Disclaimer: This summative assessment focuses on all white males. Please consider acknowledging this fact and, perhaps, discussing access to opportunities before proceeding. Thank you and have a nice day.

A Neil deGrasse Tyson youtube clip which answers the question, “What’s up with chicks and science?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inz1sdhsMCU

Name _____________________ Science Saves the Day! MYP Summative 1.1: Criterion D Reflecting on the Impacts of Science

Presentation date: ________________________ Assignment: ______________________________________________

We can gain a better understanding of the power of doing science by evaluating the effects of scientific developments and their applications to a specific problem or issue. In this summative assignment, you will

o investigate a historically-significant scientific discovery that resulted from applying the scientific method to a real problem

o create a poster that explains what the problem was, how the scientific method was applied, and the results of the discovery— then and now

STEP ONE: THE SCIENCE IS IN THE STORY

Take time now to carefully read over your story. When you are done, answer the following question:

What important discovery will your presentation be on? ___________________________________________

STEP TWO: OUTLINE AND ANALYZE THE SCIENCE

Slide 1: The title of your presentation and your name.

Slide 2: What was going on at the time? What question was asked?

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Slide 3: What hypothesis was being tested?

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Slide 4: Describe how the control group and the experimental group(s) were different.

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Slide 5: What two conditions were kept constant in the control group and the experimental group?

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Slide 6: What data was collected in order to test the hypothesis? (Dependent variable)

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Slide 7: Describe one change that could have been made in the investigation to improve it.

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Slide 8: What was the conclusion? What discovery was made?

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Slides 9: What is one way that the discovery is still affecting life today? Use factor 1 here!

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Slide 10: What is one way that the discovery is still affecting life today? Use factor 2 here!

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STEP THREE: LINKING THE DISCOVERY TO TODAY

Now you will use the Internet to find out how that discovery is affecting our lives today. You must find at least two connections between the discovery and life today. Some factors to consider:

moral implications— Has it affected what we as individuals believe is right or wrong? ethical implications—Has it affected what most of society thinks is the right thing to do? social implications— Has it changed society (the people in a community that share laws, traditions, etc.)? economic implications— Has buying and selling been affected? political implications— Has the government done anything different? cultural implications— Have habits, beliefs, or traditions changed? environmental implications— Has the natural world been affected in any way?

How will the two factors that you choose be included into your PowerPoint presentation?

Factor 1: __________________________________________________________________________________

How this discovery has an effect on life today:

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Sources: __________________________________________________________________________________

Factor 2: __________________________________________________________________________________

How this discovery has an effect on life today:

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Sources: __________________________________________________________________________________

Science Saves the Day: Joseph Lister

Sir Joseph Lister is a renowned English surgeon who discovered antiseptic surgery. He is distinguished as the 'Father of Modern Surgery' for his contribution to sterile surgery that led to the safety of patients who underwent complex surgeries. He developed the principles of cleanliness that changed the face of medicine and surgical practice forever. Joseph Lister is also known as the

founder of antiseptic medicine and the inventor of preventive medicine. He was a religious man who strongly believed in God, religious principles and Christianity. He belonged to the Quaker homes in Upton and received education from various prestigious schools and universities. Later in life, he received various designations and honors and also served as a personal surgeon to Queen Victoria. Joseph Lister's breakthrough in antiseptic surgery saved millions of lives and also paved way to the advancement of modern surgical procedures. Read this biography to know more about Sir Joseph Lister and his contributions to medical science.

