A microscope is a complex optical instrument that requires periodic and careful maintenance of its condition. Putting the microscope in order cannot be equated with maintaining the condition of household appliances such as a computer, TV, etc. If you feel that your microscope has become somehow nondescript or the image through it has become cloudy, fuzzy, then it's time to think about cleaning. First of all, I would like to say that there are special optical workshops that, for a moderate fee, will bring your research device into full order. However, if this is not in your interests and you want to fix everything yourself, then everything that is written below is for you.
Microscope Cleaning Accessories
To care for microscopes at home, you can now buy ready-made kits in the optical store, which have everything you need to put the device in full order. If you could not find such a set or do not want to spend money on it, then you can independently prepare all the necessary tools for maintaining the microscope. In fact, there is nothing complicated in this.
If you decide to carry out a comprehensive cleaning of the microscope, you will need the following accessories:
- cotton wool;
- flannel napkin;
- cloths for cleaning glasses;
- ether;
- pure alcohol;
- a stick about 15 cm long and 5 mm in diameter, pointed at the end.
Looking after your microscope
A microscope is such an instrument that you simply cannot help touching it with your hands during operation. Naturally, after that, fingerprints and other dirty spots remain on the surface of its tripod and adjusting elements, for example, the focus and brightness knobs of the illuminator. However, all this is cleaned and should not scare you. If the microscope stand is made of metal, which is most often the case, then in order to put it in order, you can safely use cotton wool soaked in alcohol. When wiping the body of the microscope, one should not resort to brute physical force or put pressure on it. When caring for the hull, attention should be paid to every detail.
The microscope stage is usually made of metal, so you can also take care of it with alcohol wool. After cleaning the top of the table, you should tidy the bottom side. Some parts of the bottom of the table can be washed with cotton wool, and in order to clean the grooves and other hard-to-reach places from dust, you can resort to the blowing method. For this, an ordinary rubber pear bought at a pharmacy is suitable.
Eyepiece cleaning
The eyepiece is part of the optical system of a microscope. Any contamination of this part results in reduced image quality. To clean the main lens of the eyepiece, which is facing the observer's eye, you can use a spectacle cleaning cloth or a clean flannel cloth. It is recommended to breathe on the slightly wiped outer surface of the lens, and then wipe it again with a dry cloth.
If you notice that dust has got on the inside of the eyepiece and interferes with normal observation, then it is better to entrust the disassembly and cleaning of the internal parts to specialists by contacting a service center for repair and maintenance of optics for help. In some cases, these works can be done independently. A disassembled eyepiece should never be mechanically cleaned. For this, a rubber pear is used. The reticle is cleaned with a spectacle wipe or flannel cloth.
Lens Care
The lens is the optical part of the microscope. Any even slight contamination of the lens surface of the lens leads to a significant deterioration in the sharpness and clarity of the image. Cleaning the lens is done in two stages if it is a normal one, and in three if it is a question of cleaning an immersion lens.
To care for the lens, you need to pick up a stick prepared in advance. Wetting the sharp end of the stick with alcohol, wrap a cotton swab around it. This swab removes immersion oil from the lens. Next, a new tampon is made. It can be soaked in xylene, pure aviation gasoline, alcohol, or a 1:3 mixture of ether and alcohol, but don't overdo it. Excess fluid may cause the lens to fall out. With light movements without mechanical effort, this swab cleans the outer surface of the objective lens. It is important to know that excessive pressure can cause the lens to fall out of the frame. With the same swab, you can tidy up the metal part of the lens body. Next, after breathing on the lens, you should wipe it with a dry swab. To make sure that the lens is clean, you need to point it at the light and inspect it. It should not have streaks or dust particles.
Lighting cleaning
If your microscope is equipped with conventional incandescent, halogen or LED illuminators, then you can easily and effortlessly put it in order. To do this, you can use a rubber pear or a swab moistened with alcohol. With illuminators based on a condenser, things are somewhat more complicated. The condenser is another optical instrument that requires careful handling, both during microscope use and maintenance.
The condenser housing on the illuminator side is cleaned by blowing with a rubber bulb. The lower folding lens is wiped with a dry flannel cloth. The lens facing the preparation is cleaned with a cotton swab on a stick moistened with xylene, a mixture of alcohol and ether, or pure alcohol or aviation gasoline. The main thing is not to overdo it. Specialists of the site www.site warn that excessive pressure on the upper lens of the condenser can lead to its falling out.
Microscope Camera Care
When caring for a microscope video camera, you can use the same tools and technologies that are used to care for lenses and eyepieces. But chemical solutions and special formulations are recommended to be used only in the most complex and neglected cases.
If you want to clean the microscope as little as possible, then the first thing you should not do is touch the surface of the lenses with your hands. Any touching will result in the need to clean the microscope again. The same applies to illuminators, mirrors and light filters. When cleaning the latter, you need to be extremely careful, both in the choice of means and the strength of the impact. For example, applying excessive force to the filter may cause the anti-reflective coating to wear off.
The views of the ancients about the opposing and interacting Principles are Reality Modeling Schemes and reflect the system of life processes of the body. The ideas about the life-giving Energy flowing in the human body, like blood or lymph, and connecting all organs and tissues, have already been confirmed by numerous experiments.
We will not dwell on various hypotheses about the physical nature of the "biological energy" of the ancients, which have become more and more numerous in recent years. We will consider how the ancient observers imagined the energy, subtle, invisible to the naked eye, structures of the body. After all, it is precisely from the work of this peculiar "energy circulatory system" The human body, as it was believed in the distant past, depends on the energy balance and orderliness of the reactions of both each individual cell and the organism as a whole.
The initial concept of ancient physiology is the idea of energy that ensures the functioning of all body systems. This energy comes from the environment, and can be figuratively represented as a stream of tiny particles that carry various charges.
Immediately make a reservation that further the word "energy" will be used in a specific sense. By "biological" and "mental" "energy" we mean not power (motor) energy as a measure of the performance of work, but some subtle-material reality, due to the movement of which through the body are carried out subtle, information and regulatory processes in the human body and in his psyche. The ability to control behavior "information energy" and underlies the therapeutic effects of acupuncture and other techniques used by ancient physicians. The ancients knew that any disease is a consequence of dysregulation, an imbalance between the various control systems of the body.
The body draws energy for informational, regulatory processes from outside. Charges are actively taken in from the environment or themselves enter the organism that inhales them (for example, during conscious-volitional breathing or special psycho-training exercises). After all, both the organism and its environment consist, in general, of similar particles and are controlled by the same forces. In fact, identical Forces, Elements and Energies act in the entire Cosmos!
In ancient India, this life-giving energy was called Prana, in ancient China - Qi. Philosophers defined this energy as the material basis of the Universe, responsible for the entire World Movement, including the vital activity of organisms.
Prana and Qi were seen not only as abstract philosophical terms, but actively used in applied medicine! Ancient physicians were well aware of the ways of movement of invisible energy in the body - through the channels of the subtle body, with the participation of energy centers. They skillfully used the laws and rules for the distribution and transformation of this energy in diagnosis and treatment in order to activation of the natural forces of self-organization and self-tuning of the body in unison with the rhythms of the Universe. The mediator between man and the Universe was the Single Living Energy, which the ancients knew how to manage.
The most important sign of psychic energy was its cosmicity. It creates and destroys everything that exists not only in the human body, but also knows the Life of the Universe in all its greatness and diversity. It is the dynamics of this Living Force that determines the unity of the microcosm of the human body and the Great Cosmos - the Originator of life and thought on planet Earth!
The ancients repeated: “Through the Living Force, the Cosmos governs the life of man. By means of the Single Energy, human thought moves the worlds! The Energy of Life is the Great Intermediary of Existence!”
The famous Russian physiologist I.M. Sechenov wrote: “An organism without an external environment supporting its existence is impossible. Therefore, the scientific definition of an organism must also include the environment that influences it, since without the latter the existence of an organism is impossible. It is the unity of the Universe and an individual organism that is ensured through a universal organized energy exchange, through the transmission and reception of a kind of “single information and energy currency”, which has equal circulation throughout the Cosmos.
If we imagine the energy influences that are important for the state and life of the human body - climate change and seasonal fluctuations in atmospheric pressure, humidity and temperature, changes in the length of daylight hours, lunar cycles, 12-year cycles of Jupiter influence *, changes in the composition of nutrition, air composition, change in occupation and much, much more - you can understand how difficult it is to bring all these factors into a single system. (* They are reflected in the “Astrological Animal Calendar”, so revered in the East, which is of great medical importance in diagnosis and in determining the individual characteristics of patients.) But practical medicine requires precisely generally applicable theories and models.
The movement of psychobioenergy determines the "secret mechanisms" of the body's regulatory systems. With the development of various methods of influencing energy currents in the channels of the energy structure (using acupuncture, for example), all possible influences of a rhythmically organized energy environment, including all external processes and internal responses to them, were studied - up to studying the influence of the distant planets of the solar system, and not just the moon.
Moscow physicist N.I. Kobozev, in the course of a long study of the regularities of the thermodynamic organization of man, came to an unexpected conclusion. It turns out that thinking and memorization cannot be carried out in a person on the basis of the material-molecular structures of the brain, as was commonly believed. For many decades, scientists were convinced that the "living molecules" that make up the cells of the body are the smallest "bricks" that make up living matter. Scientists believed that all purely biological processes, and even more so mental processes, proceed only at the material level, and there are no finer biological structures in the body.
N.I. Kobozev found convincing calculated arguments in favor of recognizing the fact that the true basis for the stability and strength of our body is some invisible to the human eye, super-stable field structure of the body. Our body "does not scatter" into molecules because they are connected by strong chemical bonds. However, the temperature of our body is high and the energy of the molecules is so great that the subtlest processes that provide thinking and memorization are simply impossible.
Everyone knows from the school bench that in all objects, the temperature of which is different from absolute zero, there is a so-called "thermal noise". Each particle of matter is constantly moving among its own kind, pushing other particles. Atoms and molecules change places all the time, move, push and scatter in different directions.
Just as a magnet is capable of holding a heavy metal ball in space with an invisible, but quite real effect, hanging as if without support, so also some complex-organized field of a living organism holds the atoms and molecules of our body, preserving our appearance and inherent structural features of the body for many years.
The processes of thinking and memory, according to mathematical calculations, are so subtle and "gentle" that at normal temperature of the human brain, no oscillating, pushing and constantly "shaking" molecules can ensure their flow. This is possible only under the assumption of the existence of a field super-stable structure of the body - a single foundation for all processes occurring in the body, including those that provide thinking and memorization.
To the eyes of a physicist, the internal structure of our body appears to be shaking, as if in a fever. And according to all mathematical calculations, for the possibility of carrying out the processes of thinking and remembering, almost complete rest of the molecules is necessary, which cannot be with their high kinetic energy (its value determines the temperature of the human body). This rest is ensured by a super-stable field structure that is uniform for the whole organism. And the ancients knew about its existence and significance!
