Solanaceae

The Solanaceae, or nightshades, are an economically important family of flowering plants. The family ranges from herbs to trees, and includes a number of important agricultural crops, medicinal plants, spices, weeds, and ornamentals. Many members of the family contain potent alkaloids, and some are highly toxic, but many cultures eat nightshades, in some cases as a staple food. The family belongs to the order Solanales, in the asterid group dicotyledons (Magnoliopsida). The solanaceae family consists of approximately 98 genera and some 2,700 species, with a great diversity of habits, morphology and ecology.

The name Solanaceae derives from the genus Solanum "the nightshade plant". The etymology of the Latin word is unclear. The name may come from a perceived resemblance of certain solanaceous flowers to the sun and its rays. In fact one species of Solanum (Solanum nigrum) is known as the "sunberry". Alternatively, the name could originate from the Latin verb solari, meaning "to soothe", presumably referring to the soothing pharmacologicalproperties of some of the psychoactive species of the family.

The family has a worldwide distribution being present on all continents except Antarctica. The greatest diversity in species is found in South Americaand Central America.

Solanaceae includes a number of commonly collected or cultivated species. Perhaps the most economically important genus of the family is Solanum, which contains the potato (Solanum tuberosum, in fact, another common name of the family is the "potato family"), the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), and the aubergine or eggplant (Solanum melongena). Another important genus Capsicum produce both chilli peppers and bell peppers.

The genus Physalis produces the so-called groundcherries, as well as the tomatillo (Physalis philadelphica), the Cape gooseberry and the Chinese lantern. The genus Lycium contains the boxthorns and the wolfberry Lycium barbarum. Nicotiana contains, among other species, the plant that produces tobacco. Some other important members of Solanaceae include a number of ornamental plants such as Petunia, Browallia and Lycianthes, the source of psychoactive alkaloids, Datura, Mandragora (mandrake), and Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade). Certain species are universally known for their medicinal uses, their psychotropic effects or for being poisonous.

Aconitum

Aconitum  also known as "the queen of poisons", aconite, monkshood, wolf's bane, leopard's bane, women's bane, devil's helmet or blue rocket, is a genus of over 250 species of flowering plants belonging to the family Ranunculaceae. These herbaceousperennial plants are chiefly native to the mountainous parts of the northern hemisphere, growing in the moisture-retentive but well-draining soils of mountain m

eadows. Most species are extremely poisonous and must be dealt with carefully.

The name comes from the Greek ἀκόνιτον, meaning "without struggle". Toxins extracted from the plant were used to kill wolves in older times, hence the name wolf's bane.

Description

The dark green leaves of Aconitum species lack stipules. They are palmate or deeply palmately lobed with 5–7 segments. Each segment again is 3-lobed with coarse sharp teeth. The leaves have a spiral (alternate) arrangement. The lower leaves have long petioles.

Dissected flower of Aconitum vulparia, showing the nectaries

The tall , erect stem is crowned by racemes of large blue, purple, white, yellow or pink zygomorphic flowers with numerous stamens. They are distinguishable by having one of the five petaloid sepals (the posterior one), called the galea, in the form of a cylindrical helmet; hence the English name monkshood. There are 2–10 petals, in the form of nectaries. The two upper petals are large. They are placed under the hood of the calyx and are supported on long stalks. They have a hollow spur at their apex, containing the nectar. The other petals are small and scale-like or non-forming. The 3–5carpels are partially fused at the base.

The fruit is an aggregate of follicles, a follicle being a dry many-seeded structure.

Arc Reactor

History

The Repulsor Tech node, as called in Earth-616, is a type of fusion power which derived from the Repulsor Technology of the Iron Man suit created by Tony Stark. It can be used as a source for clean energy as well as a powerful bomb, further modifications made along Rand Industries discarding the second possible application.

The arc reactor also generates an electromagnetic field.

During an attack made by suicide bombers created by Ezekiel Stane, Pepper Potts was gravely injured in a similar way Tony was in Afghanistan. Tony implemented this new technology into her, allowing her not only to survive the shrapnel near her heart, enabling surgery, but to heal quickly and control the reactor at will to create specific magnetic fields for protection or to levitate, and beams of energy.

After the Skrull Invasion,Norman Osborn became the director of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s successor H.A.M.M.E.R., dismissing Stark, and got access to the Superhuman Registration Act's database containing the secret identities of almost every hero. Tony managed to erase the one property of S.H.I.E.L.D. before Osborn managed to open it, and in order to do the same with the backup in the Extremis in his body, he had to reset it, thus his entire body.

In the end, Tony Stark fell into a coma-like state. Pepper's arc reactor was used to run Stark's body once more by using it to run the basic machine codes to keep Stark's Extremis-modified body working.

After returning to life, Tony used the arc reactor to power his new Bleeding Edge armor as well as similar devices were used to create new technologies for his new organization Stark Resilient such as a Repulsor Car, and empower the newly reconstructed Asgardia.

Since he first used it, Tony used this armor to empower any newly-created armors. Another new arc reactor was implanted to Virginia Potts.

