Bioplastic Is Produced from Olive Seed
Laboratory Magazine ISSN: 2148-953X Special Edition 3
YOUR DAILY DOSE OF SCIENCE EPHESUS GREAT GREAT EPHESUS THEATRE
BIOPLASTIC IS PRODUCED FROM OLIVE SEED
FOOD ENGINEER DUYGU YILMAZ HAD RESEARCHED OLIVE SEED FOR 2 YEARS, AND AS A RESULT SHE PRODUCED BIOPLASTIC FROM OLIVE SEEDS. BIOLIVE COMPANY’S FOUNDER & CEO DUYGU YILMAZ, CHOSEN AS FUTURE PROMISING WOMAN ENTREPRENEUR IN 2017 BY GARANTI BANK, KAGIDER AND EKONOMIST MAGAZINE. FOREIGN TOURIST ARRIVALS IN TURKEY ROSE NEARLY 30 PCT IN 2017 The number of foreign tourists visiting Turkey rose 28 percent in the first 10 months of the year, hitting 29 million, mainly due to an 02 ongoing rebound in the Russian market, data from Turkey’s Tourism 18 Ministry showed on Nov. 29.
TURKISH SIGNATURE CHINA’S “SOCIAL CREDIT TURKISH PROFESSOR ANESTHETICS HAVE FOR GENETIC DIAGNOSIS 17 SYSTEM” WILL RATE 10 EXCITES THE WORLD 08 SAME EFFECTS ON 12 OF HEMOPHILIA HOW VALUABLE YOU ARE WITH THE CHOLESTEROL PLANTS AS ANIMALS & AS A HUMAN DISCOVERY HUMANS
Hemophilia genetic test kit is the first time In a contentious world first, China plans to The Sabri Ulker Center resarch team led by A new study published in Annals of Botany in the world was produced at the Faculty implement a social credit system (officially Professor Gökhan Hotamışlıgil at Harvard shows that plants react to anesthetics of Medicine of Ege University by Associate referred to as a Social Credit Score or SCS) University, has developed a mechanism similarly to the way animals and humans do, Professor Hüseyin Onay. by 2020. to protect cells from harmful effects of suggesting plants are ideal objects for testing cholesterol. anesthetics actions in the future. 2 www.labmedya.com/en
FOOD ENGINEER DUYGU YILMAZ HAD RESEARCHED OLIVE SEED FOR 2 YEARS, AND AS A RESULT SHE PRODUCED BIOPLASTIC FROM OLIVE SEEDS.
BIOPLASTIC IS PRODUCED FROM OLIVE SEED
Biolive Company’s Founder & CEO laboratory, which she built at home out The increasing effect of biofilms on food container, food packaging, textiles, Duygu Yılmaz, chosen as Future of her shift. She quitted the job and antimicrobial and food shelf life has hygiene materials, organic toys and Promising Woman Entrepreneur in took her 2 friends with her and founded attracted interest from manufacturers of baby pacifier,” said Duygu Yılmaz, also 2017 by Garanti Bank, KAGİDER and Biolive Company. refrigerators. they are producing olive seed extract Ekonomist Magazine. Different products creams and tonics. can be produced from the antibacterial But she had no fund and no one When an American company offered to bioplastic packaging to extend the shelf believed that a 26 year old woman buy her inventions, Vestel Ventures has Duygu Yilmaz thinks that antimicrobial life of the products. can be successful and can produce decided to support Biolive for R&D work. bioplastics disappearing in a very short products, but she worked 16 hours a Currently, Duygu Yılmaz is working on time in nature will transform the world. Biolive also received R&D investment day and she didn’t give up. Sometimes Vestel’s bioplastic production which can from Vestel Venture. Now bioplastic she worked at the laboratory in her be used in refrigerator production in “Since my childhood I have never experiments are being carried out for house and later she continued her Manisa facilities. dreamed a normal working life. I believe Vestel refrigerators.Daughter of a family researches in R&D center, which she that people take on different roles in of 2 children, Duygu Yılmaz’s researcher and her friends established. MY DREAM IS TO DO WORKS THAT coming to the world, my role is to do spirit appeared in the secondary school. TOUCHES PEOPLE’S LIVES things that will touch the lives of people She was 12 years old when she was and nature. My biggest dream is to be SHE RESEARCHED OLIVE SEEDS making a washing machine for her “Apart from bioplastic refrigerator a pioneer in the bioplastics industry in doll’s clothes from the fan motor. Her FOR 2 YEARS technology, we work on granules that Turkey.” police father, who was a veteran at can be used in many fields such as She confirmed that substance in olive the age of 30, always said if she want to graduate she must be successful seeds can be taken in extract form in her education because of financial while she was working on this matter problems. she produced plastic from it. The prototype of the product is finished She inspired by her father who about 2 years. Thousands of trials swallows olive seeds every morning had been made over the past 2 years because he claims the olive seeds are but team worked day and night to good for his stomach then she started constantly find the formula. a research about olive seeds. But “We didn’t lose our hopes we have before that she stopped her father to always worked with determination,” swallowing olive seeds, if he want to said Duygu Yılmaz. First they made swallow the seed it had to be in powder bioplastic films from olive seeds then form.In that time she was working in those films turned into granules that a honey company. After she began could be used in every area of plastic to experiment with olive seeds in her and sectoral works started. www.labmedya.com/en 3 MEET “THE SNOWBABY” EMMA
SHE WAS FROZEN AS AN EMBRYO FOR 24 YEARS
survive alone outside of the womb. But development shows that women with seem like futuristic medical advances, after four weeks in the biobags, the severe medical complications, who they are irreplaceable opportunities for lambs developed lungs and hair and, are born without a uterus, or who are many who have dreamed of starting most importantly, were able to survive transgender could still potentially give families. Not every woman is born on their own in the outside world. This birth. with a uterus, and a remarkably large technique could one day save the lives In another fertility marvel, a woman percentage of people struggle with of human children born dangerously successfully gave birth thanks to an fertility, sometimes for many years. premature, and prevent the long-lasting ovary that was removed pre-puberty. These advances in the journey from medical problems that can come from There is even the promise of 3D-printed conception to birth are building the In November 2017, a baby was premature birth. ovaries, which successfully allowed foundations of a future in which starting successfully born from an embryo Also this year, a woman in the U.S infertile mice to give birth. a family is something that everyone can frozen for 24 years, the longest period successfully gave birth after receiving choose, giving a new option to people a viable embryo has ever been stored. a uterus transplant. This promising While these developments might just who never before had it. Baby Emma is just one example of the amazing fertility solutions science has developed in just a few short years. A “snowbaby” is a term used to describe an embryo that is frozen in storage and preserved for potential WE’D LIKE TO BE future birth. In November 2017, the PART OF YOUR longest frozen embryo ever held in storage was successfully born in LABORATORY Tennessee. The embryo, created from anonymous donors, was frozen on We are with you to deliver solutions to October 14, 1992, just one year after your heating processes and analyses mother Tina Gibson’s own birth. Furnaces up to 1800 °C, Ovens up to 650 °C The 24-year-old frozen embryo was Chamber Furnaces, Tube Furnaces, Split initially a bit of a surprise, even to Furnaces, Rotary Furnaces, Ovens and parents Tina and Benjamin Gibson. Tina more... first remarked: “Do you realize I’m only 25? This embryo and I could have been best friends.” But, now 26, Tina told CNN, “I just wanted a baby. I don’t care if it’s a world record or not.” She got her wish: Emma Wren Gibson was born on November 25, 2017 Before the birth of baby Emma, the longest-known successful snowbaby birth was from a 20-year-old frozen embryo. While the Gibsons are mostly excited about parenthood, from a medical and scientific perspective, this is a remarkable success. This shows that embryos, like the one that became Emma, can safely be donated and left frozen in storage for potential parents struggling with fertility, like Benjamin Gibson, who has cystic fibrosis. It could also mean that those with cancer who anticipate losing fertility after chemotherapy treatments could store a healthy embryo until they are ready to be a parent.
