Have you ever visualized how big the earth is compared with other planets? Do you know exactly what the size of the world is as seen by the size of the extraterrestrial objects? Check out the images below and realize how small our planet is.

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He is called Oscar, the 31-year-old Spanish guy who recently had a successful full face transplant. Oscar has been described as a farmer who was unable to breathe or eat on his own after accidentally shooting himself in the face five years ago.

Today, the world’s first full face transplant patient has made his first public appearance.

Full Face Transplant pictures of Spanish guy named Oscar:

Before and After Pictures:

[source: yahoo]

There are some medical conditions that sounds weird and have remained a mystery for the medical profession. Will doctors solve these unsolved medical conditions sooner?

No Cure for Hiccups
Christopher Sands, 25, has been battling hiccups, normally a mundane, short-lived biological function, for more than two years.

Can’t Open the Eyes for Three Days
Natalie Adler, 21, of Caulfield South, Melbourne, Australia finds herself unable to open her tightly shut eyes, one morning. The bouts generally last for about three days, after which she can open her eyes and once again see normally. Adler has suffered from the condition for the last four years, she said. Doctors, both in Australia and the United States, are baffled as to the exact cause — or indeed, whether her condition is physical or psychological.

Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome
Persistent sexual arousal syndrome, or PSAS, usually happens to women which causes them to live perpetually at the brink of orgasm. And up until 2001, it was a curse that didn’t even have a name. Relief from the condition is often as elusive as sympathy. The sensations, which are not brought about by fantasies or other sexual thoughts, are often only partially relieved through orgasm. For some women, even sex does not help quell their arousal, and on occasion can even make the sensations worse.

Man with Strong Resistance to Cold
Wim Hof, 49, of the Netherlands, possesses such a strong resistance to cold that scientists remain baffled as to how he endures many of the tests to which he exposes his body. The Guinness world record holder has immersed himself, nearly naked, in ice for one hour and 12 minutes. In January 1999, he traveled 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle to run a half marathon in his bare feet. Hof earned more recent renown for scaling Mount Everest in his shorts.

People Who Are Allergic to Cold
Those with a condition known as cold urticaria — quite literally, have an allergy to cold temperatures. If you put an ice cube on somebody that has cold urticaria, they’re going to have a big welt right where the ice cube was. A minor exposure, such as taking a few snowflakes to the face during a blizzard, can result in the formation of itchy, uncomfortable bumps. A major exposure — such as from diving into a chilly swimming pool — could theoretically be enough to send the body into a potentially deadly allergic shock.

The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep
4-year-old Rhett Lamb, who, according to his mother, stays awake nearly 24 hours a day. After a number of conflicting opinions, Rhett’s parents finally learned what was wrong with their child: Doctors diagnosed Rhett with an extremely rare condition called chiari malformation. There is a 50-50 chance that the sleep will improve.

Memory Disappears in a Flash
The 57-year-old Beki Propst, who 10 years ago experienced a grand mal seizure, lost a lifetime of memories. Details of Propst’s case continue to baffle doctors. What they do know is that a devastating “electrical storm” in her brain caused her declarative memory to be wiped clean. Facts, events, dates, acquaintances and even her identity were wiped away. As Propst describes it, “If I was a computer, it would be like my hard drive was erased.”

Foreign Accent Syndrome
The 52-year-old Canadian Rosemarie Dore, had a stroke on the left side of her brain in 2006 that led to a very unusual side effect — she began to speak with a different accent. Dore, who lives on the Western side of Lake Ontario, adopted a distinctively eastern Canadian accent. She has never been to that region, and she does not know anyone from that part of the country. Though rare, foreign accent syndrome is not entirely undocumented in medical literature. Researchers who have studied the syndrome estimate there are only as many as 60 legitimate recorded cases.

Source: ABC News]

Japanese scientist Professor Susumu Tachi claims to have developed this ‘invisibility coat’ which creates an optical illusion of invisibility. Scientists at the University of California are also making investigations into the manipulation of light, and specifically the ability to render objects invisible.

