Identifying key features of digital resources used during online science practicals.

As in our everyday lives, we use digital elements as part of formal and informal education. To serve their educational purpose well, systematic research is desirable to identify and measure their characteristics. This study focuses on science practicals, which are complex and vary in organizational settings and specific arrangements, including usage of digital elements.

Histopathological Study of a Mummified Eye and Optic Nerve from a Strangled Peruvian Mummy.

We present the histopathological findings of a naturally mummified eye from the Peruvian Lambayeque culture (900-1,200 AD), in which rehydration, light microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy allowed a detailed analysis of several eye tissues including the eyelids, sclera, and optic nerve, the latter showing evidence of hemorrhage likely related to the documented strangulation as the cause of death. We conclude that histopathological analysis of rehydrated mummified tissues can provide valuable information from fragile eye structures including the optic nerve, and these findings can be useful from a forensic point of view.

A paleoneurohistological study of 3,000-year-old mummified brain tissue from the mediterranean bronze age.

Objectives: Mummified nervous tissue is very rarely found in ancient remains and usually corresponds to corpses which were frozen or preserved in bogs, conditions which limit tissue autolysis and bacterial degradation. Here, we show the unusual finding of spontaneously mummified brain tissue from several individuals from the little known megalithic talaiotic culture of the island of Minorca, dating approximately 3,000 years before present and corresponding to the late Mediterranean Bronze Age.

Methods: These individuals were part of an intact burial site containing 66 subjects.