Miracle Cure by William Rosen

William Rosen's book, Miracle Cure: The Creation of Antibiotics and the Birth of Modern Medicine, describes the state of medicine prior to the use of antibiotics up to the present day.  From the 18th through the 19th century doctors vacillate from heroic often unhelpful attempts to prolong life to palliative care that supported the patient as their own immune system fought off the disease or succumbed to it.  The smallpox vaccine was a lone bright spot.

Finding out about the initial antibiotic properties of Penicillium notatum (aka Penicillium chrysogenum) by Alexander Fleming was just the beginning of a long process to make enough penicillin available prior the the allies D-Day invasion of Europe.  We have many people to thank.  The British researchers who stole bedpans to use in the initial manufacturing process when they had run out of laboratory glassware. The person who found a strain of Penicillium notatum growing on a cantaloupe. Researchers in Minnesota and Wisconsin who irradiated the mould helping to produce mutants that produced higher yields.  Please see a recent research article which suggests that the organism was actually Penicillium rubens.

William Rosen describes the process of  gathering several  hundred thousand soil samples from around the world attempting to find actinomycetes (filamentous bacteria) with antibiotic properties. Several pharmaceutical companies used this process to find streptomycin, and erythromycin.

During the Obama administration development of new antibiotic medications was encouraged. This is an expensive process with low probability that any new antibiotic will be an improvement on the  existing drugs. The new antibiotics are need as antibiotic resistance has occurred due to unwarranted prescription, non compliance with antibiotic protocol and the extensive use of antibiotics in livestock to improve growth rate.

Justinian's Flea by William Rosen - 4 min. 

An Introduction to Infectious Diseases Great Courses By Barry C. Fox M.D.

This Great Courses - An Introduction to Infectious Diseases provides an excellent background on infectious diseases. This 24 part series includes lessons on bioterrorism, emerging infectious diseases and predicting the next pandemic.

The section on nosocomial (hospital acquired) infections covers measures to prevent patients from getting sick while in the hospital.  Catheters and respiratory intubation cause a significant number of hospital acquired infections. The bacteria, Clostridium difficile is a common cause of intestinal bacterial colonization.  Physicians are now discouraged from shaking hands, wearing ties, watches, rings and lab coats.  The nurses and doctors need to routinely clean both the rubber tubing and the diaphragm of stethoscopes.

Doctor Fox clearly explains the medical issues in each episode with excellent visuals.

An Introduction to Infectious Diseases - Great Courses - 2 minutes

The Genius in All of Us by David Shenk

David Shenk's book, The Genius in All of Us: New Insights into Genetics, Talent, and IQ, offers a case against the theory that some people are incredibly gifted and success is a matter of having a good set of genes. While there are some physical attributes such as height and size, the main predictor of success is interest, focused practice, willingness to challenge and work on areas for improvement.  Most successful people appear to have an obsession with their field of interest. Even height and size have a strong environmental component with great and poor nutrition affecting the heights of individuals as much or more than genetics.

He gives examples of Ted Williams the baseball player and Mozart.  Ted Williams spent thousands of extra hours hitting baseballs after practice when he was young.  He studied pitchers tendencies. He was obsessed with being a good baseball player. Mozart benefited from exposure to an older sister taking lessons and a father who was developing musical teaching methods. 

A good portion of the book focuses on the interaction between environment and genetics.  It is not an either or proposition or even and additive effect.  The genetics and environment are multiplied together to create the expression of a talent. Environment, desire and perseverance factor strongly into the success of an individual at any specific endeavor. The most successful people focus on the process and not a single goal. The opportunity to become better is always available. 

Epigenetics - 14 minutes

The Genius in all of us -10 min. 

Four favorite geniuses - 4 min. 

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

Full of interesting bits of knowledge and wonderful tangents down rabbit holes and hedges, Bill Bryson's book, At Home: A Short History of Private Life describes the origin of each room and objects in a home along with descriptions of the exterior landscaping. Mr. Bryson uses his Victorian home a way of guiding us through the each part of the house. This includes the indentation on the wall that provided a shelf for the telephone. He follows Alexander Graham Bell's work to engineer and and install the phone network in cities while his lawyer spent time fending off multiple legal challenges to his patent.