FUTURE OF FERTILITY
As shown in the case of the Gibsons, fertility and birth look a lot different now than they did even a few years ago. An embryo created 24 years before the baby is born is only the tip of the 1600 °C Tube Furnace 1600 °C Chamber Furnace 650 °C Oven futuristic fertility iceberg. This past year, premature lambs were developed inside of artificial wombs. Just 105 days into development, lambs were placed into the uterus-like, fluid- Ergazi Mahallesi 1695. Cadde, 1819. Sokak No:5 Batıkent 06370 Ankara t:+90 312 257 13 31 f: +90 312 257 13 35 filled “biobag” to continue growing. www.prothermfurnaces.com [email protected] While at that stage in development, equivalent to 22 weeks in humans, neither human nor lamb is able to 4 www.labmedya.com/en MAY BE THE EARTH’S OLDEST FOSSILS ARE 3.5 BILLION YEARS OLD
THE CONCLUSION, substantially earlier and it confirms that MADE BY it was not difficult for primitive life to RESEARCHERS AT form and to evolve into more advanced microorganisms.” THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN- Schopf added that the research shows, MADISON AND UCLA, if the conditions are right, “It looks SUGGESTS THAT like life in the universe should be EXTRATERRESTRIAL widespread.” The new study looked at fossilized LIFE MIGHT DEVELOP microorganisms that were found in MORE EASILY THAN Western Australia in 1992. Schopf has THOUGHT. been studying these fossils since their discovery and has published several papers about them, determining their How common is life in the universe? age at 3.465 billion years. Geoscience professor John Valley, left, and research scientist Kouki Kitajima This is a hard question for scientists to collaborate in the Wisconsin Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer Lab in Weeks Hall answer definitively, since we only have In previous research, Schopf and his one data point: Earth. colleagues established that the origin of the fossils was biological, which was types of isotopes. and just 250 million years after Earth But a new study published in the somewhat controversial. Some critics The work was painstaking, as the fossils formed. Proceedings of the National Academy argued that the oddly shaped cylindrical are each only about 10 micrometers The team said this new study of Sciences on some of Earth’s oldest fossils were just odd minerals that only wide, meaning eight of them could fit strengthens the case for life existing fossils has shown that a diverse group look like biological specimens. along the width of a human hair. elsewhere in the universe because it of organisms had already evolved on our However, subsequent research in 2002 The team analyzed eleven microfossils would be extremely unlikely that it arose planet nearly 3.5 billion years ago, much confirmed the fossils’ biological nature. and were able to separate the carbon quickly on Earth but did not develop earlier in Earth’s history than thought. Research published in the journal Nature from each fossil into its constituent anywhere else. found that the remains of iron-eating isotopes and measure their ratios. The researchers say the new findings bacteria dated back to between 3.8 “This is something we all would like to mean it might be easy for life to develop billion and 4.3 billion years ago. The results indicated they were find out,” Valley said. and evolve, which would increase “characteristic of biology and metabolic the likelihood that life is widespread Schopf teamed up with John Valley, function,” Valley said in a statement. throughout the universe. a geoscience professor from the They found several different types University of Wisconsin-Madison who of organisms, a primitive but diverse “By 3.465 billion years ago, life was has been working for 10 years to refine group,” Schopf said. Two of the species already diverse on Earth; that’s clear,” J. a technique called secondary ion mass appeared to have performed a simple William Schopf from UCLA, lead author spectroscopy, or SIMS. This device form of photosynthesis, another of the new study, said in a statement. shoots an ion beam on a surface and, in apparently produced methane gas, and a vacuum, collects and analyzes ejected two others appear to have consumed “This tells us life had to have begun secondary ions, searching for specific methane and used it to build their cell walls. In short, these fossils represent a “community” that lived together and “were a significant component of Earth’s early biosphere,” the team wrote, and were comprised of primitive photosynthesizers, methane producers, and methane users.
Because several different types of microbes were shown to be already present by 3.5 billion years ago, this An example of one of the means life started much earlier than microfossils discovered in a that. Earlier studies by Valley have sample of rock recovered from shown that liquid water oceans existed the Apex Chert. A new study used on Earth as early as 4.3 billion years sophisticated chemical analysis to An epoxy mount containing a sliver of a nearly 3.5 billion-year-old rock from the confirm the microscopic structures ago, more than 800 million years before Apex chert deposit in Western Australia is pictured at the Wisconsin Secondary Ion found in the rock are biological. J. Mass Spectrometer Lab in Weeks Hall. Jeff Miller the Western Australian fossils studied William Schopf in this research would have been alive, LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS
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AFTER 50 YEARS EXCITONIUM’S PRESENCE PROVED
MANY DECADES AGO, SCIENTISTS THEORIZED THE POSSIBILITY OF STRANGE MATERIAL THEY CALLED “EXCITONIUM.” NOW, RESEARCHERS HAVE PROVEN ITS EXISTENCE.