Childhood And Early LifeBorn on April 5, 1827, Joseph Lister was the second of the three children born to a rich wine merchant, amateur scientist and the inventor of the achromatic double lens and compound microscope, called Joseph Jackson Lister. Lister’s father was also a member of the ‘Fellow of the Royal Society’. His mother was Isabella Harris. Lister belonged to one of the prosperous Quaker homes in Upton. Young Lister received education from prestigious Quaker schools in London and Hertfordshire. These schools were prominent and well-known for the importance given to science subjects. The Lister family led a simple and quite life, although they were wealthy.Education and Career After Joseph Lister completed his schooling, he attended the University of London in 1844, where he obtained the Bachelor of Arts Degree. From a young age, Lister had a keen interest in surgery. He graduated with honors in Bachelor of Medicine from London and in 1852, he became a fellow member of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Lister also became an assistant to the greatest surgical teacher of that time called James Syme in 1853. He began his surgical career as a resident house surgeon in 1854 in Edinburgh. It was not until 1861, at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow, where he became a full-time professor in the field of surgery. In 1877, Lister was employed as the professor of the department of surgery at Kings College, London. After retiring in 1893, he became the foreign secretary of the ‘Royal Society’. Later on he served as the president of the ‘Royal Society’ from the years 1895 to 1900. He also became the president of the ‘British Association for the Advancement of Science’ in 1896.Lister’s ResearchAs a student, Lister not only practiced medicine but also conducted several researches on the subject. His initial researches were based on muscle actions in the eye and skin, the coagulation of blood, and the observations on blood vessels during early phases of infections. He presented his dissertation, titled ‘On the Minute Structure of Involuntary Muscular Fiber’, to the ‘Royal Society’. His paper was recognized and he was honored with the designation of ‘Fellow of the Royal Society’ in 1860.Lister’s Prevention Of InfectionWhile he was a surgeon at Edinburgh Hospital, he observed that several patients, who had undergone surgery, had died from unattended infections. A high death rate due to surgical infection was prominent all over Europe and disturbed him greatly. During those times, many surgeons were trained to believe that infections arose from within the wounds itself. They never washed their hands or changed their blood-stained clothes as this was considered a status symbol and the mark of a true surgeon. Lister did not accept this. He conducted numerous researches and spent many years researching on how dangerous infections could be stopped. He followed strictly sterile procedures by washing his hands after every surgery and wearing clean clothes. This approach, although scoffed at by many, led to lesser death rates from infections among patients at various hospitals.Lister’s Discovery of The Antiseptic

Joseph Lister was familiar with wine fermentation and on reading Louis Pasteur’s research papers, he realized that germs were air-borne and could also affect non-living matter, like wine, to go bad. This

also proved Lister’s argument that infections did not begin from within the wound. This observation made it possible for Lister to believe that infections could be eliminated by restricting air-borne germs from contaminating the wound. Although Pasteur had used filters and heat to destroy germs in the wine, this method was not applicable for human flesh. On learning that carbolic acid or phenol was used as a disinfectant in the sewers to kill parasites, Lister began to think hard. Later, he learned that these were safe to be used on skin. He began to use carbolic acid to clean his hands, instruments, and bandages before, during and after surgery. The bandages were also soaked in carbolic acid before covering the wounds.

In 1869, Lister invented a new technique, by filling a pump spray with carbolic acid to be used in the operation theatres. Lister’s chemical antiseptic proved beneficial to kill germs and soon several hospitals adopted this antiseptic surgical practice, which saved countless lives. After demonstrating his successful antiseptic techniques in various London hospitals, this procedure was accepted worldwide.

Lister’s Surgical TechniquesLister proved that materials that were sterilized could be left inside a patient’s body. Using a sterilized silver wire, he tied broken bones that healed safely. He also adopted the usage of sterilized catgut for internal stitches that dissolved after the scars/wounds healed.Recognition And AwardsJoseph Lister was given much recognition for his great contribution to medicine. Although initially his work on antiseptics was met with skepticism, his approach became widely accepted all over. It was only due to his work and research that helped reduce 15% surgical mortality rate by 1860. After being appointed as Queen Victoria’s personal surgeon for many years, he was knighted as Sir Joseph Lister in 1883. He was titled Lord Lister of Lyme Regis in 1897. He also became the first British peer for services to medicine. It was in 1902 when he was made the Privy councilor and was given the ‘Order of Merit’. He was also the founding member of the ‘British Institute of Preventive Medicine’.Personal LifeJoseph Lister married James Syme’s eldest daughter, Agnes Syme. They were childless, but his wife supported him throughout Lister’s professional career. After his wife died in 1892, Lister turned towards religion and regularly attended the ‘Scottish Episcopal Church’.Death And LegacyOn February 10, 1912, Lister died at Walmer, Kent, England. After a long career in medicine, he retired in 1893. His principles in antiseptic surgery became universally accepted and it led to the development of various other researches. His antiseptic techniques laid the foundation for modern surgery. The ‘Listerine’ mouthwash was named after him, in his honor, in 1879. Lister was buried at Hampstead Cemetery, Fortune Green, London.