Bill Bryson's description of the miserable life of servants in Victorian England does not cause a longing to return to that simpler time prior to the development of laundry detergent when it took hours to wash and dry clothes through a protracted multistage process using chemical recipes and techniques specific to each type of fabric and garment. Lobsters were so plentiful that many servants had agreements that they would only be served it as a meal two times per week.

He provides an inside out tour of the construction of Jefferson's Monticello and Washington's Mount Vernon.  Both of these residences were rescued by societies that restored the buildings to better than they were when in use.  This is especially true in the case of Monticello as this residence was simultaneously decaying while being remodeled and was not completed at the time of Jefferson's death.

A trip to the kitchen and a brief discussion about salt and pepper starts a tour across the globe heading towards the spice islands.  He discusses the many lives lost due to malnutrition on the long ocean voyages to secure the spices. Even after discovering through clear experimentation that citrus fruits prevented scurvy it still to the British Navy more than 50 years to require that sailors drink lime or other citrus beverages on long voyages.

The discussion about stair design centered around the most dangerous location in the house.  Injuries from by people descending the stairs are quite common.  The first steps and the last steps tend to be the most problematic. Athletic individuals fall more as they tend to descend at greater speed often skipping steps.

I found it time well spent listening to this enlightening audiobook.

Bill Bryson - At Home - 5min.

Bill Bryson at the New York State Writers Institute - 38 minutes

If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? by Alan Alda

I really enjoyed Alan Alda's book, If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?: My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating. I listened to the audio version and would highly recommend it as the author narrates with grace, enthusiasm and self-effacing humor.  Alan's work with Scientific American interviewing researchers from around the world allowed him to learn about the use of empathy, to ask good questions, and bring out the human side of scientists who learn to communicate to an audience.

Alan conducted some experiments where he used the tools of improv comedy to allow scientist to develop better methods of expressing themselves and helping musicians to improve their performance. He also did some of his own experiments attempting to develop empathy towards others by focusing and noticing individuals expression and behaviors. 

Mr. Alda points out that it is critical for scientists to communicate effectively. They need to convince others to pay for their research.  They also need to communicate the results of their research to other scientists, the public and policy makers so they can understand it and act on the information. 

Alan Alda - Three ways of expressing self - 5 min.

Alan Alda - Good Communication - 7 min. 

Win Bigly by Scott Adams

In Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter, Scott Adams dissects the Donald Trump's use of persuasion techniques in the 2016 Presidential Election. He introduces us to the linguistic kill shot - eg: "Low Energy Jeb," "Lyin' Ted Cruise," and "Pocahontas."  These short phrases have maximum impact.  It makes us focus on that trait and look for confirmation bias. Once Adams heard "Low Energy Jeb" he predicted that Jeb Bush would soon drop out of the race.  Hillary's campaign could not come up with a linguistic kill shot for Trump.  His "Crooked Hillary" worked on at least two levels.  It called attention to her work with the Clinton Foundation and her management of her email server.  It also, according to Adams, brought up her health issues as she was occasionally unsteady and at several times during her campaign had a chronic cough.

Trump also uses a technique of overwhelming the daily and weekly news cycle with one news item after another.  The news media and his opponents are not able to maintain focus on one issue.  Scott Adams did not find Trumps style to be off putting but his California friends found it to be rude and obnoxious. According to Adams this is a typical New York style of bluntness mixed with humor.

Scott Adams received many threats as he highlighted Trump's persuasive style so he briefly endorsed Hillary out of a sense of self preservation and personal safety.  He dropped his support of Hillary when she proposed raising the inheritance tax.  Mr. Adams did not like the idea of his income being taxed twice. Adams switched his support to Trump, then dropped Trump, then supported Trump again in the final weeks of the election.

Scott Adams training as a hypnotist allowed him to accept the fact that people often make decisions that are irrational and them spend time developing rationalizations to support their decisions. When Trump won the electoral college vote, the opponents of Trump had to make sense of a reality that they could not accept.  This may account for some of the primal screams that Hillary supporters offered up. Hillary's team had also affectively painted Trump as a person who was "dark" and a man people should fear.  Adams had concerns that this would rip the fabric of society apart so he spent time on his blog encouraging Trumps supporters to not respond in kind when they were confronted.

Scott Adams Win Bigly - 70 minutes

Trumps flaws and features - 14 minutes

Minnesota Reflections Kindle Edition now available

Minnesota Reflections is now available in a kindle Edition from Amazon.com.  Please look through the video below for a look at some of the images