Researchers at the University of Illinois Physics professor Peter Abbamonte matter what their momentum might be. Now that excitonium has been proven to have announced an exciting finding and his team worked together with In other words, this was the first-ever exist and has been concretely observed the discovery of a new form of matter: colleagues at Illinois, University of observation of a soft plasmon phase in experimentation, its properties can excitonium. This material is made up California, Berkeley, and University of that is the precursor to the exciton be further explored and applied. Most of a kind of boson, a composite particle Amsterdam to prove once-and-for- condensation. obviously, as a superconductor and that could allow the matter to act as a all the existence of this strange and superfluid, this material could be used to superfluid, superconductor, or even as mysterious type of matter that was “This result is of cosmic significance,” further existing technologies. an insulating electronic crystal. theorized more than 50 years ago. They Abbamonte stated in a press release. described how they detected excitonium “Ever since the term ‘excitonium’ in the journal Science. was coined in the 1960s by Harvard Additionally, since analyzing quantum phenomena is what guides and No: 03 theoretical physicist Bert Halperin, January Excitonium is a condensate made up of physicists have sought to demonstrate shapes our understanding of quantum 2018 ISSN: 2148-953X excitons, which are what you get when its existence. Theorists have debated mechanics, this research could help you combine escaped electrons and the whether it would be an insulator, a to further demystify current quantum Chairman “holes” they left. This quirky quantum perfect conductor, or a superfluid with puzzles. These applications, especially Süleyman GÜLER mechanical pairing is possible because, some convincing arguments on all sides. those in practical technologies, are Editor in semiconductors, electrons on the Since the 1970s, many experimentalists purely speculative at this point, however. N. Berat DURMAZ have published evidence of the edge of one energy level in an atom are It is impossible to exactly predict what existence of excitonium, but their Graphic Designer able, when excited, to jump into the next the future might hold for excitonium, but Gülden KARADENİZ energy level, leaving behind a “hole” in findings weren’t definitive proof and we do know for certain that it has more the previous level. This hole acts like a could equally have been explained Place of Publication potential now than it ever has before. Oğuzlar Mah. 1374 Sok. positively charged particle, attracting by a conventional structural phase No:2/4 Balgat - ANKARA the negatively charged electron that transition.” Tel: 0 312 342 22 45 Fax: 0312 342 22 46 escaped.
e-mail: [email protected] To prove the existence of excitons, Subscriptions [email protected] this team studied crystals doped with dichalcogenide titanium diselenide Publication Type Local Term (1T-TiSe2), a transition metal. They were even able to reproduce their results five 11 – 15 June separate times. Frankfurt / Main
QUANTUM MYSTERIES BE INFORMED. BE INSPIRED. BE THERE. www.prosigma.net - [email protected] › World Forum and Leading Show for the Process Industries Printing Center Until now, scientists had not had › 3,800 Exhibitors from 50 Countries Başak Matbaacılık ve Tan. Hiz. Ltd. Şti. › 170,000 Attendees from 100 Countries Anadolu Bulvarı Meka Plaza No:5/15 the experimental tools needed to Gimat / ANKARA distinguish with certainty whether they Tel: 0 312 397 16 17 LaboratoryTechniques @ ACHEMA were detecting excitonium or another THE LAB IS WHERE IT ALL STARTS. Date of issue #labtechniques January 2018 - Ankara similar phase of matter. Using a novel technique, however, this research team In addition to the Labmedya was able to definitively measure, for the first time, the collective excitations WHAT IS LABMEDYA ? of the low-energy bosonic particles, www.achema.de www.labmedya.com the paired electrons, and the holes, no laboratorylaboratory systems systems
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The Sabri Ulker Center resarch team diseases. However, this process is much led by Professor Gökhan Hotamışlıgil longer the main damage starts with at Harvard University, has developed a the rise of cholesterol inside the cell. mechanism to protect cells from harmful This causes the system to slowly gnaw effects of cholesterol. and create problems at organ level, then circulatory level and remote organ ORGANIZATION The Sabri Ulker Center resarch team level.” led by Professor Hotamışlıgil - working “What excites us the most is not at Harvard University on genetic and just a discovery for a disease but a chronic metabolic diseases - has mechanism that can make it possible to developed a mechanism that warns change all the cells and all the functions when cholesterol levels rise in the cell that those cells work.Let’s think it’s a and protects cells against harmful switch, there is a detector that detects effects of cholesterol. cholesterol how much and where it is İSTANBUL ANKARA ANTALYA Atatürk Mah. Ataşehir Oğuzlar Mah. 1374. Sok. Metin Kasaboğlu Cad. Hotamışlıgil told that they are working and when it is high enough it closes Bulvarı, 42/A Ada, Gardenya No:2/4, Balgat / Çankaya No:63/4 - 07100 on chronic metabolic diseases that then opens. We are going out on a path Residence, 7/1 Blok K:12 D:78 Tel : +90 (312) 342 22 45 Tel : +90 (242) 316 46 00 come with age such as diabetes, heart to improve this system in every tissue Ataşehir - 34758 Fax: +90 (312) 342 22 46 Fax: +90 (242) 316 46 01 disease, obesity and degenerative and every disease condition and if we Tel : +90 (216) 455 75 88 Fax: +90 (216) 456 96 83 disease. He also said that they are trying can achieve it, it would be an important to understand one of the most basic weapon to combat all these diseases. International Sales: Antexpo Ltd. / Mrs. Rabia Alga mechanisms: How metabolism works This is what we foresee and our dream,” Tel: +90 216 541 03 90 / Mobile: +90 532 461 58 38 / Fax: +90 216 541 03 89 and how it is impaires. said Hotamışlıgil. [email protected] “It will be an important weapon for us to fight against these diseases. The Hotamışlıgil said that their first field of “THIS FAIR IS ORGANIZED WITH THE AUDIT OF TOBB (THE UNION OF CHAMBERS AND COMMODITY EXCHANGES OF TURKEY) frightening side of cholesterol among application will be liver fattening and IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAW NO.5174” the public that it is rising in blood and related disorders and then they will test this rising is also a major risk factor for them on pancreas diseases related to heart and vascular, brain and metabolic the diabetes and digestive system. Laboratory Marketing Channels Laboratory and Bulk Chemicals A-Z Pharmaceutical Research, Biotechnology and Biopharmaceutical Process Products Analytical Instruments and Balances Laboratory Furniture and Safety Equipment Laboratory Consumables Liquid Handling Life Science and Microbiology Equipment Optical Instruments and Microscopes
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CHINA’S “SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEM” WILL RATE HOW VALUABLE YOU ARE AS A HUMAN