Science Saves the Day: Dr. Eijkman It is 1897 and people are dying in Java, an island in Indonesia or the Dutch East Indies. They all seemed to share the same hideous symptoms beginning with overall muscle weakness, loss of appetite, and eventually they suffered paralysis and eventually death by heart failure. This disease

was called beriberi by the indigenous people. This was a word from their native language that meant “I cannot, I cannot.”

Scientists thought the disease might be caused by bacteria. (After all, since the discovery of bacteria, almost all previously unknown diseases were attributed to a bacterial infection.) They decided to prove that a bacterium was the culprit by conducting an experiment. They used chickens as their trial subject. They injected a group of chickens with the blood from a patient who had beriberi and then to prove that the blood carried the “bacterium that caused the disease” they injected another group of chickens with saline or simple salt solution. Well, both groups got beriberi! So back to the starting board they went.

One of the scientists who had been sent to work on this mystery was a Dutch physician and pathologist named Dr. Christiaan Eijkman. One day, as he walked around the hospital compound he observed his surroundings. He noticed that the cook fed every one of the patients the staple diet of the nation— polished or white rice. Polished rice is wild, brown rice with the husk or outer layer rubbed off so that its color is white. It was the rice of choice of the middle class of the Indonesian people. He also noticed that the hospital staff fed the chickens (that would eventually be the chicken soup for the patients) wild rice. White rice was more expensive than brown rice, so the chickens were usually fed brown rice. Dr. Eijkman realized that this was an important observation and thought that maybe the wild rice contained something that the white rice did not. So he conducted another experiment. He divided the chickens once again into two separate groups. He fed one group of chickens only white rice and the other group only wild rice. Then he watched and waited.

It turned out that the chickens that had been fed wild rice did not get sick at all, but the chickens that had been fed the polished or white rice became weak, lost their appetite and eventually died from beriberi. Eureka, the case was solved!

As Dr. Eijkman and others continued to research this interesting case, they found that polished rice lacked thiamine, a vitamin necessary for good health. This was actually the first "vital amine" or vitamin to be discovered. It is also called vitamin B1.

We've now known for more than a hundred years that brown rice is more nutritious than white rice. But most Asian cultures associate eating white rice with prosperity and eating brown rice with bad luck. Most rice is still milled or polished, both in Asia and elsewhere. In Europe and America both white rice and brown rice are consumed, but mostly white. In fact, some white rice is chemically fortified to add back the B vitamins. In 1929, Eijkman and Hopkins were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for this discovery.

Science Saves the Day: Sir Alexander FlemingSir Alexander Fleming, a Scottish biologist, defined new horizons for modern antibiotics with his discoveries of enzyme lysozyme (1921) and the antibiotic substance penicillin (1928). The discovery of penicillin from the fungus Penicillium notatum perfected the treatment of bacterial infections such as syphilis, gangrene, and tuberculosis. He also contributed immensely towards medical sciences with his writings on the subjects of bacteriology, immunology and chemotherapy.

Alexander Fleming was born in Loudon, Scotland on 6 August, 1881 in a farming family. He carried on his schooling at Regent Street Polytechnic after his family moved to London in 1895. He joined St. Mary's Medical School and became research assistant to renowned Sir Almroth Wright after he qualified with distinction in 1906. He completed his degree (M.B.B.S.) with gold medal in 1908 from the University of London and lectured at St. Mart till 1914. He served as Captain during the World War I and worked in battlefield hospitals in France. After the war he returned to St. Mary in 1918 and got elected Professor of Bacteriology in 1928.

