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Explorer
Original by Suren Manvelyan -
The Dilapidated Octagon Tower on Roosevelt Island, New York before the renovations of 2006. It is now an apartment with 500 units.
This was originally the entrance to the New York City Lunatic Asylum which opened in 1841. This Octagon Tower was the last remaining bit of the Asylum but after years of decay and 2 fires it was closed to ruin.
Mistreatment of the patients was later reported from Nellie Bly in her 1887 book, where she faked insanity to study a mental health institution from within.
The second photograph is from May 1970.
(via toxicsayonara)
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Plague doctors were individuals in the Middle Ages who were given the task of tending to people infected with the plague. In most cases, they were either second rate or under-trained physicians, incapable of maintaining their own practice. Many were not doctors at all, but people of various other employments paid by towns to cater to the sick.
Plague doctors were employed in various methods when ever plague set in. The earliest documentation of these individuals being hired go as far back as the mid 500s AD. The plague doctor image that we as a general public are familiar with was not seen until the 1600s. It was then that the “traditional” plague doctor costume was created. The costume consisted of a cloak made of heavy fabric covered in wax to protect the doctor’s body, and a mask to keep out the sick air. The masks had a long cone shaped structure at the nose, to be filled with scents that would protect the doctor from the bad air.
Because of the nature of their work, plague doctors often became victims of the plague themselves, or were quarantined for the protection of the public.
(via oh-the-nightmares)
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(via decompositionbeauty)
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A smoker’s lungs next to healthy lungs. Smoking destroys cilia, which are tiny hairs in your lungs located in a thin layer of mucus in the upper airways. The cilia’s main function is to protect your lungs against infection. Dirt and pathogens, which are trapped by the layer of mucus, are pushed up and out of the lungs by the wave-like movements of the cilia. This makes the cilia the lungs’ natural cleaning and repair system. The cilia are paralyzed and destroyed by the poisons in cigarette smoke. However, functioning cilia can begin regenerating within a few days of quitting smoking, and may completely return to their original functioning after an extended period; statistics show that people who have quit smoking reduce their risk of developing lung cancer to that of a person who has never smoked, within 10 to 15 years after quitting.
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(via oh-the-nightmares)
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(via oh-the-nightmares)
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(via hoorayforseymour)
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(via thatpoppy)
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30,000 year old flower revived.
Scientists have resurrected a flower from plant tissues found frozen in Siberian permafrost, thought to be 30,000-32,000 years old. The new Silene stenophylla is healthy and fertile, and producing viable seeds.
The experiment has excited many because it proves that material trapped in the permafrost is recoverable and usable - scientists have been working to recover other species of plant and animal life from the same area, such as the woolly mammoth.
(via toxicsayonara)