IN A CONTENTIOUS The idea first appeared in a document for a number of services, including the Both Rapid Finance and Sesame Credit WORLD FIRST, from the State Council of China kinds of jobs or mortgages they can get, have access to intimidating quantities published in June 2014. It is a and it also impacts what schools their of data, the former through its WeChat CHINA PLANS technological advancement so shocking children qualify for. In this respect, the messaging app (at present with 850 TO IMPLEMENT to modern-minded paradigms that many SCS resembles one of the most chilling million active users) and the latter A SOCIAL can do little but sit back in defeatist episodes from Black Mirror’s third through its AliPay payment service. CREDIT SYSTEM chagrin as science fiction shows us its season. Incidentally, the show isn’t really According to local media, Tencent’s (OFFICIALLY darker side. known as a “feel-good” flick. It presents SCS comes with its QQ chat app, where various dystopian views of society, but an individual’s score comes in a range REFERRED TO AS The SCS seems relatively simple. China’s SCS proves reality is darker than between 300 and 850 and is broken A SOCIAL CREDIT Every citizen in China, which now has fiction. down into five sub-categories: social SCORE OR SCS) BY numbers swelling to well over 1.3 connections, consumption behavior, 2020. billion, would be given a score that, as This “service” isn’t slated to go full- security, wealth, and compliance. a matter of public record, is available swing until 2020, but China has already for all to see. This citizen score comes started a voluntary implementation of POSITIVE (AND NEGATIVE) from monitoring an individual’s social the SCS by partnering with a number of REINFORCEMENT behavior from their spending habits and private companies in order to iron out how regularly they pay bills, to their the algorithmic details needed for such a Proponents of the SCS see this as an social interactions and it’ll become the large-scale, data-driven system. opportunity to improve on some of the basis of that person’s trustworthiness, The companies that are implementing state’s services. Some argue that this which would also be publicly ranked. SCS include China Rapid Finance, would give Chinese citizens much- which is a partner of social network needed access to financial services. This actually sounds worse than an giant Tencent, and Sesame Credit, a The government also says that this Orwellian nightmare. subsidiary of Alibaba affiliate company will “allow the trustworthy to roam A citizen’s score affects their eligibility Ant Financial Services Group (AFSG). everywhere under heaven while making www.labmedya.com/en 11 it hard for the discredited to take a Futurism. “They take it a step further by positive citizen score i.e. become acceptable behavior” will be defined single step,” according to The Wall becoming not only an establishment of a “trustworthy.” Chinese blogger Rasul by the Chinese government, not a Street Journal. In some situations, this totalitarian police state that monitors its Majid told WIRED that he actually thinks democratic process or an objective could prove workable. After all, finance people but one that completely evades it’s a better way of keeping tabs on how panel. And punitive measures will and loan organizations already detail users’ privacy. All forms of activity and the government monitors his data. If one certainly be taken when a person breaks debtors’ credit eligibility if they happen interactions, online or otherwise, will be knows how one is surveilled, one knows this trust. to be in default, preventing them from rated, available to view and stored as when and where to clean up one’s act. taking on more debt that they may be data.” Lal, however, disagrees: “How do you With the SCS, the Chinese government unable to pay back. define people’s behaviors on a day-to- will actually hit two birds with one stone: It seems that the infamous Great day basis? People do so many different They will have a way of promoting and The utopic goal of managing citizen Firewall is only the most well-known things for so many different reasons, enforcing what they consider to be finances via structural checks and feature of China’s worsening socio- and if the context is not appreciated “socially acceptable behavior,” and they balances feels like an elegant solution political plight. it can be misconstrued,” he said. The will have a way of monitoring virtually all to assuage public debt, and will words ring true. One does not need to aspects of citizens’ lives. certainly encourage all involved to BIG DATA FOR GOOD BEHAVIOR think hard to uncover why it may be Lal doesn’t believe this setup could fly improve their debt activity. But structural problematic to say that people who long term, though. “In the free world, management of personal finances on More than working as a social enabler, have children are, in essence, people this will never catch on. If they’re naive this all-pervasive level crosses several such a system could end up becoming you should trust. What does this mean enough to roll it out, it will harm China’s boundaries. highly restrictive. Speaking to WIRED, for the infertile? What does it mean for credibility on a regional and global scale. Sesame Credit’s Technology Director, Li same-sex couples? What does it mean Tech companies working in China are The major issue is this: the SCS goes Yingyun, admitted as much, saying that for people who simply do not wish to already frustrated due to the intense well beyond just rating ones ability under an SCS system, a person could have children? Probably nothing good. restrictions when it comes to tech to manage debt; in essence, it puts a be judged by his purchases. “Someone policies and encryption this will only add number on a citizen rating their worth who plays video games for ten hours a In the end, even a basic SCS system to their frustration.” as a human being and it forces others to day, for example, would be considered that only rates a few data points could respect that rating. an idle person,” Li said. “Someone paint a very inaccurate and incomplete This system represents something who frequently buys diapers would be picture of a person. “You may be more insidious than the panopticon “China’s proposed social score is considered as probably a parent, who on playing games for 10 hours and if the that renowned social theorist Michel an absolute reaffirmation of China balance is more likely to have a sense of algorithm says you’re idle, it might Foucault warned us about. So let’s hope continuing to push forward to be a responsibility.” miss the reason you’re playing these that Lal is correct. complete police state,” said Anurag games. Maybe you’re an engineer and Editor’s Note: This article has been Lal, former Director of the U.S. National Li sees these as positive developments, you’re beta testing them. But now you’re updated to make it clear that Lal is the Broadband Task Force for the FCC by virtue of which a person is automatically designated as an idle “former” director under the Obama under the Obama administration and encouraged to take greater person,” Lal added. “When in reality, administration. president and CEO of mobility solutions responsibility for their living and maybe you were just doing your job.” firm Infinite Convergence, in an email to spending habits in order to earn a Ultimately, the problem is that “socially Source: Futurism 12 www.labmedya.com/en
AN EXPERIMENTAL CONSERVATION PROJECT THAT WAS ANESTHETICS ABANDONED AND ALMOST FORGOTTEN ABOUT, HAS ENDED UP HAVE SAME PRODUCING AN AMAZING ECOLOGICAL WIN NEARLY TWO DECADES AFTER IT WAS DREAMT UP. EFFECTS ON PLANTS AS HOW 12,000 TONNES OF ANIMALS & HUMANS DUMPED ORANGE PEEL GREW INTO A LANDSCAPE NOBODY EXPECTED TO FIND
A new study published in Annals of Botany shows that plants react to anesthetics similarly to the way The plan, which saw a juice company peels had been converted from orange As for how the orange peels were able animals and humans do, suggesting dump 1,000 truckloads of waste orange peels into this thick black loamy soil,” to regenerate the site so effectively plants are ideal objects for testing peel in a barren pasture in Costa Rica Treuer told Scientific American. in just 16 years of isolation, nobody’s anesthetics actions in the future. back in the mid 1990s, has eventually “Kind of passing through this gross entirely sure. revitalised the desolate site into a stage in between of kind of sludgy stuff Anesthetics were first used in the thriving, lush forest. filled with fly larvae.” “That’s the million dollar question that 19th century when it was discovered we don’t yet have the answer to,” Treuer that inhaling ether gas stopped That’s one heck of a turnaround, Despite this promising start, the told Popular Science. patients from feeling pain during especially since the project was forced conservation experiment wasn’t to last, surgery. Since then, many different to close in only its second year but after a rival juice manufacturer called “I strongly suspect that it was some chemicals have been