Neutrophils are the most common granulocyte. They have segmented nuclei, typically with 2 to 5 lobes connected together by thin strands of chromatin which can be difficult to see; the cell may thus appear to have multiple nuclei. The nuclear chromatin is condensed into coarse clumps. Small numbers of immature neutrophils or band form neutrophils may be seen in a blood smear. These are incompletely segmented and often have a 'C-shaped' nucleus.

The cytoplasm of neutrophils contains three types of granule.

Primary granules are non-specific and contain lysosomal enzymes, defensins, and some lysozyme. The granules are similar to lysosomes. They stain aviolet colour when prepared with Wright's stain which is commonly used in studying the blood. The enzymes produce hydrogen peroxide which is a powerful anti-bacterial agent.

Secondary granules are specific to neutrophils and stain light pink ('neutral stain'). They contain collagenase, to help the cell move through connective tissue, and lactoferrin, which is toxic to bacteria and fungi.

Tertiary granules have only recently been recognised. It is thought that they produce proteins which help the neutrophils to stick to other cells and hence aid the process of phagocytosis.

Once in the area of infection neutrophils respond to chemicals (called chemotaxins which are released by bacteria and dead tissue cells) and move towards the area of highest concentration. Here they begin the process of phagocytosis in which they engulf the offending cells and destroy them with their powerful enzymes. Because this process consumes so much energy the neutrophils glycogen reserves are soon depleted and they die soon after phagocytosis. When the cells die their contents are released and the remnants of their enzymes cause liquefaction of closely adjacent tissue. This results in an accumulation of dead neutrophils, tissue fluid and abnormal materials known as pus.

Can I join the OT club now?

Yes! This is it! I've found it! Ha, ha, ha! Yes! This is what I've been looking for all of these years! My purpose in life was to know this! Now, my life is complete! How did you know? Thank you ArtofAngels!

What is time travel? One standard definition is that of David Lewis’s: an object time travels iff the difference between its departure and arrival times in the surrounding world does not equal the duration of the journey undergone by the object. This definition applies to both natural and Wellsian time travel. For example, Jane might be a time traveler if she travels for one hour but arrives two hours later in the future (or two hours earlier in the past). In both types of time travel, the times experienced by a time traveler are different from the time undergone by their surrounding world. But what do we mean by the "time" in time travel? And what do we mean by "travel" in time travel? As the definition for time travel presently stands, we need to clarify what we mean by the word "time" (see the next section). While philosophical analysis of time travel has attended mostly to the difficult issue of time, might there also be vagueness in the word "travel"? Our use of the word "travel" implies two places: an origin and a destination. "I’m going to Morocco," means “I’m departing from my origination point here and I plan to arrive eventually in Morocco.” But when we are speaking of time travel, where exactly does a time traveler go? The time of origin is plain enough: the time of the time traveler and the time traveler’s surrounding world coincide at the beginning of the journey. But “where” does the time traveler arrive? Are we equivocating in our use of the word ‘travel’ by simply substituting a when for a where? In truth, how do we conceive of a "when"—as a place, a locale, or a region? Different scientific ontologies result in different ideas of what travel through time might be like. Also, different metaphysical concepts of time result in different ideas of what kinds of time travel are possible. It is to the issue of time in philosophy that we now turn.