Oriental physicians have been talking about the reality of this energy structure for many centuries. Modern scientists are only beginning to “notice” the existence of this energy system, and even then they are still “on the tip of the pen”, i.e. through mathematical calculations. The ancient healers knew the patterns of work of this energy structure and used in treatment!
The material structures of the human body - atoms and molecules - are, according to the ideas of Eastern physicians, only a "framework", "clothing", "covering" the deep field energy structures. This "veil" envelops those formations that determine the entire vital dynamics and stability of the organism.
Already in recent years, scientists have come to the conclusion about the fundamental difference between the human brain and the brain of any animal - a difference that determines the very possibility of thinking and creativity. It was customary to consider the human and animal brain as something like a "telephone exchange". Nerves are wires, brain centers are analogous to computer networks. The difference between the human brain lies in the fact that with a similar cellular and tissue structure, it resembles more "field computer". The human brain is permeated through and through with structural-field interactions, for which there is no barrier when they propagate. All brain cells are connected to all other completely and simultaneously. The human brain works, thanks to the field interconnections of neurons, synchronously and holistically - like one super-complex cell.
Now many scientists are seriously considering the possibility of the existence of protein-free life forms on earth. Previously, most physicians and biologists were convinced that outside the protein material structure, life is generally impossible. Academician V.P. Kaznacheev suggests that it is possible for living organisms to exist in the form of organized field structures that are not visible to the human eye, but are quite active, and possibly conscious.
For many years, physicians have been taught to consider the anatomical structures of the human body as the most elementary level of organization of life processes. But, apparently, the Eastern doctors were right, testifying to the existence of a “thin” - invisible to the human eye - “energy” human body, the “blood”, “currents” of which is psychobioenergy.
Talk about the "biofield" and "auras" has already moved from the realm of rumors to the subject of the work of numerous scientific laboratories. Biorhythmology and cosmobiology (astrology), studies of the phenomena of reflexology and the study of the abilities of psychics convincingly prove that the ideas of the ancients about the existence invisible foundation the material body of man are quite justified. And without studying the structure and laws of functioning of these deep regulatory structures of the body, a modern physician cannot do.
The very mathematical harmony of the models and rules used in Eastern diagnostics and therapy, for example, the combination of the rules of Yin-and-Yang and the Five Elements in the Mother-and-Son rule, indicates the organization and rigor of the architectonics of the energy structures themselves, through which the deep, causal regulation of body functions.
According to the well-known researcher of the laws of self-organization and self-government of living systems Dubrov A.P., “... the traditional views of Eastern medicine about the system of acupuncture points and their interactions intuitively embodied the ideas of symmetry and harmony based on certain numerical ratios associated with the “golden section” and proportion. By the way, the very fact of constructing a scheme of interrelationship of the Five Primary Elements is noteworthy. It is a regular five-pointed star. This pentagram in Ancient Occult Science symbolized the principle of Man, embodied on Earth. And in the proportions of the ratio of the elements of the figure, the "golden section" is encrypted, which determines almost all the main "canons" of the construction of both living organisms and the structures of inanimate Nature, more precisely, Nature, at times seeming to us not quite alive.
The rules for diagnosing and determining the point and channel of influence on the body, the rules for combining influences in themselves - separately - are clear and simple. The experience and intuition of the doctor are necessary when combined these rules together when applying them in practice. The energy structure of the human body, although naturally slender, is still very complex. The relationship between various energy centers and energy channels is sometimes very, very confused.
There is convincing evidence of the existence of a connection between the state of the energy structures of a living organism and changes in the hereditary code. The influence "reaches" even the genetic apparatus of a living cell!
More than 30 years ago, Yuri Vladimirovich Jiang Kanzheng, a doctor by profession, came to the conclusion that living matter, regardless of its form - whether it is an animal, a plant or microorganisms - radiates energy in the microwave frequency range. This phenomenon was called by him biocommunication. As a result of his experiments, Jiang discovered that genetic changes in the nature of living organisms can be achieved through biocommunication.
With the help of a device he invented to amplify biocommunication currents, Jiang received actual evidence of his ideas: chicken eggs irradiated with bio-microwave waves from a duck hatched chicks that have webbed paws and resemble a duck in body shape. And the mass of adults is 50% more than in the control group. Corn, which received the genetic code of wheat through the plant, grows up to six stalks, the cobs are collected in a whorl, each share of which is hexagonal, similar to an ear of wheat. The yield of green mass increased by 300%, and the yield of grain - by 200%.
These are the data of modern experiments, proving the reality of the transmission of information during bioradiation by living organisms from one to another. But how did the ancient oriental doctors themselves consider the functional structure of the human energy body, in particular the Chinese doctors, who developed the issues of practical bioenergetics? Let's outline the so-called "organ" structure of the body, so widely used so far in traditional Chinese medicine.
The energy "Qi" - the carrier of "life force" - circulates in a strictly defined way through the energy ("thin") channels that form a vicious circle. It passes through the organs and systems, completing a complete circuit within a day. At different times of the day, in different seasons, as well as in different periods of the 5-year and 12-year cycles of the Chinese medical calendar, the activity and functional state of organs and systems are not the same. At the moment of the highest tension in the work, a particular organ turns out to be “unprotected” against the pathogenic influences of the environment and destructive influences from within (mental overstrain). During these periods of time, it is necessary to create protective conditions for this organ, which will help maintain the harmony and integrity of the body.
It is precisely with the rhythm of movement through the organ of "vital energy" that the time of the most intense activity of individual "organs" is connected. The greatest flow of energy "Qi" to the "organ" makes the latter the most active. It is during this period (and during the day each of the organs is active for about two hours) that the activated organ and the functional systems of the body associated with it are most susceptible to various influences, both pathogenic and therapeutic.
Replenishment of the "vital energy" in the body is carried out due to the functioning of various "organs", of which some are considered as "working organs" (Yang system), and the other part - as "storage organs" (Yin system).
The five "working organs" are the stomach, large intestine, bladder, gallbladder, and small intestine. All of them serve to take and grind food, absorb or actively excrete toxins. These are hollow organs with smooth muscles, they can undergo significant fluctuations in functional muscle tone. Yang organs are strongly influenced by consciousness and emotional reactions (Yang influences). They are almost constantly affected by emotions and subconscious impulses of fear and anxiety. In the Eastern definition of "organ" is meant precisely special functional power system, anatomically represented in almost all parts of the body. True, it is mainly associated with one or another anatomical object of our body, but still is not reduced only to its real structures.
Particularly clearly non-anatomy, functionality The concept of "organ" is confirmed when considering the sixth "working organ" of the Yang group, called "Three parts of the body." It is a special kind of functional circle, including the neurovascular network and some muscle groups. It connects the organs in the thoracic and abdominal cavities with the organs in the pelvic area. The state of this "organ" significantly affects all the "organs" of the body. Pathogenic energy influences of the external environment, which have a Yang character, "penetrate" into the body through it. Example: strong pain sensations related to Yang, through overexcitation of the “Three parts of the body” energy organ, disharmoniously affect the Yang organs.
So, Yang-organs are "organ-producers". They receive "raw materials" from the outside and process them into "vital energy". After that, this energy circulates in the body through various energy channels, some parts of which are represented on the human skin in the form of chains of bioactive points.
The Yin group includes "storage organs" - the spleen and pancreas, lungs, kidneys and heart, which serve to renew energy reserves and accumulate them in the body. They process the ingested food and accumulate part of it in order to create a biologically necessary reserve. The health of the body mainly depends on the functional usefulness of these Yin organs. You can remove the gallbladder, even part of the stomach, but without a heart, as well as without both kidneys, it is almost impossible to live.
The sixth "accumulating organ" is the "Pericardium", or "Lord of the Heart", which is a functional circle that includes the entire circulatory system and peripheral blood with its humoral and hormonal regulatory functions. He is "engaged" in supplying organs with nutrients and has various connections with all internal centers and systems for accumulating the necessary reserves.
Each "working organ" and each "storage organ", according to its physiological function, has well-defined parts of Yin and Yang. All Yang organs have Yin parts. All Yin organs contain Yang departments. The ratio of these parts in the organs is different. Varying in various proportions, they can lead to one or another functional disorder or even disease.
The Yang part, which is part of the Yin organs, is responsible for the occurrence of pain in them and is the cause and condition of why strong acts of will, fear, concern (Yang influence) can reach the Yin organs and cause corresponding disturbances in their work. Violations of the circulation of energy "Qi" lead to the need for targeted therapeutic correction. One of the methods of effective directed influence on the state and picture of energy dynamics in the channels and centers of the body is the impact on the bioactive points of the skin, for example, acupuncture.
Over many centuries of development and improvement of acupuncture, Chinese physicians have mastered this means of correcting energy disturbances in the body. They literally learned manage the flow of "life force" with the help of metal needles, by introducing them into certain points of the body, called "biologically active".
To increase the functional activity of one or another biologically active point (BAP), i.e. to achieve the Yang effect, Chinese doctors recommended using gold needles. To lower the energy potential of BAT (Yin-effect), the use of silver needles was advised. The use of various metals, used on the basis of centuries of clinical experience, is justified from the standpoint of modern electrophysiology and physical chemistry. Getting into the electrolytic environment (and penetrating through the surface of the skin, the needle will certainly be surrounded by tissue fluid containing many dissolved salts), gold and silver needles react differently with this environment. On gold needles, a much lower electrical potential arises, which partly determines the exciting (energy-supplying) effect of their use. So the ancients in the course of practice came to conclusions, the correctness of which only in our time finds objective experimental confirmation. But Eastern physicians had at their disposal only two devices - a sharp eye and a sharp mind. Observation did truly miracles!
A functional disorder of any organ is always accompanied by the appearance on the surface of the skin of points that are painful to the touch and have a certain localization. These points are interconnected by the so-called energy channels, through which, according to the ancients, the flow of "vital energy" flows.
The doctrine of the system of energy channels of the body is one of the most important theoretical and practical achievements of Ancient Medicine. This doctrine has a decisive influence on diagnostic concepts, on the choice of methods of treatment, and even plays a significant role in prevention. It is equally important in the use of acupuncture and drug therapy.
There is a saying in China: "If the doctor does not know the channels, he easily falls into error." In the course of scrupulous observations of the activity of a healthy body and the manifestations of painful syndromes, physicians of the past revealed a whole system of paths - longitudinal, transverse, circular, large and small, lying in the depths and on the surface of the body - along which energy constantly and rhythmically circulates, nourishing the entire body, ensuring normal vital activity, penetrating into the body from the environment, penetrating from the superficial parts of the body deep into and back.
Energy channels are a single complex branched system that reflects the pathological picture of the state of the body in case of illness and actively perceives all the influences of the external environment.
