Chemists develop porous molecules that bind greenhouse gases

 

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From left to right, chemists Allan Jacobson, Ognjen Miljanić and Olafs Daugulis developed porous molecules that bind greenhouse gases.

A team of University of Houston (UH) chemistry researchers have developed a molecule that assembles spontaneously into a lightweight structure with microscopic pores capable of binding large quantities of several potent greenhouse gases.

"Greenhouse gases, such a carbon dioxide, have received much attention lately because of their potential to dramatically affect Earth's climate, primarily the temperature of the planet," said Ognjen Miljanić, a UH associate professor of chemistry and leader of the team.

While carbon dioxide presents the biggest problem, Miljanić notes that several other compounds are hundreds or thousands of times more potent in their greenhouse effect per unit of mass. These compounds include Freons, used as common refrigerants, and fluorocarbons, highly stable organic compounds in which one or more hydrogen atoms have been replaced with fluorine.

"We developed a molecule that self-assembles into a structure that can capture these greenhouse vapors to the tune of 75 percent by weight," Miljanić said. "This molecule could be used to capture Freons from disposed refrigeration systems, for example, or to concentrate them prior to analysis of their content."

In their recent paper in Nature Communications, Miljanić and his colleagues report that a small molecule based on an extensively fluorinated backbone will form a structure with extremely small pores about 1.6 nanometers in diameter. Members of the team included Miljanić and professors Allan Jacobson and Olafs Daugulis, all from UH's Department of Chemistry in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

"These tiny pores are lined with fluorine atoms, giving them a high affinity for other molecules containing fluorine -- such as fluorocarbons and Freons," Miljanić said.

Porous materials with similar pore sizes have been developed in previous studies, but those materials were often heavy, because of the presence of metals, as well as sensitive to water and difficult to process and recycle.

"The advantages of the current material is that it is stable to water and composed from individual molecules held together only by weak interactions," Miljanić said. "This latter feature makes this material lightweight, because there are no metal connectors."

The weak interactions between the molecules can be broken when needed, so the molecule can be recycled or deposited on a surface. The molecule is stable to 280 degrees Celsius.

In this international collaboration, UH researchers worked with Yu-Sheng Chen from the University of Chicago and Yu-Chun Chuang from the Taiwan National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center. A provisional patent based on this work has been filed.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of Houston. The original article was written by Lisa Merkl. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Teng-Hao Chen, Ilya Popov, Watchareeya Kaveevivitchai, Yu-Chun Chuang, Yu-Sheng Chen, Olafs Daugulis, Allan J. Jacobson, Ognjen Š. Miljanić. Thermally robust and porous noncovalent organic framework with high affinity for fluorocarbons and CFCs. Nature Communications, 2014; 5: 5131 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6131

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'Topological insulators' promising for spintronics, quantum computers

 

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Purdue University doctoral student Yang Xu, lead author of a new research paper on "topological insulators," an emerging class of materials that could make possible "spintronic" devices and practical quantum computers far more powerful than today's technologies, is shown here inspecting devices made from topological insulators under a microscope before electrical measurements.

Researches have uncovered "smoking-gun" evidence to confirm the workings of an emerging class of materials that could make possible "spintronic" devices and practical quantum computers far more powerful than today's technologies.

The materials are called "topological insulators." Unlike ordinary materials that are either insulators or conductors, topological insulators are in some sense both at the same time -- they are insulators inside but always conduct electricity via the surface. Specifically, the researchers have reported the clearest demonstration of such seemingly paradoxical conducting properties and observed the "half integer quantum Hall effect" on the surface of a topological insulator.

"This is unambiguous smoking-gun evidence to confirm theoretical predictions for the conduction of electrons in these materials," said Purdue University doctoral student Yang Xu, lead author of a paper appearing this week in the journal Nature Physics.

Yong P. Chen, a Purdue associate professor of physics and astronomy and electrical and computer engineering, led a team of researchers from Purdue, Princeton University and the University of Texas at Austin in studying the bismuth-based material.

"This experimental system provides an excellent platform to pursue a plethora of exotic physics and novel device applications predicted for topological insulators," Chen said.

For example, by further combining topological insulators with a superconductor, which conducts electricity with no resistance, researchers may be able to build a practical quantum computer. Such a technology would perform calculations using the laws of quantum mechanics, making for computers much faster than conventional computers at certain tasks such as database searches and code-breaking.

