It’s common knowledge that Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928. A lucky wind blew a few spores into his Petri dish, and the rest is history.

That’s true as far as it goes, author Lauren Belfer says, but what people forget is that Fleming couldn’t do much with his miraculous discovery because penicillin was so tough to produce. It lay dormant until the outbreak of World War II, and in the meantime, people continued to die from causes as tiny as a scratch on the knee.

Belfer’s new novel, A Fierce Radiance, picks up the story of penicillin just after the outbreak of the war, when pharmaceutical companies were racing to perfect mass-production of the drug.

Belfer tells NPR’s Lynn Neary that the story of penicillin is a family story for her. “For all the years that I knew her, my elderly aunt kept on her bureau a photograph of her brother when he was about 10 years old, sitting in a canoe with his father, having a wonderful time on a summer vacation.”

A year later, Belfer says, the boy was dead. “He died on the Fourth of July, in the 1920s, of a fast-moving infection, and there was nothing his doctors could do.”

Penicillin was notoriously difficult to make. Belfer estimates that when the war broke out in 1939, there were only a few teaspoons of the drug in the entire country. But the pace of development picked up when scientists began looking for new ways to treat infections in battlefield wounds.

“What they found was that the mold, the penicillium mold, grew best in a flat surface. And they just didn’t have the technology to create huge flat surfaces, so they used what was at hand,” Belfer says. “It was very much an at-home kitchen process” using milk bottles and bedpans to grow the precious mold. By 1944, every soldier going ashore on D-Day had penicillin in his kit………

Penicillin was a major military priority, Belfer says, since it was considered a weapon of war. “The United States government took over the production,” she says, “and penicillin was made under the supervision of the same group that was supervising the Manhattan Project for the atomic bomb.”

Because the government controlled the production, it also took over the patents on penicillin, forbidding pharmaceutical companies from profiting from their work on the drug. Much of the intrigue in A Fierce Radiance comes from those companies’ behind-the-scenes race to develop what they call the “cousins” — relatives of penicillin that weren’t subject to government restriction. “This became a billion-dollar industry,” Belfer says. “It did not exist in 1940.”

On top of this tale of war and scientific intrigue, Belfer layers the story of glamorous Life magazine photographer Claire Shipley, who’s been assigned to cover the development of penicillin. “I read every single issue of Life magazine, from 1939 to 1945,” Belfer says, part of an effort to put herself in the shoes of people living through the war.

“I realized that Americans expected that their cities would be bombed. Life magazine gave people advice on what to do during bombing raids. I remember an article about what to do with your pets during bombing raids, because pets weren’t allowed in the shelter. That really brought the war home to me.”

via:Health

Can’t remember where you put your glasses? Blanked on your new colleague’s name? “Forgetting these types of things is a sign of how busy we are,” says Zaldy S. Tan, MD, director of the Memory Disorders Clinic at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “When we’re not paying good attention, the memories we form aren’t very robust, and we have a problem retrieving the information later.”

The key, says Harry Lorayne, author of Ageless Memory: Simple Secrets for Keeping Your Brain Young, is to get your brain in shape. “We exercise our bodies, but what good is that great body if you don’t have the mental capabilities to go with it?” Sure, you could write everything down, keep organized lists and leave electronic notes on your BlackBerry, cell phone or PDA. But when you don’t have access to those aids, or if you want to strengthen your brain, try these expert-recommended strategies to help you remember.

PLUS:op 10 Tips for a Healthy Brain

Brain Freeze: “What the heck is his name?”

1. Pay attention. When you’re introduced to someone, really listen to the person’s name. Then, to get a better grasp, picture the spelling. Ask, “Is that Kathy with a K or a C?” Make a remark about the name to help lock it in (“Oh, Carpenter — that was my childhood best friend’s last name”), and use the name a few times during the conversation and when you say goodbye.

2. Visualize the name. For hard-to-remember monikers (Bentavegna, Wobbekind), make the name meaningful. For Bentavegna, maybe you think of a bent weather vane. Picture it. Then look at the person, choose an outstanding feature (bushy eyebrows, green eyes) and tie the name to the face. If Mr. Bentavegna has a big nose, picture a bent weather vane instead of his nose. The sillier the image, the better.

PLUS: 11 Healthy Ways to De-Stress With Food

3. Create memorable associations. Picture Joe Everett standing atop Mount Everest. If you want to remember that Erin Curtis is the CEO of an architectural firm, imagine her curtsying in front of a large building, suggests Gini Graham Scott, PhD, author of 30 Days to a More Powerful Memory.

4. Cheat a little. Supplement these tips with some more concrete actions. When you get a business card, after the meeting, jot down a few notes on the back of the card (“red glasses, lives in Springfield, went to my alma mater”) to help you out when you need a reminder…… (more…)

For those living in the United Kingdom, today marks Action Mesothelioma Day, an attempt to spread awareness about a rare cancer caused by asbestos exposure.

