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Tag: Transylvania

  • Dracula’s Castle Offered To Romanian Government For $85 Million

    The Transylvanian castle said to be Dracula’s home is now up for sale. Bran Castle, built in the 13th century, is located in the countryside, with the closest town a few miles away.

    Many people have occupied the castle over the years, including knights and warriors. However, its most well known inhabitant is Vlad “The Impaler Tepes, who was said to be imprisoned there sometime in the 15th century.

    Vlad of the House of Draculesti, made Dracula’s name famous. It is said that Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, saw images of Bran Castle and used that as inspiration for the home of Dracula. Stoker’s description of Dracula’s castle is also the perfect description for Bran Castle: “The castle is on the very edge of a terrific precipice. A stone falling from the window would fall a thousand feet without touching anything!”

    However, the castle’s official website says that Vlad the Impaler’s real castle now sits in ruins in the Principality of Wallachia. The reason Bran Castle is called Dracula’s castle, is that it is the only castle in Transylvania that fits the description of Dracula’s home.

    The Habsburgs, the descendants of Queen Victoria of Britain, now own Bran castle. All three of the siblings are in their 70s, and they do not have the energy and time to renovate and maintain the castle.

    Reports say that the property was offered to the Romanian government for $85 million. Mark Meyer, who is handling the sale of the castle, refuses to disclose the real price. He said that the owners are looking for the “right” buyers. “It doesn’t have to do with class, it has to do with who will preserve the castle,” he said.

    According to reports, the castle is making profit, but it still has a big potential to generate even more profit when renovated.

    Bran Castle, Transylvania

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Transylvania Scientist: “I Created Artificial Blood”

    MedicalDaily reports that a Romanian scientist from the town of Cluj-Napoca in historical Transylvania may have just created the first synthetic and side-effect-free artificial blood substitute.

    This new blood doesn’t use hemoglobin to carry oxygen like previous blood synthesis attempts; instead, it uses a protein called hemerythrin which is extracted from a specific kind of invertebrate sea worm found in the ocean. The hemerythrin is mixed with water, some salts, and potential applications are innumerable.

    Hemerythrin-based artificial blood is not a deep red like hemoglobin-based blood, but more of a translucent yellow; the team dyed it red for familiarity’s sake. The new artificial blood is preferable to hemoglobin-derived alternatives because hemerythrin remains capable of enduring the chemical and physical stresses of an organic body much longer than hemoglobin, which generally falls apart under the same conditions.

    One of the principal researchers, Dr. Radu Silaghi-Dumitrescu, said doctors could use the artificial blood to lower the rate of infection in clinics to infected donor blood, and that if it passes muster, it could supply oxygen to patients for up to a day.

    “Mice treated with this ‘Made in Cluj’ artificial blood did not experience any side effects, and this is precisely what we want,” he told Romanian reporters, adding that he’s not interested in human testing until the team is 100 percent certain that there is no blood toxicity risk. “Tests on humans are an extra gentle subject – authorization…represents a huge risk,” he said.

    A Smithsonian blog by author Tuan C. Nguyen notes the unfortunate history of the search for viable artificial blood, which she acknowledges “has become a medical “holy grail” of sorts… So much so in fact that some of the brightest minds in medical science, hailing from ambitious startups to multi-billion dollar health care companies, have exposed an unknowing public to risky experiments that have thus far only yielded disheartening, and at times, disastrous consequences.”

    The FDA refuses to approve any hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers because of potential toxicity, but the use of hemerythrin might one day lead researchers to a portable “instant blood” that could be mixed with water and administered under any conditions — battlefield, hospital, or otherwise.

    [Image via YouTube]