"One of the main problems with prototype quantum computers developed so far is that they are prone to errors," Chen said. "But if topologically protected, there is a mechanism to fundamentally suppress those errors, leading to a robust way to do quantum computing."

The topological insulators were synthesized at Purdue and fabricated into electrical devices at the Birck Nanotechnology Center in the university's Discovery Park.

The researchers for the first time demonstrated a three-dimensional material with an electrical resistance not dependent on the thickness of the material, a departure from conventional behavior. Whereas electrons usually have a mass, in the case of topological insulators the conducting electrons on the surface have no mass and are automatically "spin polarized," leading to the unique half-integer quantum Hall effect observed and also making the material promising for various potential applications.

Topological insulators could bring future computing platforms based on "spintronics." Conventional computers use the presence and absence of electric charges to represent ones and zeroes in a binary code needed to carry out computations. Spintronics, however, uses the "spin state" of electrons to represent ones and zeros.

"Compounds based on bismuth, antimony, telluride and selenide are the cleanest and most intrinsic topological insulators demonstrated so far, with no measurable amount of undesirable conduction inside the bulk that often spoils the topological conduction properties in earlier topological insulator materials," Chen said.

The researchers also found evidence consistent with the conduction of electrons being "topologically protected," meaning its surface is guaranteed to be a robust conductor. Studying thin-slab-shaped samples cut from this material down to ever decreasing thickness while observing the conductance, the researchers found that the conductance -- which occurs always and only at the surface -- barely changes.

"For the thinnest samples, such topological conduction properties were even observed at room temperature, paving the way for practical applications," Xu said.

The paper was authored by Xu; Purdue research scientist Ireneusz Miotkowski, who created the high-quality materials; Princeton postdoctoral research associate Chang Liu; Purdue postdoctoral research associate Jifa Tian; UT Austin graduate student Hyoungdo Nam; Princeton graduate student Nasser Alidoust; Purdue graduate student Jiuning Hu; Chih-Kang Shih, Jane and Roland Blumberg Professor at UT Austin; M. Zahid Hasan, a Princeton professor of physics; and Chen.

In addition to the material growth and electrical measurements performed by the Purdue researchers, the Princeton and UT Austin groups contributed to this study by performing advanced characterizations that further confirmed important properties of the material as a topological insulator.

The research was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which supports a Purdue-led program with participation from Princeton and other institutions aiming to develop energy efficient electronic devices based on topological insulators. The electrical measurements revealing the signature half-integer quantum Hall effect were performed at the National Science Foundation's National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. UT Austin's contribution to this study was supported the Welch Foundation and U.S. Army Research Office.

 

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Purdue University. The original article was written by Emil Venere. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Yang Xu, Ireneusz Miotkowski, Chang Liu, Jifa Tian, Hyoungdo Nam, Nasser Alidoust, Jiuning Hu, Chih-Kang Shih, M. Zahid Hasan, Yong P. Chen. Observation of topological surface state quantum Hall effect in an intrinsic three-dimensional topological insulator. Nature Physics, 2014; DOI: 10.1038/nphys3140

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Purdue University. "'Topological insulators' promising for spintronics, quantum computers." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 13 November 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141113195156.htm>.

Common cholesterol-fighting drug may prevent hysterectomies in women with uterine fibroids

 

November 13, 2014

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston

The cholesterol-lowering drug simvastatin inhibits the growth of human uterine fibroid tumors, researchers have discovered for the first time. Statins, such as simvastatin, are commonly prescribed to lower high cholesterol levels. Beyond these well-known cholesterol-lowering abilities, statins also combat certain tumors. Statins have previously been shown to have anti-tumor effects on breast, ovarian, prostate, colon, leukemia and lung cancers. The effect of statins on uterine fibroids was unknown.

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Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, in collaboration with The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), Baylor College of Medicine and the Georgia Regents University, report for the first time that the cholesterol-lowering drug simvastatin inhibits the growth of human uterine fibroid tumors. These new data are published online and scheduled to appear in the January print edition of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Statins, such as simvastatin, are commonly prescribed to lower high cholesterol levels. Statins work by blocking an early step in cholesterol production.

