BV Sreekantan 100th birth anniversary: Tributes paid to Karnataka-born cosmic ray physicist
His most significant scientific achievement was his leadership in the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) underground experiments, which led to one of the world's first detections of atmospheric neutrinos in the mid-1960s—an accomplishment that preceded similar detections in Japan (Masatoshi Koshiba's Nobel Prize-winning works) and Italy.
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Time of India
4 hours ago
- Time of India
How a 14-year-old's medical treatment in 1922 revolutionized diabetes care and led to a historic four-way Nobel Prize split
The invention of insulin in 1922 marked a turning point in medical history. Sparked by Frederick Banting's idea and tested on diabetic patients, the treatment saved lives and revolutionized diabetes care. Though the Nobel Prize honored Banting and Macleod, internal conflicts led Banting to share credit with Best and Macleod with Collip, reflecting a complex legacy. In 1922, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson became the first person to receive an insulin injection, a breakthrough that transformed diabetes from a fatal disease into a manageable condition. (Images: X/ University of Toront , iStock) Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads From Farm Boy to Medical Pioneer: Banting's Unlikely Journey Trial, Error, and Triumph: The Birth of Insulin Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads A Miracle Drug Emerges The Nobel Prize Controversy Beyond the Breakthrough In 1922, the world witnessed one of the most transformative moments in medical history. A 14-year-old boy named Leonard Thompson , lying comatose from type 1 diabetes at Toronto General Hospital , became the first human to receive an injection of insulin. That one injection, administered by Dr. Frederick Banting and medical student Charles Best, not only saved Leonard's life—giving him thirteen more years—but also turned a fatal condition into a manageable one. It marked the beginning of modern diabetes treatment, a path paved by hope, controversy, and scientific to an article from Science History Institute, Frederick Grant Banting wasn't always on the fast track to scientific fame. The youngest son of Methodist farmers from Alliston, Ontario, he almost became a minister before switching to medicine. After serving in World War I and returning with a shrapnel injury, he struggled to establish his surgical practice in London, Ontario. It was in his role as a lecturer at a medical school that a chance encounter with a medical journal sparked an idea that would later reshape an article on the pancreatic islets of Langerhans , Banting jotted down a bold idea: to isolate the internal secretions of the pancreas that controlled blood sugar. He pitched it to John Macleod, a renowned physiologist at the University of Toronto. Skeptical but intrigued, Macleod gave Banting lab space, ten dogs, and a young assistant named Charles the summer of 1921, Banting and Best began their experiments, using dogs to test how pancreatic extract could affect diabetes. Through duct ligation and pancreatectomies, they observed the remarkable effects of what they called "isletin"—soon to be renamed insulin. After refining the extract with the help of biochemist James Collip, the team tested it on Leonard the initial injection in January 1922 had minimal impact, Collip's improved purification method led to a second, far more successful attempt. Leonard's blood sugar dropped significantly, and insulin had proven its worth. This event signaled the dawn of a new era in insulin, diabetes management relied on near-starvation diets—sometimes as low as 500 calories a day. These regimens prolonged life but at a devastating cost to quality of life. Insulin changed everything. By the end of 1923, Eli Lilly had already begun mass production, and diabetic patients were regaining strength, eating balanced meals, and living fuller treatment's impact was swift and profound, and insulin became one of the 20th century's greatest medical 1923, the Nobel Committee awarded the Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Banting and Macleod. Outraged that Best wasn't recognized, Banting announced he would split his award with him. In a move that mirrored this gesture—and perhaps attempted to quell the growing tension—Macleod shared his winnings with the scenes, the collaboration was far from harmonious. Banting grew increasingly suspicious of Macleod, accusing him of seeking credit, while a heated dispute broke out between Banting and Collip over the insulin purification process. Yet, despite these personal clashes, the collective efforts of all four men changed medical story of insulin isn't just about science—it's about persistence, chance, and complex human dynamics. It traces back to 19th-century researchers like Paul Langerhans, who first identified the islets in the pancreas, and German physiologists Oskar Minkowski and Joseph von Mering, who discovered the connection between the pancreas and it was in the laboratory at the University of Toronto where all the strands finally came together. The discovery of insulin remains a striking reminder of how one idea, sparked by curiosity and followed by relentless experimentation, can rewrite the fate of millions. And it all began with one injection in 1922.
Deccan Herald
8 hours ago
- Deccan Herald
BV Sreekantan 100th birth anniversary: Tributes paid to Karnataka-born cosmic ray physicist
His most significant scientific achievement was his leadership in the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) underground experiments, which led to one of the world's first detections of atmospheric neutrinos in the mid-1960s—an accomplishment that preceded similar detections in Japan (Masatoshi Koshiba's Nobel Prize-winning works) and Italy.
Hans India
12 hours ago
- Hans India
When Elvis and Ella were pressed onto X-rays
When Western Electric invented electrical sound recording 100 years ago, it completely transformed the public's relationship to music. Before then, recording was done mechanically, scratching sound waves onto rolled paper or a cylinder. Such recordings suffered from low fidelity and captured only a small segment of the audible sound spectrum. By using electrical microphones, amplifiers and electromechanical recorders, record companies could capture a far wider range of sound frequencies, with much higher fidelity. For the first time, recorded sound closely resembled what a live listener would hear. Over the ensuing years, sales of vinyl records and record players boomed. The technology also allowed some enterprising music fans to make recordings in surprising and innovative ways. As a physician and scholar in the medical humanities, I am fascinated using X-ray film to make recordings – what was known as 'bone music,' or 'ribs.' This rather bizarre, homemade technology became a way to skirt censors in the Soviet Union – and even played an indirect role in its dissolution. Skirting the Soviet censorship regime At the end of World War II, Soviet censorship shifted into high gear to suppress a Western culture deemed threatening or decadent. Many books and poems could circulate only through 'samizdat,' a portmanteau of 'self' and 'publishing' that involved the use of copy machines to reproduce forbidden texts. Punishments inflicted on Soviet artists and citizens for producing or disseminating censored materials included loss of employment, imprisonment in gulags and even execution. The phonographic analog of samizdat was often referred to as 'roentgenizdat,' which was derived from the name of Wilhelm Roentgen, the German scientist who received the first Nobel Prize in physics in 1901 for his discovery of X-rays. Moreover, X-ray films cannot be reused, hospitals often recycled them to recoup the silver they contained. Making music from medicine In the Soviet Union in the 1940s, some clever people realised that X-ray film was just soft enough to be etched by an electromechanical lathe, or sound recording device. To make a 'rib,' or 'bone record,' they would use a compass to trace out a circle on an exposed X-ray film that might bear the image of a patient's skull, spine or hands. They then used scissors to cut out the circle, before cutting a small hole in the middle so it would fit on a conventional record player. Then they would use a recording device to cut either live sound or, more commonly, a bootleg record onto the X-ray film. But these record producers are not just engaged in illegal operations. They corrupt young people diligently and methodically with a squeaky cacophony and spread explicit obscenities.' Bone music was inherently subversive. For one thing, it was against the law. Moreover, the music itself suggested that a different sort of life is possible, beyond the strictures of Communist officials. (The writer is associated with the Indiana University)