"One sometimes finds what one is not looking for"

(Sir Alexander Fleming)

His research and study during his military career inspired him to discover naturally antiseptic enzyme in 1921, which he named lysozyme. This substance existed in tissues and secretions like mucus, tears and egg-white but it did not have much effect on the strongly harmful bacteria.

In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming was studying Staphylococcus bacteria growing in culture dishes. He noticed that a mold called Penicillium was also growing in some of the dishes. A clear area existed around the mold because all the bacteria that had grown in this area had died. In the culture dishes without the mold, no clear areas were present.

Fleming hypothesized that the mold must be producing a chemical that killed the bacteria. He decided to isolate this substance and test it to see if it would kill bacteria. Fleming transferred the mold to a nutrient broth solution. This solution contained all the materials the mold needed to grow. After the mold grew, he removed it from the nutrient broth. Fleming then added the nutrient broth in which the mold had grown to a culture of bacteria. He observed that the bacteria died which was later used to develop antibiotics used to treat a variety of diseases. This newly discovered active substance was effective even when diluted up to 800 times. He named it penicillin.

He was knighted in 1944 and was given the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 for his extraordinary achievements which revolutionized the medical sciences.

Science Saves the Day: Edward JennerEdward Jenner, born in England in 1749, is one of the most famous physicians in medical history. Jenner tested the hypothesis that infection with cowpox could protect a person from smallpox infection. All vaccines developed since Jenner’s time stem from his work.

Cowpox is an uncommon illness in cattle, usually mild, that can be spread from a cow to a human via sores on the cow's udder. Smallpox, in contrast, was a deadly disease of humans. It killed about 30% of those it infected. Survivors often bore deep, pitted scars on their faces and other parts of the body affected by the blistering illness. Smallpox was a leading cause of blindness.

Jenner is said to have been interested in the observation of a dairymaid. She told him, “I shall never have smallpox, for I have had cowpox. I shall never have an ugly pockmarked face.” And many other dairy workers commonly believed that infection with cowpox protected them from smallpox.

Given that the protective effect of cowpox infection was common local knowledge, why was Jenner’s involvement important? Jenner decided to systematically test the observation, which then would form the basis of a practical application of the benefit of cowpox infection.

Jenner scratched some material from a cowpox sore on the hand of a milkmaid into the arm of eight-year-old James Phipps, the son of Jenner's gardener. Young Phipps felt poorly for several days, but made a full recovery.

A short time later, Jenner scratched some matter from a fresh human smallpox sore into Phipps’s arm in an attempt to make him ill with smallpox. Phipps, however, did not contract smallpox. Jenner went on to test his idea on other humans and published a report of his findings.

We know now that the virus that causes cowpox belongs to the Orthopox family of viruses. Orthopox viruses also include variola viruses, the ones that cause smallpox.

Jenner’s method of vaccination against smallpox grew in popularity and eventually spread around the globe. About 150 years after Jenner’s death in 1823, smallpox would be making its last gasps. The World Health Organization eventually declared smallpox to be eradicated from the planet in 1980 after a massive surveillance and vaccination program.

Jenner repeated his experiment several times and got the same results. Other scientists did likewise and got the same results. Jenner is famous for having applied the scientific method to establishing the means of preventing smallpox.

Science Saves the Day: James Lind In very brief form, consider the story of James Lind in 1747. Mr. Lind served in the British navy as a surgeon. In that day, scurvy killed a great many men at sea. The Anson voyage lost nearly 70% of its 1900 man crew to scurvy in 1740. The cause of scurvy was unknown. James Lind wondered what caused scurvy. At the time some believed that citrus fruit might cure scurvy but there was no data for that, only opinions and anecdotes. Lind hypothesized that citrus would cure the disease. On a voyage where the crew was wracked with scurvy Lind designed an experiment to see if citrus would alleviate the scurvy symptoms. He separated the sick men into six groups and gave each group a different diet. Only one of the groups of sick men got citrus fruit and all the men with citrus in their diet recovered! None of the other groups of sick men showed signs of recovery. In 1753 he published his data.

