When was aspirin discovered?

Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and American Indians sometimes chewed the leaves of the willow tree and other plants to relieve pain. But no one knew why these plants helped fight pain until the nineteenth century, when scientists found that these plants contained pain-relieving substances called salicylates.

But in their pure form, these substances make people nauseous. So, in 1898, a German chemist named Felix Hoffman found a way to make a salicylate-based medicine that wouldn't upset the stomach. This new drug was called acetylsalicylic acid, although today it is better known as "aspirin".

At first, aspirin was sold by prescription only, and was served in powder form. Aspirin tablets did not appear until 1915. Today, Americans take about 30 billion aspirins a year - about 100 per person - and aspirin is by far the most widely used drug in the world!

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When was penicillin discovered?

Alexander Fleming

Penicillin is one of the most important medical discoveries of our time, because it allows doctors to easily treat the diseases and infections that once killed many people.

If it weren't for penicillin and other drugs with its characteristics, there would be little a doctor could do if one were affected by a serious infection.

Centuries ago, moldy bread was sometimes used as an antiseptic, but no one knew why mold could fight certain infections. Later, in the 19th century, scientists discovered that certain molds and bacteria produced substances that killed or prevented the growth of other bacteria. These substances are now called antibiotics.

Then, in 1928, a Scottish scientist named Alexander Fleming worked in his laboratory with a culture of bacteria. When a kind of mold, called penicillium, accidentally fell on the culture, Fleming noticed that the mold had killed the bacteria around it. Other experiments showed that these molds produced a substance that killed many common bacteria, and Fleming named the substance penicillin.

But the most important thing about penicillin was that it did not damage the living cells of the body, as other antibiotics discovered earlier did. In 1939, other scientists found a way to purify and strengthen penicillin, which was already available in the United States in the 1940s.

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How do blind people read?

In the past the only way a blind person could read was to run his fingers over blocks of wood in which there were carved letters, and try to read the letters with his fingers.

Then, in 1829, a young Frenchman named Louis Braille invented a better system, one that allowed blind people to write and read. This system was named after the inventor.

Braille, who was also blind, invented an alphabet that consisted of combining several dots in relief into cells. Each combination from six dots represents a different letter.

A blind person can run his fingers over these dots and know which letter they represent. There are even Braille typewriters that allow a blind person to write.

Louis Braille was only 15 years old when he developed his system of reading raised dots.

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What is truth serum?

The truth serum is one or more substances that are administered to a person, so that the person gives frank and true answers to any question that is asked.

Serious research into such substances began in the early 1950s, during the Korean War, following reports of "brainwashing", a method of interrogation by Chinese and North Koreans of prisoners of war. The U.S. Air Force began a project to find the truth serum; U.S. pilots would be administered and trained to resist brainwashing.

The first experiments were with barbiturates, amphetamines, alcohol, and heroin, but most of the substances only helped subjects lie with greater skill.


The Trials of Stalinist Purges

The fear of mind manipulation techniques arose in the 1930s and 1940s as a result of the scandalous trials of Stalin's purges in the Soviet Union and socialist bloc countries.

The sodium pentothal, a barbiturate used by anesthetists to relax patients before surgery, is often called truth serum. Its purpose, in this context, is to help create a state of disorientation.

The subject is given a strong dose of the serum, which leaves him unconscious. Benzedrine is then injected as a stimulant to resuscitate the subject only partially. Already in a state of semi-consciousness, he is at the mercy of a psychiatrist, who with hypnotism techniques modifies his perception of what is happening around him.

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What is the most common blood group?

 There is information that 45 percent of the world's population belongs to blood type O, so it is sometimes referred to as 'universal'. There are countries where some types of blood predominate over others, such as Norway and Finland, where the majority of the population belongs to group A. On the other hand, 100 percent of the natives of the American continent have the O group in their veins. However, the least common is one known as the Bombay blood type (subtype h-h), which was found in a Czechoslovak nurse in 1961 and a pair of American twins in 1968.

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Is low cholesterol also bad?

 Some studies have shown that this is the case. The effects of high levels of ''bad cholesterol'' (LDL) in the blood, which affects the arteries, are well studied. Not so the consequences of their low production.

A study conducted at the University of San Diego in California compared data from suicidal patients and noted that many of them suffered from low levels of LDL cholesterol. This led to a decrease in the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter, which altered moods.

Other studies have shown that those affected by colon cancer suffer from the same insufficiency, also called hypocholesterolemia. But the cause-effect relationship has not been fully demonstrated.

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