In total, there are 12 pairs of main organ channels on the human body, corresponding to the 12 main organs of Chinese traditional theory. The organs and their channels, as we have already mentioned, are divided into two groups - Yin and Yang. All 12 main channels are combined into a single network. One goes into another, the other into the third, and so on, until the twelfth channel closes with the first. The circle closes: the ring of channels continuously passes vital energy through itself in accordance with certain (daily, monthly, seasonal and long-term) rhythms. A twelve-membered closed ring of energy channels is formed, along which, flowing from one to another, "Qi" moves in a strict sequence. This vital energy is distributed throughout the body through channels, connecting all the functional blocks of the body.
"Life energy" comes into the body from the inhaled air (when breathing) and from the solid and liquid food consumed. There are other ways for life-giving energy to enter the body: in harmonic thinking, it comes directly from Space and is perceived by the Sahasrara energy center located in the crown of the head, and is also “absorbed” by all BAPs of the body surface when sunlight directly hits them. Energy consumption, common to all people, occurs in the lungs, so the classic circle of energy circulation in the body begins with the energy channel corresponding to the “lungs” organ.
The channels serve as pathways through which the disease "introduces" into the body, spreads from the surface layers inward (when the disease progresses) and from the depths outward (when the disease subsides). Energy channels are places that accurately and completely (with sufficient observation and education of the doctor) reflect pathological changes in the body. For example, in case of violations in the lungs, pain is felt in the chest and in the hands, in case of liver diseases, the ribs and lower abdomen hurt, in case of heart pain, the hands are involved, in case of bladder diseases, the pain "gives" in the form of tingling and heat in ... shoulders. At the same time, the spread of sensations occurs exactly in the direction of energy movement in the corresponding energy channel involved in the pathological process.
In the past, the study of the structure of physical organs was simply not available due to the lack of the necessary instrumentation and because of the prohibitions on autopsy of human corpses. Therefore, the main attention of the ancient Chinese healers was entirely focused on the study of the functions of the body as a whole, on the consideration of a living functioning system - without dividing it into conditional organs and tissues according to the anatomical - external! - a sign that does not reflect the entire richness of the spatial and functional relationships of body tissues. In this, the logic of the ancient healers in the knowledge of the human body was opposite to the thoughts of European researchers. European scientists sought to disassemble the whole into its constituent elements, to understand the mechanics of each of them, and only after that to bring them all together. In the East, however, the main instrument of knowledge was the greatest, cultivated for centuries and brought up from early childhood, which successfully made up for the lack of experimental and analytical data.
The idea of the circulation of vital energy through a closed ring of energy channels in the systems and organs of the body is a brilliant anticipation of the best ideas about the metabolism and energy as a fundamental process of ensuring the vital activity of the body. The insight and observation of the creators of acupuncture revealed to them the dependence of the functional activity of internal organs on the daily, seasonal and long-term rhythms of the surrounding nature. It was believed that the vital energy makes a complete revolution along the ring of channels within one day. The hours when energy passed through a certain channel were characterized by the maximum activity of the organ associated with it and its function. Nevertheless, the accumulations of vital energy during these hours were concentrated on the opposite channel on the circle of circulation of the “Qi” energy.
The chain of interconnected energy channels, their mutual arrangement in a certain order following each other, the legitimate “queue” for the timely receipt of the next “portion” of vital energy have been established over centuries of observation in exact accordance with the rhythms of the body’s vital processes assigned to each energy channel in accordance with its functional role and specific qualities. For example, the maximum activity of the lung channel falls on the period from 3 to 5 am local time. And it is at this time that there is a maximum decline in the activity of the bladder channel, which is opposite on the circle of circulation of "Qi" through the channel of the lungs. In China, these relationships were associated with the "Noon-Midnight" rule, which was necessarily taken into account when choosing a method and means of influencing the energy of the patient's body.
To the current medical student, much in the structure of the human body seems at times too too technical, mechanical, oversimplified and even too comprehensible. For example, the heart is a pump for pumping blood. According to the ancient medical tradition, the heart energy-information center plays a major role in regulating all body functions, which is also reflected in the symbolic images of the connections of the heart center with acupuncture channels.
The central nervous system appears to be an automatic telephone exchange - impulses run back and forth along the wires of the nerves, from time to time switching in the so-called synapses - the gaps between the processes of neurons. After that, all individual impulses are "laid" into the brain computer. Receptors of nerve endings are some kind of signal buttons, which are “pressed” by external stimuli in different ways and “knock out” an electrical signal in them, running further along the nerve fibers.
For a modern medical student, the internal environment of the body seems to be a kind of "biological boiler". And if you need to increase the content of any drug in one of the places in the body, then for some reason they must “pump in” huge (compared to the locally required dose!) alien body of matter in full the internal environment of the body. Only the smallest fraction of the administered drug "runs" to the true destination. The rest is just poisons cells and tissues that do not need this substance. Why does the whole body need this “chemical attack”?
Biochemists have studied hundreds and hundreds of the finest chemical mechanisms of life. However, there is still no single scheme for their interaction. There is no general picture of the relationship between the levels and departments of the "biochemical machine" of the human body. Research is mainly conducted on animals, only in some details similar to humans. At the level of understanding the structure of the whole organism, there is still sufficient confusion.
Oriental physicians were well aware that the human body is a true miracle of wholeness. This integrity is ensured by appropriate integration mechanisms, mechanisms for combining various parts into a single functioning whole, functioning harmoniously and in harmony.
There is such a fun profession - bionics. Bionics specialists are engaged in the fact that they "peep" from nature the best of the devices of living organisms and copy them in their inventions. So, the structure of the supports of the Eiffel Tower was peeped by the architect while studying the structure of the fibers of human tubular bones. The body of the dolphin suggested the best forms for submarines. There are countless examples. However, the technicalism of thinking allows not only to perceive the useful in Nature. A person strives for what he sees in a living organism, as soon as possible. explain in technical terms, in accordance with the level of development of the technology itself. Once upon a time, a person was represented as a kind of mechanical robot. Now compare with a computer.
Table 10. Scheme of the main meridians and collateral lines
| main meridians | Longitudinal meridians | 12 main meridians running between muscles along the body 12 branches from the main meridians, 8 "wonderful" meridians |
|
| secondary meridians | 15 collateral (secondary) meridians, usually running across the body or obliquely | ||
| Medium small Surface |
All smaller branches of the main secondary meridians | ||
| Auxiliary meridians | Meridians going inward | Internal organs inextricably linked with the meridians | |
| Meridians going out | 12 tendon meridians | Each of the 12 tendon meridians and each of the 12 cutaneous zones closely associated with one of the main meridians | |
Bionic models of the body are technical, mechanical, even if the thin molecular apparatuses of cells are considered. Only recently, scientists are beginning to guess that the human nervous system does not work on the principle of a "telephone exchange". The nervous system is a field-type computer, everything in it is connected to everything at every moment, all neurons are in contact with everyone at the same time, in a coordinated and synchronous manner.
When the mechanics were developed, the heart was "called" a pump. When they "got" to electricity and the telegraph, the nervous system was presented in the form of a telephone network. The level of understanding of the mechanisms of integration of the body corresponds only to the level of technology to which civilization has risen in a certain period of development!
Only now mathematicians and physicists are beginning to approach the solution of the riddles of the integrative mechanisms of the body's regulation. For example, new models of spatial connections, formulated by the French mathematician Alexander Grothendieck, show the possibility of synchronous processes in biostructures at different points in space without any functional network of connections, i.e. as if over space and time without the existence of even a physical carrier of communication between the points of activity of the system. These and other discoveries seem to will change the very way of thinking of doctors and biologists, gradually bringing understanding closer to the models of ancient oriental medicine, to the representatives of which, in our opinion, all this was close.
The ancients were well aware of the models of homeostasis of energies, they used in practice the ideas of psychic energy, to understand which we're just getting closer now. The ancients knew about the most complex system of energy regulation, represented, for example, in the system of energy channels and energy centers, which we still know about only from ancient treatises.
The ancients, perhaps, did not know for sure about microorganisms, whose vital activity side-by-side causes fermentation processes (although we are convinced that the meditative method of intuitive insight into the essence of any issue allows you to comprehend anything if you wish, if it seems necessary). However, the fermentation itself was well known to them, and they understood that the causal "culprits" of this process were manifesting themselves. The ancients mastered these reactions in food production as well. The same can be said about the study of the regulation of body functions through the system of energy channels of the subtle body. The scientific data obtained by the objective-physical, experimental-instrumental method, perhaps, were not available to them. However, specific manifestations and rules for managing the body's energy system were identified in ancient times and used in the practice of treatment.
The concept of "homeostasis" was introduced into scientific use by the French physiologist Claude Bernard; he designated the ability of organisms to maintain a certain composition of their own internal environment at a stable level, regardless of the influences of the external environment. The constancy of the composition and functional state of the body is an indispensable condition for its preservation in changing external conditions.
The human body is not at all a “biochemical cauldron”, into which, in order to achieve the desired pharmacological effect, it is necessary to “fill in”, like in a gas tank, huge amounts of biologically active substances. The body is not at all a collection of tissues and fluids with telephone cables of nerve fibers penetrating them. This is the most complex system of self-regulation, the understanding of the main principles of which, in our opinion, is a matter of a fairly distant future.
In the early 60s. of our century, the North Korean explorer Kim Bong Han amazed the scientific world with his discovery. Using a microscope, he was able to detect anatomical cellular and tissue structures corresponding to acupuncture channels. After scientists around the world in their own laboratories could not confirm the results obtained by their colleague. Unable to withstand criticism and accusations of falsifying scientific data, the Korean physiologist committed suicide. And only many years later, guesses began to appear about the "secret" of Kim Bong Han's technique. The fact is that, out of habit, researchers stain biological tissues after that how life in the animal stopped. Kim Bong Han used vital, i.e. lifetime coloring of animal tissues, and even stimulated acupuncture channels. At the same time, individual cell chains actively absorbed the dye, color designating their functional different from neighboring cells. It was precisely those cells that were circulating Qi at the time of staining that were stained. Misunderstanding of colleagues cost the life of a young scientist.
Anatomically, the energy channels are not detected. However, functionally they register perfectly. In biologically active points, when the functional activity of the energy channel changes, a decrease or increase in electrical skin resistance is noted (proportional to the degree of change). The BAPs themselves differ significantly from the surrounding skin areas precisely in the potential of the electric charge recorded on them and in the conductivity of the electric current. BAPs are easily detected by thermal imagers - devices for detecting infrared rays lying outside the visible spectrum of electromagnetic oscillations. Energy channels are also registered by other electronic devices. You can't see it with a microscope, but you can see it with instruments. What's the matter?
In Novosibirsk in 1988 at the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine under the guidance of Academician V.P. Kaznacheev, experiments were carried out, the results of which prove that even in the absence of anatomical pathways corresponding to acupuncture meridians, the latter are channels for conducting ... a light pulse! During the experiment, a thin beam of a low-power laser was directed to the BAP. Along the energy channel, a photomultiplier capable of registering negligible light fluxes was placed on one of the 30-40 m distant BAPs.
