27 fevereiro 2017

Founding the Antibiotic Era

The antibiotic era as we know it today started with syphilis. Yes, the face-ravaging, sanity-altering sexually transmitted infection. At the turn of the 19th century, syphilis was endemic and almost incurable. Caused by the spirochete Treponema pallidium, syphilis was usually treated with inorganic mercury salts. But mercury salts treatment had extremely severe and unpleasant side effects and did not usually work very well. Paul Erlich thought there might be a better way. His idea of a “magic bullet” that selectively targets only disease-causing microbes, and not the human housing those microbes, was based on scientists noticing that aniline and other synthetic dyes, which first were produced in the late 1800s, could stain some specific microbes but not others. Paul Ehrlich argued that special chemical compounds could be created which would “be able to exert their full action exclusively on the parasite harbored within the organism.“  This idea of Erlich’s led him to begin a large-scale and systematic screening program (as we would call it today) in 1904 to find a drug against syphilis.

Paul Erlich and his colleagues synthesized hundreds of derivatives of the highly toxic drug Atoxyl and tested them, over and over, in syphilis-infected rabbits. Finally, in 1909 they came across the sixth compound in the 600th series tested, which they numbered 606, which cured syphilis-infected rabbits. Eureka! Further limited trials showed that 606 could possibly work in human patients too. The drug was marketed under the name Salvarsan, was a great success. Soon a less toxic version called Neosalvarsan was invented. The two enjoyed the status of the most frequently prescribed drug (in the Western World) until their replacement by penicillin in the 1940s.

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earthgenconservation: did-you-kno: You can charge your phone...

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Tar Chewing Gum?

In one form or another, chewing gum has existed for a really long time — around 5,000 years, in fact. The oldest known chewing gum was discovered on a dig in Finland. It dates back to the Neolithic age, around 3000 BCE. This “chewing gum” would not be recognizable today. It was just a lump made out of birch bark tar, but it did have clear tooth imprints in it. Even back then, chewing gum had a medical benefit. The birch bark contained phenols with antiseptic properties, so the chewing gum was likely used to treat gum infections

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February 27th 1933: Reichstag fireOn this day in 1933, the...







February 27th 1933: Reichstag fire

On this day in 1933, the Reichstag building in Berlin, which housed the German Parliament, was set on fire. The Nazi government of Adolf Hitler then ordered a thorough hunt to track down the arsonist. The police identified the perpetrator as Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch communist; he and four other Communist leaders were arrested for their supposed role in the blaze. The Nazis used the event as evidence of a Communist plot in Germany, and Hitler urged President Hindenburg to pass an emergency decree to counter the Communist threat. This Reichstag Fire Decree gave Hitler considerable powers, and is considered a pivotal moment in Hitler’s consolidation of power into a one-party dictatorship. Van der Lubbe was found guilty and executed by guillotine on January 10th 1934. However, his role has been questioned by historians with some even suggesting he was not responsible and that the fire was ordered by the Nazis themselves.

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Haast’s Eagle is the largest known eagle to have ever...



Haast’s Eagle is the largest known eagle to have ever existed. The largest of them could weigh 15 kg (33 lbs) and have a wingspan of up to 3 m (9.8 ft). They were so big because their prey on the south island of New Zealand was the flightless moa birds, who were also large – up to 230 kg (510 lbs). Haast’s Eagle went extinct in New Zealand around 1400. Not because of humans – or at least, not directly. The first Māori hunted moas into extinction, and without their main food source, Haast’s Eagles quickly followed.

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Images of the Sun From the GOES-16 Satellite


These images of the sun were captured at the same time on January 29, 2017 by the six channels on the Solar Ultraviolet Imager or SUVI instrument aboard NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite. Data from SUVI will provide an estimation of coronal plasma temperatures and emission measurements which are important to space weather forecasting.

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VISIT –> http://ift.tt/1tgZzj1 for psychoanalysis information and resources.

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