Trigliceridi (triglycerides) (#glossariobiocomico)

Sono un concentrato di energia. Per questo costituiscono la principale riserva energetica del nostro corpo (= la panza), spesso solo accumulata e mai utilizzata. Sono la riserva energetica anche di molti animali e piante, quindi fanno anche parte della nostra dieta.

Sono sempre formati da tre acidi grassi attaccati a un supporto fatto di glicerolo (per questo si chiamano tri-gliceridi). Per non annoiarsi, cercano di variare il più possibile il proprio assortimento di acidi grassi, scegliendoli più o meno lunghi e più o meno carichi (saturi) di atomi di idrogeno. Queste differenze relativamente piccole nella loro composizione hanno effetti spesso sproporzionatamente importanti sulla serenità di chi li mangia.

I trigliceridi visti da/ Triglycerides depicted by Danilo Battaglia.

Le cellule staminali / Stem cells explained (VIDEO)

Cosa sono le cellule staminali? Cosa le distingue dalle altre cellule del nostro corpo? Questo simpatico video di biocomiche.it vi aiuterà a chiarirvi le idee.
Questo progetto è stato ideato e realizzato da Danilo Allegra, con i disegni di Danilo Battaglia e il supporto dell'associazione DiSciMuS RFC, per Unistem 2016 (Napoli).

(ENGLISH)
What are stem cells? What makes them different from other cells in our body? This funny video by biocomiche.it will help you understand these important cells.
This project - supported by the association DiSciMuS RFC  - was designed and realized by Danilo Allegra, with drawings by Danilo Battaglia, for Unistem 2016 (Naples). 

Cos'è la leucemia / What is leukemia? (TED-Ed Video)

Le cellule staminali del midollo osseo sono cruciali per la nostra salute perché si trasformano in nuove cellule del sangue, che supportano e proteggono il nostro corpo. Ma quando la trasformazione non va a buon fine, delle mutazioni nocive possono spingere le cellule a riprodursi senza controllo, formando un tipo di cancro chiamato leucemia.
Danilo Allegra e Dania Puggioni ci spiegano come questo succede e come alcuni trattamenti possono dare speranza alle persone che soffrono di questa malattia.
Lezione di Danilo Allegra e Dania Puggioni, animazione di Zedem Media.

(ENGLISH)
Stem cells found in the bone marrow are crucial for our health because they are needed to become new blood cells that sustain and protect our bodies. But when the transformation goes wrong, harmful mutations can cause the cells to start replicating without control -- a type of cancer known as leukemia. Danilo Allegra and Dania Puggioni explain how this happens and how certain treatments provide hope for those suffering from the disease.

Sperm's smell: spermine, spermidine and 1-pyrroline

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You are lying on the bed, pants rolled down to your ankles and arms spread apart. Beside you, the tablet is still showing bonjour madame's marvels: you are in state of supreme ecstasy that, you know, won't last long. Something bothers you: a poignant smell of chlorine arising from the humid toilet paper you've just tossed to the floor.

You try to ignore it, but sperm's smell is not to be ignored.

Forums on the internet are full of dirty chats about the taste and smell of human sperm. It is debated whether its taste changes or not based on what you eat (BBC actually tested the thing); on the contrary, most people agree that sperm's odour resembles that of bathroom detergents containing chlorine.

One more brilliant comic by Cyanide and Happiness @ Explosm.net

Fighting malaria: tonic water, quinine and sickle cell anemia

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(You may want to read first the first part of this article, on how people get infected with malaria's parasite)

When left alone to fight against malaria, our body often gets in troubles. Our immune system finds it very difficult to get rid of the parasite which causes malaria (the plasmodium) and, differently from what happens with most other bugs, it can't even properly generate an acquired protection against it.

Only after several repeated infections, the body manages to organize a defence system that cannot eradicate plasmodia, but can at least reduce the severity of malaria symptoms and complications. That's why young - and still non-immunized - children are more at risk, and are the most common victims of the disease.

A treatment for malaria does exist: it's quinine, which has been known and used for four centuries. This is how it works.

How we get infected with malaria: the plasmodium and the anopheles mosquito

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Plasmodium is a microorganism which causes malaria. Unlike other microorganisms (for example the bacteria in our gut) plasmodia don't seek permanent homes or stable jobs: they like vagrancy. That's why a plasmodium's life is so eventful; but also cyclically repetitive.

The story of malaria starts with a mosquito, a female anopheles mosquito. While male anopheles flutter insect-like from flower to flower in search of nectar, female ones go for warm human blood.

To believe is to be cured: the common cold, the rhinovirus and the placebo effect

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Waking up one morning, you have the impression that something went wrong: your nose feels as though you had snorted pastry flour, and your mouth (which was wide open all night long) is like dried mud. You got a cold.
 Soon enough, your nose sheds the layer of solidified mucus plastering it, and starts letting out gallons of snot, soaking whole boxes of tissues (as many as you have), then the wrist of your sweaters and shirts; until you'll be forced to suck the blob in and swallow it. 

Soap or the solubility of ions, sugars and fat in water

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Soap is a kind of intermediary agent, able to break the chemical incommunicability between water and fat, caused by their opposite socio-chemical attitudes.

Water is a menage à trois among two hydrogens (H) and an oxygen (O), which associate in order to share their electrons. What comes out of this weird connection is a quite stable chemical relationship, and a molecule - H2O - electrically neutral, and with all reasons in the world to be happy and satisfied.

However, this apparently calm neutrality hides a certain electric turbulence.

La Fecondazione Assistita /In-Vitro Fertilization (VIDEO)

La prima fatica video di biocomiche.it è finalmente terminata. Perdonate le imperfezioni, stiamo imparando per voi. Disegni di Danilo Battaglia, voce di Marco Pisano. Basato sull'omonimo post di biocomiche.it

(ENGLISH)
The first work on video of biocomiche.it is finally complete. Not perfect, but promising. Drawings by visual artist Danilo Battaglia. Based on this post published in biocomiche.it