most ultrathin laptops slated for release during the later parts of 2010.

The actual thickness if of 7 millimeters, a full 2.5mm less than standard units (9.5mm). The performance, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have suffered the same shrinkage effect. The platter still manages to maintain a rotary speed of 7,200RPM (rotations per minute) and, backed by 16MB cache, the maximum transfer rate still gets as high as 1,334Mbps. This is quite significant, especially considering the power draw (1.8 Watts during read/write and 0.8 watts during standby).

As for noise hazards, the humming produced by the storage solution shouldn't go over 23dB when idle and 24dB when seeking. August is the earliest one can expect to see this product, as well a 5,400RPM version, being mass produced, which means that super-thin notebooks will start to show up soon after.

“As a leading personal computing company, we are constantly evaluating and offering new designs and technologies that make computing more enjoyable and affordable for our customers," said Wentao Yang, vice president, Global Procurement, Lenovo Group. "Hitachi's 7mm product family represents important advancements for the industry. We look forward to continuing our relationship with Hitachi and working together to innovate and take the computing landscape to newer smaller heights.

A Letter from Dad and Mom

My child,

When I get old, I hope you understand and have patience with me.

In case, I break the plate, or spill soup on the table because I am losing my eyesight, I hope you do not yell at me. Older people are sensitive, always having self pity when you yell. When my hearing gets worse and I can not hear what you are saying, I hope you do not call me ‘Deaf!’ Please repeat what you said or write it down. 

I am sorry, my child. I am getting older.

When my knees get weaker, I hope you have the patience to help me get up. Like how I used to help you while you were little, learning how to walk. Please bear with me, when I keep repeating myself like a broken record; I hope you just keep listening to me. Please do not make fun of me, or get sick of listening to me. Do you remember when you were little and you wanted a balloon? You repeated yourself over and over until you get what you wanted. 

Please also pardon my smell. I smell like an old person. Please do not force me to shower. My body is weak. Old people get sick easily when they are cold. I hope I do not gross you out. Do you remember when you were little? I used to chase you around because you did not want to shower.

I hope you can be patient with me when I am always cranky. It is all part of getting old. You will understand when you are older. And if you have spare time, I hope we can talk even for a few minutes. I am always all by myself all the time, and have no one to talk to. I know you are busy with work. Even if you are not interested in my stories, please have time for me. Do you remember when you were little? I used to listen to your stories about your teddy bear.

When the time comes, and I get ill and bedridden, I hope you have the patience to take care of me. I am sorry if I accidentally wet the bed or make a mess. I hope you have the patience to take care of me during the last few moments of my life. I am not going to last much longer, anyway. 

When the time of my death comes, I hope you hold my hand and give me strength to face death. 

And do not worry… When I finally meet our creator, I will whisper in his ear to bless you, because you loved your dad and mom. 

Thank you so much for your care.

We love you. ! ♥

YouTube Partner Program

YouTube is the most popular video sharing site. You can affiliate with Youtube in many ways.

1. YouTube Partner Program – You can get the opportunity to affiliate directly from your YouTube channel. YouTube offers partnership program for those video producers who create regular quality original videos that gets fair bit of popularity within the community. Generally you need to apply to this program. In some cases Google directly invites the top channels to participate in their revenue sharing program. You’ll get a share of the ad revenue generated by your channel every month.

To avail of this opportunity, you do not need to be an established brand; even individuals with great content can join this program.

They also offer Individual Video Partnership Program where they offer revenue sharing to the producer of some great individual videos instead of the whole channel. This program is offered to particularly those who do not provide regular great content but comes with one or two top production.

2. Post YouTube Videos on Video-Sharing Sites– YouTube allows you to share videos with others by embedding into a webpage. Many revenue sharing video sites like Flixya, Mediaflix are there where you can post your favorite YouTube videos. You’ll earn a portion of the revenue generated by those videos. Some these sites require AdSense account to participate in their revenue sharing program. You can easily get one through revenue sharing sites.

3. Use YouTube Videos In Your Blog or Site- Many people post YouTube videos in their blog or website. This is a great way to increase website visitors and engage them more. You can then monetize your website in many ways, like using AdSense, Affiliate Programs etc.

4. Promote Your Site Using YouTube- You can use YouTube to promote your website. Creating useful video content can help you build your authority in your niche and get more traffic and loyal subscribers. YouTube has a huge potential to generate loads of traffic to your site.

5. Affiliate Marketing- Some marketers use YouTube with great success to increase affiliate sales. You can video review a product and include your affiliate link in that video; there are software to do that, and upload the video to YouTube. If you can compel videos then expect quite a bit of sale. You can also redirect the traffic to your squeeze page and build a huge subscriber list.

6. Direct Advertising on Your YouTube Content- If you’re an established YouTube publisher, and maintain a fair bit of successful channel, then you can think of accepting direct advertising on your videos.

These are some of the more know and popular ways to generate revenue from YouTube

Watch Full Length Movies on Youtube

The YouTube is our the best resource for finding any and every kind of videos. But many people do not know that they can watch their favorite Hollywood/Bollywood movies on YouTube which are full-length, without any advertisements and completely free.

It has been one year that YouTube has expanded it’s video library to deliver free and full length movies to it’s subscribers. Though it’s quite old news, but many people do not know about it. You can find any movie from Shah Rukh Khan to Brad Pitt. 

To search your favorite movies, Just go on this link :

Youtube Movies

There you will find the complete directory of full length movies. You can watch Indian classical movies too from Youtube Movies. It’s all over there. Just browse around and watch them.