When the laser beam hit the “input” point of the channel, at the “output” the photomultiplier registered quite a decent radiation flux, moreover, of the same electromagnetic wavelength as the “incoming beam”. If the laser beam was moved literally half a centimeter away from the "input" BAP, at the "output" the radiation of the "output" BAP immediately ceased to be detected. Thus, outside the energy channel and its BAT, the phenomenon of conducting a light pulse in the human body was not recorded and light was not conducted.
The reality of energy channels is confirmed by another curious experience, once carried out by acupuncturists in France. From ancient sources, it was found that BAP is present on the gallbladder channel, the impact on which causes a sharp reddening of the entire course of the channel near the skin surface. And indeed, when this BAP was excited during a public experiment on volunteers, the entire gallbladder canal was “highlighted”, the course of which was not parallel to either large blood vessels, or lymphatic vessels, or nerve fibers.
For the modern physician, accustomed to using only "scientifically approved", experimentally confirmed methods and means in practice, the methods of Eastern Medicine, such as acupuncture and landscape healing, do not seem scientific. A Western doctor must palpate, listen and feel everything himself - but within the framework of his own anatomical ideas. Where the liver is, there will be pain in hepatitis, and you should not look into other parts of the body at all. The physician has no idea about the existence of the finest system of energy regulation, he does not know about subtle energies, about psychic radiations. But all this was a normal subject of training for doctors of antiquity.
Oriental Medicine can be defined not as the mechanics of restoring the body's broken clock, but as the science of restoring the dynamic balance of organized, high-quality energies in the whole body by tuning it into unison with the Rhythms of the Universe. Don't fix or mend but to help restore balance and infuse the forces of joy and peace - the main task of the healer. Without activating the body's own forces, this cannot be achieved. And in order for the effect of treatment to be directed and accurate, it is necessary to perfectly know the finest mechanisms of regulation of functions. For this, meridional, energy center, elemental and other models of Eastern Medicine were created, explaining all processes and influences in a holistic way.
All mathematically precise, strict, well-defined rules for combining points and methods of applying influences, all constructing schemes of energy channels and various provisions of the theory of acupuncture could not be taken into account if there were not the broadest clinical confirmation of the effectiveness of using all this "fabulous" theoretical arsenal in practice!
To date, no microscopic and histological methods have been able to determine the anatomy of acupuncture channels. But a great many indirect evidences of the reality of the existence of the most complex system of interaction of various BAPs, connected functionally and spatially into channels, have already been collected. These connections are clearly ordered and systematically organized. All these connecting threads of energy channels stretch from BAP to BAP along the paths indicated in the atlases of the energy structures of the human body left by the ancients. It has already been proven that the nerve channels and blood vessels go their own ways, and the energy meridians go their own. Much evidence has been collected in favor of other "assumptions" of the ancients. For example, the starting and ending points of the energy channel have been considered the most active since ancient times. Indeed, it is in them that the greatest decrease in the electrical resistance of the skin is most often noted, which, according to electrophysiologists, reflects the increased energy activity of these areas of the skin surface.
What are the physiological functions of energy channels?
1. They provide a link between the body and the environment - while BAP can even be considered as a kind of sensory organs. The phenomenon of “skin vision” by Rosa Kuleshova comes to mind. Perhaps she “saw” with these receptor points? Yes, and experiments with conducting a laser beam through the channel are more than convincing.
2. Energy channels allow you to establish within the body the harmony of Yin and Yang, the Five Primary Elements and the Three Forces. They are conductors of different-quality energies that control various life processes.
3. Energy channels transmit energy from the internal organs to the integument of the human body, therefore, almost all the "signs" of diseases can be seen by an observant physician on the human skin.
The energy channel model is not only used by acupuncturists. In any diagnostic process, in addition to a general assessment of the state according to the Yin-and-Yang and Three Forces models, the doctor must accurately establish local changes in various parts of the energy channels: many symptoms in various diseases are recognized as diagnostically significant precisely because they belong to certain channels. For example, in some diseases of the liver, the right eye is watery, and in serious violations of the function of the bladder, heat and pressure will be felt in the shoulders. Anatomically, such "irradiation" of pain is perhaps difficult to explain.
Now a few words about biologically active points, or BAPs, which constitute, as it were, small centers for the manifestation of channel functions. Active points in experiments are characterized by low resistance to direct electric current, higher electric potential, and increased pain during palpation. In case of inflammatory processes or pains in the area of BAP, the indicators of electrical conductivity sharply increase, which indicates the activation of the state of this point of the energy channel.
Most of the bioactive points currently used for therapeutic purposes were described in ancient times, which testifies to the amazing observation of medical scientists and the high level of skill of ancient healers who, based on numerous comparisons, managed to come to an understanding of the functional significance of various points.
For ancient healers, the connections between points on the surface of the body and organs were obvious. Since their observations were confirmed both by clinical practice (study of the state of points in certain diseases) and by observation of the rhythmic functioning of the extrasensory observed energy-channel system (the sequence of changes in the activity of various organs during the day, the mutual influence of organs when some of them are stressed).
So, all BAPs are grouped along lines, the interweaving of which stretches from the top of the head to the tips of the fingers and toes. These channels are laid from point to point, but not to any BAP, but to a related one, which gives a similar therapeutic effect when exposed to it. A group of points belonging to one channel responds in an organized manner to any impact on the channel by changing the electrical conductivity. About 300 points turned out to be outside the channels of acupuncture, more precisely, outside the well-known ones. In addition to 12 paired ("organ") channels and two unpaired (anterior and posterior median), there are 15 more branches - secondary channels - and 8 "wonderful" energy channels, called "energy lakes". The same points that are located outside of these most important pathways for the passage of energy through the body are representatives of the smaller energy structures of the body.
BAP in experiments sometimes show quite “wonderful” properties. For example, V.G. Adamenko determined that in a tired or sleeping person, the diameter of the point decreases (according to electrophysiological measurements) to 1 mm, and upon awakening and after rest it reaches almost 1 cm. Emotional arousal and illness further expand the area of the active point. It is noteworthy that at a distance of 2 mm from the center of the active point, the electrical resistance of the skin increases by 5 times, and at a distance of 10 mm - by 12 times. Thus, BAP seems to merge with the surrounding skin.
The non-anatomical nature of bioactive points is also proved by the experiment on skin transplantation. A piece of skin with BAP, being transplanted to another place during an operation, immediately loses its electrophysiological features and becomes the most ordinary skin area. That is why experts believe that the skin is a "scene" on which bioactive points manifest themselves. BAP is only the energy activity of the body's deep regulatory energy structures projected onto the surface of the skin.
At the present time, more than 1500 BAP are known to science. Only 695 are most actively used - the so-called "classical points", discovered by ancient oriental healers. They are unequal in importance of their influence on the body, but are used in the treatment process. The rest have, basically, external signs of similarity with them (lower resistance to direct current), but are not used in treatment.
Different energy channels include a different number of BAPs. The longest is the bladder canal, which runs from the head to the tip of the little toe: it includes 67 points. The shortest are the canals of the heart and pericardium. They contain 9 dots.
In each energy channel, in the area passing through the surface of the skin, the following main types of bioactive points are presented.
1. Tonic point, stimulating energy in the channel.
2. Calming point, relieving energy tension in the channel.
3. An accomplice point (also called a source point), the impact on which increases the effectiveness of the influence on the first two.
4. Each channel has a point of sympathy, but all these points are located on the bladder channel, i.e. outside of its own channel, and from there this point helps "its" channel.
5. The “diplomat” point, which maintains the channel's energy exchange with strong and weak neighbors, controls the channel's connections with other channels of the body.
Experienced yogis, at will, feel all their channels during deep relaxation and can even control the state of individual biologically active points, changing the functional state of their own body through influence on them. An interesting example of subjective evidence of the reality of the existence of energy channels is given by M.A. Dmitruk in the book "Inspiration by order", in which he describes the experiments of X.M. Aliyev, who introduced the subjects into a special state in which they can clearly feel the course of their own energy channels. Here is a description of these experiences:
“Those who have been to acupuncture sessions remember their sensations - aching, bursting at “points”, “electric current” along the “meridians” that connect them ... But what if former patients imagine these sensations in a state of programmed self-regulation?
And the experiments began. People who suffered from a wide variety of ailments entered the image and really felt how “streams” of life-giving force were flowing from their toes through their bodies. Here they rush to the sore spot - and the pain disappears!
When the subjects were given felt-tip pens and asked to draw these "streams" on their bodies, they indicated the "meridians" well known to reflexologists. Everyone drew exactly the one that is necessary for the treatment of his illness. And this was done by patients who had no idea about oriental medicine!
But maybe it's just a figment of the imagination? No, the subjective sensations of the patients were confirmed by the impartial readings of the instruments. In people imagining acupuncture, changes occurred in biologically active points as from real reflexology. For example, the electrical resistance of the skin decreased, BAP emitted characteristic acoustic impulses…”
The subjective sensations of patients and the data of numerous instrumental studies allow us to conclude with confidence: when acting on bioactive points, a change occurs in the mode of absorption of bioenergy from the environment or its radiation to the outside. In Japan in the 70s. An experiment was set up to verify the fact of physical "energy communication" between the doctor and the patient in the process of acupuncture. Before the start of the session, experienced electrophysiologists recorded the state of certain, most informative BAPs both in the doctor and in his patient. The devices showed that the doctor's condition was harmonious, and the patient's condition was upset. During the exposure session, the picture changed proportionally: the more harmonious the picture of the bioenergetics of the patient's body became, the more upset the picture of the energy of the healer. True, the doctor noted practically nothing in his own feelings, since the “margin of safety” of his body was much higher. And information about the change in the state of the organism did not reach his consciousness.
Some time after the end of the session, the pictures of the energy state of the points that informed the researchers about the "health potential" of the subjects recovered almost to the initial level each. The greater the residual changes in the patient's energy level, the more effective the treatment was and the deeper the process of restoring health proceeded.
Similar data was obtained by the Belarusian researcher E.T. Kulin, investigating the external electric field of individual BAPs by the method of non-contact measurement of the electric field strength during and after the session. It turns out that the smaller the energy shifts that occur in the patient's body associated with the therapeutic effect during an acupuncture session, the less effective the treatment by this method. By the way, the technique of E.T. Culina is used by acupuncturists to determine the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of a particular patient.
