Myths to the Renaissance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Myths to the Renaissance - Essay Example The system was meant to check on excessiveness of a ruler. During this period, the empire was under Caesar Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Augustus (son to Marcus Aurelius) and his adoptive brother and son in-law Lucius Verus1. He was a stoic philosopher2 who established himself as the more powerful of the two emperors. During his reign, the Roman Empire was full of all sorts of nefarious deeds. Led by the emperor himself, sexual sin was not a secret. In the film, we encounter concubines being depraved in his presence. He was a womanizer and a homosexual at the same time. The film gives us an understanding of the political system in ancient Rome. This was a political system structured a way that to reflect some sort of modern day democracy. It did not support tyranny. This was the main objective of the joint leadership by two consuls during the time of the ‘Republic’.3 The empire had other notable political entities apart from the monarchy. There was the senate made u p of senators, Plebian Tribunate and Comitia Centuriata. The entities, together with the two consuls constituted the form of political systems, which the Romans referred to as the ‘republic’. In the film, it is evident that the Roman Empire was ruled by militant monarchial leaders. ... He had an arena where he displayed his hunting skills. In this arena, euphemism is brought into play. The killing of ostrich by the emperor was meant to pass a message to the senators that the same could befall them if they disobeyed him. People who displayed reformist minds were assassinated by the regime5. The film depicts the Roman Empire as one full of people with greed for power. There area many instances where characters assassinate rulers to take power. It is claimed that the main character Commodus murdered his father to take power. Barely three months into his rule, there were plans to execute him too. After his death in the arena, the senate met and declared Pertinax the emperor. Some characters in the army could not warm to the idea of being led by a son to a former slave and ended up assassinating him. Tattooing was an in thing in the mercenary dominated Roman army. The deserters could easily be identified through the tattoos, hence are means of checking against deserters . The tattoos such as the one worn by Maximus in the film Gladiator were a reserve for the lowly regarded in society. In the army, they were meant for mercenaries, lowly ranked and miners during the reign of Emperor Constantine. The film portrays the tattoos as an epitome of paganism, superstition and marginalization in the Roman Empire. It was not just an ordinary practice but a law that was applied ruthlessly6. The film portrays a society that idolizes violent sports as a form of fun. Whenever the empire was peaceful, gladiators provided an alternative to war heroes for people to idolize. The gladiators were the heartthrob of many Romans girls. During the era in which the movie is based, the gladiators were a thorn

Evaluate the current applications of nanotechnology in medicine Essay - 3

Evaluate the current applications of nanotechnology in medicine. Discuss the potential future of nanomedicine based on current issues identified in the literature - Essay Example Some of the initial uses of nanotechnology have encompassed the use of antimicrobial coatings that are usually made of nanoparticulate silver on would dressings to stop infections and on items like catheters to stop the biofilms from forming (Krebs, 2010, p. 55). There has been work that has been directed at finding whether silver nanoparticle could be applied to wounds in a direct manner. In the medical field, nanotechnology has been applied in a variety of areas that include imaging and heating, soft tissue repair, orthopaedics, dentistry as well as surgery and drug delivery. The idea behind nanotech imaging is fairly direct in that it tags nanoparticles that show up in x-rays and MRIs with suitable antibodies and allow them to find the cells that are being looked for. In the research that involves imaging and heating of the cancer cells, the cells that are tagged absorb laser light more than the normal cells do making it easy for them to be killed by heat with a laser (Cleaveland, 2007). The biological perception of cancer is quickly evolving from disease models that are created from descriptions that are phenomenological to become network models that result from system biology that have the ability to capture the changing pathophysiology of the disease at the molecular level. The diffusion of this perception into a clinically relevant structure may have an enabling effect on the fight against cancer even though it remains a scientific and technological challenge. Nanotherapeutic approaches that are supposed to enhance efficiency while at the same time reducing the toxic side effects that are linked with the chemotherapies that treat cancer are being sought. Nanotechnology is being used in the treatment of cancer in two wide areas that include the development of nanovectors like nanoparticles that may contain medications or imaging agents which are