found to despite the early cancellation, the peel TicoFruit sued Del Oro, alleging that its synergy between suppression of the induce anesthesia. However, despite already deposited on the 3-hectare (7- competitor had “defiled a national park”. invasive grass and rejuvenation of the fact that many anesthetics acre) site led to a 176 percent increase Costa Rica’s Supreme Court sided with heavily degraded soils.” have been used over a 150-year in above-ground biomass. TicoFruit, and the ambitious experiment period, little is known about how “This is one of the only instances I’ve was forced to end, which saw the site While the exact mechanisms remain these different compounds with no ever heard of where you can have cost largely forgotten about for the next 15 something of a mystery for now, the negative carbon sequestration,” says researchers hope that the remarkable structural similarities behave as years. ecologist Timothy Treuer from Princeton success of this abandoned, 16-year-old anesthetic agents inducing loss of University. orange peel dump will inspire other consciousness. Then, in 2013, Treuer decided to evaluate the site while visiting Costa similar conservation projects. “It’s not just a win-win between the Rica for other research. Remarkably, as found in the new company and the local park it’s a win for Especially since, in addition to the study, anesthetics also work on everyone.” double-win of dealing with waste and It turns out, the only problem was plants. Researchers found that, The plan was born in 1997 when revitalising barren landscapes, richer actually finding the former wasteland a when exposed to anesthetics, a Princeton researchers Daniel Janzen woodlands also sequester greater challenge that necessitated two trips to number of plants lost both their and Winnie Hallwachs approached Costa amounts of carbon from the atmosphere the site, given the arid landscape had autonomous and touch-induced Rican orange juice manufacturer Del Oro meaning little plots of regenerated land been unrecognisably transformed into a movements. Venus flytraps no with a unique opportunity. like this could ultimately help save the dense, vine-filled jungle. longer generate electrical signals planet. If Del Oro agreed to donate part of and their traps remain open when “It didn’t help that the six-foot-long sign trigger hairs were touched, and its land bordering the Guanacaste “It’s a shame where we live in a Conservation Area to the national park, with bright yellow lettering marking world with nutrient-limited degraded growing pea tendrils stopped their the site was so overgrown with vines autonomous movements and were the company would be allowed to dump ecosystems and also nutrient-rich waste its discarded orange peel at no cost on that we literally didn’t find it until years streams. We’d like to see those things immobilized in a curled shape. degraded land in the park. later,” Treuer told Marlene Cimons at come together a little bit,” Treuer told Popular Science, “after dozens and Scientific American. The results of this study suggest The juice company agreed to the deal, dozens of site visits.” that the action of anesthetic at and some 12,000 tonnes of waste “That’s not licence for any agricultural cellular and organ levels are similar orange peel carried by a convoy of When comparing the site to a nearby company to just start dumping their in plants and animals. This study 1,000 truckloads was unceremoniously control area that hadn’t been treated waste products on protected areas, suggests that plants are emerging dumped on virtually lifeless soils at the with orange peels, Treuer’s team found but it does mean that we should start as model objects to study general site. their experimental compost heap thinking about ways to do thoughtful questions related to anesthetics, yielded richer soil, more tree biomass, experimentation to see if in their as well as to serve as a suitable The deluge of nutrient-rich organic and a broader diversity of tree species particular system they can have similar alternative test system for human waste had an almost instantaneous including a fig tree so huge it would take win-win-win results.” anesthesia. effect on the fertility of the land. three people wrapping their arms around The findings are reported in Restoration “Within about six months the orange the trunk to cover the circumference. Ecology.
14 www.labmedya.com/en
THE SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE FORMED DURING THE EARLIEST MOMENTS OF THE UNIVERSE, WHICH HAS RESEARCHERS PUZZLED OVER HOW IT GOT TO BE SO BIG.
THE OLDEST BLACK HOLE EVER FOUND A huge black hole has just been universe’s history. this black hole arose in a universe that astrophysicist at the Carnegie Institution discovered that is about 13 billion light- The black hole, which is in the center of was only 690 million years old not nearly for Science and Princeton University. years old almost as old as the universe the quasar ULAS J1342+0928, is about enough time to accumulate the mass itself. The find of this supermassive 800 million times more massive than our needed to grow so big. Bañados was on a search for quasars, black hole is puzzling astronomers sun. Scientists previously thought that which are extremely bright objects because they can’t figure out how this black holes grow by picking up mass “It has an extremely high mass, and that have a supermassive black hole black hole was formed so early in the from the environment around them. But yet the universe is so young that this embedded in them. What made this thing shouldn’t exist,” Robert Simcoe, black hole stand out was its extremely an astrophysicist at the Massachusetts high redshift, which refers to how the Institute of Technology, said in a light from cosmic objects shifts to the statement. “So there must be another redder end of the spectrum as the way that it formed,” he added. “And how universe expands. The more distant the See Science exactly that happens, nobody knows.” object, the more extreme the redshift. Also of interest was how fast gas moved in a New Light Besides revealing a mystery about inside of the quasar. black hole formation, the new discovery sheds more light on when the first stars “Something is causing gas within the formed in the universe. Before first quasar to move around at very high starlight, the universe was dominated by speed, and the only phenomenon we neutral hydrogen atoms. know that achieves such speeds is orbit As more stars and galaxies filled the around a supermassive black hole,” void, their radiation began to energize Simcoe said. the hydrogen, allowing the electrons bound to the nucleus to recombine and Observations from FIRE showed Learn • Experience • Engage generate other chemical reactions. But that much of the hydrogen around when the black hole was formed, the the quasar was neutral not ionized. Discover more at www.pittcon.org universe was comprised of about 50 Extrapolating from FIRE’s observations, percent ionized (or energized) hydrogen the researchers determined the universe and 50 percent neutral hydrogen. itself was about half neutral, half ionized when the quasar was formed. And that “It’s a moment when the first galaxies means that stars must have turned on emerged from their cocoons of neutral at about the same time just 690 million gas and started to shine their way out,” years after the Big Bang. Simcoe said. “This is the most accurate measurement of that time and a real The research was supported by the indication of when the first stars turned National Science Foundation and on.” published in the journal Nature. “This adds to our understanding of The black hole was found using an our universe at large, because we’ve instrument called the Folded-port identified that moment of time when February 26 – March 1, 2018 InfraRed Echellette (FIRE) that is the universe is in the middle of this very Orlando, FL USA installed on the 6.5 meter Magellan rapid transition from neutral to ionized,” Orange County Convention Center telescopes at Las Campanas Simcoe said. “We now have the most Observatory in Chile. The discovery accurate measurements to date of when was made by Eduardo Bañados, an the first stars were turning on.”
