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A Dead Cow, Moldy Hay and Drug Discovery

31 Aug 2023

There are roughly 20,000 prescription medicines approved for use around the world and in developed countries two thirds of the population takes one or more of them. Then there are all the non...

The First Consumer Activist

26 Jul 2023

So you are worried about aspartame or a little Red #3 in your food? You know what you would have to worry about back in the early years of the 19th century? A little strychnine in the beer.  A...

Tuberculin Under Your Skin

14 Jul 2023

Throughout its lifetime, tuberculosis (or TB) has gone by many names. The ancient Greeks called it “phthisis”. In the 1700s, it was “the white plague”. And in the 1800s, it was “consumption” –...

Wrap Your Hair Around Biotechnology

6 Jul 2023

What comes to mind when you think of biotechnology? Maybe it’s Dolly the cloned sheep, or GMOs, or stem cell therapy, or DNA profiling, or mRNA vaccines. Rightly so. These are indeed examples of...

The Mythical Creature Known as the Chupacabra Walked Out of a Movie

30 Jun 2023

Monster stories, like roller coasters, allow us to safely experience one of our most intense emotions: fear. The existence of vampires can alleviate our dread at the thought of dying, while...

The White Lie at the Heart of Vaccine History

9 Jun 2023

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Dr. Edward Jenner invented vaccines because of an observation he and he alone made. You see, milkmaids were renowned for their beauty. At a time when...

No, You Can’t Swallow Your Tongue

12 May 2023

Have you ever heard that you should tilt your head backwards during a nosebleed? Or that you should urinate on a jellyfish sting? Or that in case of a seizure you should put a spoon into the victim...

Battling Baldness

29 Mar 2023

It may seem hard to believe, but as late as 1942, male patients in some mental hospitals were castrated to quiet them. This extreme treatment did have some scientific basis, since testosterone, the...

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