Command Line Options for XP/2003/Vista

Note : All of them may not work in your computer. It depends on what components you have installed. Some of them do not run on Vista:

Just go to START > RUN > type the command here

1.        Accessibility Controls - access.cpl

2.        Accessibility Wizard - accwiz

3.        Add Hardware Wizard - hdwwiz.cpl

4.        Add/Remove Programs - appwiz.cpl

5.        Administrative Tools - control admintools

6.        Automatic Updates - wuaucpl.cpl

7.        Bluetooth Transfer Wizard - fsquirt

8.        Calculator - calc

9.        Certificate Manager - certmgr.msc

10.     Character Map - charmap

11.     Check Disk Utility - chkdsk

12.     Clipboard Viewer - clipbrd

13.     Command Prompt - cmd

14.     Component Services - dcomcnfg

15.     Computer Management - compmgmt.msc

16.     Control Panel - control

17.     Date and Time Properties - timedate.cpl

18.     DDE Shares - ddeshare

19.     Device Manager - devmgmt.msc

20.     Direct X Troubleshooter - dxdiag

21.     Disk Cleanup Utility - cleanmgr

22.     Disk Defragment - dfrg.msc

23.     Disk Management - diskmgmt.msc

24.     Disk Partition Manager - diskpart

25.     Display Properties - control desktop

26.     Display Properties - desk.cpl

27.     Dr. Watson System Troubleshooting Utility - drwtsn32

28.     Driver Verifier Utility - verifier

29.     Event Viewer - eventvwr.msc

30.     Files and Settings Transfer Tool - migwiz

31.     File Signature Verification Tool - sigverif

32.     Findfast - findfast.cpl

33.     Firefox - firefox

34.     Folders Properties - control folders

35.     Fonts - control fonts

36.     Fonts Folder - fonts

37.     Free Cell Card Game - freecell

38.     Game Controllers - joy.cpl

39.     Group Policy Editor (for xp professional) - gpedit.msc

40.     Hearts Card Game - mshearts

41.     Help and Support - helpctr

42.     HyperTerminal - hypertrm

43.     Iexpress Wizard - iexpress

44.     Indexing Service - ciadv.msc

45.     Internet Connection Wizard - icwconn1

46.     Internet Explorer - iexplore

47.     Internet Properties - inetcpl.cpl

48.     Keyboard Properties - control keyboard

49.     Local Security Settings - secpol.msc

50.     Local Users and Groups - lusrmgr.msc

51.     Logs You Out Of Windows - logoff

52.     Malicious Software Removal Tool - mrt

53.     Microsoft Chat - winchat

54.     Microsoft Movie Maker - moviemk

55.     Microsoft Paint - mspaint

56.     Microsoft Syncronization Tool - mobsync

57.     Minesweeper Game - winmine

58.     Mouse Properties - control mouse

59.     Mouse Properties - main.cpl

60.     Netmeeting - conf

61.     Network Connections - control netconnections

62.     Network Connections - ncpa.cpl

63.     Network Setup Wizard - netsetup.cpl

64.     Notepad notepad

65.     Object Packager - packager

66.     ODBC Data Source Administrator - odbccp32.cpl

67.     On Screen Keyboard - osk

68.     Outlook Express - msimn

69.     Paint - pbrush

70.     Password Properties - password.cpl

71.     Performance Monitor - perfmon.msc

72.     Performance Monitor - perfmon

73.     Phone and Modem Options - telephon.cpl

74.     Phone Dialer - dialer

75.     Pinball Game - pinball

76.     Power Configuration - powercfg.cpl

77.     Printers and Faxes - control printers

78.     Printers Folder - printers

79.     Regional Settings - intl.cpl

80.     Registry Editor - regedit

81.     Registry Editor - regedit32

82.     Remote Access Phonebook - rasphone

83.     Remote Desktop - mstsc

84.     Removable Storage - ntmsmgr.msc

85.     Removable Storage Operator Requests - ntmsoprq.msc

86.     Resultant Set of Policy (for xp professional) - rsop.msc

87.     Scanners and Cameras - sticpl.cpl

88.     Scheduled Tasks - control schedtasks

89.     Security Center - wscui.cpl

90.     Services - services.msc

91.     Shared Folders - fsmgmt.msc

92.     Shuts Down Windows - shutdown

93.     Sounds and Audio - mmsys.cpl

94.     Spider Solitare Card Game - spider

95.     SQL Client Configuration - cliconfg

96.     System Configuration Editor - sysedit

97.     System Configuration Utility - msconfig

98.     System Information - msinfo32

99.     System Properties - sysdm.cpl

100.  Task Manager - taskmgr

101.  TCP Tester - tcptest

102.  Telnet Client - telnet

103.  User Account Management - nusrmgr.cpl

104.  Utility Manager - utilman

105.  Windows Address Book - wab

106.  Windows Address Book Import Utility - wabmig

107.  Windows Explorer - explorer

108.  Windows Firewall - firewall.cpl

109.  Windows Magnifier - magnify

110.  Windows Management Infrastructure - wmimgmt.msc

111.  Windows Media Player - wmplayer

112.  Windows Messenger - msmsgs

113.  Windows System Security Tool - syskey

114.  Windows Update Launches - wupdmgr

115.  Windows Version - winver

116.  Windows XP Tour Wizard - tourstart

117.  Wordpad - write

Precaution : Be careful while writing this command in Run menu. Backup your computer or work while trying this command. Some of them can cause your computer for reboot too. While personally I have checked most of command in my computer. It work well in my computer.