Pittcon2018 Ad - LabMedya.indd 1 8/25/2017 10:51:39 AM THE OLDEST BLACK HOLE EVER FOUND
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THE RISE OF SMART MACHINES PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON ‘ROBOT RIGHTS’
But artificial intelligence is progressing the capacity to suffer emotionally, or in the process of developing with swiftly. In the not-too-distant future we to feel pain? Would shutting it off be respect to nonhuman animals.” may begin to feel that our machines tantamount to murder? Of course, deciding which machines have something akin to thoughts and deserve moral consideration will be YOU PROBABLY feelings, even though they’re made ROBOTS VS. APES tricky, because we often project human WOULDN’T HAVE of metal and plastic rather than flesh thoughts and feelings onto inanimate ANY QUALMS ABOUT and blood. When that happens, how An obvious comparison is to the entities and so end up sympathizing SWITCHING OFF we treat our machines will matter; animal rights movement. Animal rights with entities that have no thoughts or APPLE’S VIRTUAL philosophers and scholars are already advocates have been pushing for a feelings at all. imagining a time when robots and reassessment of the legal status of ASSISTANT, SIRI OR intelligent machines may deserve and certain animals, especially the great Consider Spot, a doglike robot AMAZON’S ALEXA be accorded some sort of rights. apes. Organizations like the Coral developed by Boston Dynamics. Earlier OR MICROSOFT’S Springs, Florida-based Nonhuman this year, the Waltham, Massachusetts- CORTANA. SUCH These wouldn’t necessarily be human Rights Project believe that chimpanzees, based company released a video ENTITIES EMULATE A rights. But “if you’ve got a computer gorillas, and orangutans deserve to be showing employees kicking the four- treated as autonomous persons, rather HUMAN ASSISTANT or a robot that’s autonomous and legged machine. The idea was to show self-aware, I think it would be very than mere property. off Spot’s remarkable balance. But BUT PLAINLY AREN’T hard to say it’s not a person,” says some people saw it as akin to animal HUMAN. WE SENSE Kristin Andrews, a philosopher at York Steven Wise, who leads the cruelty. People for the Ethical Treatment THAT BENEATH THE University in Toronto, Canada. organization’s legal team, says that the of Animals (PETA), for example, issued a SOPHISTICATED Which raises a host of difficult same logic applies to any autonomous statement describing Spot’s treatment SOFTWARE, THERE’S questions. How should we treat entity, living or not. If one day we have as “inappropriate.” a robot that has some degree of sentient robots, he says, “we should “NOBODY HOME.” consciousness? What if we’re have the same sort of moral and legal Kate Darling, a researcher at the convinced that an AI program has responsibilities toward them that we’re MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, www.labmedya.com/en 17
Massachusetts, observed something caution from an ethical perspective.” similar when she studied how people interact with Pleo, a toy dinosaur robot. The obvious conclusion is that rights Pleo doesn’t look lifelike it’s obviously ought to be accorded not on the basis a toy. But it’s programmed to act and of biology but on something even more speak in ways that suggest not only a fundamental: personhood. form of intelligence but also the ability to experience suffering. If you hold Pleo WHAT RIGHTS? upside-down, it will whimper and tell you to stop. If we wind up recognizing some intelligent machine as a person, which In an effort to see just how far we legal rights would we be obliged to might go in extending compassion bestow on it? If it could pass the Turing to simple robots, Darling encouraged test, we might feel it would deserve at participants at a recent workshop to least the right to continued existence. play with Pleo and then asked them to But Robert Sparrow, a philosopher destroy it. Almost all refused. “People at Monash University in Melbourne, are primed, subconsciously, to treat Australia, thinks that’s just the robots like living things, even though beginning. What happens, he wonders, if on a conscious level, on a rational level, a machine’s “mind” is even greater than we totally understand that they’re not a human’s? In a piece that appeared real,” Darling says.While neither Pleo recently on TheCritique.com, he writes: nor Spot can feel pain, Darling believes “Indeed, not only would it be just as it’s worth paying attention to how we wrong to kill a machine that could pass treat these entities. “If it is disturbing the Turing test as to kill an adult human to us to behave violently towards them being, but, depending on the capacities if there’s something that feels wrong of the machine, it might even be more about it maybe that’s a piece of our wrong.” empathy that we don’t want to turn off, because it could influence how we treat Maybe that makes sense from the TURKISH other living things,” she says. (This is perspective of pure logic. But Ryan Calo, a key question raised by the TV series an expert in robotics and cyber law at SIGNATURE Westworld, in which guests at a theme the University of Washington in Seattle, park are encouraged to treat ultra- says our laws are unlikely to bend that lifelike humanoid robots however they far. “Our legal system reflects our basic FOR GENETIC please.) biology,” he says. If we one day invent some sort of artificial person, “it would DIAGNOSIS CONVERSING WITH ROBOTS break everything about the law, as we understand it today.” For now, mistreating Pleo or any other OF existing robot is no crime as long as For Andrews, the key issue is the you’re the owner. But what about entity’s right to have its own interests HEMOPHILIA mistreating a bot that we believed really recognized. Of course, it may be tricky had some form of consciousness? determining what those interests are And how would we be able to tell if a just as it can be hard for people from Hemophilia genetic test kit is the success of my work.” machine has a mind in the first place? one culture to understand the desires first time in the world was produced Onay points out that there are at the Faculty of Medicine of Ege treatments of this disease, “For Computer science pioneer Alan Turing of people from another. But when we University by Associate Professor this reason, genetic diagnosis is pondered this question half a century recognize something as a person, Hüseyin Onay. very important. There are a few ago. The way Turing saw it, we can we’re obligated to at least try to do advantages to this recognition. never know for sure what a machine the right thing, she says. “If we realize Ege University (EÜ) Medical Faculty It determines the severity of the is feeling or experiencing so our best that something is actually a ‘someone,’ Hospital Department of Medical disease. We can prevent the next bet is simply to see if we can carry on then we have to take their interests into Genetics Associate Professor generation or a sick individual a conversation with it just as if it were account.” Hüseyin Onay developed the from having a sick sibling. At the “first” test kit for the detection of same time, genetic diagnosis is human (what we now call the Turing hemophilia, which is difficult to very important in determining test). And perhaps it’s not so far-fetched diagnose genetically. Onay said in the patient, who is resistant to to imagine that those interests might a statement he did nearly 100.000 treatment.” Given the complexity of human include continued existence in which tests in his college for 15 years. Onay reported that a kit for the conversation, building a machine case we might want to think twice genetic diagnosis of hemophilia capable of engaging in lengthy verbal before reaching for the off button. Onay reported that hemorrhagic has not been produced so far in the exchanges is a daunting task. But if disorder was directed towards the world and he expressed the pride of hemophilia disorder, “Until now, no accomplishing this. we could build such a machine, Turing The Rise of Smart Machines Puts Spotlight on standard method has been found argued, we ought to treat it as though ‘Robot Rights’ was originally published by NBC to be used in the genetic diagnosis Onay emphasizes the use of the kit it’s a thinking, feeling being. Universal Media, LLC on December 4, 2017 by Dan of this condition, which can cause they produce, “In this way we have Mark Goldfeder, an Atlanta-based rabbi Falk. Copyright 2017 NBC Universal Media, LLC. All deaths. From here I have completed produced an approved hemophilia and law professor, has reached a similar rights reserved. the study I started on the kit, which genetic diagnostic kit in the world. conclusion: If an entity acts human, he will provide the genetic diagnosis of We are planning to introduce and wrote recently, “I can not start poking it hemophilia. My previous experience market this product in foreign trade to see if it bleeds. I have a responsibility was an important factor in the fairs and scientific congresses.” to treat all that seem human as humans, and it is better to err on the side of 18 www.labmedya.com/en
