ISSUE THEME

THE GREATEST ENGINEERING ENDEAVORS

Grandiose undertakings from ancient history and the Old Age would be impossible without human labor. The Greek historian Herodotus recorded that a hundred thousand people dragged stones from the quarry to the Nile for three months and transported them to the other side of the river, to the construction site of the Cheops pyramid, as well as that this same "human anthill" ten years earlier built the roads to bring those huge blocks.
Engineering lies in the foundations of civilization. It enabled a certain way of life for people, the development of irrigation techniques and the creation of reservoirs with drinking water. This further allowed people to build cities, to produce food surpluses, and to free rare individuals from the arduous and endless work of food production. Because of engineering, people started to use materials for the first time, primarily natural ones, such as stone, wood and straw. The first new technologies were also developed: new materials, created from natural raw materials (brick, mortar or concrete) - but also the first technical devices. Due to the desire to build monumental buildings, man discovered how to use a lever, a steep plane and a wheel, as the original technology for the construction of various buildings. Today in the world there is a large number of what was once the ultimate achievement of the human mind.

ACADEMICIAN ZORAN KNEŽEVIĆ,
PRESIDENT OF SANU

Scientific and creative potential of Serbia

NThe March-April issue of "Planet", dedicated to astronomy and the latest astronomical discoveries, after the last presidential election in SAN, seems like a sort of announcement of the election of the first astronomer to head the highest scientific institution in Serbia. Only the second expert astronomer in its ranks, academician Zoran Knežević (Osijek, 1949), was elected to the highest office from the post of general secretary of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Academician Knežević, a regular member of the Department of Mathematics, Physics, and Geo-Sciences, assumed the leadership of the highest national scientific institution in the very complex political and economic circumstances in the world and the extremely delicate international position of Serbia, exposed to the pressures of the collective West to give up part of its territory. And that is of Kosovo and Metohija, the unquestionable spiritual vertical of the Serbian people when it comes to Serbian identity and historical consciousness. The acquired knowledge and experience in management, as well as the innate ability to solve problems, will be of valuable help to the new president in the performance of his responsible duties. To the benefit not only of the Academy, science and the scientific community in Serbia, but also of its society as a whole.
 

STUDENTS OF THE FACULTY OF
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, BU

Second place in power electronics

H-Bridges, a team of students from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (ETF) of the University of Belgrade traditionally represents Serbia at the world's largest university competition in the field of innovative and energy-efficient solutions - IEEE International Future Energy Challenge (IFEC). The ETF team, in the final of the competition, held 25-28. July in Hanover, Germany, won 2nd place and the "Outstanding Performance Award". With the final prototype, students from Serbia achieved an efficiency of 94.1% at 1000W, as well as ten times less weight compared to market solutions. This year's theme of the competition was the development of a single-phase solid-state transformer for low power. The proposed solution of the Serbian students offers the possibility to significantly reduce the use of heavy materials in the production of transformers, and in addition, monitoring and diagnostics of the system in real time. The application of this concept would facilitate the integration of renewable energy sources and other smart solutions into the traditional power system.

TESLA

The last visit to Europe

Four months after the extremely successful lectures, in which he presented the results of his latest research to the scientists and engineers of Great Britain and France, Nikola Tesla visited Lika, Zagreb, and Budapest. In the capital of Hungary, delegations from the Belgrade Municipality and the Engineering Association visited him and invited him to visit Belgrade.
Tesla gladly accepted this invitation and came to the capital of the Kingdom of Serbia on June 1 (May 20 according to the old Julian calendar, which was used by all Serbian newspapers at that time) in 1892. He spent only 31 hours in Belgrade, but his stay was filled with numerous meetings and events that will remain a kind of testimony of Tesla's enormous pride in his Serbian origins, but also of the exceptional respect that members of the Serbian state and intellectual elite have, as well as the most distinguished professors of the Belgrade High School, students and many citizens of Belgrade expressed to the distinguished scientist and inventor.

NIKOLA TESLA DAYS 2023

Scientist, Foundation, people...