Now it becomes clear why doctors are energetically in an extremely "unfavorable" situation, constantly in contact with sick people. After all, they are forced, to a greater or lesser extent, to literally give a piece of their own heart to each patient, to distribute their own life-giving energy! And if a physician does not master the methods of gaining energy and managing it, then over time he either becomes seriously ill, losing his protective potential, or becomes callous, rude and cold hearted. The latter is not surprising - our biological nature itself protects the body from excessive loss of strength, so necessary for self-preservation. When a person is kind, cordial and sensitive, his strength goes to everyone to whom he shows attention and compassion. Psychoenergetics is a science, vital for graduates of each medical school. Doctors and Sisters of Mercy must have a high potential of spiritual energy. Then in itself their presence at the bedside of the patient will be a healing factor! According to the Beijing Institute of the Academy of Chinese Traditional Medicine, the effectiveness of acupuncture reaches 92.5%! True, this entirely depends on the experience and ... cordiality of the healer, as the acupuncturists themselves believe.
Now it becomes clear why in China they like to repeat: “The better the doctor has mastered the system of energy channels, the more accurately he makes a diagnosis, because by the localization of pain in the channels, you can determine which internal organ the disease has penetrated.” For example, with a headache in the forehead, there is a violation in the energy complex of “light Yang”, according to ancient Chinese terminology. But if the pain is localized mainly in the parietal region, the balance in the “end of Yin” channel is disturbed. With tinnitus, it is also necessary to strictly differentiate the signs of the disease. For example, if it hurts on one side of the head and there is bitterness in the mouth, the gallbladder channel will be affected. With back pain and nocturnal ejaculation, a violation of the function of the kidney channel is more likely. If the cough is accompanied by pain in the region of the supraclavicular fossa and scapula, it is a disease of the lungs. But if a bad appetite is added to the cough and sputum is liquid in consistency - look for a violation of the spleen canal. The absence of a desire to satisfy hunger when coughing, belching, combined with weakness indicate a violation in the energy system of the kidney channel.
Influence on energy channels is made through the impact on specific BAPs and needles, and various local procedures (application of metal plates, rubbing with medicinal compounds, massage) and drugs. In this case, the impact is made not only on points that are anatomically close to the organ, mainly affected by the disease, but also on distant points - according to the numerous rules of acupuncture: Yin-and-Yang, Wu-Xing, "Mother-Son", "Husband-Wife", "Noon-Midnight", "Grandfather-Grandson" and others.
Energy channels have areas of superficial passage along the surface of the skin, as well as segments of deep passage in the human body, where they join with energy centers - the subject of our further discussion. All the rules and schemes of acupuncture are just the arithmetic of the impact, which in each specific case of the disease is transformed into the most complex algebra and higher mathematics with a practical combination of rules, rhythms and taking into account the peculiarities of the patient's constitution. And all this cannot be combined into the only correct healing influence without the purposeful development of the ability to directly feel the state of the patient's energy channels, without the directed development of consciously controlled intuition.
The theories of Chinese and Indo-Tibetan medicine are very original, unusual and unusual. They differ significantly from the currently widespread ideas about the structure of the human body, which are known to everyone from the school course of human anatomy and physiology.
Centuries of practical experience of many generations have proven the applicability of elemental and energy-channel models of regulation of body functions, confirmed the truth of ideas about energy centers. The latter is the true secret of Eastern Medicine, Yoga and Ancient Occult Science. The energy centers of the human body represent the deepest level of regulation of the physical and mental functions of a person. They are the holy of holies for the control of a living organism, the points of living connection between the Microcosm and the Universe, by influencing which, much, much can be changed in human behavior and health.
Energy centers are studied in the innermost section of the theoretical system of Eastern Medicine, connected with the management of the most subtle energy processes of the human body. Chakras, or Granthas, are the Action Centers of the Elements in the human body. In ancient times, Chakras were called invisible structural-field regulatory centers of the human body, which, like funnels, drew in the energies of the Sun and stars and distributed it throughout the body. These Centers correspond to some nerve plexuses and endocrine glands (thyroid gland, cardiac nerve plexus, sacral and coccygeal plexus, pituitary gland, and others) located along the spinal column. Often, modern researchers mistakenly identify the Centers of Action of the Elements in the human body with these purely anatomical formations.
Such an erroneous identification is based on the external, purely topographic similarity of the location of the Chakras with the glands and plexuses. Of course, the Centers of Action of the Elements are connected in a certain way with the glands and with the plexus of nerve fibers, however, like everything in the body, it is connected with everything. However, the functions of the latter are completely different and much more limited than the functions and capabilities of the Energy Centers.
The idea of the Center of Action of the Elements in the human body is incomparably broader than any idea of the currently studied anatomical organs and glands. The difference in this case is fundamental. The element, or Primary Element, whose action in the body is controlled by its own Center, realizes its influence outside the anatomical structures, outside the physiological ways of transferring substances and energy. There is an instantaneous interaction of hundreds of spatially separated morphological elements - cells, tissue sections, organs - an interaction that takes place on the basis of field subatomic energy-information regulatory system, i.e. Elements.
Today's discoveries of some new endocrine glands and the clarification of the functions of those already discovered are producing a real revolution in Western medical science. Even 60-70 years ago there was very little information about these most important regulators of the life of the body and soul. But the medical thinkers of India and China had extensive knowledge about these organs of the human body and even left us a legacy of numerous therapeutic techniques that allow us to influence the deepest regulatory systems of the body, which helps to keep these glands healthy and functioning properly - through the impact on the glands that control these glands. and plexus energy centers - Chakras.
What is currently known to modern science about the functions of the nerve centers of the autonomic nervous system and the endocrine glands - these "conductors" of metabolism - so far concerns only the external physiological, surface anatomical aspect of the body's vital activity. Although there is a certain influence of the functional activity of the endocrine glands on the mental activity of a person, this, as is commonly believed, is achieved, again, not by direct field interaction with the brain structures, but by an indirect material-molecular psychochemical method - by exposing the secrets of the glands carried with the bloodstream to cells of the nervous tissue.
The work of energy centers is carried out at the deepest level of regulation of the interaction of human energy with the planetary and space energy-information environment. Chakras are receivers and transmitters of "vital energy", and it is simply impossible for a physiologist and a physician to ignore the work of these power accumulators, these managers of energy channels, these information processing points and points of connection with the entire Cosmos. And the physiological and even psychophysical manifestation of the activity of the endocrine glands is only one of the many aspects of the multifaceted and multilevel work of the Chakras, which are the fundamental organs of regulation of all body functions without exception.
The energy channels of the body do not end in the skin, but they certainly penetrate inside, connecting in the depths of the body with the Energy Centers associated with them.
The reality of the existence of energy channels and their energy centers is proved by the fact that psychics freely “see” these energy structures and, by their state, tension, luminosity and color, accurately inform doctors about the depth and specifics of the pathological state of a particular body system. It was the development of extrasensory perception abilities in oneself that allowed doctors of the past to see channels and centers and study the patterns of their functioning, comparing extrasensory vision patterns with the rhythms of external influences, changes in the subjective well-being of the patient and the dynamics of changes in the external signs of the disease.
Differences in the functions of individual energy channels are taken into account even when using drugs. It is known that two large energy vessels run along the spine, connecting the main energy centers of the human body - on the left Ida-Nadi and on the right Pingala-Nadi. The first of them "cools" the body, causes inhibition of physiological processes and is associated with the left nostril. The right one, on the contrary, excites vital processes and is associated with the right nasal passage. According to the researcher of Chinese medicine, Dr. Violin, in China, drugs for sexual impotence are given in the form of snuff, and it is advised to inhale the “aphrodisiac” drugs through the left nostril, and the “anaphrodisiac” drugs through the right.
According to the ideas of ancient doctors, the miniature universe of the human body consists of seven basic levels of organization. Each separate level in the body is the Center of Activity of a certain Element of the Cosmos. These Centers of Action of Forces, focused in certain organs - Chakras, are located along the spinal column and at the level of the external physiology of the human body correspond to the main plexuses of the autonomic nervous system and the endocrine glands. On the physical (substance-molecular) plane, these Centers are called Granthi, or "nodes". It is here that vessels and nerve fibers form plexuses, “visible” with the help of extrasensory perception as luminous threads. Subtle-energy, subatomic analogues of the nerve plexuses in ancient Indian medicine were called Chakras. Below we will consider some of the physiological and psychological spheres of activity of the main Centers.
Allowing you to influence with the help of a certain psychophysical technique (asanas, bandhas, mudras, pranayama) the integral Action Centers of the Elements, and Yoga, and Ayur-Veda, and Chinese preventive and therapeutic energy gymnastics of the Qi-gong system not only offer us the key to mastering our own spiritual development, but also help to strengthen health in every possible way and create a strong, disease-resistant organism that fulfills all our requirements and desires without coercion. This is the ideal of Eastern Medicine - eternal youth as a synthesis of freedom from diseases, age-related changes with complete clarity of mind at any time of the year and day.
Here is how the German specialist in the psychophysical training systems of the East Otto Ricker seriously and unexpectedly deeply evaluates the “extra-scientific” concept of the Chakras: “Asanas are not physical exercises, but exercises that affect the entire body-psycho-spiritual synthesis of a person. The action and basis of asanas cannot be understood logically, by intellect, as the action of certain mechanisms. The effect of asanas, both theoretically and practically, can only be grasped deeply intuitively. In general, in Yoga it is impossible to substantiate through the intellect. It is extremely dangerous to assume that the essence of Yoga can be understood through the idea that it is “nothing but this and that”, that with a certain effort of the intellect we can penetrate into the very depths of our soul - to the Fundamental Principle of the World. Of course, such a direction of thought is quite logical, but what is the use of this logic if the wisdom of Yoga is obviously beyond the logic of the intellect.
When a part is taken for the whole, the whole is inevitably underestimated, because they attach to it a value much less than the value of the part. How can we judge anything if we know only one of the many facets and not even the most significant of all. Take the example of Chakras - Energy Centers, which are so often identified with the nerve centers of the physical body simply because of a purely external - topographical similarity.
Although we know something about the nerve centers and endocrine glands, this is not enough to judge the work of the entire nervous system as a whole. But what can we know about the Chakras in Yoga, which is immense! It’s just that knowledge about the nerve nodes and endocrine glands concerns the purely physical aspect of life, and the work of the Chakras refers to the deepest laws of the work of subtle energies in the body, up to the deepest cosmic interactions. And many aspects of the activity of the nerve centers and endocrine glands will remain a mystery until we take into account the work of the Energy Centers - Chakras.
Beyond the superficial psychosomatic effects of asanas and other methods of Yoga lies the area of the deepest laws, which have not yet been studied at all by modern science, which deals with the purely external, purely physical aspect of the life of the organism.
The physical analogues of the Chakras, or Granthi - these "conductors of vital activity" - in the body are able to produce internal secretions, which, being transferred through the tissues of the body with blood, are involved in the regulation of body building and the processes of maintaining the state of health in the body. The most important of the secretions, according to the teachings of Oriental Medicine, govern the formation of the human nervous system, the nourishment of the brain.
