Archives February 2013

Needle and pill phobia sufferers must have cheered when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first transdermal patch in 1979. This new mode of drug delivery promised all the benefits of shots and pills but with no downside. Patient comfort was not the reason biochemist Alejandro Zaffaroni (b. 1923) developed transdermal patches. Zaffaroni wanted to mimic the body's timed release of hormones and thought available drug delivery methods were not sophisticated enough. In 1969 he started his company, ALZA, and by 1971 had been awarded a U.S. patent for a "bandage for administering drugs." Big pharmaceutical companies thought the patch was the path to nowhere. "I thought the industry would look at what we were doing and say, 'Gee, it makes a good deal of sense. But they didn't,'" said Zaffaroni in an interview. The pharmaceutical industry, however, soon realized that Zaffaroni's patches made good sense and more...

"[It was on this day] I suddenly knew how to make a one-step dry photographic process." Edwin Land The "Polaroid" camera became an instant classic following its conception, more than sixty years ago. Although the technology behind self-developing film was already present at the time, it was Edwin Land (1909-1991), founder of the Polaroid Corporation, who designed and produced the first commercially available self-developing camera in 1946, an invention that won its creator many accolades. Land formed his company in 1937 to produce and sell the polarizing filters he had patented eight years before, and soon the company was making filters for the United States in World War II. Land was on vacation with his daughter in 1943 when, after snapping a photo of her, she asked why she had to wait so long to see the image. He soon visualized a system of "one step dry photography," whereby the more...

"A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous." Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architect Chairs have been invented that swing, swivel, rock, roll, recline, fold, massage, and even electrocute. Before all of those, however, came the invention of the chair in its simplest form, about 4,800 years ago. More than a thousand years before that, man had invented a way of resting in a sitting position off the floor, on the simple backless seats known as stools. Stools were raised to an art form by the ancient Egyptians. Beside creating beautiful and ornate stools, the Egyptian craftsmen also focused on function by fabricating stools that folded. Some examples have floor rails and crossing spindles with carved goose heads inlaid with ivory to resemble feathers and eyes. In the Third Dynasty (2650-2575 B.C.E.), Egyptians were also to give stools their greatest more...

The proverb "All work and no play make Jack a dull boy" is quite correct. This shows the need for rest, recreation and fun after doing hard work. Tiresome and constant work becomes a burden if we fail to get rest. So holidays are necessary. They remove fatigue from our body- They give comfort to our mind. There are two kinds of holidays—(i) Short holidays and (ii) long holidays, Sunday is a short holiday. It gives us time to do our urgent work which we cannot do on account of busy life and routine work. We got long holidays on the occasion of festivals. Generally, such holidays are spent in celebrating festivals or to get recreation. Students get summer vacation which lasts for two months. We must use long holidays in a proper way. A programme must be chalked out to make use of them. Often teachers prescribe home work more...

When Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas in 1492 he was struck by the locals' indulgence in an unfamiliar habit. The Mayans had been smoking dried tobacco leaves since the first century B.C.E., and by the time the Spanish sailors discovered the New World the custom had spread throughout the continent. Possibly thinking their foreign visitors divine, the indigenous Arawaks offered Columbus and his men some of the leaves—who immediately threw them away. One member of the crew, Rodrigo de Jerez, was not as skeptical, though, and very soon he also "drank" the dried tobacco leaves wrapped in palm or maize, thus becoming the first European smoker. Back home, his newly acquired habit frightened his compatriots so much that the Inquisition put him in jail. Over the next few centuries the practice gradually spread all over the world, but to a mixed reception. Initially European doctors praised its medicinal properties—the more...

'"Australian antigen' was the Rosetta stone for unraveling the nature of the hepatitis viruses." Robert H. Purcell, National Institute of Health There are few people who can be said to have saved the lives of millions, but American scientist Dr. Baruch Blumberg (b. 1925) is one of them. In the 1960s he and his colleagues were screening aboriginal blood for diseases when they found a rare protein. They named it the "Australian antigen" and investigated whether it also occurred elsewhere in the world. It turned out to be uncommon in Americans but much more prevalent in Asians, Africans, and some Europeans. They discovered it-was also found in leukemia sufferers who were receiving regular blood transfusions. Further population studies pointed to the antigen being part of a relatively unknown virus that caused a particularly virulent form of hepatitis—hepatitis B. Hepatitis B is a serious disease that attacks the liver causing cirrhosis more...

The discovery of the properties of ether as an anesthetic was one of the major breakthroughs for the medical profession. Until then, patients undergoing surgery had to rely on hypnotism or alcohol. American Crawford Long (1815-1878) is reputed to have first discovered the effects of ether when attending "laughing gas" parties and "ether frolics" during his years at medical school. There he noticed that those under the influence of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) or ether were unaware of pain through knocks and falls, until the effect had worn off. Long established his rural practice in Jefferson, Georgia, and began to experiment with sulfuric ether as an anesthetic. The first procedure in which he used ether was an operation on March 30,1842, to remove a tumor from a young man's neck; after the surgery the patient could not believe that it had been done. Long then began to use ether for more...

"How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?" Author unknown The development of the safety match in 1844 by the Swedish chemistry professor Gustaf Erik Pasch (1788- 1862) followed the invention of the friction match. Pasch replaced the dangerous white phosphorus in the flammable mixture coating the match head with nontoxic red phosphorus, which was far. Less flammable. He also removed the phosphorus from the mixture at the head of the match and added it to a specially prepared striking surface. The striking surface was made from red phosphorus and powdered glass, leaving a composition of antimony(lll) sulfide and potassium chlorate on the match head. Some of the red phosphorus was converted to white by friction heat as the match was struck. The small amount of white phosphorus then ignites, starting the combustion of the match. more...

I was going to Faizabad with my father. I expressed my desire to see he zoo at Lucknow on the way. He agreed and we got down at Lucknow. After taking our bath and heavy refreshment we hired a tonga and reached the zoo. We bought our tickets and entered the zoo.  As we entered the compound, we saw a small house surrounded by a wire net. Inside it, we saw a number of snakes of all the sizes and colours. For the first time in my life, I saw a grey snake as thin as the small finger. There were snakes called pythons. They seemed to be two or three quintals heavy. Then we saw a tank full of all kinds of coloured fish. They were leaping about and swimming beautifully in the clear water. In another tank we saw a small hill and rocks on which a crocodile more...

An Indian juggler is a common man. He goes from village to village and from town to town. He is an entertainer in the life of Indians; at times he is also seen in the cities entertaining a crowd along the road. He has no fixed place where he can live. He moves from place to place. You cannot see him with his wife and children. He stays in a village or town for two or three days. Then he leaves for some other place. Generally he continues his tour within a district only. Sometimes he visits other districts also. His appearance and dress are quite peculiar. He ties a big turban on his head. He keeps a beard. A kurta with long broad sleeves, a fat bag on his shoulder which has many things give him a peculiar appearance. He is generally tall. His face shows that he is more...