Beyond these well-known cholesterol-lowering abilities, statins also combat certain tumors. Statins have previously been shown to have anti-tumor effects on breast, ovarian, prostate, colon, leukemia and lung cancers. The effect of statins on uterine fibroids was unknown.

"Non-cancerous uterine fibroids are the most common type of tumor in the female reproductive system, accounting for half of the 600,000 hysterectomies done annually in the U.S. Their estimated annual cost is up to $34 billion in the U.S. alone," said UTMB's Dr. Mostafa Borahay, assistant professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology and lead author. "Despite this, the exact cause of these tumors is not well understood, as there are several genetic, familial and hormonal abnormalities linked with their development."

The study investigated the impact of simvastatin on human uterine fibroid cell growth. The researchers revealed that simvastatin impedes the growth of uterine fibroid tumor cells. The researchers also studied the way simvastatin works to suppress these tumors. Simvastatin was shown to inhibit ERK phosphorylation, which is a critical step in the molecular pathway that prompts the growth of new cells. In addition, simvastatin stops the progression of tumor cells that have already begun to grow and induces calcium-dependent cell death mechanisms in fibroid tumor cells.

"Taken together, this study has identified a novel pathway by which simvastatin induces the death of uterine fibroid tumor cells." said Darren Boehning, associate professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at the UTHealth Medical School, adjunct professor in the department of neuroscience and cell biology at UTMB and member of The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston.

"The findings of this study are particularly significant; statins have been in clinical use for years so their safety profile is well known," said Dr. Borahay. "Having a safe medicine to treat these common tumors has been a goal for women and the medical community for a long time."

"The research team is currently studying the effects of statins in fibroid animal models and adopting nanotechnology to enhance the drug delivery to the tumor," said Chandrasekhar Yallampalli, professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. M. A. Borahay, G. S. Kilic, C. Yallampalli, R. R. Snyder, G. D. V. Hankins, A. Al-Hendy, D. Boehning. Simvastatin Potently Induces Calcium-Dependent Apoptosis of Human Leiomyoma Cells. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2014; DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M114.583575

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The science behind total recall: New player in brain function and memory

 

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Artist's abstraction (stock illustration).

Is it possible to change the amount of information the brain can store? Maybe, according to a new international study led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC). Their research has identified a molecule that puts a brake on brain processing and when removed, brain function and memory recall is improved. Published in the latest issue of Cell Reports, the study has implications for neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases, such as autism spectral disorders and Alzheimer's disease.

"Previous research has shown that production of new molecules is necessary for storing memories in the brain; if you block the production of these molecules, new memory formation does not take place," says RI-MUHC neuroscientist, Dr. Keith Murai, the study's senior author and Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University. "Our findings show that the brain has a key protein that limits the production of molecules necessary for memory formation. When this brake-protein is suppressed, the brain is able to store more information."

FXR1P: a controller of certain forms of memory

Dr. Murai and his colleagues used a mouse model to study how changes in brain cell connections produce new memories. They demonstrated that a protein, FXR1P (Fragile X Related Protein 1), was responsible for suppressing the production of molecules required for building new memories. When FXR1P was selectively removed from certain parts of the brain, these new molecules were produced that strengthened connections between brain cells and this correlated with improved memory and recall in the mice.

Disease link

"The role of FXR1P was a surprising result," says Dr. Murai. "Previous to our work, no-one had identified a role for this regulator in the brain. Our findings have provided fundamental knowledge about how the brain processes information. We've identified a new pathway that directly regulates how information is handled and this could have relevance for understanding and treating brain diseases."

"Future research in this area could be very interesting," he adds. "If we can identify compounds that control the braking potential of FXR1P, we may be able to alter the amount of brain activity or plasticity. For example, in autism, one may want to decrease certain brain activity and in Alzheimer's disease, we may want to enhance the activity. By manipulating FXR1P, we may eventually be able to adjust memory formation and retrieval, thus improving the quality of life of people suffering from brain diseases."

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by McGill University Health Centre. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Denise Cook, Erin Nuro, Emma V. Jones, Haider F. Altimimi, W. Todd Farmer, Valentina Gandin, Edith Hanna, Ruiting Zong, Alessandro Barbon, David L. Nelson, Ivan Topisirovic, Joseph Rochford, David Stellwagen, Jean-Claude Béïque, Keith K. Murai. FXR1P Limits Long-Term Memory, Long-Lasting Synaptic Potentiation, and De Novo GluA2 Translation. Cell Reports, 2014 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2014.10.028

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Live longer? Save the planet? Better diet could nail both

 

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This image shows Dr. G David Tilman at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve. Tilman is director of the University of Minnesota research field station.