All endocrine glands and Chakras that control their activity are involved in the construction of both bodily life and inner, spiritual, mental life. Despite such a close interaction of all these glands-Grants in their activity, nevertheless, some glands in the organisms of many people become dominant. At the same time, the individual, both as a person and as the owner of a bodily organism, acquires a number of specific features and can be characterized by the name of such noticeably dominant glands (usually 2-3 glands), since they leave a very noticeable imprint even on the style of thought and inner life. This is how the Granthas are described in Swami Sivananda's popular book Yoga Therapy.
Wyoma Granthi
This is the Action Center of the Element of Ether in the human body. It corresponds to the Vishuddha Chakra on the subtle-energetic plane of the organization of a human being. In Vioma Granthi there are main and auxiliary control centers for bodily functions. The main control center of the Element Ether is considered to be the pharynx, the throat space between the collarbones and the chin. Hence - the second name of the Center - "throat". This complex Center includes five main glands: thyroid (Indra Granthi), parathyroid (Upendra Granthi), amygdala (Thidu Granthi) and salivary glands (Lala Granthi).
Internal secretions and direct energy impact on the body of the "throat" Center contributes to the elimination of the toxic syndrome, keeping the body strong, healthy and efficient. If Vioma Granthi is strong and healthy, all the other glands of the body and nerve fibers cannot weaken. If even one of the elements of the Throat Center becomes weak and unable to function normally, the body is immediately attacked by disease.
Under the action of the secretions and energy influences of Vioma-Granthi, our mind is formed and the tone of our entire mental life is maintained. In fact, according to Indian terminology, the Element of Ether - Akasha - is generated by Sattva-Guna - the dominant qualitative element of the Cosmos. Therefore, a person who has the predominance of Vioma-Granthi in the body, has a "divine mind" and becomes "god-like."
In women, this Center is generally more developed than in men. Therefore, such qualities as affection, love, selflessness are more noticeable in female nature than in male. It is in a graceful and healthy woman that Wyoma-Granthi dominates by virtue of her sex and general health. With excessive activity or general weakness of the throat Center, even with a temporary decrease in its function, a person loses calmness and self-control, loses the ability to high and clear thinking and correct, stable and non-violent concentration of the mind. The mind feels despair and lethargy, laziness and shirking from work becomes a quality of the nature of a given person - and all because of a violation of the activity of his throat Center.
The consequences of not taking measures to normalize the work of the Throat Center in a number of generations are especially serious - an imprint is left on many subsequent generations. And only serious attention to the education of high moral qualities, in parallel with the purposeful improvement of the overall energy dynamics of the throat and other Centers of the body, will bring the desired harmonization to society.
Vayu Granthi
The center located in the chest, in the region of the heart and the roots of the lungs. It is the Control Center for the Element of Air. Corresponds to the subtle-energy Center Anahata-Chakra. It includes five main organs of this department of the body - the lungs, the heart, the thymus gland, located behind the sternum, and the hematopoietic tissues of the sternum itself. There are also auxiliary glands and their numerous branches. The Element of Air is the main protecting, moving and active Primary Element of the human body. This Force ensures the movement of all substances and processes in the body. Other Centers and Elements, controlled by them, can afford to rest even for a second during the day. The main organs of the thoracic Center work continuously throughout a person's life.
As long as all the organs and glands of the chest Center continue to be active, harmonious and work perfectly, all functions in the body are performed well and no disturbances are noted. If, however, these central moving formations of the body weaken or their activity is disharmonized, then no other glands and Centers of the body will be able to make up for this deficiency. Then the nerves, vessels and all the organs of the body will not be properly regulated, and with a disturbed Vayu-Granthi Center, the body will certainly fall ill.
People whose chest center is perfectly healthy and in an active and harmonious state usually show high self-control, balance of emotions, purity of mind and heart. Such people are necessarily unselfish workers; due to their sobriety, constancy and disinterestedness, as well as high discipline, they are respected by others. Such people most often have dominance of the function of the thoracic center. When the work of the chest center is disturbed, a person becomes mentally and emotionally unstable, excessively talkative, ungrateful, prone to insulting others and touchiness. Such a person will grow up weak and thin, usually slow and chaotic movements.
Agni Granthi
According to the ideas of ancient physicians, this center, otherwise called the "stomach", corresponds to the Manipura Chakra and organizes the action of the Element of Fire in the human body. It includes five main organs: the spleen, liver, pancreas, adrenal glands and gallbladder, as well as a number of other formations.
The object of activity of the Element of Fire in the human body are numerous large and small glands that produce digestive juices, located in the upper abdomen. It is here that one of the five main types of the Element of Fire is concentrated, namely, the “digestive fire”.
If the solar plexus - "the abode of Fire in the body" - ceased to supply the body with the necessary heat, then life would become impossible. The fire in the body retains heat, it keeps the bodily world alive and constantly renewing itself. When the "internal Fire" ceases to transmit radiation of "vital warmth" to the organs and tissues, the pulsation of life in the body ceases and death occurs. This is how the ancients imagined the role of the Elements of Fire in the body.
The “Inner Fire” maintains the temperature, as described above, processes the food that enters the digestive tract during nutrition, helps to maintain the activity of all organs and glands by controlling the enzymatic catalysis system, and processes substances in metabolic cycles. It not only promotes the digestion of food, but also transforms nutrients into substances in the blood and other vital tissues and body fluids, and helps to form body tissues.
People whose body is dominated by Agni-Granthi (“Agni” - translated from Sanskrit - “Fire”), i.e. the function of the solar plexus with adjacent organs and glands is actively manifested, they are usually persistent and become completely tireless workers. Such people show high organizational skills, are able to lead large teams. Among people with a high activity of the celiac center, we find the best political leaders, military leaders, who in life like the struggle more than anything else. Here, in the same row, are fiery revolutionaries who do not want to wait for the evolutionary development of the world and strive to break everything and rebuild as soon as possible.
When the work of the Agni Grantha is disturbed and weakened, people begin to abuse their natural vitality and physical energy in order to satisfy their own sensual needs. Such people often quarrel and conflict with anyone. Their vanity and self-importance are extremely high, they become restless, impatient at the slightest inconvenience and cannot bear physical pain at all. The acidity of the gastric contents is very high. Such people are not able to keep a diet, do not tolerate any restrictions on personal freedom, which they understand as the fullness of self-will. They are usually extremely undisciplined.
Both the disturbances in the mental activity of such people and the disturbances in their bodily well-being have the same cause - a violation of the work of the Center that controls the action of the Element of Fire. The latter, in turn, develops, both due to the hereditary weakness of this center, and due to a violation of the way of life: the abuse of certain types of food (especially bitter, spicy and salty), a violation of the usual rhythms of activity, an irrepressible craving for bodily pleasures.
Varuna Granthi
This Center, also called "sex", corresponds to the Svadhisthana Chakra. The main organs in the functions of which the action of the Element of Water is manifested are the kidneys, testicles (in men), ovaries and mammary glands (in women), the prostate gland (in men) and the uterus (in women). Also, the Water Element in the body acts mainly in the lymph glands, which produce protective immune bodies to protect the body from infectious diseases caused by microorganisms. "Water" also controls the activity of the nervous system, bone marrow, cellular contents (protoplasm) and intercellular fluid in body tissues.
People with a predominance of the harmonic action of the Element of Water and a high activity of Varuna-Grantha are usually very friendly in relations with others. They are pleasing to everyone, their gestures and speech are especially pleasing. Such people easily gain fame and respect in society due to their charm and their tact. They are usually endowed with excellent health, showing remarkable skill in maintaining peace and order among loved ones, friends and co-workers.
In violation and deharmonization of the functions of Varuna-Grantha and its weakening, people become extremely selfish, envious, touchy, sensitive, sensual - they show an overactive interest in sexual life. By the way, considering the fact that the weakness or strength of the activity of certain energy centers is manifested without fail in the state of functioning of the organs associated with them and that the hereditary predisposition to one or another level of activity of certain Centers manifests itself in the form of anatomical features of the body structure (for example, a large throat indicates the power throat center, and a wide chest directly indicates the strength and high development of the heart center - these signs are very accurate and almost unambiguous), one should only be surprised that the ideas about the correspondence of character traits and the structure of the human body were known long before the corresponding theories of Lombroso and Kretschmer, linking structural features with psychological characteristics. For example, the ancient Greek thinker was nicknamed Plato because of his wide chest and powerful high forehead - "plateau" means "wide". This testified, according to the ideas of the Hellenic physicians, to the power of the intellect, will and love (for which the brain and chest centers are responsible). It is curious that Eastern doctors explained their guesses about the correspondence between character traits and body structure features by harmonious and developed theories, in particular, the theory of the division of psychosomatic functions between various energy centers of the body.
In this case, we are talking about the correspondence (of course, far from unambiguous) of the development of certain parts of the body to the characteristics of the behavior and way of thinking of a person. The most interesting thing is that, by purposefully restoring the disturbed harmony and systematically activating certain Centers, harmonizing their mutual relations (through a specially selected diet, suggestion, physical gymnastics and other techniques deliberately developed for this purpose), the doctor could also influence health, and on the mental state of the person. An example of this in the practice of modern doctors is that a drug effect on the thyroid gland (one of the sections of the throat center) can significantly reduce the aggressiveness and impatience of a person, especially if the gland was overly active.
Prithivi Granthi
This Center is called "coccygeal". At the subtle energy level, it corresponds to the Muladhara Chakra. People with a predominance of the functions of this energy center, in the activity of which the Element Earth is manifested, usually have a full-blooded body with a clear excess of body fat. By nature, they are liberal, very patient, even somewhat indifferent and inert to everything that does not concern them. They show no desire, no effort to acquire anything, even for themselves. They, like a wagon, slowly and lazily roll along the path of their lives, not trying to ignite their minds to solve any problems, since they generally eschew all sorts of conflicts and any bright aspirations for goals are alien to them by nature.
In case of violations of the work of Prithivi-Granthi, selfishness, excessive craving for satisfaction of the lower needs of the body - gluttony, lazy and idle pastime, passivity and contemplation are manifested.
Aham Granthi
On the subtle energy plane, it corresponds to the Ajna Chakra, or, as it is also called, the Trikuta Chakra. The volitional energy of a person is concentrated in the region of the center of his forehead. Anatomically, Aham-Granthi, which manifests the Action of the Cosmic Conscious Will that controls the actions of all the Elements of the body and the Universe, is associated with the pituitary gland and the centers of vision, hearing, memory and discrimination. This is how the ancient physicians classified the main functions of the human brain. In fact, Aham-Granthi rules over the other five Centers of the body, anatomically and functionally lying below it.
With the help of the normalization of the work of Aham-Granthi (development of personal will, manifestation of consciousness, self-discipline and harmonization of thought), all errors and malfunctions in the work of the five Centers of the body can be corrected. However, it is possible to normalize the work of Aham-Granthi only in the course of patient development of a person's ability to long-term concentration of attention and other mental skills. No medications and external aids (such as suggestion or exposure to physical exercises) can do this: only the person himself can correct the work of the frontal center by his own conscious efforts.
