Bethany Halford’s article, Rapamycin's Secrets Unearthed, explores the discovery and how the research rapamycin has led science today. In 1964, a group of scientists departed for a Canadian expedition to study the people who lived in Easter Island that were immune to tetanus (a bacterial infection) by collecting 67 samples of soil for analyses1. By 1969, only one of the 67 samples were able to be further analyzed which unknowingly contained rapamycin1. More so, the name rapamycin came from Rapa Nui, which was the name given to the people of Easter Island1. Furthermore, rapamycin was seen as a potential compound that can further cancer research because it’s antifungal activity, potent immunosuppressant ability, and could contain cells from multiplying.
Secrets Found in Gimli by Diane Alexander, Freya Press, 2007 is the text chose to be stylistic analyzed. The main theme in the story is healing. Anger and jealousy destroyed the life of two Aboriginal siblings. In order to heal the issues left unsolved in the first life, the sibling soul’s reincarnate as friends, but their relationship with each other, and with others characters in the story, are turbulent. Aboriginal spirituality played a role in the story and explains the reasons for things and helps the characters solve their karmas issues. Diane Alexander uses Canadian historical facts to create a fiction and she succeeds, her story is interesting.
In short, the book 'Deadly Companions: How Microbes Shaped Our History' explains the dynamism, the changing interactions between humans and microbes, and the way and extent to which these interactions have influenced the human cultural history. This book is very useful because it tell us that we must strive to understand what makes microbes successful as we are faced with unrelenting microbial drug resistance. Microbes mutate to fatal human pandemics and it’s for this reason that we need to adopt a microbe centric world views.
Medicine has been developed and discovered for thousands of years; however, the 1920’s was the first decade that fashioned a pathway for new developments and discoveries. Medical professionals have taken a huge hit for their fight in finding new inventions that can save patients from death’s hands. In the 1920’s, medicine has also taken a tremendous leap in controlling fatal diseases such as diabetes (Pendergast 110). Medicine in the 1920’s has altered the way medicine is shaped today; furthermore, the development and discovery of the iron lung, penicillin, and insulin were the first pertinent breakthroughs in medical history (“Iron” par. 7; Grimsley par. 15; “Banting” par. 13).
With a competitive spirit, people are driven to act in ways that they would not otherwise and the results can be drastic. In the case of James D. Watson and Francis Crick, in Watson’s novel the Double Helix, this sensation of competition leads to one of the greatest discoveries in biology. But the actions of Watson, Crick, and their competitors may or may not be justified for the results that they yield; the powerful conflict of rivalry has beneficial, detrimental, and questionably moral consequences that shaped the pathway to DNA’s structure.
It is also interesting to know just how many medical breakthroughs came about by accident. It allows people to realize that, although it should be handled with the utmost care, cut of the edge research is not always cut and dry. This book teaches that it takes true intellect to take what seems like a failure or an accident and instead of abandoning it, reflecting on what has truly happened. Students as well as current researchers should read, study, and take inspiration from this book. It has a lot to teach other than simply the surface of the history of the discoveries it
Vancomycin, which is a specific antibiotic that falls under the glycopeptide subset of antibiotics was first discovered from a soil sample in the Bornea jungle by Dr. E. C. Kornfield during an antimicrobial research program in 1953 (2). Vancomycin is a bactericide collected from a strain of bacteria known as Streptomyces orientalis, and upon its initial mass production in the 1950s, was found to have many impurities which may have led to its early ototoxic and nephrotoxic properties making it a secondary drug upon initial approval by the FDA (3). However, it has since been more highly purified, and those properties have dissipated leaving a very pure, low toxicity antimicrobial agent. It is now used a last resort antibiotic and most prominently administered intravenously; however, studies are taking place to interpret the best way to administer the drug as new Vancomycin-resistant species h...
How Watson and Crick’s Discovery of the Structure of DNA Influenced American Industries and Scientific Development in the United States
Health, how it is defined and how it is maintained, is a reflection of the dominant ideology in a certain society. The medical system of Western countries, including Australia, is based on the biomedical model of health or biomedicine. According to Lord Nigel Crisp, who is a global health reform advocate, former Chief Executive of the National Health Service (NHS) in United Kingdom (UK) and previous Permanent Secretary of the UK Department of Health, Western scientific medicine and the health systems based on them have exhibited spectacular success in improving health over the last century and it has come to dominate medical thinking, habits and institutions globally. It also served as the guide for health regulating bodies including the World Health Organization, health care professional associations and pharmaceutical companies. He argued, however, that presently Western scientific medicine is no longer capable of solely managing the health demands of peoples in both the industrialised and developing countries. There is a need to adapt and absorb new ideas to be able to meet the demands of the twenty first century(Marble, 2010). In order to get a better understanding of the current health system in Western societies this paper attempts to take a closer look at the development of scientific medicine as the foundation of modern medical practice. In addition to the overview of biomedicine, a few of the challenges to its discourse will also be presented throughout the discussion.
What created this narrowing circle was the European invasion of the Americas and the fear the newcomers perpetuated. In her collection of poetry The Book of Medicines, Hogan writes, “But the new people, / whatever stepped inside their shadow, / they would kill, / whatever crossed their path, / they came to fear.” In this history of violence and fear so much destruction came about in the Americas. “Humans colonizing and conquering others have a propensity for this,” Hogan reminds the reader, “for burning behind them what they cannot possess or control, as if their conflicts are not with themselves and their own way of being, but with the land itself.” Critiquing Western notions of privilege and progress, Hogan writes to create understandings
Scientific American: http://www.sciam.com/1998/0398issue/0398levy.html. 4 ) Zajicek, Gershom. “The Antibiotic Paradox: How Miracle Drugs Are Destroying the Miracle”. Plenum Press, N.Y., 1992.
Discovery and Development of Penicillin. (2014, April 4). Retrieved from American Chemical Society International Historic Chemical Landmarks: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/flemingpenicillin.html
At his Nobel Peace Prize speech in 1945, Alexander Fleming warned against the misuse of antibiotics and the fact that by doing this, one allows the bacteria to ‘become educated’ and therefore become resistant to the antibiotic. It is believed that the first cases of antibiotic resistance were shortly after this speech. (Fleming, 1945)
It is noticed that science develops in splashes, each significantly advancing our understanding of the nature. The 19th century was the time of rapid development of microbiology. In the search for secrets of nature science has reached extremely high and low energies as well as large and small length scales. Still until recently we knew very little about one of the most complex aspects of life – microbes and infection. Now we are at the dawn of efflorescence in molecular biology, which provides an excellent basis for application into several areas of biology like cancer and virology . Revelations of molecular biology become extremely crucial, as they provide insights into the way molecules work.
...ional Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 24 Jan. 2014. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
The study of replication, transcription and translation of genetic material is known as molecular biology. Molecular biology is a bottom-up approach to understanding human life. Though the exploration of molecular biology began in the 1930s, it really took off in the 1960s after the uncovering of the structure of DNA. (Coriell Institute for Medical Research, n.d.) Today, molecular biology is shaping our understanding of diseases. Through this reflection journal, I seek to explore preventative and curative phenomena in medical biotechnology, and determine their impact on the political, social and economic spheres.