Few scientists have made as many important discoveries as Dr. Ichiji Tasaki, shown here with his wife and lab partner Nobuko, using many instruments that he made or modified himself.
This dapper bee from 1977 advertised an NHLBI-sponsored multicenter, randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled trial designed to test the benefits of beta-blockers for people who had had a heart attack. The study was called the Beta-Blocker Heart Attack Trial (BHAT). Ah, you say—that’s why the bee in the hat!
We honor Dr. Hans L. Falk (1919 -1985) this Earth Day (April 22, but celebrated today, April 23, at NIH) for his significant contributions to the field of environmental health science as both a scientist and an administrator.
Countries that grow poppies used to hold a monopoly on the ingredients to the main opiate painkilling drugs. Then in 1979, Dr. Kenner Rice of NIDDK’s Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry (he is now at NIDA) discovered the critical chemical reaction enabling large-scale production of totally synthetic morphine, codeine, and thebaine, the three basic raw materials in opium.
The cover is stained, the binding is broken, and the edges are burnt from use at a laboratory bench. Practical Pathology by Sir German Sims Woodhead, 3rd ed., 1892, belonged in the library of the original Hygienic Laboratory, which became the NIH in 1930. Although it has seen hard use in its 123 years, this book is now in the NIH Stetten Museum collection and begins a month showcasing some of our recent accessions.
“Had she been any less the brilliant, innovative, original, industrious, dedicated and resolute pioneer, her career would never have gotten off the ground, never have gotten started.”
The Ebola vaccine developed by Dr. Nancy Sullivan at NIAID is a Women’s History Month highlight: women developed the vaccine and coordinated and led the clinical trial, and a woman was the first volunteer to receive the vaccine. “That wasn’t planned, but it’s kind of remarkable,” said Sullivan. She explained her work to President Barack Obama in person.
“Know your enemy” describes the work of Dr. Sarah Branham (1888-1962). She dedicated much of her career to understanding meningitis, identifying different strains, and developing the effective tests and treatments for the disease in anti-serum and sulfa drugs.
In this September 1937 photo, Branham and technician Robert Forkish inoculate a mouse with meningococcus antiserum to determine whether it will protect against meningitis:
"I felt that seeing this dissolution of everything that makes us who and what we are in patients really told me a lot about what makes us human. At the same time I felt very frustrated that there was so little that we could do to help our patients with severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia."