As cities and incomes increase around the world, so does consumption of refined sugars, refined fats, oils and resource- and land-intense agricultural products such as beef. A new study led by University of Minnesota ecologist David Tilman shows how a shift away from this trajectory and toward healthier traditional Mediterranean, pescatarian or vegetarian diets could not only boost human lifespan and quality of life, but also slash greenhouse gas emissions and save habitat for endangered species.

The study, published in the November 12 online edition of Nature by Tilman and graduate student Michael Clark, synthesized data on environmental costs of food production, diet trends, relationships between diet and health, and population growth. Their integrated analysis painted a striking picture of the human and environmental health costs of our current diet trajectory as well as how strategically modifying food choices could reduce not only incidence of type II diabetes, coronary heart disease and other chronic diseases, but global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and habitat degradation as well.

"We showed that the same dietary changes that can add about a decade to our lives can also prevent massive environmental damage," said Tilman, a professor in the University's College of Biological Sciences and resident fellow at the Institute on the Environment. "In particular, if the world were to adopt variations on three common diets, health would be greatly increased at the same time global greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by an amount equal to the current greenhouse gas emissions of al all cars, trucks, plans trains and ships. In addition, this dietary shift would prevent the destruction of an area of tropical forests and savannas as large as half of the United States."

The researchers found that, as incomes increased between 1961 and 2009, people consumed more meat protein, empty calories and total calories per person. When these trends were combined with forecasts of population growth and income growth for the coming decades, the study predicted that diets in 2050 would contain fewer servings of fruits and vegetables, but about 60 percent more empty calories and 25 to 50 percent more pork, poultry, beef, dairy and eggs -- a suite of changes that would increase of type II diabetes, coronary heart disease and some cancers. Using life-cycle analyses of various food production systems, the study also calculated that, if current trends prevail, these 2050 diets would also lead to an 80 percent increase in global greenhouse gas emissions from food production as well as habitat destruction due to land clearing for agriculture around the world.

The study then compared health impacts of the global omnivorous diet with those reported for traditional Mediterranean, pescatarian and vegetarian diets. Adopting these alternative diets could reduce incidence of type II diabetes by about 25 percent, cancer by about 10 percent and death from heart disease by about 20 percent relative to the omnivore diet. Additionally, the adoption of these or similar alternative diets would prevent most or all of the increased greenhouse gas emissions and habitat destruction that would otherwise be caused by both dietary changes and increased global population.

The authors acknowledged that numerous factors go into diet choice -- but also pointed out that the alternative diets already are part of the lives of countless people around the world. Noting that variations on the diets used in the scenario could potentially show even greater benefit, they concluded that "the evaluation and implementation of dietary solutions to the tightly linked diet-environment-health trilemma is a global challenge, and opportunity, of great environmental and public health importance."

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of Minnesota. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. David Tilman, Michael Clark. Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health. Nature, 2014; DOI: 10.1038/nature13959

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The Red Baron flies again!

      

       Man spends £50,000 building himself an exact working replica of the German pilot's Fokker triplane

• Paul Ford, 52, spent five years on his DIY replica inside an old factory in his in-laws' garden in Cambridgeshire
• All 320 Fokker Dr1 Dreideckers have been destroyed or lost, so he had to base it on 1970s U.S. technical drawings
• Mr Ford is no ordinary hobbyist - he spent 26 years at Cambridge University and entered BBC hit show Robot Wars
• He narrowly avoided death when he crashed it last year, but rebuilt plane and made sure it passed safety checks
• 'It was very scary the first time I flew it,' the hobbyist admitted. 'But after the first time they're just so much fun to fly'

By Dan Bloom for MailOnline

Published: 12:10 GMT, 11 November 2014 | Updated: 08:28 GMT, 12 November 2014

A plane-mad engineer has spent five years and £50,000 building a perfect replica of the Red Baron's Fokker triplane - and is still flying it despite coming close to death in a crash.

