Unique Sites of Israel: Biblical Lachish By Nosson Shulman -and Rabbi Schwartz jokes and Invisible Diamonds That Will Soon Replace Injections By John Jeffay and Cecilia Payne is awesome and everyone should know her.
Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement.
The Three are Rabbi Yehuda Glick, famous temple mount activist, and former Israel Mk, and then Robert Weinger, the world's greatest shofar blower and seller of Shofars, and myself after we had gone to the 12 gates of the Temple Mount in 2020 to blow the shofar to ask G-d to heal the world from the Pandemic. It was a highlight to my experience in living in Israel and I put it on my blog each day to remember.
The articles that I include each day are those that I find interesting, so I feel you will find them interesting as well. I don't always agree with all the points of each article but found them interesting or important to share with you, my readers, and friends. It is cathartic for me to share my thoughts and frustrations with you about life in general and in Israel. As a Rabbi, I try to teach and share the Torah of the G-d of Israel as a modern Orthodox Rabbi. I never intend to offend anyone but sometimes people are offended and I apologize in advance for any mistakes. The most important psychological principle I have learned is that once someone's mind is made up, they don't want to be bothered with the facts, so, like Rabbi Akiva, I drip water (Torah is compared to water) on their made-up minds and hope that some of what I have share sinks in. Love Rabbi Yehuda Lave.
Cecilia Payne is awesome and everyone should know her.
Her newspaper obituaries do not mention her greatest discovery. […] Every high school student knows that Isaac Newton discovered gravity, that Charles Darwin discovered evolution, and that Albert Einstein discovered the relativity of time. But when it comes to the composition of our universe, the textbooks simply say that the most abundant atom in the universe is hydrogen. And no one ever wonders how we know."
Jeremy Knowles, discussing the complete lack of recognition Cecilia Payne gets, even today, for her revolutionary discovery. (via alliterate)
Cecilia Payne's mother refused to spend money on her college education, so she won a scholarship to Cambridge.
Cecilia Payne completed her studies, but Cambridge wouldn't give her a degree because at that time there's not much exposure for woman, so she said to heck with that and moved to the United States to work at Harvard.
Cecilia Payne was the first person ever to earn a Ph.D. in astronomy from Radcliffe College, with what Otto Strauve called "the most brilliant Ph.D. thesis ever written in astronomy."
Not only did Cecilia Payne discover what the universe is made of, but she also discovered what the sun is made of (Henry Norris Russell, a fellow astronomer, is usually given credit for discovering that the sun's composition is different from the Earth's, but he came to his conclusions four years later than Payne—after telling her not to publish).
Cecilia Payne is the reason we know basically anything about variable stars (stars whose brightness as seen from earth fluctuates). Literally every other study on variable stars is based on her work.
Cecilia Payne was the first woman to be promoted to full professor from within Harvard, and is often credited with breaking the glass ceiling for women in the Harvard science department and in astronomy, as well as inspiring entire generations of women to take up science.
Cecilia Payne is awesome and everyone should know her.
New generation of medication to be absorbed through the skin
Researchers are using nanodiamonds to create a new generation of medication, which will be absorbed through the skin.
Tiny particles of carbon – measuring just a millionth of a millimeter – will offer a safe and pain-free alternative to injections.
Through-skin technology is already widely used in patches for nicotine, caffeine, contraception, pain relief and more. But to treat specific skin layers drug developers need to understand their "permeation profiles", or how the particles behave as they pass through the skin.
Magnified nanodiamonds penetrate all layers of skin. Credit: Prof. Dror Fixler
Drug companies are developing new treatments, using invisible particles coated with medicine, but they need to know exactly which part of the skin they reach, to know whether they will work effectively.
A team at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, near Tel Aviv, has made a breakthrough discovery that allows them to precisely track the movement of the particles, as never before.
Its laser-based system indicates whether the nanodiamonds are in the right place and in the right concentrations for through-the-skin treatments to work.
Without the lasers, drug developers carrying out clinical trials have had to take biopsies – an invasive and sometimes painful technique in which cells or tissue are removed – to see whether the nanodiamonds had reached their target.
"This is a significant development in dermatology and in optical engineering," said Prof Dror Fixler, Director of the Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials at Bar-Ilan.
Measuring how nanodiamonds are absorbed by pig skin. Credit: Prof. Dror Fixler
"It could open the door to developing drugs applied through the skin alongside modern cosmetic preparations using advanced nanotechnology."
Nanodiamonds are a very recent innovation. They are produced at the university's chemistry department by detonating explosives inside a closed chamber.