Primary source data: http://www.jameslindlibrary.org/illustrating/articles/james-lind-and-scurvy-1747-to-1795

James Lind was born in Edinburgh in 1716. In 1731, he registered as an apprentice at the College of Surgeons in Edinburgh and in 1739 became a surgeon's mate, seeing service in the Mediterranean, Guinea and the West Indies, as well as the English Channel. In 1747, while serving as surgeon on HMS Salisbury, he carried out experiments to discover the cause of scurvy, the symptoms of which included loose teeth, bleeding gums and haemorrhages.

Lind selected 12 men from the ship, all suffering from scurvy, and divided them into six pairs, giving each group different additions to their basic diet. Some were given cider, others seawater, others a mixture of garlic, mustard and horseradish. Another group of two were given spoonfuls of vinegar, and the last two oranges and lemons. Those fed citrus fruits experienced a remarkable recovery. While there was nothing new about his discovery - the benefits of lime juice had been known for centuries - Lind had definitively established the superiority of citrus fruits above all other 'remedies'.

In 1748, Lind retired from the navy and went to Edinburgh University to take professional qualifications. In 1753, he published 'A Treatise of the Scurvy' and in 1757 'An Essay on the Most Effectual Means of Preserving the Health of Seamen in the Royal Navy', which threw much light on the appalling living conditions and diet of seamen. In 1758, he was appointed physician to the Naval Hospital at Haslar in Gosport where he investigated the distillation of fresh water from salt water for supply to ships.

In 1763, Lind published work on typhus fever in ships and in the 1768 publication 'An Essay on Diseases Incidental to Europeans in Hot Climates' he summarised the prevalent diseases in each colony and gave advice on avoiding tropical infections. Lind died in 1794 in Gosport.

Although the importance of Lind's findings on scurvy were recognised at the time, it was not until more than 40 years later that an official Admiralty order was issued on the supply of lemon juice to ships. With this, scurvy disappeared almost completely from the Royal Navy.

http://media.rsc.org/Nature%20of%20science/NSci-scurvy.pdf

While at sea, Lind gathered together 12 similar looking sailors, all suffering fromscurvy. He then divided them into six pairs and gave them the following treatments.

Group No. Treatment1 2 pints of cider each day2 A daily gargle with 25 drops of sulfuric acid in water3 2 teaspoonfuls of vinegar three times a day4 Half a pint of seawater a day5 2 oranges and 1 lemon a day6 A mixture of nutmeg, garlic, mustard, myrrh and radish root,plus barley water acidified with tamarinds.

Daily menu for a two week trialBreakfast Gruel (soaked bread) with sugarLunch Mutton brothSupper Barley, raisins, rice and currants

ProblemAfter a week all the oranges had been eaten.

Results after 1 weekGroup 5 were well.Group 1 were getting better.Groups 2,3,4,6 showed no improvement.

Results after 2 weeksGroup 1 were almost better.Groups 2, 3, 4, 6 still showed no improvement.

Lind’s interpretation of the resultsOranges and lemons contained a special substance. He called it ‘Antiscorbutic’. Hethought that the air in a cold wet climate might block up the important pores in theskin through which so much perspiration had to pass. Then the blocked perspirationwent bad inside the body, causing scurvy. The oranges and lemons formed a kind ofsoap with the stale fat in the body which washed out the blocked pores and the scurvywas cured.

At home in Scotland, Lind tried to repeat his experiment, but did not get very goodresults.