Paul Ford used his wife's patience, his in-laws' garden and his three children's help to recreate the Fokker Dr1 Dreidecker, a First World War fighter made famous by German pilot Manfred Von Richthofen.

Nicknamed 'The Red Baron' for his penchant for painting his aircraft scarlet, Von Richthofen downed at least 70 allied pilots until his death in aerial combat aged 25 a few months before the war ended in 1918.

Scroll down for video

Now that's a model plane: Paul Ford, 52, spent five years and £50,000 creating his working replica of the Fokker Dr1 Dreidecker. The German First World War fighter was made famous by Manfred Von Richthofen, aka the Red Baron, who shot down 70 allied pilots

Those magnificent men: Instead of converting an existing craft, Mr Ford created his Fokker triplane from scratch - and it is back in the skies after one of the wing struts was broken in a crash last year. Each part was hand-crafted by the Cambridge engineer's friends

Impressive: With the help of friends and his three children - Ashley, 25, Kirsty, 20, and Michael, 17- Mr Ford's Fokker had its first test flight six years ago and built up a reputation at British air shows, where it flies replica dogfights with an original Tiger Moth

Jaunt: The assistant at Derby Aero Club in his fully-functional replica. His madcap project took 3,500 hours and began 15 years ago, when he built a radio-controlled quarter-size model of the Red Baron's scarlet craft - but he said: 'I had to have the real thing'

The 52-year-old co-owner of Derby Aero Club has been obsessed with vintage planes since he became an 11-year-old volunteer at Duxford Airfield in Cambridgeshire, now home to the Imperial War Museum.

The triplane is his crowning achievement and his full-time career - delighting air show crowds across Britain in mock dogfights with a vintage Tiger Moth.

'It is the ultimate plane from the First World War,' he said. 'My wife, Sarah didn't believe I'd do it until one day when the metal and the wood arrived at the front door.'

His madcap project took 3,500 hours and began 15 years ago, when he built a radio-controlled quarter-size model of the Red Baron's scarlet craft.

'I wasn't satisfied', he said. 'I had to have the real thing'.

So to the bemusement of his 50-year-old wife, he bought a book called How to Build a WW1 Replica AND Stay Married! and began work on the Fokker in his in-laws' garden in the village of Cottenham, Cambridgeshire.

'Ironically my wife had time to read it but I didn't,' he said. 'I was too busy working on the plane'.

Challenge: To the bemusement of his 50-year-old wife, Mr Ford bought a book called How to Build a WW1 Replica AND Stay Married! and began work on the Fokker in his in-laws' garden in the village of Cottenham, Cambridgeshire. It had its first test flight six years ago

Unfamiliar sight: The Fokker Dr1 Dreidecker, of which only 320 were built and none survive, was a favourite of the feared Red Baron

Meticulous: The plane had to be based on 1970s technical drawings by a U.S. enthusiast in order to pass strict safety tests by authorities

Mr Ford added: 'I was very lucky. Sarah's parents lived in a very old Victorian house and in the garden there was an old basket-waving factory from the 1800s so we used that. Most of it was built in there'.

The challenge was not easy. All 320 Fokker Dr1 Dreideckers have been destroyed or lost, and many surviving photos were grainy at best.

So Mr Ford, from Egginton, South Derbyshire, used technical drawings created in the 1970s by aviation fanatic Ron Sands, a U.S. engineer who drew up detailed plans for many wartime planes.

It meant converting many imperial measurements into metric ones and hand-making the parts, but without the drawings the plane would never have been cleared to fly by the Light Aircraft Association.

With the help of friends and Mr Ford's three children - Ashley, 25, Kirsty, 20, and Michael, 17- the Fokker had its first test flight six years ago and built up a reputation at air shows, where it flies replica dogfights with an original Tiger Moth.

But a year ago, Mr Ford crashed the plane on the grass runway of Podington Airfield in Northamptonshire - narrowly avoiding death.

'I had a little accident', he admitted.

'The trouble with First World War planes is they have to be landed into the wind. Unfortunately a gust of wind caught me sideways, the wing clipped a gate and I landed on my back.

'If there had been a fire I wouldn't be here. One of the wing struts was broken and it took a year to rebuild. We've only just got it flying again.'