Aham Granthi can only be developed and activated by oneself. On the other hand, great talents and geniuses, outstanding figures of literature, art, philosophy, great poets, people with paranormal psychoenergetic abilities (psychics) come out of the environment of people in whom Aham-Granthi dominates.
So, the Ayur-Vedic medical concept of energy centers is based on the idea of the division of bodily and mental functions between different "floors" of the body's structure. All energy centers have a sensitive anatomical localization, and their functions are strictly defined. Representatives of Yoga medicine directly influence the functions of these Centers. With the help of special postures - Asanas, and special breathing exercises - Pranayamas, accompanied by specific ideas and exercises for developing the ability to long-term concentration of attention, one can consciously control the activity of each of the energy centers described above. In classical Ayur-Vedic medicine, in most cases, only the impact on the three central control formations is used - the chest, celiac and sexual Centers, corresponding to the Elements of Air, Fire and Water. By the way, with the help of acupuncture it is almost impossible to “get” to the Centers located in the region of the spinal column - not to get it! Impact on the coccygeal Center is possible only with the help of Asanas, while the impact on the throat center is recognized by experts as extremely dangerous. And the development and management of the frontal center is not at all included in the tasks of the physician. This should be done by the people themselves under the guidance of an experienced yoga mentor, who knows the methods of controlling the energy of the organism of the practitioner.
It does not always happen that in a person only one specific gland dominates or weakly manifests itself in the body, only one Center dominates or is weakened. In most people, a careful study of their characteristics - bodily structure, state of health, behavior and outlook on life - can reveal a complex structure of interconnected functional activities of all six Centers. At the same time, some Centers will obviously be weakened, others will prevail. People with mixed dominance and subordination of various centers of power are identified most often by certain features of their bodily structure. The science that studies the relationship between the Centers, health, mental characteristics and bodily structure has been called morphoscopy since ancient times - "the science of observing the shape of the body." Since ancient times, there has been a kind of psychoendocrinology, which appeared in the West only 3-4 decades ago.
The glands as the Centers of Forces of the human body are the instruments of action of the Elements interconnected according to certain laws. Through these Granthas, the Elements control the work of the organs and systems of the body and the state of the psyche. However, as already mentioned above, in view of the peculiarities of the perception of therapeutic effects by various glands, when examining the mental and physiological state of patients, attention in India was paid, first of all, to the state of the Action Centers of Fire, Air and Water. It was believed that it is the disruption of the work of these interconnected Force Centers and the quality energies generated by them that determines most human diseases. And it is safer and easier to influence the state of these three Centers than to interfere in the work of other governing structures. Let us also note that the majority of Yoga exercises - cleansing procedures, physical exercises, and breathing exercises - are aimed, first of all, at maintaining the normal activity and harmonious state of the Body's Centers. By the way, Oriental Medicine distinguishes only 49 different Centers in the human body.
Execution Center - Aham Granthi
Throat Center - Wioma Granthi
| Localization: | The space between the collarbones and the back of the neck, pharynx, thyroid, parathyroid, amygdala and salivary glands. |
| Functions: | Eliminates poisons and diseases with severe toxicosis, helps to keep the body strong and healthy. |
| Peculiarities: | Forms the mind and maintains mental life, forms the qualities of selflessness and love, affection. |
| Violations: | Either excessive activity, or reduced activity, or general weakness and decreased vitality. A person loses calmness and self-control, loses the ability to concentrate, lofty thinking is lost and the gift of intuition disappears, despair and lethargy of the mind take over, laziness and unwillingness to work somehow overwhelm, deceit and talkativeness appear. |
Thoracic Center - Vayu Granthi
| Localization: | Lungs, heart, thymus, hematopoietic glands of the sternum, other glands. |
| Functions: | The main driving force of the body, the basis of protection and activity, works without rest, the activity and health of this Center ensure the normalization of the functions of the whole organism; when Vayu-Granthi is weakened, no organ can be healthy, there is a decrease in the impulse of movement in the body, general dysregulation and weakening of the immune system. |
| Peculiarities: | High self-control, balanced temperament, purity of mind and heart, the ability to work selflessly, high efficiency, sobriety of thinking, constancy, discipline, goodwill, a sense of proportion and a sense of responsibility. |
| Violations: | Instability of mind, talkativeness, ingratitude, a tendency to disrespect and insult one's well-wishers; the body develops thin and weak, the person is extremely fussy and hasty. |
Celiac Center - Agni Granthi
| Localization: | Spleen, liver, pancreas, adrenal glands, small glands of this "floor" of the body. |
| Functions: | Production of "digestive fire", ensuring the activity of enzymatic catalysis throughout the body, activating all processes, maintaining a constant body temperature, maintaining the functions of all organs and tissues, transforming food nutrients into nourishing blood essences, participating in the formation of tissues and bones. |
| Peculiarities: | Energy, perseverance, indefatigability, industriousness, ability to lead: political leaders, military commanders, businessmen, all "fighters". |
| Violations: | Tendency to abuse one's own natural strength and physical energy for the sake of lust, thirst for conflict, vanity and conceit reach a maximum, extreme anxiety and impatience at the slightest inconvenience, intolerance of even minor physical pain, difficulty in dieting, do not tolerate any restrictions, suffer from gastritis with high acidity , duodenal ulcer and hypertension. |
Sexual center - Varuna Granthi
| Localization: | Kidneys, testicles, prostate, mammary glands, ovaries, Bartholin glands, lymph glands, uterus. |
| Functions: | Semen production, fetus preservation during pregnancy, reproductive function, immunity. |
| Peculiarities: | Great friendliness, pleasant manners, tact, harmonious speech, public popularity as a result of courtesy, master in maintaining peace and harmony among people, love of comfort. |
| Violations: | Strong egoism, envy, resentment, excessive sensitivity, suspiciousness, instability, irritability, lust. |
Coccygeal Center - Prithivi Granthi
| Localization: | The coccygeal nerve plexus and the Muladhara Chakra of the subtle energy body. |
| Functions: | Formation of the physical structure of the body, the formation of bones, ligaments, joints and muscles, fixation of all anatomical structures. |
| Peculiarities: | A full-blooded body with excess body fat, literalism, patience, passivity, conservatism, laziness, inertia. They do not show aspirations and do not show much effort to acquire anything, they roll slowly and lazily through life, do not inflame the mind, they shy away from any conflicts. |
| Violations: | Selfishness, excessive appeal to the satisfaction of personal bodily needs, especially the most gross, such as gluttony, physical passivity, idleness. |
The first work on the use of the electron microscope in biology began in 1934. This year students
nye tried to see bacteria in an electron microscope. Having tested several methods, they settled on the simplest: a drop of liquid containing bacteria was applied to the thinnest film of collodion. This method is often used today.
What new did the electron microscope give in the study of bacteria?
As you know, bacteria are living cells. But every living cell contains within itself protoplasm and a nucleus.
Does a bacterium have both? It was not possible to answer this question, since the optical microscope did not make it possible to see the bacterium well: a relatively homogeneous mass was visible inside it. And only with the help of an electron microscope, finally, it was possible to clearly see the contents of the bacterial cell. Figure 27 shows a group of so-called staphylococci - pathogens of suppuration. Within each Fig. 28. The division of a microbe, staphylococcus, a dark formation is clearly visible, which differs sharply from protoplasm. Such formations, according to some scientists, are the nuclei of bacterial cells.
However, in other bacteria, it was not possible to detect the nucleus using an electron microscope. From this, scientists concluded that in such microbes, the nuclear substance is dissolved in the entire protoplasm. Some biologists explain this by the fact that certain bacteria, which occupy the lowest rung on the ladder of living beings, have not yet had time to develop before the separation of protoplasm and nucleus, as is the case in most living cells.
With the help of an electron microscope, it was possible to clearly observe the division of microbes (Fig. 28), the separation of protoplasm from the walls in some bacteria, the presence of
many bacteria long thin flagella and much more.
Figure 29 shows an interesting picture taken in an electron microscope: the protoplasm of a bacterium "leaves" its shell!
The electron microscope helped to examine not only the internal structure of bacteria. With his help it was possible
To see the effect on bacteria of various kinds of sera, metals and their compounds, etc.
However, the most remarkable success of the electron microscope in biology was the discovery of hitherto invisible microbes, the so-called /y| ultraviruses, filterable viruses (“virus” means poison), the existence of which scientists have already guessed before.
Filterable viruses are so small that they cannot be seen with the most powerful optical microscopes. They can freely pass through the smallest pores of various filters, such as
An example, through porcelain, for which they received the name filtered.
Various viruses are the causative agents of dangerous diseases in humans, animals and plants. In humans, viruses cause diseases such as influenza, smallpox, rabies, measles, yellow fever, and infantile paralysis. In animals, they cause rabies, foot-and-mouth disease, smallpox and other diseases. Viruses infect potatoes, tobacco, tomatoes, fruit plants, causing mosaic, twisting, wrinkling and death of leaves, woodiness of fruits, death of whole plants, dwarfism, etc.
To the group of filterable viruses, some scientists also include the so-called bacteriophages - "bacteria eaters". Bacteriophage is used to prevent infectious diseases. Various bacteriophages dissolve and destroy microbes of dysentery, cholera, plague, as if they really devour them.
What are viruses and bacteriophages? How do they look? How do they interact with bacteria? Such questions were asked by many scientists before the advent of the electron microscope and could not answer them.
Filterable tobacco mosaic viruses were the first to be detected using an electron microscope. They were shaped like sticks. When there are a lot of them, the sticks show a tendency to arrange themselves in the correct sequence. This property makes tobacco mosaic viruses related to those particles of inanimate nature that tend to form crystals.
Influenza viruses, when viewed through an electron microscope, look like very small, round bodies. So do smallpox viruses.
After the viruses became visible, it became possible to observe the effect of various medicinal preparations on them. So, scientists observed the effect of two sera on tobacco and tomato mosaic viruses. From one of them, only tobacco mosaic ultraviruses coagulate, while tomato mosaic viruses remain unharmed; from the other - vice versa.
No less interesting results were obtained by studying with the help of an electron microscope and bacteria-eaters - bacteriophages. It was found that some bacteriophages are the smallest round bodies with a long tail - phages. Phages are only 5 millionths of a centimeter in size. Their deadly effect on the bacterium lies in the fact that under the action of the bacteriophages "attached" to it, the bacterium bursts and dies. Figure 30 shows the phages of dysenteric microbes at the time of the "attack". The figure shows how the left side of the dysenteric microbe brightened up and began to disintegrate.
An electron microscope is also used to study more complex organisms than bacteria and viruses.