The British Lung Foundation and other asbestos support groups have campaigned for the day since 2006. In addition to creating awareness about the effects of asbestos exposure, the day is meant to support those who have been affected with malignant mesothelioma as well as bring notice to the importance of improving treatment options.

A cure for this cancer has yet to be found, but researchers around the world continue to perform clinical trials with the hope of finding one. Current treatment methods are more or less designed to relieve symptoms and prolong life. The average mesothelioma life expectancy for patients ranges between four and 18 months…….. (more…)

Sarcomatoid Mesothelioma is a quite uncommon type of cancer caused due to asbestos exposure. While it is difficult to diagnose Sarcomatoid Mesothelioma, it hardly responds to any type of therapy. This is the most serious of all asbestos-related diseases. The possibility of finding this type of cancer is on the lips and the larynx. However, in certain cases it may affect the oral cavity as well. Like all other forms of mesothelioma cancers, this cancer is a fatal disease and hardly responds to any method of treatment. Even though radiation therapy is recommended for the treatment of these cancerous tumors, but some of them may not be radiosensitive and may defy radiation for treatment. …….. (more…)

A $657.5 million settlement reached between the city and 9/11 rescue and cleanup workers on March 11 must be renegotiated, a U.S. District Court Judge said.

Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein rejected the proposed settlement on March 19 and stated, in court, that he did so because the settlement did not offer enough compensation to the workers for the illnesses they have suffered since they worked at or near Ground Zero.

Hellerstein added that he – as opposed to a claims administrator – would supervise any new renegotiation and that the lawyer’s payout, about a third of the settlement, should come out of the same fund that will pay the lawyers for the city, leaving more for the injured worke

“I think the grounds on which [Hellerstein] rejected [the settlement] was strong,” said Daniel Coates, an immigration organizer at the community group Make The Road New York, who has worked with many Queens-area cleanup workers. “But now the process will take longer given the dire situations some of these workers find themselves in.”

According to reports, close to 10,000 workers took part in the lawsuit against the city. These workers claimed that because of the toxins and chemicals – such as cement, glass dust, asbestos, fiberglass, alkaline, and lead – in the air at Ground Zero, they developed respiratory problems including asthma, sinusitis, rhinitis, persistent cough, chronic bronchitis and emphysema, as well as lung scarring, lung cancer, gastrointestinal tract cancer, heart disease and mesothelioma.

As of March 31, 2009, more than 51,000 World Trade Center (WTC) responders nationwide had met eligibility and enrolled in the World Trade Center medical monitoring and treatment programs, according to Fred Blosser, a National Institutes for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) spokesperson.

Some of these workers have had to quit work because they are too sick. As of September 11, 2009, at least 817 had died…. (more…)

You’re never too young—or too old—to start lowerig your heart disease risk. Of course, exercising, eating healthy and reducing stress are key throughout life, but due to physiological changes that happen as we age, certain risk factors do become more of a threat.

In Your 20s

Stub Out a Social Smoking Habit
Smoking is enemy number one when it comes to heart disease, and even just a few cigarettes can do damage: New research from McGill University in Montreal found that smoking just one cigarette a day stiffens your arteries by a whopping 25 percent. Plus, smoking erases the hormonal advantage you have from estrogen, which can leave you vulnerable to a heart attack before menopause, explains Dr. Bonow.

Don’t Ignore the Birth Control Factor
Remember that hormonal contraceptives slightly increase the risk of blood clots, so if you’ve ever had one, make sure to discuss it with your doctor before going on birth control. And if you’re currently a smoker, don’t take oral contraceptives, because the combo can be especially dangerous, says Sharonne N. Hayes, MD, director of the Women’s Heart Clinic at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Watch Your Alcohol Intake
Moderate amounts of alcohol can have a beneficial effect on your heart. (By “moderate,” we mean one drink a day or about 5 ounces—but many restaurants serve far more than that.) Overdoing it can raise triglycerides, increase blood pressure and lead to weight gain, thanks to all those empty calories.

In Your 30s

Get a Grip on Stress
When you’re juggling career and family, it’s crucial to find stress management techniques that work. “Untamed stress has a direct negative impact on heart health,” says Dr. Stevens. “The constant bombardment of adrenaline raises blood pressure and destabilizes plaque in your arteries, making it likely to cause a clot or heart attack.”… (more…)

An estimated 55 million Americans were infected with the H1N1 swine flu from the time the disease first emerged in mid-April until mid-December, and about 11,200 people died, according to official figures.

The flu, which is no longer causing widespread activity after peaking in November in 48 states, has also led to an estimated 246,000 hospitalisations, according to statistics from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although swine flu infections are declining, health officials stress that there could be a resurgence of the disease. So they’re urging people to get vaccinated against the H1N1 virus, especially since vaccine supplies are now plentiful….. (more…)