Bone volume after tooth loss

I read about dental bone graft recently. I know about inserting a screw into the jaw to later get a tooth fixed on it. But what I didn't know was that when a tooth comes off, the gap where the tooth was remains in the jaw and this gap has to be filled first before a screw can be inserted. The filling of the gap is called dental bone graft and can be done using either one of these methods:

1. Using your own bone from hip or chin. 
2. Using a cadaver's bone which has been sterilized.
3. Using cow's bone which has been sterilized.
4. Using a chemical substance which resembles bone.

There is a chance of rejection using options 2 and 3. By the way, I typed this out from memory from what I read  few days ago. Please refer to reliable sources for detailed information.

Anyway, here is something interesting. When a tooth is removed, the bone decreases in volume. This image I found on a dental website will give you a an idea of what exactly happens when teeth is lost and why old people look the way they do:

Image source

Tesseract

For all of you who have watched The Avengers, the title would make complete sense. Then, there is the other bunch of people who are going, "I know what a tesseract is and I don't know The Avengers that you speak of!" You guys must be Mathematicians. If you are neither and the title still makes sense, you must have an excellent vocabulary and I am so proud of you! I can't even spell prepostorous... preposterous... Ah. Got it right in the second try.

Anyway, back to the title.

Photo credit

This is the famous Tesseract from The Avengers.

According to Wikipedia,

it is a powerful energy source of unknown potential.

I'd like to slip in a little lesson here. Life is a learning process, isn't it? According to Dictionary.com (my best friend), this is a tesseracts:

Photo credit

"A four-dimensional hypercube, having sixteen corners."

Interesting? Yes. I think so. Now you can sleep with more knowledge today than yesterday. Yaay!

P/s: I am still figuring out where the 16 corners are.

Spongebob is real!

A new species of mushroom was found in the forests of Borneo in 2011. According to BBC, it is shaped like a sea sponge and has a fruity smell. Its appearance reminded scientists of a cartoon character which we are all familiar with – Spongebob Squarepants and that is how the mushroom got its name - Spongiforma squarepantsii.

To help children understand more about  Spongebob and Spongiforma, I did a quick analysis of both. We don’t want children to get confused and sing “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea, Spongiforma squarepantsii!” do we? The song has got to be sung right!

So, here we go!

 versus  

Spongebob Squarepants versus Spongiforma squarepantsii:

Similarities:

- Sponge like.

-         - Takes up its original shape if water is squeezed out.

Differences:

-         - Spongebob is from Bikini Bottom, Pacific Ocean. Spongiforma is from a forest in Borneo.

-         - Spongebob is square (kind of implied by the fact that his pants are square). Spongiforma is spherical to oval (probably resembles the shape of the mushroom cap its ancestor used to have).

It seems like cartoon characters are coming to live in the 21^st century.  I for one cannot wait for more cartoon characters to be discovered under the sea and in forests.

In case you were wondering, Patrick has been around for quite a while:

     

-Pictures of Spongiforma squarepantsii and pink sea star are from Wikipedia-