During the Middle Ages, the partition of the cadaver of the elite members was a current practice, with highly technical treatment given to symbolic organs such as the heart. Considered mostly from a theoretical point of view, this notion of dilaceratio corporis has never been biologically explored. To assess the exact kind of embalming reserved to the heart, we performed a full biomedical analysis of the mummified heart of the English King Richard I (1199 A.D.). Here we show among other aspects, that the organ has been embalmed using substances inspired by Biblical texts and practical necessities of desiccation. We found that the heart was deposed in linen, associated with myrtle, daisy, mint, frankincense, creosote, mercury and, possibly, lime. Furthermore, the goal of using such preservation materials was to allow long-term conservation of the tissues, and good-smelling similar to the one of the Christ (comparable to the odor of sanctity).

Establishing a 3D electrically percolating network in an insulating matrix is key to numerous engineering and functional applications. To this end, using hydrophobic carbon nanofillers is tempting, but still results in suboptimal performance due to processing challenges. Here, we demonstrate how natural cellulose nanofibres can be in situ transformed into graphene-like sheets connected to a 3D network enhancing both the transport and the mechanical properties of sintered engineering ceramics. The network architecture also permits the decoupling of electrical and thermal conductivities, which represents a major obstacle in attaining efficient thermoelectric materials. We foresee that our transferable methodology can pave the way for the use of natural nanofibres to unravel the full potential of 3D graphene-like networks to accelerate development in fields like energy and telecommunications.

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We present the growth and characterization of TiO2 nanocrystals. Nanostructured growth is obtained in a low‐pressure CVD system by using an organometallic precursor Ti(OC3H7)4 as both the Ti and O source catalyzed by both ferrocene (an organometallic precursor) and cobalt metallic clusters prepared by the microwave‐assisted polyol method. Two kinds of TiO2 structures were obtained in the cobalt clusters: a) pine‐tree like (with short‐leaf structure) and b) long‐leaf structures as large as a few micrometers in size and both under 10 nm in thickness. Long‐leaf TiO2 structures were grown at cobalt grain boundaries. For the growth conditions utilized, the TiO2 structures are composed of both anatase and rutile crystallographic phases. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)