Invisibility cloak using the technology – optical camouflage – developed by University of Tokyo, Japan.

There are quite a number of “ten unexplained phenomena” listings posted online. With Google Doodle showing a UFO logo recently and linking it to the search keywords “unexplained phenomenon,” people are eager to know what these unexplained phenomena are.

I collected the list and presented them below. First part of this series is from MSNBC’s “Weird Science: Top unexplained mysteries.”

The body/mind connection - Medical science is only beginning to understand the ways in which the mind influences the body. The placebo effect, for example, demonstrates that people can at times cause a relief in medical symptoms or suffering by believing the cures to be effective — whether they actually are or not.


Psychic powers and ESP – Psychic powers and extra-sensory perception (ESP) rank among the top ten unexplained phenomena if for no other reason than that belief in them is so widespread. Many people believe that intuition is a form of psychic power, a way of accessing arcane or special knowledge about the world or the future.

Near-death experiences/life after death – People who were once near death have sometimes reported various mystical experiences (such as going into a tunnel and emerging in a light, being reunited with loved ones, a sense of peace, etc.) that may suggest an existence beyond the grave.

Unidentified Flying Object (UFO)- There is no doubt that UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) exist — many people see things in the skies that they cannot identify, ranging from aircraft to meteors. Whether or not any of those objects and lights are alien spacecraft is another matter entirely; given the fantastic distances and effort involved in just getting to Earth from across the universe, such a scenario seems unlikely.

Deja vu – Deja vu is a French phrase meaning “already seen,” referring to the distinct, puzzling, and mysterious feeling of having experienced a specific set of circumstances before.

Ghosts – From the Shakespeare play “MacBeth” to the NBC show “Medium,” spirits of the dead have long made an appearance in our culture and folklore. Many people have reported seeing apparitions of both shadowy strangers and departed loved ones.

Intuition - Whether we call it gut feelings, a “sixth sense,” or something else, we have all experienced intuition at one time or another. Of course, gut feelings are often wrong (how many times during aircraft turbulence have you been “sure” your plane was going down?), but they do seem to be right much of the time.

Bigfoot – For decades, large, hairy, manlike beasts called Bigfoot have occasionally been reported by eyewitnesses across America. Despite the thousands of Bigfoot that must exist for a breeding population, not a single body has been found.

The Taos hum – Some residents and visitors in the small city of Taos, New Mexico, have for years been annoyed and puzzled by a mysterious and faint low-frequency hum in the desert air. Oddly, only about 2 percent of Taos residents report hearing the sound. Some believe it is caused by unusual acoustics; others suspect mass hysteria or some secret, sinister purpose. Whether described as a whir, hum, or buzz — and whether psychological, natural, or supernatural — no one has yet been able to locate the sound’s origin.

[source of images/info]

Scientists from the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and an international committee of taxonomists released a list of the Top 10 species discovered in 2008. These are new species, considered “unknowns” before their discoveries last year. The list includes the world’s smallest snake and a caffeine-free coffee plant. Here are the top 10 species discovered in 2008 in photos.

1. Pygmy seahorse: Classified by its Latin name, Hippocampus satomiae, this species measures about half an inch long and was found near Derawan Island off Kalimantan, Indonesia.


2. A plant that kills itself: Found in a small area of northwestern Madagascar, a rare genus of palm — Tahina spectablilis — produces huge, spectacular flowers and then dies and collapses. Fewer than 100 have been found.

3. Known as Coffea charrieriana, this plant found in Cameroon is the first record of a caffeine-free coffee species from Central Africa.

4. An extremophile bacteria, Microbacterium hatanonis, was discovered in hairspray by Japanese scientists.
5. The world’s longest insect, with a body length of 14 inches (22.3 inches including legs), Phobaeticus chani resembles a stick and was found in Borneo, Malaysia.