View from the cockpit: Mr Ford spent 26 years developing gas turbines in Cambridge University's engineering department - despite not having a degree - before making Mortis, one of the most celebrated entrants to the BBC's hit geeks' battleground show Robot Wars

Detailed: Everything on the plane is as it would be except for the engine. These three 'cylinders' are actually old fire extinguishers

Transported in time: Mr Ford wears a vintage-style flying helmet to complete the look. 'It was very scary the first time I flew it,' he admitted. 'Having built it myself I was a little bit nervous - you always are. But after the first time they're just so much fun to fly'

Defiant: Mr Ford continues flying despite a crash last year. 'If there had been a fire I wouldn't be here,' he said. 'It took a year to rebuild'

To this day, the only part of the plane which wouldn't have been the same in 1918 is the engine. Instead of a rotary engine it is a U.S.-made Lycoming which allows him to fly for up to four hours.

To complete the look there is a dummy engine - little more than three old fire extinguishers painted silver - and machine guns on the nose, unarmed of course.

Mr Ford is no ordinary hobbyist.

He spent 26 years developing gas turbines in Cambridge University's engineering department - despite not having a degree.

With talented colleagues there he made Mortis, one of the most famous, fearsome and expensive entrants ever to the BBC's hit show Robot Wars.

He then quit to run his own company which worked on military jet engines, where he spent ten years.

Unlike similar lookalikes which modified an existing plane, the Fokker was completely built from scratch.

Clunky: The plane is a little unstable, but its creator said it helped improve manoeuvrability in a high-octane (imitation) dogfight

Everything thought of: The plane's labels are in German and weights in kilograms - the latter was a problem when using American plans

Taking aim: The plane has a vintage machine gun, though of course an unarmed one, for its travels over airshows across Britain

Crowning achievement: While building the plane, the engineer bought a book called How to Build a WW1 Replica AND Stay Married! 'Ironically my wife had time to read it but I didn't,' he said. 'I was too busy working on the plane' - which now flies triumphant over Britain

'There are a few other planes that are quite similar to this one but the Fokker just stood out to me,' Mr Ford said. 'It can be a little unstable when flying it but that's what makes it so special.

'It's actually unstable on purpose because it means when it's in the air it can get out of the way very, very quickly and back on your opponent's tail in a dog-fighting situation.

'It was very scary the first time I flew it. Having built it myself I was a little bit nervous - you always are. But after the first time they're just so much fun to fly.'

The Red Baron's is not the first plane Paul has built. He is currently working on two other projects inspired by German First World War planes which he hopes to have finished by next year. Once they are completed, he intends to begin work on a British plane.

Paul, who thanked several devoted friends and family members including his wife for their help, said: 'They cost around £50,000 to make, but they're worth a lot more. The tri-plane is worth around £180,000, but I won't sell any of them.

'They're a lot of fun, and they'll keep me busy when I retire.'

FIGHTER ACE FEARED BY BRITS: HOW THE RED BARON FOUND INFAMY IN A NEW WAR OF AERIAL COMBAT

The achievements of fighter ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen (right) - who shot down some 70 allied pilots in the First World War - made him hated by the Brits and a propaganda tool for the Germans.

He was 22 and stationed on Germany's eastern border when the war broke out in 1914, but it was not always guaranteed he would become a pilot.

At first he was a cavalryman, but his unit became rapidly obsolete in what would be the world's first modern mechanised war.

In May 1915 he travelled to Cologne to become an Air Service observer before taking to the skies for the first time later that year.

His reputation became formidable quickly. Just a month after first sitting in a flying plane as a gunner, he took his first solo flight and soon became one of the best-known names in the German military.

His nickname - also translated as Red Devil and Red Knight - came from his disregard for combat or camouflage colours to paint his aircraft blood-red in a show of fearlessness.

But it was that love of combat that would be his undoing.

In the summer of 1917, General Jan Smuts produced a War Office report calling for the creation of an entirely new addition to the Armed Forces.

Both the Royal Navy and the Army had developed their own airborne units - the Royal Naval Air Squadron and the Royal Flying Corps - but the war had made the argument for a separate entity to govern the sky.

The Government agreed. Within a year, the Royal Air Force was born and the 1st Viscount Rothermere was appointed the first Secretary of State for Air.

It was in aerial combat with the allies - and flying a Fokker DR1 - that the Baron would meet his fate. The pilot was 25 years old when he was shot down and killed near Amiens, France, on 21 April 1918.