Albert Einstein was born into a Jewish family in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany. His father was Hermann Einstein, a salesman. His mother was Pauline Einstein (née Koch). Although Albert had early speech difficulties, he was a top student in elementary school. In 1880, the family moved to Munich, where his father and his uncle founded a company, Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie that manufactured electrical equipment, providing the first lighting for the Oktoberfest and cabling for the Munich suburb of Schwabing. The Einsteins were not observant, and Albert attended a Catholic elementary school. At his mother's insistence, he took violin lessons, and although he disliked them and eventually quit, he would later take great pleasure in Mozart's violin sonatas. When Albert was five, his father showed him a pocket compass. Albert realized that something in empty space was moving the needle and later stated that this experience made "a deep and lasting impression". As he grew, Albert built models and mechanical devices for fun, and began to show a talent for mathematics. In 1889, a family friend named Max Talmud (later: Talmey), a medical student, introduced the ten-year-old Albert to key science and philosophy texts, including Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and Euclid's Elements (Einstein called it the "holy little geometry book"). From Euclid, Albert began to understand deductive reasoning (integral to theoretical physics), and by the age of twelve, he learned Euclidean geometry from a school booklet. He soon began to investigate calculus. In his early teens, Albert attended the new and progressive Luitpold Gymnasium. His father intended for him to pursue electrical engineering, but Albert clashed with authorities and resented the school regimen. He later wrote that the spirit of learning and creative thought were lost in strict rote learning. In 1894, when Einstein was fifteen, his father's business failed and the Einstein family moved to Italy, first to Milan and then, after a few months, to Pavia. During this time, Albert wrote his first "scientific work", "The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields". Albert had been left behind in Munich to finish high school, but in the spring of 1895, he withdrew to join his family in Pavia, convincing the school to let him go by using a doctor's note. Rather than completing high school, Albert decided to apply directly to the ETH Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. Without a school certificate, he was required to take an entrance examination. He did not pass. Einstein wrote that it was in that same year, at age 16, that he first performed his famous thought experiment, visualizing traveling alongside a beam of light (Einstein 1979). The Einsteins sent Albert to Aarau, Switzerland to finish secondary school. While lodging with the family of Professor Jost Winteler, he fell in love with the family's daughter, Sofia Marie-Jeanne Amanda Winteler, called "Marie". (Albert's sister, Maja, his confidant, later married Paul Winteler.) In Aarau, Albert studied Maxwell's electromagnetic theory. In 1896, he graduated at age 17, renounced his German citizenship to avoid military service (with his father's approval), and finally enrolled in the mathematics program at ETH. On February 21, 1901, he gained Swiss citizenship, which he never revoked. Marie moved to Olsberg, Switzerland for a teaching post. In 1896, Mileva Mari? also enrolled at ETH, the only woman studying mathematics. During the next few years, Einstein and Mari?'s friendship developed into romance. Einstein's mother objected because she thought Mari? too old, not Jewish and "physically defective". Einstein and Mari? had a daughter, Lieserl Einstein, born in early 1902. Her fate is unknown. In 1900, Einstein's friend Michele Besso introduced him to the work of Ernst Mach. The next year, Einstein published a paper in the prestigious Annalen der Physik on the capillary forces of a straw (Einstein 1901). He graduated from ETH with a teaching diploma.

The most massive planet in our solar system, with four planet-sized moons and many smaller moons, Jupiter forms a kind of miniature solar system. Jupiter resembles a star in composition. In fact, if it had been about eighty times more massive, it would have become a star rather than a planet. On January 7, 1610, using his primitive telescope, astronomer Galileo Galilei saw four small 'stars' near Jupiter. He had discovered Jupiter's four largest moons, now called Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Collectively, these four moons are known today as the Galilean satellites. Galileo would be astonished at what we have learned about Jupiter and its moons in the past 30 years. Io is the most volcanically active body in our solar system. Ganymede is the largest planetary moon and is the only moon in the solar system known to have its own magnetic field. A liquid ocean may lie beneath the frozen crust of Europa. Icy oceans may also lie deep beneath the crusts of Callisto and Ganymede. In 2003 alone, astronomers discovered 23 new moons orbiting the giant planet, giving Jupiter a total moon count of 49 - the most in the solar system. The numerous small outer moons may be asteroids captured by the giant planet's gravity.