Alternate Realities

Marvel Cinematic Universe (Earth-199999)

In this universe, the Arc Reactor was a device initially designed by Howard Stark, and later adapted by his son,Tony. A massive arc reactor provided power for the sprawling complex of Stark Industries until its destruction, and now the Stark Tower. This design was miniaturized by Tony to power a life-saving electromagnet in his chest.

Third miniaturized version of the reactor

Further upgrades to the design allowed Stark to employ successive generations of arc reactors, most notably in powering his crowning achievement, the Iron Man armor. Early generations of Iron Man armor were powered by much the same arc reactor technology as had powered Stark's electromagnet device, however poisoning from the palladium within the reactors were having an adverse effect on his health. This forced a radical redesign whereby Tony created a new element previously only theorized by his father years earlier. This new arc reactor had a massive power output advantage over previous arc reactors and was the first to power the formidable Iron Man MK VI armor.

Since their inception, mini arc reactors have powered successive generations of the Iron Man armor as a force for good. They have also fallen into the hands of far less savory individuals and used to power further battle suits for criminal operations, and a fleet of robotic battle drones

Lycaon

in Greek mythology, Lycaon was a king of Arcadia, son of Pelasgus and Meliboea, who in the most popular version of the myth tested Zeusby serving him a dish of his slaughtered and dismembered son in order to see whether Zeus was truly omniscient. In return for these gruesome deeds Zeus transformed Lycaon into the form of a wolf, and killed Lycaon's fifty sons by lightning bolts, except possibly Nyctimus, who was the slaughtered child, and instead became restored to life.

Spectrometer

A spectrometer (spectrophotometer, spectrograph or spectroscope) is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify materials. The variable measured is most often the light's intensity but could also, for instance, be the polarization state. The independent variable is usually the wavelengthof the light or a unit directly proportional to the photon energy, such as wavenumber or electron volts, which has a reciprocal relationship to wavelength. A spectrometer is used in spectroscopy for producing spectral lines and measuring their wavelengths and intensities. Spectrometer is a term that is applied to instruments that operate over a very wide range of wavelengths, from gamma rays and X-raysinto the far infrared. If the instrument is designed to measure the spectrum in absolute units rather than relative units, then it is typically called a spectrophotometer. The majority of spectrophotometers are used in spectral regions near the visible spectrum.

In general, any particular instrument will operate over a small portion of this total range because of the different techniques used to measure different portions of the spectrum. Below optical frequencies (that is, at microwave and radio frequencies), the spectrum analyzer is a closely related electronic device.

Quantum tunnelling

Quantum tunnelling or tunneling  refers to the quantum mechanical phenomenon where a particle tunnels through a barrier that it classically could not surmount. This plays an essential role in several physical phenomena, such as the nuclear fusion that occurs in main sequence stars like the Sun. It has important applications to modern devices such as the tunnel diode and the scanning tunnelling microscope. The effect was predicted in the early 20th century and its acceptance, as a general physical phenomenon, came mid-century.

Tunnelling is often explained using the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and the wave–particle duality of matter. Purely quantum mechanical concepts are central to the phenomenon, so quantum tunnelling is one of the novel implications of quantum mechanics.

Introduction to the concept

Quantum tunnelling falls under the domain of quantum mechanics: the study of what happens at the quantum scale. This process cannot be directly perceived, but much of its understanding is shaped by the macroscopic world, which classical mechanics can not adequately explain. To understand the phenomenon, particles attempting to travel between potential barriers can be compared to a ball trying to roll over a hill; quantum mechanics and classical mechanics differ in their treatment of this scenario. Classical mechanics predicts that particles that do not have enough energy to classically surmount a barrier will not be able to reach the other side. Thus, a ball without sufficient energy to surmount the hill would roll back down. Or, lacking the energy to penetrate a wall, it would bounce back (reflection) or in the extreme case, bury itself inside the wall (absorption). In quantum mechanics, these particles can, with a very small probability, tunnel to the other side, thus crossing the barrier. Here, the ball could, in a sense, borrow energy from its surroundings to tunnel through the wall or roll over the hill, paying it back by making the reflected electrons more energetic than they otherwise would have been.

Iridium

Iridium is the chemical element with symbol Ir and atomic number 77. A very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum family, iridium is the second-densest element (after osmium) and is the most corrosion-resistant metal, even at temperatures as high as 2000 °C. Although only certain molten salts and halogens are corrosive to solid iridium, finely divided iridium dust is much more reactive and can be flammable.

Iridium was discovered in 1803 among insoluble impurities in natural platinum. Smithson Tennant, the primary discoverer, named the iridium for the Greek goddess Iris, personification of the rainbow, because of the striking and diverse colors of its salts. Iridium is one of the rarest elements in theEarth's crust, with annual production and consumption of only three tonnes. ¹⁹¹Ir and ¹⁹³Ir are the only two naturally occurring isotopes of iridium as well as the only stable isotopes; the latter is the more abundant of the two.