We have already said that all living organisms perish in the highly rarefied space of the electron microscope. This is also facilitated by the strong heating of the object, caused mainly by electron bombardment of the diaphragm or grid on which the object rests. Therefore, all the pictures that were given above are pictures of already dead cells.
Aluminum, which is mechanically stronger than collodion and therefore can withstand more heat. Bacteria were subjected to transillumination with electron beams, the speed of which reached 180,000 electron volts. After studies in an electron microscope, the bacteria were placed in a nutrient medium for them and then the spores germinated, giving rise to new bacterial cells. The spores died only when the current was greater than a certain limit.
Studying various cells of organisms with an electron microscope, scientists encountered such a phenomenon when the observed particle has a small size and consists of a loose substance, so that the scattering of electrons in it differs little from the scattering of electrons in those places of the film where there are no particles. Meanwhile, as you have seen, it is precisely the different scattering of electrons that explains the possibility of obtaining an image of particles on a fluorescent screen or photographic plate. How, then, is it possible to enhance the scattering of electron beams by small particles of low density, and thereby make them visible in an electron microscope?
For this, a very ingenious method has recently been proposed. The essence of this method - it is called the shadow method - is illustrated in Figure 31. A weak jet of sprayed metal in a rarefied space falls at an angle on the test object-preparation. Spraying is carried out by heating a piece of metal, such as chromium or gold, in a heated coil of tungsten wire. As a result of the oblique fall, the metal atoms cover the bulges of the object under consideration (for example, the particles lying on the film) to a greater extent than the cavities (the space between the particles). Thus, a greater number of metal atoms settle on the tops of the bulges and they form here a kind of metal caps (skullcaps). This additional layer of metal, axial
Shiy even on such insignificant protrusions as bacteria or filterable viruses, and gives additional scattering of electrons. In addition, due to the large inclination of the flying metal atoms, the magnitude of the "shadow" can be much larger than the size of the particle that casts the shadow! All this makes it possible to see even very small and light particles in an electron microscope. Figure 32 shows a snapshot of influenza viruses obtained by this promising method. Each of the balls that is visible in the picture is nothing but a large molecule!
The electron microscope has found wide application in chemistry and physics. In organic chemistry, using an electron microscope, it was possible to see large molecules of various organic substances - hemoglobin, hemocyanin, etc. The size of these molecules is 1-2 millionths of a centimeter.
It should be noted that the smallest diameter of particles of organic substances that can still be detected in an electron microscope is determined not only
The resolving power of the microscope, but also the contrast of these particles. It may turn out that the particle cannot be detected just because it does not give an appreciable scattering of electrons. The method of enhancing contrast by metal sputtering helped here as well. Figures 33 and 34 show two photographs that clearly show the difference between the conventional method and the shadow method. The necessary contrast of the preparation was achieved in this case by lateral chromium sputtering.
Great advances have been made in the electron microscope and in inorganic chemistry. Here, the smallest particles, the so-called colloids, all kinds of metal dusts, soot, etc. were studied. It was possible to determine the shape and size of these particles.
The composition of clays, the structure of cotton, silk, and rubber are studied using an electron microscope.
Special attention should be paid to the use of the electron microscope in metallurgy. Here the structure of metal surfaces was studied. Initially, it seemed that the study of these surfaces in thick metal samples was possible only with the help of emission or reflective electron microscopes.
Pov. However, with ingenious methods, we managed to learn how to explore the surfaces of thick pieces of metal ... in passing electron beams! It turned out to be possible to do this with the help of so-called replicas.
A replica is a copy of the metal surface of interest to us. It is obtained by covering the surface of the metal with a layer of some other substance, for example, collodion, quartz, oxide of the same metal, etc. Then separating this layer from the metal in special ways, you get a film transparent to electrons. It is more or less an exact copy of the metal surface (Fig. 35). Then passing a beam of electron beams through such a thin film, you will get different scattering of electrons in its different places. This is explained by the fact that, due to the unevenness of the film, the path of electrons in it will be different. On a fluorescent screen or photographic plate in chiaroscuro of varying brightness, an image of the metal surface will be obtained!
Figure 36 shows a photograph of such a surface. Cubes and parallelepipeds that are visible on
The photographs are an image of the smallest aluminum crystals, magnified 11,000 times.
The study of films of aluminum oxide showed, among other things, that these films are completely devoid of holes. Fast electrons pass through these films, making their way between atoms and molecules, and thus do not destroy the film. Larger - and slower particles, for example, oxygen molecules, the path through such a film is completely closed. This explains the remarkable resistance of aluminum to corrosion, i.e., against the action of oxidation that corrodes the metal. Covered with a thin layer of oxide, aluminum thereby closes access to oxygen molecules from the outside - from air or water - and protects itself from further oxidation.
A completely different picture is given by electron microscopic studies of iron oxide layers. It turns out that iron oxide films are literally dotted with holes through which oxygen molecules can easily penetrate and, when combined with iron, corrode it (i.e., oxidize) deeper and deeper, forming rust.
So, in the structural features of the films of aluminum and iron oxides, the secret of the resistance of aluminum and the instability of iron against corrosion turned out to be hidden.
Recently, the following method for obtaining replicas has been developed, which gives particularly good results. Under high pressure (250 atmospheres!), at a temperature of 160 degrees, a powder of a special substance, polystyrene, is pressed against the metal surface under study. After hardening, the polystyrene forms a solid mass. The metal is then dissolved in acid and the polystyrene layer is separated. On the side that was facing the metal, due to the high pressure during the application of the layer, all the smallest irregularities of the metal surface are imprinted. But at the same time, the bulges of the metal surface correspond to depressions on the polystyrene surface and vice versa. Then a thin layer of quartz is applied to the polystyrene in a special way. By separating this layer from the polystyrene, you will have the bulges and concavities imprinted on it, corresponding exactly to the bulges and concavities of the metal surface. Electrons passing through a quartz replica will, therefore, scatter differently in different parts of it. Thus, the structure of the metal surface will be reproduced on a fluorescent screen or photographic plate. These films provide excellent contrast.
In other replicas, the contrast is enhanced by the already familiar method of spraying metal, which falls on the surface of the replica (for example, collodion) under the fragility and covers the bulges more than the depressions.
The replica technique can also be used to study the surfaces of finished metal products, for example, machine parts, as well as to study various organic preparations.
Most recently, with the help of replicas, scientists began to study the structure of bone tissue.
Under certain conditions, objects that are opaque to electrons can also be directly studied in an electron microscope. Put, for example, a piece of a safety razor blade into the microscope, but in such a way that it does not completely block the way for electrons to the objective lens. You will see a shadow image of the edge of the blade (fig. 37). At a magnification of 5 thousand times, it is not at all as smooth as it is seen even in an optical microscope.
These are the first successes of the electron microscope.
Although scientists have known in principle for a long time that atoms exist, there was still a shadow of doubt, because no one was able to see atoms with their eyes.
Now scientists can take images of atoms on a computer screen, move atoms around the surface using a special tool - a scanning tunneling microscope (STM).
Atoms and conventional measuring instruments
It is impossible to see atoms in a conventional microscope because of the small size of the latter - from four to sixteen billionths of a centimeter in diameter. A hair on an arm is a million times thicker. It is impossible to use ordinary light to illuminate an atom, because the wave of visible light is two to five thousand times the diameter of an atom.
The STM is not an optical instrument with an eyepiece where you can look with your eye. It is a computerized instrument with a special tip that can be placed very close to the surface to be examined. When the tip moves, the electrons skip the gap between the tip and the surface material. As a result, an electric current can be registered. At the slightest change in the distance between the surface and the tip - the electrode, the strength of the electric current changes.
How to see atoms
A surface that seems perfectly smooth to us is, at the atomic level, very, very bumpy. The electrode registers each elevation, even if it does not exceed the size of an atom. The computer draws a three-dimensional map of the surface, taking into account each of its atoms. As a result, we can "see" atoms.
With the help of STM, scientists have learned how to manipulate atoms. First, the atoms are cooled to minus 270 degrees Celsius, which is very close to absolute zero temperatures, at such a low temperature the atoms become practically immobile.
Using an STM electrode, one can use a magnetic field to move atoms at will and even write words on the surface of matter with them. These words are written in the same way as the words in books for the blind in Braille. These atomic writings can only be read with the help of the STM.
When working with a microscope, it is necessary to follow certain rules for handling it.
The microscope is removed from the case and transferred to the workplace, holding it with one hand on the tripod handle, and with the other, supporting the tripod leg. Do not tilt the microscope to the side, as the eyepiece may fall out of the tube.
The microscope is placed on the desktop at a distance of 3 - 5 cm from the edge of the table with the handle towards you.
Set the correct illumination of the field of view of the microscope. To do this, looking into the eyepiece of the microscope, a mirror directs a beam of light from a table illuminator (which is a light source) into the lens. Illumination adjustment is made with an 8 x lens. When set up correctly, the field of view of the microscope will look like a circle, well and evenly lit.
The preparation is placed on the object table and fixed with clamps.
First, the preparation is viewed with an 8 x objective, then they move on to higher magnifications.
To obtain an image of an object, it is necessary to know the focal length (the distance between the lens and the preparation). When working with an 8 x lens, the distance between the preparation and the lens is about 9 mm, with a 40 x lens - 0.6 mm and with a 90 x lens - about 0.15 mm.
The microscope tube must be carefully lowered down with the help of a macro screw, observing the lens from the side, and bring it closer to the preparation (without touching it) at a distance somewhat less than the focal length. Then, looking into the eyepiece, the same screw, slowly turning it towards itself, raises the tube until the image of the object under study appears in the field of view.
After that, by rotating the microscrew, the lens is focused so that the image of the lens becomes clear. The microscrew must be rotated carefully, but not more than half a turn in one direction or another.
When working with an immersion objective, a drop of cedar oil is first applied to the preparation and, looking from the side, the microscope tube is carefully lowered with a macroscrew so that the tip of the objective is immersed in a drop of oil. Then, looking into the eyepiece, the tube is very slowly raised with the same screw until an image appears. Fine focusing is done with a micrometer screw.
When changing lenses, adjust the illumination intensity of the subject again. By lowering or raising the condenser, the desired degree of illumination is obtained. For example, when viewing a preparation with an 8x lens, the condenser is lowered, when switching to a 40x lens, it is slightly raised, and when working with a 90x lens, the condenser is raised up to the limit.
The preparation is examined in several places by moving the object stage with side screws or moving the slide with the preparation manually. When examining a preparation, a microscrew should be used all the time in order to examine the preparation in its entire depth.
Before replacing a weak lens with a stronger one, the place of the preparation, where the object under study is located, must be placed exactly in the center of the field of view and only after that turn the revolver with the lens.
During microscopy, keep both eyes open and use them alternately.
After finishing work, the drug should be removed. from the object stage, lower the condenser, put the 8x objective under the tube, remove the immersion oil from the front lens of the 90x objective with a soft cloth and put the microscope back in the case.