T-rex's position as undisputed king of the carnivores was cast in doubt with the announcement in 1995 of the discovery in Argentina of a new dinosaur is called giganotosaurus carolinii. Giganotosaurus lived about 95 million years ago in the early part of the Late Cretaceous Period. The monster lived 25 million years before T-Rex and, at nine tons, weighed half again as much. Comparison of T-Rex and Giganotosaurus There are enough differences between Giganotosaurus and T. Rex to suggest the two were not closely related. The teeth alone tell quite a story. The teeth of Tyrannosaurus were longer and wider, but more variable in size. While the tyrannosaur's teeth were suited for biting right through flesh and bone, those of Giganotosaurus were shorter, less variable and narrower, and are much better adapted for slicing flesh. "They are unusual teeth that are laterally compressed whereas those of T. Rex are circular. They [Giganotosaurus's teeth] are for cutting." Giganotosaurus's blade-shaped serrated teeth up to eight inches long indicate it sliced through the flesh of its victims rather than crunching through bones like T. Rex. says Dr. Jack Horner, Curator of Paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies in Montana. Horner was among the experts asked to render an opinion on the significance of the Giganotosaurus find. "It is certainly the largest meat eating dinosaur skull I have ever seen. I would agree that the skull has been reconstructed accurately and is bigger than our T. Rex skull," he said. The volume of new dinosaur discoveries in South America in recent years has brought new information and debate about the world of the dinosaurs. Newfound similarities between African and South American specimens has stirred debate among geologists as well as paleontologists. "Giganotosaurus ushers in a whole new era in our understanding of carnivorous dinosaurs from the southern hemisphere," says Dr. Peter Dodson, a research associate with the Academy and professor of veterinary anatomy and geology at the University of Pennsylvania. "It is an extremely large and well preserved animal. This is the first time we have had such complete knowledge." Giganotosaurus was discovered by Argentinian scientist Dr. Rodolfo Coria, Director of the Carmen Funes Museum in Plaza Huincul, Argentina. "In recent years we have found one of the plant eating dinosaurs (rebbachisaurs) from the same period as Giganotosaurus, which is very similar to one found in Africa," says Coria. "We also have crocodiles from the same level and locality which are similar to those in Africa. That is why we are proposing that 100 million years ago Africa and South America were still connected indicating the separation was more than 10 million years later than previously thought. We have whole ecosystems which support this." The body of new research implies that the continents stayed together longer and the southern continents were a much greater mass than previously believed. It also suggests the center of dinosaur evolution was located in the Southern Hemisphere. Many questions have also been raised about North-South dinosaur migrations in the Americas. Visitors to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia will soon be able to compare the monsters for themselves. Complete skeleton reconstructions of both T-Rex and Giganotosaurus will be on display only at the Academy, June 14 through September 14.

