Piquant Tales

Discover first the piquant tale of penicillin before the other listings here:

1) PENNICILLIN:-
His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death. The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved. "I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life." "No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel. "Is that your son?" the nobleman asked. "Yes," the farmer replied proudly. "I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of." And that he did.Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin. Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia.
What saved his life this time? Penicillin.The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill.
His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill.
Someone once said: What goes around comes around.Work like you don't need the money.Love like you've never been hurt.Dance like nobody's watching.Sing like nobody's listening.Live like its Heaven on Earth.

SIR ALEXANDER FLEMING, in the year 1928 A.D., noticed Mould growing on a lab in a dish contained Bacteria. But he found the bacteria had been killed. Later he grew the mould in a liquid in a test tube. Here also he found the bacteria were killed. He was not able to extract the bacteria killing agent from the liquid. It was only in 1930s, that British scientists were able to develop a method to extract the bacteria killing substance. It was named Penicillin. The Penicillin-version C was found to be effective in curing pneumonia, rheumatic fever, strap throat----------------------------------------------------------------------
2) RUBBER
Christopher Columbus IN 1493 A.D., when he discovered America, noticed some boys in the new world playing with a spongy substance which jumped when it was thrown on the ground. He also watched people cutting holes in the seam of a tree where a milky fluid oozed. The hardened liquid was the spongy stuff. Three centuries later, an English scientist Joseph Priestly found that the spongy stuff was capable to rub-out pencil marks. He named it RUBBER.

3) Body Cells:
the human body has more than 50 million cells which are the building blocks of life. Robert Hooke in 1665 discovered cells from a slice of cork thru' a microscope. A cell has a nucleus at its centre. A fluid called CYTOPLASM surrounds the cell. The entire cell is held by a membrane.

3) Blood Groups:
The four blood groups - A, B, AB, O were discovered in 1900 by Karl Landstenier . The Austrio-American immunologist found these groups in the presence/absence of two antigens- A and B - on the membrane of the red blood cells. He found out that plasma of A- group blood cells has B-antigens and that of B-group has A-antigens. So, both the bloods don't match each other. The plasma of AB-group have no antigens at all where as 'O' contains both.

4) Petroleum:
Petroleum-the back bone of all industry and locomotion was discovered in America by Colonel Edwin Drake on 27th Aug 1859. An 21 meter well was drilled to find out underground oil for use. It paved the way for the discovery of BLACK GOLD or LIQUID DIAMOND. WIDE SEARCH OF THIS OIL IN THE MIDDLE EAST SHOWED RICHEST AREAS IN OIL-RESERVES.

5) Silk:
A chance discovery in China in 1500 B.C.. A Chinese Princess started sipping a hot cup of Tea under a mulberry tree when a silk cocoon fell into the cup. The hot tea softened it and its silk thread got loose. The princess drew out the softened silk and admired at the softness. CHINA Silk became popular over the Globe, the land route from china to Rome is called SILK ROUTE.

6) Speed of Light:
Jean Foucault, French Scientist, in 1862 kept two mirrors at a distance of 20 meters, one fixed and the other rotating at 800 rpm. Beams of LIGHT was directed at the rotating mirror, When the beam hit the rotating mirror at right angle, it got reflected to the fixed mirror, then bounced back to the rotating mirror and then to its source. In the process the rotating mirror turned thru' a small angle. the deviation of the beam, mirror angle of turn, and speed of rotation were the data used to find the speed of light to be 300,939 km. per second. In 1920 it was corrected to be 299,793k.m. per sec.

The speed of the human vs. No.6 is and that too of PN's is negligible. Hence let me stop here and you are free to respond at lightning speed for the sustenance of this passage.