Category: Uncategorized

Prisoner of War management during world wars A less talked about consequence of wars are prisoners of war. These are soldiers of one warring side, that is captured by the other. During the first world war, there were a total of five million such PoWs on the Axis (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman) and the Allied (Britain,… Continue reading Red cross develops a system to communicate with prisoners of war (PoWs)

This blog is an incredible tale about two scientists, both Nobel laureates, who eventually became friends for life. Dorothy Hodgkin, was a British Chemist was third woman ever to win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964 for her discovery of structure of Vitamin B12. She also discovered structures of Penicillin and Insulin. On the… Continue reading Hodgkin and Pauling: Two friends with a common cause

Index Home It was Friday on 1st of May 1840, when first postage stamp was born. It was for use five days later, next Wednesday on 6th of May. Credit for this stamp goes to Sir Rowland Hill, initially a teacher by profession, but better known for invention of first postage stamp and postal reforms. I… Continue reading The first postage stamp was born on 1st May 1840

Index Home Health is dear to all, and we all strive to be in pink of our health all the time. Principles of health maintenance are simple, though repetitive actions. While it is a readily acceptable concept that basic health needs should be available to all, globally we have struggled with its execution. There are quite… Continue reading Ensuring basic health needs: A concept with many names

Food is essential for life. A popular view, till 17th century was that our body absorbs food, that is directly converted by Liver into blood. While this view was later refuted (as blood is formed inside our bones), yet food does provide all the essential and required ingredients. Better nutrition, indeed is better health, and… Continue reading Gut and Liver: how did we get to know them well

Index Home Recently I had the pleasure of collective viewing of one of my stamp albums with a co-philatelist. He stopped at a first day cover, that had a peculiar sketch. Eye of Horus it is, he exclaimed. I was clueless, but he went on with the story of Horus, with an assertion that “Rx” is… Continue reading Eye of Horus and ocular symbolism

Index Home In this blog we feature three diseases of the nerves – Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Multiple sclerosis and their related philately. In all the three, nerve cells in our brain or spinal cord get affected. Individuals and their families need to relentlessly cope up with slow but progressive failure of the nerves. While the similarity… Continue reading Alzheimer, Parkinson and Multiple Sclerosis: As nerves whither away

Index Home Tenofovir is a medicine, that today is at the forefront for treatment of HIV and Heptatitis-B infection. Story of this drug, and its creators is however incredible. We knew only a little about HIV, at the time of discovery of this drug. At that time no one could have predicted that it will also… Continue reading Antonín Holý: A Czech scientist who Created Tenofovir

Index Home The word filaria derives its origin from Latin filum, that means thread-like. These worms are really thin. Even grownup or adult worms that are about 2-4cm long, are less than a tenth of a millimeter wide. Its offspring or microfilaria are even more tiny. Seen only under a microscope, they can travel inside our… Continue reading Filariasis: Thread like worms that move in our bodies