The event "Nikola Tesla Days 2023" was organized by the Tesla Scientific Foundation from America and Serbia, from July 8 to 11, at the Kolarč National University in Belgrade, at the "Nikola Tesla" Secondary Technical School in Sremska Mitrovica, the Science Park in Šabac, and the Šišatovac and Petkovica monasteries.
The Tesla Scientific Foundation was founded in 2010 in Philadelphia, USA, and three years later in Belgrade. The two basic programs of the Foundation are "Nikola Tesla Clubs" and the "Tesla People" project. Twice a year, which means in January in America, and in July in Serbia, the Tesla Science Foundation organizes events celebrating the figure, life, and work of the greatest Serbian scientist and inventor. Over the years, Tesla's scientific foundation gathered more than twelve thousand people from all over the world: researchers, inventors, educators, and artists, whose mission is to promote the legacy that the great scientist and inventor left to humanity. The founder of this volunteer organization is Nikola Lončar from Philadelphia, an inventor himself, who gathered other inventors in 2010. and than everyone else who was interested in Tesla's achievements joined in, and his legacy has encouraged them to continos act.
 

MEDICINE

For a fresh and natural look

The increasingly popular dermatological anti-aging, if used wisely, allows the user to maintain a fresh and natural appearance of the skin until old age, says Dr. Jovana Pelemiš, dermatovenerologist of Acibadem Bel Medic, certified physician for face and body aesthetic medicine. This largest organ of our body is also very special in that it is always available to the eye - not only as a visible reflection of general psychophysical health but also as a witness of biological aging. In addition to the action of the genetic factor and constant environmental influences, the skin loses its youthful ability to regenerate over time, considering that, with aging and slowing down of cellular metabolism, the secretion of sebaceous glands decreases and the amount of very important building elements of the skin, elastin, and collagen, decreases. It could be said that the skin is usually in its best shape in the twenties, but from the age of 25, the first signs of its aging begin to appear, usually as gentle wrinkles that accompany more pronounced facial expressions.
In our time, the constant human search for the source of eternal youth manifests itself through anti-aging medicine, and part of it is aesthetic dermatology, which offers a series of strategies and cosmetic procedures that can eliminate wrinkles and remove the symptoms of skin aging.

SEA CURRENTS AND CLIMATE

The Atlantic (still) warms Europe

The American NASA recently officially announced that July this year was 0.24 degrees Celsius (0.43 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than any other July since 1880, since the official measurement of air temperature on Earth. Previously, the European company Copernicus Climate Change Service showed that July was the hottest month in the history of air temperature measurements, surpassing the previous July heat record recorded in 2019. Moreover, the heat waves throughout the Northern Hemisphere, which claimed many human lives and ravaged terrain measuring thousands of square kilometers with fires - especially in the USA, Greece, and Spain - continued during August 2023.
While the planet was still burning in many of its parts, the scientific community and the general public were further alarmed by the findings of a study by two Danish scientists, who predicted that the vital system of Atlantic currents, which practically regulate the climate in the northern hemisphere, could disappear in the next few decades, which would lead the planet into even greater climatic chaos.

BIOLUMINESCENCE

Glowing Animals

In the natural world, there are many unusual phenomena that delight people with their beauty and mystery. One of the most fascinating among them is bioluminescence - a natural phenomenon when organisms produce their own light. This process can be observed in various creatures, from microscopic organisms to large sea creatures, and represents one of the most surprising properties of life in the depths of the ocean and on land. As much as an incredible 76% of animals that inhabit the oceans can emit light.?
Bioluminescence is a process in which organisms produce light as a result of chemical reactions within their bodies. There are several mechanisms that enable organisms to produce light. One of the most common mechanisms is the reaction between the enzyme luciferase and the substrate luciferin. The basis of this phenomenon is photoproteins, special proteins that react with oxygen and luciferin, which lead to the emission of light. These enzymes and substrates vary in different organisms, resulting in different colors and light intensities. This light can be blue, green, red, yellow, and even violet, depending on the type of organism that produces it.

MOON GOLD RUSH

A priceless treasure in the universe

For modern technologies on which today's civilization is based, many ores are needed from which appropriate elements are obtained, such as lithium, silicon, aluminium, and elements from the lanthanoid group and the platinum group of metals. Although there are still enough ores on planet Earth that contain the mentioned elements, it is generally known how much mining of many ores can harm the environment and human health. As technological development progresses, so does the amount of metal that needs to be mined. Today, the mining of such ores is moved chiefly to third-world countries where the laws are more lax, and where environmental issues are not taken into account. However, if we strive to progress all humanity and a planet where every inhabitant will enjoy the same quality of life, then the only solution is to move all dirty technologies from our world.
Logically, this historical breakthrough begins with the Moon. Until the second half of the 20th century, little was known about lunar resources that could be exploited. Only studies of geological samples returned from the Moon during the Apollo program and later robotic missions provided some knowledge about the chemical composition of the lunar soil. More importantly, until now it has not been technologically feasible, nor profitable, to mine something on another celestial body and return the cargo to Earth.