While the earliest documented case of scurvy was described by Hippocrates around the year 400 BC, the first attempt to give scientific basis for the cause of this disease was by a ship's surgeon in the British Royal Navy, James Lind. Scurvy is a disease which leads to open sores and loss of movement, scurvy was common among those with poor access to fresh fruit and vegetables, such as isolated sailors and soldiers. While at sea in May 1747, Lind provided some crew members with two oranges and one lemon per day, while others were given cider, vinegar, sulfuric acid or seawater, along with their normal rations. In the history of science this is considered to be the first occurrence of a controlled experiment comparing results on two populations of a factor applied to one group only with all other factors the same. The results conclusively showed that citrus fruits prevented the disease. Lind published his work in 1753 in his Treatise on the Scurvy1.

Lind's work was slow to be noticed, partly because he gave conflicting evidence within his book, and partly because the British admiralty saw care for the well-being of crews as a sign of weakness. In addition, fresh fruit was very expensive to keep on board, whereas boiling it down to juice allowed easy storage but destroyed the vitamin C content (especially if boiled in copper kettles2). Ship captains assumed wrongly that Lind's suggestions didn't work because those juices failed to cure scurvy.

Eventually seeing the light, it was 1795 before the British navy adopted lemons or lime as standard issue at sea. Limes were more popular as they could be found in British West Indian Colonies, unlike lemons which weren't found in British Dominions, and were therefore more expensive. This practice led to the American use of the nickname "limey" to refer to the British. Captain James Cook had previously demonstrated and proven the principle of the advantages of carrying "Sour krout" on board his ship, by taking his crews to the Hawaiian Islands and beyond without losing any of his men to scurvy3. For this otherwise unheard of feat, the British Admiralty awarded him a medal.

The name "antiscorbutic" was used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as general term for those foods known to prevent scurvy, even though there was no understanding of the reason for this. These foods included but were not limited to: lemons, limes, oranges, sauerkraut, cabbage, malt, and portable soup.

Read more at http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/lind-scurvy-vitamin-C.php#VIQ3grDHDLEHDQWI.99

Science Saves the Day: Louis Pasteur Some people used to think that flies, worms, bacteria, and other unwanted organisms actually came from rotten food, liquid, or other substances. They thought that somehow the food actually turned into these organisms. This idea—that nonliving substances could turn into living organisms—is called spontaneous generation. Spontaneous means “to happen suddenly without anyone or anything trying to make it happen”. Generation means “to come into being” or “to be born”. In the 1860s, the French scientist Louis Pasteur designed and conducted a scientific investigation to test whether the idea of spontaneous generation was true. Pasteur did not think that food or drink could somehow turn into living organisms. Instead, he thought that the organisms came from somewhere else and got into the food from the air or in some other way. He knew it was important to design a fair experiment to test whether spontaneous generation was true or false. Pasteur decided to concentrate on the problem of bacteria causing certain liquids to spoil.

His question to investigate was: Do bacteria from the air cause food to spoil? In designing his experiment, Pasteur decided to use two containers of broth (a clear soup). He knew that he needed to keep everything about these two containers exactly the same except for the one thing he was trying to test. Both needed the same type of broth, both had to be open to the same air, and both needed to be exposed to the same light and temperature. Pasteur had to set up the experiment so that the only difference between the two containers was that bacteria could get into one container but not the other. If the broth spoiled in the container that allowed the bacteria to enter, it had to be the bacteria that caused it. Nothing else could have caused it because everything else about the containers was the same. Pasteur predicted that the broth in which bacteria could enter from the outside would soon become filled with bacteria and would spoil. He also predicted that the broth that bacteria could not enter would not spontaneously produce bacteria but would remain clear and unspoiled. Pasteur believed that this experiment could show that the idea of spontaneous generation was not true. Here’s what he needed to do Pasteur needed to figure out a way to let bacteria get into one container but not into the other. He could not simply leave one open and the other closed because then one container would be getting air and the other would not. This difference between the two containers Pasteur knew would make the experiment unfair. The only difference between them could be that bacteria could get into one but not the other. Pasteur needed to figure out a way to do this while leaving both containers open to the air. Here’s how he did it Pasteur got two glass containers for holding the broth. One of the containers had a neck that went straight up and was open at the end. When air passed over the opening, bacteria in the air could fall down into the broth.

