Tower of London

London, as one of the world's leading tourism destinations, is home to an array of famous tourist attractions and landmarks, and one of the world's most visited cities in terms of international visits. There are countless places that you can visit in London; one of them would be the Tower of London.
It is a historic castle situated on the bank of the River Thames in central London. Its history is very rich, that's what makes it a perfect and interesting place for foreigners to visit. Moreover, the Tower of London has been home to the crown jewels ever since the reign of Henry III which is another tempting attraction which is definitely worth seeing.

'If the ravens leave the Tower, the kingdom will fall...'

Being the all-in historic castle (and a former prison), there is a legend surrounding the complex. Legend says that the Tower and the whole kingdom will fall if the six resident ravens ever leave the fortress.  According to the stories, it was Charles II. who first insisted that the ravens of the Tower should be protected.

Despite several complaints coming from astronomer John Flamsteed concerning the fact that the ravens impeded the business of his observatory in the White Tower, they stayed.

Even though the ravens have their wings trimmed, some of them occasionally go absent. Interestingly, all the ravens have their names- e.g. raven George..he ate television aerials so he had to be dismissed. :/

Should animal testing be banned?

The issue of animal testing is definitely very controversial and highly discussed, so it is not easy to choose which side to be on because there are good arguments on both sides. However, I have to say that after reading many articles and arguments from both - proponents and opponents - I'm a proponent of animal testing.
Not that like the idea of animals being locked up in labs, but I figured that this is just a sacrifice we have to make in order to develop new medicaments and vaccinatinons. The main reason why animals are crucial for researches is that the tests need to be carried out on whole-body systems so that we can see the reactions of individual parts of the body. If we performed the tests only on cells in a petri dish, there is no way for us to see how the body reacts since there is none! Also, given that animals are very biologically similar to humans, they are susceptible to similar diseases, therefore the benefits for humankind can be enormous!!
Speaking about the horrible stories that you might have read somewhere about the conditions that animals live in, I think that as terrible as they sound, they're a bit exaggerated because in most countries there is a law that protects animals from any mistreatment and the tests themselves are highly regulated.

Science, bitch!!

Irony. That's what first popped in my head when I read the heading of an article about which I'm going to say a few words now. We all know that smoking (tabacco) is bad and it causes cancer. Nevertheless, the scientists from Melbourne have discovered that tabacco is not all that bad after all, and just as its leaves are harmful, its blossoms are very very useful.. and by 'very' I mean that they can actually cure cancer IRONICALLY caused by smoking leaves from the exact same plant!

The scientists have discovered a certain molecule that can be found in tabacco blossoms and is capable of fighting carcinogenic cells, therefore probably capable of curing cancer. This newly discovered molecule was named NaD1. The way it works is real simple. The molecule traces the cancinogenic cell, encircles it and then (simply put) sucks all of its bad cancer content so there is nothing left to menace the body!

Of course, this is just a theory and there are many tests to be carried out before it's safe to say that we have found an effective cancer treatment, but still. Preliminary studies that have already been run and they've turned out promising. Way to go!!