FOREIGN TOURIST ARRIVALS IN TURKEY ROSE NEARLY 30 PCT IN 2017
The number of foreign tourists visiting the surge in the number of Russian tourists, power. This famed monument is a must-do Great Theatre Turkey rose 28 percent in the first 10 and data for the third quarter of 2017 for every tourist visiting the country. Construction of the Great Theatre of Ephesus months of the year, hitting 29 million, mainly showed a rebound of nearly 40 percent began in the reign of Claudius (AD 41-54) due to an ongoing rebound in the Russian year-on-year. EPHESUS and was completed in the reign of Trajan market, data from Turkey’s Tourism Ministry (AD 98-117). It is particularly impressive, showed on Nov. 29. THE BEST TOURIST ATTRACTIONS Not to be missed, the mighty ruin of both for its great size and for the excellent IN TURKEY Ephesus is a city of colossal monuments state of preservation of the orchestra and The number of foreign visitors arriving in and marble-columned roads. One of the the stage buildings. It was here that St. Paul Turkey surged 22.2 percent in October to Packed to the brim with ancient monuments most complete, still-standing Roman cities preached against the cult of Artemis and 2.99 million, the data also showed. left over from a parade of conquerors and in the Mediterranean region, this is the place inveighed against the guild of silversmiths More than 4.5 million Russians visited endowed with showcase scenery that to experience what life must have been like responsible for its shrines. Turkey in the first 10 months of the year never fails to impress, Turkey is a dazzling during the golden age of the Roman Empire. with a 496 percent year-on-year increase, destination that straddles Asia and Europe. A sightseeing trip here will take at least The theater’s three by 22 tiers of seating, as the bilateral ties between the two Our vibrant culture, famous food, and vast half a day to cover the major highlights and divided into sections by 12 stairways, could countries have normalized after a jet crisis. history wow all who venture here, while our longer, if you really want to explore, so make accommodate an audience of some 25,000. The number of Russian tourists who visited glorious landscapes - from the sun-soaked sure that you plan your visit so you don’t If you climb to the top, there is a fine view Turkey was 767,000 in the January - Mediterranean to the mighty mountains and feel rushed. extending down to the Old Harbor. There October period of 2016. arid steppe... are highlights in themselves. were also staircase tunnels leading to the The Russian arrivals in Turkey also almost Whether you want to lap up the Byzantine Of all the ruins and archaeological upper tiers. The stage wall was originally doubled in October, hitting 442,970, three-stories and 18 meters high but is and Ottoman glories of Istanbul on a city attractions in Turkey, Ephesus is the most according to the ministry. now preserved only to the height of the break, laze on the beach, delve into history famous. Tourists from around the world In the first 10 months of 2017, a total of lowest story. It was elaborately articulated, wandering through ruins such as Ephesus, come here to walk down the well-preserved 17.6 million Europeans visited Turkey with with columns, niches for statues, and richly or see some of the world’s most surreal Roman streets, gaze at the mighty a nearly 1.6 percent year-on-year decrease, decorated cornices. In the west terrace wall panoramas in Pamukkale and Cappadocia, monuments, and soak up the ancient soul of according to the ministry. is a Hellenistic fountain-house in the form our country has attractions galore this ruined city. of a temple in antis, which in spite of its Russia thus became the top tourism market ruinous state is notable for the clarity and AYA SOFYA Many travelers use the picturesque village for Turkey by taking a 15.7-percent share simplicity of its structure. of Selçuk (right beside the ruins) as their in total arrivals in the first 10 months of the year, followed by Germany and Iran, base, but you can also easily visit from the Marble Street which took 11.5 percent and 7.3 percent of nearby seaside town of Kuşadası or the city Along the east side of the Lower Agora, share, respectively. Georgia and the United of İzmir. Wherever you base yourself, allow the Marble Street leads from the Koressos Kingdom ranked fourth and fifth in the top enough time to explore. You’ll find plenty of Gate but has only been excavated from the five list. things to do in Ephesus and so much history Great Theatresouthward. This fine marble- Regarding the October data, the top five to absorb, and even a short tour of the paved street, once lined with arcades and senders for Turkey’s tourism sector ranked highlights will take half a day. decorated with statues, continues south to the same: Russia, Germany, Iran, Georgia the Library of Celsus. Along the middle are a and the U.K. Arkadiane series of holes through which surface water Renowned as one of the most beautiful To the west of the baths lay the Old Harbor, flowed into drains. Amid a series of bomb attacks, a failed buildings in the world, the spellbinding now an area of marshy ground. Immediately coup attempt and the diplomatic crisis Byzantine glory of the Aya Sofya Museum south of this group of buildings is the CAPPADOCIA with Russia, the number of foreign tourists (Hagia Sophia) is not only one of the top Arkadiane, a fine arcaded street running visiting Turkey plummeted to 25.3 million in things to do in Istanbul, but also in Turkey. east from the harbor to the Great Theatre, The surreal swooping rock valleys of 2016 from 36.2 million in the previous year. The staggering bulk of its exterior is rimmed which stood facing a long square. The effect Cappadocia are every photographer’s These negativities slashed Turkey’s tourism by the delicate minarets added after the of this magnificent avenue, built by Arcadius dream. Cliff ridges and hill crests are home revenues in 2016 to $22.11 billion from Ottoman conquest, while the sumptuous (the first Eastern Emperor) around AD 400, to rippling panoramas of wave-like rock or $31.46 billion in 2015. and cavernous frescoed interior is a grand was further enhanced by an elaborate gate wacky-shaped pinnacles that have been Numbers turned around in April, thanks to reminder of old Constantinople’s might and at either end. formed by millennia of wind and water www.labmedya.com/en 19 action. And if you don’t feel like hiking for townsection, which runs up the hill away for anyone who makes the long journey to many people, it’s all about soaking up the the views, this is one of the world’s top from the modern center, also has some Turkey’s northeast region. The monastery sun while enjoying the gorgeous coastal destinations to take a hot air balloon ride. If lovely old Ottoman stone houses, many of first opened during the Byzantine era and views. Cruising on a yacht is the number one the lunarscape isn’t enough to tempt you, which have been finely restored and are now was only closed in 1923. activity for visitors to Bodrum and Fethiye for nestled in these valleys are the frescoed boutique hotels. good reason. The steep forest-clad slopes, rock-cut churches of the Byzantine Era, Nearby is the small