The other container had a curved neck that was open at the end. When air passed over this opening, bacteria would fall into the curve in the neck and become trapped, never able to reach the broth. Using this method, Pasteur found a way to expose both samples of broth to the air but allowed bacteria to get into the broth in only one. Pasteur then put the same kind and same amount of broth into both containers. He heated each container, in the same way, at the same temperature, for the same length of time, to kill any bacteria that may have been in the broth already.

After only a few days, the broth in the straight-necked container, in which bacteria could enter from the outside, was cloudy and spoiled. The broth in the curved-necked container, in which bacteria could not reach, stayed clear. The experiment proved that broth doesn’t somehow spontaneously turn into bacteria on its own. Rather, for broth to spoil, bacteria need to get into it from the outside.

Louis Pasteur conducted many experiments and solved many problems. One of the techniques he developed was named after him and is still commonly used today—it’s pasteurization. Look on containers of juice and milk. Many of them say that they are pasteurized. What this means is that the drink was heated to kill bacteria that might make people sick. Then it was cooled quickly so that the flavor would not change much. Since pasteurization kills much of the bacteria in drinks, it also keeps them fresher longer. So, Louis Pasteur’s work still affects us today.

Science Saves the Day: Ignaz SemmelweisIgnaz Semmelweis, a young Hungarian doctor working in the obstetrical ward of Vienna General Hospital in the late 1840s, was dismayed at the high death rate among his patients. He had noticed that nearly 20% of the women under his and his colleagues' care in "Division I" of the ward (that is, the division attended by physicians and male medical students) died shortly after childbirth. This phenomenon had come to be known as "childbed fever." Alarmingly, Semmelweis noted that this death rate was four to five times greater than that in "Division II" of the ward (that is, the division attended by female midwifery students). One day, Semmelweis and some of his colleagues were in the autopsy room performing autopsies as they often did between deliveries. They were discussing their concerns about death rates from childbed fever. One of Semmelweis' friends was distracted by the conversation, and he punctured his finger with the scalpel. Days later, Semmelweis' friend became quite sick, showing symptoms not unlike those of childbed fever. His friend's ultimate death strengthened Semmelweis' resolve to understand and prevent childbed fever.

In an effort to curtail the deaths in his ward due to childbed fever, Semmelweis instituted a strict handwashing policy amongst his male medical students and physician colleagues in "Division I" of the ward. Everyone was required to wash their hands with chlorinated lime water prior to attending patients. Mortality rates immediately dropped from 18.3% to 1.3% and, in fact, not a single woman died from childbirth between March and August of 1848 in Semmelweis' division.

Despite the dramatic reduction in the mortality rate in Semmelweis' ward, his colleagues and the greater medical community greeted his findings with hostility or dismissal. Even after presenting his work on childbed fever (more technically referred to as puerperal sepsis) to the Viennese Medical Society, Semmelweis was not able to secure the teaching post he desired, and so he returned to Hungary. There, he repeated his successful handwashing attack on childbed fever at the St. Rochus hospital in Pest. In 1860, Semmelweis finally published his principal work on the subject of puerperal sepsis but this, too, was dismissed. It is believed that the years of controversy and repeated rejection of his work by the medical community caused him to suffer a mental breakdown. Semmelweis died in 1865 in an Austrian mental institution. Some believe that his own death was ironically caused by puerperal sepsis.

http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/files/pheromones.pdf

http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/files/tb_rabbit_island.pdf

Graphic organizer: http://www.palmbeachschools.org/students/Grade09/BiologyActivity1.pdf

Handwashing: moral, ethical, social, cultural

Thiamin (a B vitamin): social, economic, political (nutrition facts label)

Antibiotics: economic, social, cultural, environmental (ARB)

Vaccines: moral (anti-vaccine), social, economic, political

Vitamin C: political (nutrition facts label), economic, social

Pasteurization: political, social, cultural