In 1998 Time magazine compiled a list of the hundred most influential of the twentieth century. Among them were people as disparate as Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, John Paul II, Hitler or Che Guevara. But if there is something amazing to consider the curious inventory is the presence of a character that has no name. It's "The Unknown Rebel." Little is known of him. There are no statements from you and not even a clear image of his face. The Unknown Rebel is the nickname given to an anonymous man the June 5, 1989 were opposed, with his mere presence, the advancement of a column of tanks during the riots in Tiananmen Square in China.
The riots had begun almost two months before and including intellectuals, workers and student groups protesting the oppression of the communist government, high inflation or failure of economic reform. Finally, these manifestations of unrest ended by force and an estimated 2,000 civilians died in the government's attempt to calm the situation. Even today, this is a taboo subject in China. What the executive termed an action to normalize the situation in the country, the most reactionary understand it was a totally disproportionate practice, and to draw the army into the streets, including armored vehicles to try to quell the spirits of a perfectly controllable than simply expressing their discontent with the social and economic situation of the great Asian giant does seem to go against the principle of proportionality.
But this June 5, the unknown rebel image planted in the middle of the street would become an icon for freedom. When the tank column was moving to the private citizen, anyone who looked the picture waiting for the fatal outcome. Logic dictated that the man would die under the chains of the tanks if not move from there. But then, the first tank after he stopped and others. A single man, unarmed and without any intention warmonger, had managed to halt the advance of an army that days before had proved ruthless.
The unknown rebel behaved like the skin of our body, repelling the attack of the pathogen in this case were the tanks. It can be said, drawing a parallel, that this man served as the first line of defense of an alleged immune system. And this, the immune system can be divided into three levels.
The first level of defense is formed by surface barriers. The first and most obvious of these is within the skin, which acts as a mechanical barrier that forms the first line of defense against infection. Other examples of mechanical barriers urine and tears by the action of drag exerted by pathogens. Within this first level of defense are also chemical barriers such as antimicrobial proteins in saliva or breast milk, and biological barriers, such as intestinal flora or genital.
However, such barriers can not stop a hundred percent of the pathogens, and when you escape this level of defense is the turn of the innate immune system, which presents an immediate nonspecific response. Within this type of immunity are processes -mediated inflammatory molecules called cytokines, eicosanoids and the line of white blood cells or leukocytes, macrophages, neutrophils, etc .- and a system called "complement" that occurs as a cascade of reactions that ultimately affect foreign cells.
Finally, the more specific level of defense that has our immune system is the adaptive system. As a major feature of immunological memory that enables it to recognize specific pathogens over time, and is mediated by cells called lymphocytes. The main classes of these are the series B, which produce antibodies and T-series, which coordinate the immune response by secreting specific proteins to the medium. None of these levels
defense makes sense in the absence of others and can only be understood in the overall immune system. Unknown rebel action, however laudable it may be, no sense in terms of defense. Some think that this man was executed days later and say that is hidden in the rural interior of China. Its role as a military strategy was a disaster, but it was a symbol of symbols and history is built.
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