The Titanic was a trap. It sank. The end. The Titanic was not the greatest peacetime maritime disaster. The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustlof, with more than five thousand murder victims appears to far exceed the murder tally of Titanic. (Stalin gave the order to torpedo the Wilhelm Gustlof, and her cargo of six thousand Russians fleeing his murderous purge) The disaster of the Eastland, which capsized at the dock in Chicago, took a comparable number of lives, and was certainly as tragic and significant as other equally deadly but less well known sea disasters. The Titanic has always merited headlines, and the reason for this enduring phenomenon transcends the technical details of her construction and demise, transcends the enduring poignancy of the experience of the victims and survivors, transcends even the immediate and worldwide shock at the news of the disaster: it transcends even the irrevocably changed psyche of our entire civilization and the nature our perceived position in the cosmos. The entire ideological substrate upon which we collectively base the assumptions that determine our worldview and guide the policy and strategic decisions that continue to shape our emerging global society and, at an even more pervasive individual level, influence the even the most personal attitudes that define the value system that gives rise to our every decision, perception and action, was altered – no, completely ended with Titanic, and replaced with something completely and disturbingly different, something that is foundational in our understanding of the post Titanic modern world of global wars, revolutions, genocides and unsettling transition. We have just alluded to the profound nature of the influence of Titanic as a phenomenon of total import to each and all of us at some inherent basal level that commands our continued fascination even to this day. Yet, with all this recognition of significance and import, we have only begun to approach the task of defining Titanic in terms of what is not. It was not the greatest peacetime sea disaster. We have recognized what Titanic is, a phenomenon of total import, and yet, even all this falls far short of beginning to convey an impression of the nature of the phenomenon itself, let alone an understanding of just what it is in the nature of this phenomenon that makes it one of enduring pivotal importance. The nature of Titanic as a phenomenon commands our fascination because it expresses the core of our existential essence as beings living in dilemma, caught between conflicting influences, defining by our progress through the struggle itself who we are and who we are becoming, and with that, what the universe is and what the universe is to be. Phenomena at this core level have always been expressed and dealt with in the ongoing process we call mythos. Through the process of mythos we tell stories, definitive confabulations that preserve real experience and technical data in sometimes lost or encoded form, and transmit cultural responses that define and express the identity of the storytellers and receptive audiences, stories that in the very process of their creation, transmission, reception and evolving adaptation constitute our primal response to our existential dilemma. The Titans were a race of giants in ancient Greek mythology. These giants were known more for their technological expertise and genuine willingness to empower people with technology, even at great personal peril to themselves, than for their size or power per se. The Greeks gave lip service to the Olympians, who were at various times capricious and cruel , yet at all times totally in control because of their raw brute power. The heart of the people, however much by obvious political necessity secret or discreet, was ever with the benevolent and vulnerable Titans who sacrificed themselves to share technology with us , not only the technical aspects of science ( fire) , but the essence of the scientific process as evidenced by the material encoded in their names and story. The most famous Titan is Prometheus, who is remembered for giving people the gift of fire. The name itself means forethought, or planning. His brother (related concept) is Epimetheus, whose name means afterthought. These Two Brothers then, by their very names bequeath to us the scientific method – Forethought – gathering data, and making a plan, theory and prototype for testing, and Afterthought – evaluating the results and making modifications to the theories, plans and prototypes, and, of course, repeating the process: this is the empowering, ongoing, interactive convergence to Truth. Those who would enslave and/or exterminate must first disempower their victims. Mount Olympus originally referred to the vault of the sky, and the Olympians, gods of the Sky, battled the Titans and subjugated them, and of course, us. The Titans were punished for their efforts to give us technology and empowerment. The punishment was to be imprisoned and tortured forever, subjected to pointless repetitive labor with no hope of success. Prometheus was chained to a rock where birds of prey would tear at his viscera (vital medical infrastructure) , relenting each time to allow some healing and regrowth, only to tear into the wound again, and again, repeating and intensifying the torture each time, with no hope of release. Another Titan’s torment was to be tantalized by being starved (agriculture, environment) and denied water, then presented with food and water just beyond his reach. Struggle as he might, he could only get the briefest taste of each after great effort, which only increased the torment as these were withdrawn again, just out of reach. Another Titan was punished by being forced to lift a heavy rock (global civilization) up a great incline (technological and societal advance) only to have his work thrown down, over and over again, with no hope of any success being allowed to remain. The uniting theme in all these Titanic torments is subjugation and futility. The message of the Olympic Tyrants then, as interpreted here is, when Force rules, then people everywhere, though Titans be they all, will be conquered and forever Subject to Futility. This eternal transcendent political /spiritual message has been repeated with ever increasing volume this century. In 1898 a struggling author named Morgan Robertson penned a prophetic novel entitled Futility. This novel in its opening chapters, has a large and luxurious steamship with four funnels plowing at top speed, oblivious to all, striking an iceberg with a fatal glancing blow to her starboard bow, sending nearly all aboard to their graves at the bottom of the icy Atlantic. As uncannily as Jules Verne’s novels foreshadowed submarine warfare, the development of aircraft, and manned space flight, Robertson’s work expressed a prescient foreboding of disasters to come. Robertson saw in the imminent future setting of his novel global warfare with Japan as the aggressor in the Pacific and beam weapon technology. Robertson’s novel Futility was perhaps better known by its alternate title, The Wreck of the Titan.