village of Mustafapaşa, MOUNT NEMRUT hidden coves sporting tiny white sand when this area was an important early which until the 1923 Population Exchange beaches, and hundreds of scattered islands Christian site. with Greece had a mixed community of The top sightseeing drawcard for Eastern are the perfect place for exploring by sea. Greeks and Turks, and many of the old stone Turkey, Mount Nemrut’s summit funerary Even diehard landlubbers will be impressed. High on every tourist’s Turkey hit-list, houses that still line the quiet cobblestone mound is scattered with the broken One of the most famous trips is known as Cappadocia is an enchanting region of streets are the remnants of its now departed remnants of once mammoth statues, which the “Blue Cruise” and travels from Fethiye swirling volcanic-rock landscapes that seem Greek inhabitants. The Agios Konstantinos- guarded it. This weird and lonely place south down the coast until disembarking to have been fashioned by mischievous Eleni Church is right in the center of town, has to be one of Turkey’s most peculiar near Olympus, home to the famous natural elves. Humans have settled in this area since while the 12th-century Ayios Vasilios Church archaeological sites. The giant stone heads phenomenon of the Chimaera. the Bronze Age and have left their own mark is found by walking up the hill to the ridge. of long-forgotten gods stare out from the on this weird and wacky moonscape by Some small cave churches are also just out PERGAMUM summit, casting an eerie atmosphere over burrowing into the soft volcanic rock to live. of town in the aptly-named Monastery Valley. the barren mountaintop. The time to come is The star sightseeing attractions are villages at sunrise, so you can watch the statues as carved out of the hillsides, Byzantine era TOPKAPI PALACE they loom out of the dark. rock-cut churches with dazzling frescoes, and labyrinth underground cities where early Sumptuous beyond belief, the Topkapı Palace ANI Christians once hid from invaders. It’s a takes you into the fantastical, opulent world magical wonderland brimming with things to of the sultans. It was from here that the The derelict buildings of the powerful do that both nature lovers and history buffs sultans of the Ottoman Era carved out an Silk Road city of Ani sit abandoned on the can appreciate. empire that would extend up into Europe plains close to Turkey’s modern border with and down through the Middle East and into Armenia. Once the Armenian capital, Ani’s Göreme Open-Air Museum Africa. The interiors, with their decadently golden age came to an end in the 14th Just outside of Göreme village is the exuberant tiling and lavish jeweled decor, century after Mongol raids, earthquake Turkey has an abundance of Greco-Roman UNESCO-protected site of Göreme Open-Air are an unforgettable peek into the Ottoman’s destruction, and trade route tussling all ruins, but none can be so romantically Museum, a monastery cluster of rock-cut power base. The surrounding public gardens played their part in the city’s decline. The placed as ancient Pergamum in modern- churches and monk-cells that hold fabulous were once the sole domain of the Royal beautiful red brick buildings still crumbling day Bergama. Once home to one of the frescoes. The complex dates from the 10th Court but are now open to the public and away amid the steppe grass have a ancient world’s most important libraries, to 12th centuries, when Cappadocia was provide a tranquil, green respite from the city mesmerising effect on all who visit. Don’t Pergamum’s remaining temple remnants an important Byzantine religious center. streets. miss the Church of the Redeemer or the now preside dramatically on a hilltop. It’s an There are several churches and chapels Church of St. Gregory, with their elaborate incredibly atmospheric place to explore, with within the complex, but the most important PAMUKKALE stone masonry and fresco remnants still an Acropolis area and a theater cut into the are the Elmalı Kilise (Apple Church), with its visible. hillside with sweeping panoramic views from Ascension fresco above the door; the Azize its top seating tiers. This is a great place to Barbara Şapeli (Chapel of St. Barbara), with ASPENDOS visit if you want to get a real feel for life in its red-ochre interior decoration; Yılanlı the Roman era. Kilise(Snake Church), with its wall-paintings of St. George and interesting fresco of the Just south of Antalya, the jaw-dropping ÖLÜDENIZ hermetic hermaphrodite St. Onuphrius; the mammoth bulk of the Roman Theater stunning and superbly restored frescoes of of Aspendos celebrates the pomp and Impossibly turquoise-blue water. Check. the Karanlık Kilise (Dark Church); and the ceremony of Marcus Aurelius’ rule. Lush green forest tumbling down a cliff to cavernous Tokalı Kilise(Buckle Church), with Considered the finest surviving example of a white sand beach. Check. The sheltered its dazzling wall-paintings that cover the a classical age theater still standing in the inlet of Ölüdeniz, just a short journey from entire barrel-vaulted chamber. The museum One of Turkey’s most famous natural world, it is one of antiquity’s star attractions. Fethiye, is Turkey’s most famous beach, and is one of Turkey’s top highlights and it’s wonders, the pure white travertine terraces Although the theater is the main reason with scenery that might as well have fallen Cappadocia’s most famous tourist attraction. of Pamukkale (“Cotton Castle” in English) for a visit here - and for most visitors on a off a perfect postcard, it’s easy to see why cascade down the slope looking like an half-day trip from nearby Antalya or Side the its popularity hasn’t waned. If the beach gets Hacibektaş out-of-place snowfield amid the green theater is all they see - there are more ruins Hacibektaş is a pilgrimage center for the landscape. Although the travertines are to explore over a vast hilly area if you have too crowded, it’s time to take to the skies followers of the Bektaşı order of dervishes, themselves a highlight of a Turkey trip, the time. and experience the stunning aerial views on founded by the philosopher and Sufi Haci vast and rambling ruins of Roman Hierapolis, a tandem paragliding dive off the summit of Bektaş Veli. The museum here is a place an ancient spa town, lie on the top of this CRUISING THE MEDITERRANEAN mighty Babadağ Mountain, which rises up of great devotional worship, including calcite hill, providing another reason to visit. behind the shore. Oh, did we mention that Haci Bektaş Veli’s tomb as well as many For the best photographs, come at dusk Turkey’s Mediterranean coastline has ruins Ölüdeniz is one of the world’s top paragliding destinations? Check. interesting exhibits about the faith. when the travertines glow as the sun sinks galore1627 ArabLab and ad 2018_238x170bags of things 5/10/17 to11:04 do, Page but 1 for On the road between the towns of Nevşehir below the horizon. and Hacibektaş is the village of Gulşehir, which is home to two interesting attractions. SUMELA MONASTERY The rock-cut monastery of Açık Saray was probably used by monks in the 6th and 7th centuries and contains a number of interesting cave-cut rooms. A little further down the highway is the 13th-century St. ATTENTION TURKISH Jean Church, which is rarely visited despite having an interior absolutely covered LABORATORY INDUSTRY in gloriously colorful and well-restored frescoes. YOUR UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO MEET Ürgüp 10,000+ BUYERS FROM OVER 100 COUNTRIES Ürgüp is a popular place to stay for visitors With its stunning, lonely setting, built into to Cappadocia because of its boutique hotels a cliff face, Sumela Monastery (Monastery @ ARABLAB 18–21 MARCH 2018 and good restaurant scene. Relics from of the Virgin Mary) is the star attraction the Seljuk period include the Karamanoğlu for visitors along the Black Sea Coast. Mosque (which dates to the 13th century) Wandering around this abandoned religious www. ARABLAB.com and the Altı Kapı Türbesi (a tomb built by complex, with its church interiors crammed a Seljuk prince for his family). The old with dazzling and vibrant frescoes, is a must KEEP ON WONDERING
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