Many theories exist about who killed him, and for a long time the RAF credited Canadian Captain Arthur 'Roy' Brown, who had to dive steeply at high speed to intervene in the dogfight. Later theories suggested the bullet which downed the Baron was fired from the ground.

 

www.dailymail.com.uk

14 amazing and lesser known historical facts

One Minute List

Spend 60 seconds daily to learn something new

1. The shortest war, The Anglo-Zanzibar war (1896) on record lasted for 38 minutes.
2. Saddam Hussein was given the key to the city of Detroit.
3. In Ancient Egypt people used stones as pillows.
4. The Romans used human urine as mouthwash.
5. Japan invaded Alaska during the WWII in 1942.
6. The last American Civil War veteran lived until 1956. This means he grew up while there was still slavery and was able to see jets and nukes.
7. At ony point during the WWII the German Army was only 12 miles away from Moscow.
8. Albert Einstein was offered to be the second president of Israel in 1952 (he declined).
9. Genghis Khan and his army killed 11% of the entire world population (around 40 million people).
10. Iceland’s parliament was established in 930 and still functioning.
11. Oxford University predates the Aztec Empire by 250 years.
12. The Egyptian pyramids were built by paid laborers not by slaves.
13. Since the Second World War all British tanks are equipped with tea-making facilities.
14. The Roman Empire was only the 19th largest empire in history.

www.oneminutelist.com

17 lesser known facts about the atomic bomb

One Minute List

Spend 60 seconds daily to learn something new

1. 10% of the US electricity is made from dismantled atomic bombs.
2. Only 3 of 12 people on board of the Enola Gay knew what the mission to Hiroshima was about.
3. At the peak time there was almost 1000 uranium mines in the USA.
4. The US dropped 49 practice bombs (called “Pumpkin bombs”) on 14 targets in Japan that killed 400 people and injured 1,200 before dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
5. The entire cost of the Manhattan Project was around $20 billion. This is over $255 billion in today’s dollar (because of the inflation).
6. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not radioactive anymore.
7. Around 70,000 nuclear missiles were built since WWII.
8. Tokyo only realized that atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima 3 hours after it happened.
9. 4,680 nuclear bombers were built since 1945.
10. The original target of the atomic bomb that landed in Nagasaki was originally Kokura, an other Japanese city.
11. The US blew up multiple atomic and hydrogen bombs in space.
12. The closest known survivor was only 170 meters or 558 feets aways from the detonation of the atomic bomb of Hiroshima.
13. One out of every 250 US citizen worked on the Manhattan Project during the Second World War.
14. The last US nuclear test was in 1992.
15. The Flame of Peace in Hiroshima has burned since 1964 in honor of the victims. It will be only extinguished when all of the nuclear weapons are destroyed and the planet is free from any nuclear threat.
16. There are currently about 16,400 nuclear warheads in the world.
17. In this video all of the nuclear detonations around the world are visualised till 1998.

www.oneminutelist.com

16 most addictive websites

One Minute List

Spend 60 seconds daily to learn something new

1. Console Living Room – Created by the Internet Archives, you can play 900 classic arcade games in your browser.
2. Reddit – Reddit is the most addictive website for millions of people worldwide. According to traffic stats the site makes a little less than 1 million unique visitors every day and 90% of them are returning users.
3. The useless web – Similar to StumbleUpon (which can also be addictive), but instead of useful and educational sites it shows you completely useless one.
4. Mental_Floss – Random interesting and amazing facts.
5. Plink – Make music with other people live.
6. SNES Fun – Play SNES games in your browser!
7. GeoGuesser – This awesome websites gives you a random street view location and you have to guess where you are in the World. You can also share your map and challenge your friends.
8. Wonder How To – Learn impressive and useful things.
9. 2leep – Collection of bizarre blogs and articles.
10. Eyes In Space – Fly up to the space while you can look around.
11. Uncrate – The ultimate gadget guide for men.
12. Where Cool Things Happen – Daily resource for cool things.
13. Cracked – Source of bizarre and interesting lists.
14. The Onion – Satiric newspaper. Take nothing seriously on this site.
15. Ovguide – Search for a movie you want to watch or discover new ones.
16. Build With Chrome – Build anything with LEGO in your browser.

www.oneminutelist.com