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The First Canadian Nobel Prize

29 Sep 2023

As we approach the week during which the 2023 Nobel Prizes will be announced (October 2-9, 2023), it is perhaps timely to consider the events that surrounded the first Nobel Prize awarded to a...

Fighting Fire with Fire: how a Nobel Prize Winning Scientists Used Malaria to ‘Cure’ Syphilis

22 Sep 2023

The history of science is full of disproved experiments, revised textbooks, and rewritten hypotheses. Even Nobel prize-winning research, which is often viewed as the best work science has to offer,...

A Farmer, Epsom Salt, Moses, and some Sweet Chemistry

6 Sep 2023

In 1618 a farmer in England noticed that he could lead his cows to water but could not make them drink. He tasted the well water himself and realized right away that there was some wisdom to the...

A Dead Cow, Moldy Hay and Drug Discovery

31 Aug 2023

There are roughly 20,000 prescription ۲ݮƵ 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...

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