6. The Barbados Threadsnake: Leptotyphlops carlae measures only 4.1 inches long and is believed to be the world’s smallest snake.

7. A pale “ghost slug“: Selenochlamys ysbryda was a surprising find in the densely populated area of Cardiff, Wales.

8. A very limber snail: This unique species, Opisthostoma vermiculum, is found on a limestone hill in Malaysia and has a shell that twists around four axes.

9. Damsel in the deep blue sea: Chromis abyssus is a beautiful species of damselfish found in deep-reef habitat off the coast of Ngemelis Island, Palau.

10. Fossil mama: A fossilized fish, Materpiscis attenboroughi, is an extremely rare find from Western Australia and shows a mother giving birth 380 million years ago.

Photos, Text via CNN.

After the recent successful full face transplant done to Connie Culp, I browsed for the list of first successful transplants ever conducted. I found out from wiki that there are just few of them. Here are some of them in photos:

1905: First successful cornea transplant by Eduard Zirm — Alois Gloger received the first successful cornea transplant.


1954: First successful kidney transplant by Joseph Murray (Boston, U.S.A.) — The world’s first successful kidney transplant was done to the identical Herrick twins at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.

1966: First successful pancreas transplant by Richard Lillehei and William Kelly (Minnesota, U.S.A.) — Done to 28-year-old woman who was diagnosed with diabetes at age 9.

1967: First successful liver transplant by Thomas Starzl (Denver, U.S.A.)
1967: First successful heart transplant by Christiaan Barnard (Cape Town, South Africa) — In this photo, Dr. Christiaan Barnard illustrates a point while addressing a group of journalists in Cape Town.

1981: First successful heart/lung transplant by Bruce Reitz (Stanford, U.S.A.) — The heart and lungs of an anonymous donor were implanted in the chest of Mary Gohlke, a 45-year-old newspaper executive.
1983: First successful lung lobe transplant by Joel Cooper (Toronto, Canada)
1986: First successful double-lung transplant (Ann Harrison) by Joel Cooper (Toronto, Canada)
1987: First successful whole lung transplant by Joel Cooper (St. Louis, U.S.A.)
1995: First successful laparoscopic live-donor nephrectomy by Lloyd Ratner and Louis Kavoussi (Baltimore, U.S.A.)

1998: First successful hand transplant (France) — Clint Hallam was the first person to have a hand transplant.

2005: First successful partial face transplant (France) — World’s first partial face transplant on a 38-year-old woman who was disfigured when she was attacked by a dog.

2006: First jaw transplant to combine donor jaw with bone marrow from the patient, by Eric M. Genden (Mount Sinai Hospital, New York)
2008: First successful complete full double arm transplant by Edgar Biemer, Christoph Höhnke and Manfred Stangl (Technical University of Munich, Germany) — German Karl Merk received the world’s first complete double arm transplant.

2008: First baby born from transplanted ovary — Maja Butscher was born after her mother had the world’s first ovary transplant.

2008: First transplant of a human windpipe using a patient’s own stem cells. Surgeons replaced a section of Claudia Castillo’s windpipe, that had been irreparably damaged by tuberculosis, with a donated organ that was stripped of its cells and used as a scaffold for her stem cells.

2009: First full face transplant — Connie Culp suffered a loss of bone structure when she was shot on the face by her husband. In December of 2008, the 46-year-old Ohio woman received organs from a local donor. After 22 hours of surgery, the surgeons had successfully attached the donor’s face to Connie.

How would you like your puppy or dogs to glow in the dark? South Korean scientists have already created four glow-in-the-dark dogs by using cloning techniques. One dog is named Ruppy – short for Ruby Puppy – considered now to be the world’s first transgenic dog. According to a report, the dogs “are beagles and look fairly normal in daylight, but when darkness falls and the ultraviolet light comes out, they glow red.”

Here are the Glow in the dark dogs photos