Satellite photos of southern Spain reveal features on the ground appearing to match descriptions made by Greek scholar Plato of the fabled utopia. Dr Rainer Kuehne thinks the "island" of Atlantis simply referred to a region of the southern Spanish coast destroyed by a flood between 800 BC and 500 BC. The research has been reported as an ongoing project in the online edition of the journal Antiquity. We have in the photos concentric rings just as Plato described Dr Rainer Kuehne Satellite photos of a salt marsh region known as Marisma de Hinojos near the city of Cadiz show two rectangular structures in the mud and parts of concentric rings that may once have surrounded them. "Plato wrote of an island of five stades (925m) diameter that was surrounded by several circular structures - concentric rings - some consisting of Earth and the others of water. We have in the photos concentric rings just as Plato described," Dr Kuehne told BBC News Online. Dr Kuehne believes the rectangular features could be the remains of a "silver" temple devoted to the sea god Poseidon and a "golden" temple devoted to Cleito and Poseidon - all described in Plato's dialogue Critias. Temples of the sea god The identification of the site with Atlantis was first proposed by Werner Wickboldt, a lecturer and Atlantis enthusiast who spotted the rectangles and concentric rings by studying photographs from across the Mediterranean for signs of the city described by Plato. The sizes of the "island" and its rings in the satellite image are slightly larger than those described by Plato. There are two possible explanations for this, says Dr Kuehne. First, Plato may have underplayed the size of Atlantis. Secondly, the ancient unit of measurement used by Plato - the stade - may have been 20% larger than traditionally assumed. It is claimed that concentric rings surround the temple site Enlarge Image If the latter is true, one of the rectangular features on the "island" matches almost exactly the dimensions given by Plato for the temple of Poseidon. Mr Wickboldt explained: "This is the only place that seems to fit [Plato's] description." He added that the Greeks might have confused an Egyptian word referring to a coastline with one meaning "island" during transmission of the Atlantis story. Commenting on the satellite image showing the two "temples", Tony Wilkinson, an expert in the use of remote sensing in archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, UK, told BBC News Online: "A lot of the problems come with interpretations. I can see something there and I could imagine that one could interpret it in various ways. But you've got several leaps of faith here. Metal trading "We use the imagery to recognise certain types of imprint on the ground and then do [in the field] verification on them. Based on what we see on the ground we make an interpretation. "What we need here is a date range. Otherwise, you're just dealing with morphology. But the [features] are interesting." The fabled utopia of Atlantis has captured the imagination of scholars for centuries. The earliest known records of this mythical land appear in Plato's dialogues Critias and Timaios. This reconstruction of the city of Atlantis is based on Plato's description His depiction of a land of fabulous wealth, advanced civilisation and natural beauty has spurred many adventurers to seek out its location. One recent theory equates Atlantis with Spartel Island, a mud shoal in the straits of Gibraltar that sank into the sea 11,000 years ago. Plato described Atlantis as having a "plain". Dr Kuehne said this might be the plain that extends today from Spain's southern coast up to the city of Seville. The high mountains described by the Greek scholar could be the Sierra Morena and Sierra Nevada. "Plato also wrote that Atlantis is rich in copper and other metals. Copper is found in abundance in the mines of the Sierra Morena," Dr Kuehne explained. The rectangles: What interpretation can be put on the satellite images? Image: Werner Wickboldt Dr Kuehne noticed that the war between Atlantis and the eastern Mediterranean described in Plato's writings closely resembled attacks on Egypt, Cyprus and the Levant during the 12th Century BC by mysterious raiders known as the Sea People. As a result, he proposes that the Atlanteans and the Sea People were in fact one and the same. This dating would equate the city and society of Atlantis with either the Iron Age Tartessos culture of southern Spain or another, unknown, Bronze Age culture. A link between Atlantis and Tartessos was first proposed in the early 20th Century. Dr Kuehne said he hoped to attract interest from archaeologists to excavate the site. But this may be tricky. The features in the satellite photo are located within Spain's Donana national park.

Alex....No wonder why you chose Sonic as your pic, you type faster than sonice runs...........WOW!

Yes I do... Yes... I... Do...