ISSUE THEME

Treasure on the bottom of the ocean

Over 70% of our planet's surface is covered by watercourses, lakes, seas and oceans. Below the water surface, at great depths, there are many unexplored life opportunities, numerous finds of every kind that are yet to be discovered and of course used in the future. In ancient oceans, millions of years ago, life began to sprout: the bottom of the sea has always been a great source of food, underneath the bottom there is immense mining wealth, from "water chimneys" at the edges and at the bottom of water spaceare gushing gases of impenetrable energy, there is a living world that needs to be explored, and a number of sunken ships full of once collectible treasures still lies at the bottom of the sea...

ENERGY

The smallest particle as the greatest danger

 The production of nuclear energy for peacekeeping and military purposes involves the release of large amounts of heat by processes of nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. This energy is located in the most famous tiny part of matter - the atom. Harsh discussions on nuclear energy are taking place around the world. The advocates of the use of nuclear energy argue that this energy keeps the human environment from greenhouse effect gases and emphasizes that nuclear energy is safer with new, "fourth generation" types of nuclear reactors , considered to be the source of energy for a longer period of time.

 According to the IEA (International Energy Agency), in 2017 there were 47 nuclear reactors in operation.

ENERGY

Compressed air

Compressed air can be one of the ways to store energy – and in simple, inexpensive reservoirs. For the needs of very large industrial plants, compressed air can be kept in caves. For the needs of the economy, the energy produced and stored at a time of low demand can be released and used at a time of high demand.
Compressed air energy has been in use since 1870. Cities like Paris and Buenos Aires have long used systems based on compressed air. The first system for the use of compressed air as an energy source was constructed by Viktor Pop, who used it to start the clock by directing the air pulses every second to move the indicators. Compressed air has evolved rapidly into a source of energy for household and industrial power supply, and today it is used as a source of energy for a large number of industrial plants and construction works.

DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSING

A cover from the front page

A photo published in Playboy in 1972 essentially influenced the development of digital image processing technologies. Alexander Sawchuk, then an assistant professor at the University of Southern California, participated in a survey in 1973, which was part of the establishment of the now-established standards for computer representation of digital images and video - JPEG and MPEG - and funded by the Pentagon, within the project for the development of Arpanet, the forerunner of today's Internet.
In a hurry, he searched for a picture that would be suitable for conference work of his collegaue and, by the circumstances that were not fully clarified, the choice fell on the photograph of the rebellious girl Lena Söderberg, published on the middle pages of the Playboy magazine in November 1972. Sawchuk and his colleagues took of the part of the page from "Playboy" containing a woman's face and shoulders, and scanned it.
The scan result was not ideal. The digital image was slightly elongated compared to the original, and because of a software error, also one line was missing…  

BIOLOGY

Beware - poison!

At the end of September, the Gallery of the Natural History Museum in Belgrade, will present the exhibition "Beware - poison!", which will last for several months. The motif of the exhibition is the introduction of poisonous types of mushrooms, plants and animals (from insects, centipedes, spiders, scorpions, amphibians and reptiles, as well as mammals), the composition and mechanisms of the action of poisons of certain species and their antidotes, and the presentation of living species containing poison.
Species that contain toxins can serve as food, medicine or poison - depending on the way they are used, treated, dosed ... Attention should be paid to this in order to break the fears and prejudices in everyday life.
 

MEDICINE

Laparoscopy - a step towards robotics in surgery

Minimally invasive endoscopic surgery has changed for last three and a half decades standards of surgical therapy in various branches of medicine, all with the aim of exposing the patient to the smallest intraoperative trauma and enable him to recover as quickly as possible. Once it has been shown that the endoscopic approach to internal organs - by introducing endoscopic devices equipped with an optical apparatus, through body orifices or millimeter skin cuts - can be used not only in diagnostics but also in therapy, endoscopic technique visualizing abdominal cavity, laparoscopy, evolved in late eighties of the last century into a therapeutic surgical method.
Prof. Dr. Djordje Bajec, a specialist in general surgery and a laparoscopic surgeon, says that the basic surgical principles are still the same as in the time of the onset of modern surgery, nearly a century ago, but technology constantly dictated progress and made it possible for even the most complex surgical interactions to be more successful, and with better results. Describing this fascinating progress in surgery, prof. Bajec says that nowadays even the largest operations often ends without a scalpel, and a peaman (clam and scissors), a surgical "tool" without which just three decades ago, the operation could not even be imagined.
 

MEDICINE

Treatment of yellow spot disease

Senile degeneration of the yellow spot is just one of the eye diseases of the back segment of the eye, but is one of the leading causes of blindness in the world. Until about a decade and a half ago, ophthalmologists were almost powerless when facing this and other macular diseases; meanwhile, there have been very significant technological breakthroughs that enable them to deal with the pathology of yellow stains in a far more successful way. The ophthalmologist and top specialist ophthalmic surgeon dr Vesna Cerović, one of the few of our experts dealing with eye problems characteristic for the front and the last segment of the eye testifies about more efficient medical therapies, as well as safe microcision surgical treatment of macular disease.
 

MEDICINE

Non-surgical rejuvenation of the face and body

The sixties are today’s forties, and the forties can be the new twenties! Except when it comes to the skin, because skin can always reveal the secret of our years. Within cosmetic dermatology, non-surgical, minimally invasive, sophisticated anti-aging procedures are available that can eliminate wrinkles and relieve skin aging symptoms.
Prof. Dr Ljiljana Medenica, a dermatologist at the Belgrade General Hospital Bel Medic, says that today we can really speak about non-surgical face lifting, which is becoming increasingly popular and more and more commonly applied. Without scalpel and general anesthesia, without the risk of postoperative complications, and at a price that is incomparably lower than surgical alternatives, innovative cosmetic and dermatological methods can visibly improve the texture, nucleus, hydration, and shine of the skin.
 

MEDICINE

Systematic checkup before recreation

After New Year's holidays, the start of the annual holiday is usually another opportunity when many people decide to "turn the new leaf" and finally abide to healthy living habits, for example - regular recreation. But when the office chair and car are "overnight" exchanged for a gym or some other exercise room, there are also some warning scenarios: at the best, there is a strong "inflammation" of the muscles that can last for several days; less fortunate circumstances imply serious heart disorders including acute myocardial infarction. Dr Ivana Petrović, the medical director of the General Hospital Bel Medic, warns that people who work and live in a sedentary way, regardless of the fact that they do not have health problems, are at high risk of experiencing the consequences of pathological changes existing in severe physical activity although they are asymptomatic.
 

CONQUERING THE UNIVERSE

One rocket, one ship ...

Today's predictions mark the beginning of the settlement of the Moon, our closest neighbor in the universe, (at best) by the end of the next decade. The first step would be the return of the astronauts to its surface and building a permanent base. Although the US president has tasked NASA to begin preparations for such a mission, it seems that there is no particular enthusiasm or rush to design a new lunar module. NASA gives the priority to its previous target - an orbital station in the high orbit around the Moon, "Deep Space Gate" (DSG). To set up a station module, a large rocket "sls" is being prepared; but its development is slow and the first trial launch of the "Orion" capsule to the Moon orbit is continuously postponed.
It seems that the permanent settlement on the Moon belongs to a distant future.
Half a century ago, at the time of the most intense development of rocketry and preparations for flight to the Moon, it seemed that the Moon settling would follow in the next decade as a normal continuation of the Apollo pioneering flights.