That replicates the high-pressure, high-temperature conditions under which natural diamonds are formed below the earth's surface.
The nanodiamonds are then applied to the skin as a solution – a very fine powder mixed with a few drops of water. In lab experiments the team used pig skin, then measured the progress of the nanodiamonds after three hours.
The tricky bit is tracking something that measures just a millionth of a millimeter. It's hard enough in any circumstance, but the skin tissue is turbid – opaque and hard to see through.
Through-skin technology is already used in nicotine and other slow-release patches. Deposit Photos
Until now the only way to chart the movement of the nanodiamonds has been to carry out a biopsy, then examine the sample using a super-high-powered transmission electron microscopy.
There was no way of actually seeing the nanodiamonds in situ. Now there is. Prof Fixler and his team have combined a laser with an algorithm that allows them to "see" what's going on.
The algorithm uses highly complex mathematics to interpret a basic visual image, and determine where the nanodiamonds are. They're not actually visible, but the image captures data that allows the algorithm to understand their location.
"Most detectors, including eyes and cameras, detect the intensity of optical light waves," Channa Shapira, a PhD student involved in the research at Bar-Ilan, tells NoCamels.
"But there's a more complicated concept to understand, that can't really be captured, even mathematically, called the phase.
"The phase is the imaginary part of the wave. It's not measurable, but it holds a lot of important information.
"We take a set of images using a simple camera, then we have an algorithm that reconstructs the phase that is lost."
Nanodiamond concentration reduces as it goes deeper into the skin. Credit: Prof. Dror Fixler
Patients are briefly exposed to a blue laser beam. An optical system then creates a photograph-like 3D image through which optical changes in treated tissue can be extracted and compared to adjacent, untreated tissue using the specially-created algorithm.
"This new generation of medication can cross the skin and replace injections, and could be directed to specific sites and the body," says Shapira.
"But in order to be able to direct them, we need to be able to track them first to see how deep they go, and how they permeate into the skin.
"Imaging is limited when you try detecting nanoparticles in such turbid surroundings.
"So, we are now heading to a different direction of sensing, like knowing concentrations of how the nanodiamonds permeate into the different skin layers, the epidermis, dermis and the fat without visualizing them."
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TERRIBLE MARRIAGE JOKES OF THE WEEK
"Love may be blind but marriage is a real eye-opener." .
Just remember, Yehudah never laughs at a choice my daughter makes. You were one of them, after all!
A wedding ring may not be as tight as a tourniquet, but it does an equally good job of stopping circulation.
After a quarrel, Hindy said to her husband Moishe, "You know, I was a fool when I married you." Moishe replied, "Yes, dear, but I was in love and didn't notice
Did you hear about the notebook who married a pencil? She finally found Mr. Write.
Did you hear about the two spiders who just got engaged? I hear they met on the web.
Did you hear about the bald man who married his comb? He promised, "I'll never part with it!
Did you hear about the two cell phones who got married? The reception was terrific.
I just saw two nuclear technicians getting married. The bride was radiant, and the groom was glowing.
It's been ten years since the invisible man married the invisible woman. Their kids are nothing to look at either.
Sadly, hydrogen and helium broke things off. But they still think of each other periodically
"I think men who have a pierced ear are better prepared for marriage. They've experienced pain and bought jewelry.
The best way to get most husbands to do something is to suggest that perhaps they're too old to do it."
Even though there was a blizzard raging outside Yankel made it the half-mile to the bakery, where heasked the owner for six rolls.
"Your wife must like rugelach," he said.
"How do you know these are for my wife?" I asked.
"Because your mother wouldn't send you out in weather like this."
Berel noticed that his 60-year-old father seemed to be losing his hearing, so he mentioned it to his mother. "Things haven't changed that much," she said. "Only difference is, before, he didn't listen. Now, he can't."
First, a man is not complete until he is married. Then, he's FINISHED!
Second, a man does not know true happiness until he is married. And then, it's too late!
In the first year of marriage, the man speaks and the woman listens. In the second year, the woman speaks and the man listens. In the third year, they both speak and the neighbors listen.
A husband said to his wife, "No, I don't hate your relatives. In fact, I like your mother-in-law better than I like mine."
A wise man spoke at his son's Sheva Berachos. He said, "Son, now that you're married, it's time to learn the fine art of compromise. Let me give you an example. Let's say that it's time to paint the kitchen. Your wife wants to paint it pink, but you prefer white. So you compromise – you paint it pink!
