How Do You Know About Snow?!!

Every morning this week I've woken up to a thin veil of snow covering everything outside my windows. I love when winter is just beginning and you can smell that unique crispness in the air that means that a good snowstorm is eminent.

It always puts me in a cozy, curl-up-by-the-fire sort of mood. And what does one do whilst curled up by the fireplace? In my opinion, there is nothing better than settling in with a good blog article! That's just me though.

Snow, as most everyone knows, forms when water droplets inside of a cloud freeze and then fall to earth. It is interesting however, exactly what the conditions must be for snow to form.

Snow must begin as a tiny nucleus and then form a crystal before it can take on the familiar flake shape. Inside the cloud, a few water molecules must become woven together and form a shape similar to a lattice. Then a water droplet must come into contact with this lattice and freeze around it. This forms a nucleus.

Dust, volcanic ash, or even sea salt particles can act as nuclei for an ice crystal as well. These nuclei allow condensation to take place. Without something to cause condensation to begin, water vapor in the atmosphere can remain unfrozen down to -40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Assuming that the temperature is 31 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, the water vapor begins to freeze into ice crystals and expand. As the crystals grow, parts of them break off and act as nuclei for other snowflakes to form. The crystals begin to fall through the air as they gain mass. As they fall through the air they collide with and stick to thousands of other crystals. This process forms the snowflakes that we all recognize.

The most beautiful snowflakes are those that are very wide, but very thin as well. Providing that the flake is large enough for the detail to be seen with the naked eye, this allows us to see one intricate layer of crystals all linked together.

The largest snowflakes on record were fifteen inches across and fell in Keogh, Montana in 1887.

Probably your whole life you have heard that every single snowflake is unique and there is not another like it. This is only partly true.  It is very possible that could spend your whole life searching for two identical snowflakes and never find them. But it is a statistical impossibility for each flake to have a unique shape and composition. Nature likes symmetry and patterns too much to be so original.

Another bit of trivia that is passed around is that the Innu eskimos have many words in their language for snow. Again this is partially true. The two most commonly spoken languages of these people are Innuit and Inuktitut. In these languages, they simplify the use of several adjectives into one word. For example, snow that drifts into a wave like pattern could be described with one word in Innuit. So, while they only have one word that translates literally to "snow," they do have many words that describe different conditions of snow.

One of my favorite natural phenomena is the peaceful quiet that seems to steal over everything after a fresh snowfall. This is occurs because air trapped between the crystals tends to trap sound waves and dampen vibrations. Once snow has been blown around by the wind or melted and packed down, it loses its ability to muffle sound.

Interestingly enough, if snow becomes hard enough, it can also enhance acoustics of a landscape. The snow in Antarctica is so hard and flat that researchers have reported the ability to hear human voices speaking at a normal volume from distances of up to a mile away.

Fresh snow can reflect more than 90% of ultraviolet light. This can cause a condition called Ultraviolet Keratitis. This is more commonly referred to as snow blindness. It is a painful condition that results from overexposure of the cornea to UV light. Essentially it's a sunburn inside your eyes. Snow blindness most commonly occurs in polar regions or at very high altitudes.

In addition to snow blindness, intense light reflections from the snow have caused a handful of documented cases of Poblokto. A syndrome also called Arctic Hysteria. Little is known about the cause of the syndrome other than it occurs when snow reflections are especially bright. The syndrome is seen almost exclusively in native societies that live close to the Arctic Circle. Symptoms can include hysteria, depression, echolalia (senseless repetition of words,) and insensitivity to cold. Sufferers are known to be so insensitive to the cold that they often strip off their clothing and run naked through the snow.

Everyone knows better than to eat yellow snow. Well, most everyone that is. But there are plenty of would be explorers who have never been warned against eating the pink snow. The color comes from a species of pigmented algae that grows in the ice. It is often called watermelon snow as it resembles the fruit and even gives off the same scent. Unfortunately, eating watermelon snow can cause illness due to the bacteria that feeds off the algae.

It is intriguing how much awe snow seems to inspire in us as humans. For most people, the fascination and curiosity caused by the different elements fades as we grow older. But snow never quite seems to lose its magical properties.

It is difficult not to feel a childlike sense of excitement as you watch the first snowfall. And a fresh white blanket of snow never ceases to steal our breath away with its beauty. 

How Do You Know About The Body Farm?!!

Alright, alright, before I begin this article and before I take any more flack from my readers, we need to address the elephant in the room. Yes, I took a two week hiatus from writing. I know, you all missed me and your Fridays just weren't quite the same without my articles to get you going in the morning...

But cheer up! I'm back in action and ready to bring you more useless information. Hopefully I can throw a little entertainment in there while I'm at it.  

Now, today's article may be unsuitable for those who are squeamish. Read on at your own risk! 

Behind the University of Tennessee Medical Center there is a 2.5 acre plot of woods sectioned off by a wooden fence. The outside of this fence is surrounded by a chain link fence. And just for good measure, the chain link fenced is crowned with a menacing coil of razor wire. 

As if the sickly, syrupy scent of something rotting isn't enough to keep curious passers-by from attempting entry, signs are posted along the outer perimeter of the fence that warn, "RESEARCH FACILITY. BIOHAZARD. NO TRESPASSING."  

This is The Body Farm.  

Dr. William Bass is the man responsible for establishing The Body Farm. He was appointed head of the University's anthropology department in 1971. He was also the official forensic anthropologist for the State of Tennessee. As such, he was often consulted by the police when cases involved decomposing human remains.  

However, at this point in history, little was known about human decay. And half of what was known was astonishingly inaccurate. As you can imagine, this was detrimental to Tennessee's finest when it came to solving cases that were any older than a few months.  

In one instance, Dr. Bass was called upon to estimate how long some human remains had been decomposing. Using the conventional methods for the time, he deduced that the individual had been dead for approximately one year. It couldn't have been any longer judging by the amount of  moist flesh that was still attached to the bones. Later on, other evidence proved that the body had been in it's coffin since the Civil War Era. The coffin was made of materials that contained lead which contaminated and effectively embalmed the body, making it nearly impervious to decomposition.   

This and other similar cases led Dr. Bass to ask the University to allow him to build a research facility where he and his Forensic Anthropology students could better understand the decomposition process of a human being.  

Nowadays, the farm receives around fifty bodies a year. All of them have requested that their body specifically be used for research on the farm. All of them are basically dumped somewhere in the woods and left for various periods of time.   

They are all left to decompose in different scenarios as well. They are left in cars, in shallow graves, submerged in water, inside cement vaults, in plastic bags, and some even in suitcases. Fairly often the bodies are subjected to chemical contact or fire to study the outcome.   

Students and their professors keep frequent and detailed records of their observations. Occasionally professional law enforcement members will take a field trip the the farm to take notes on a particular case study. They've even reported that several cub scout troops have requested to tour the farm. These requests were respectfully denied.  

Through the information gathered at The Body Farm and others like it, we have learned an immense amount about the process the human body goes through as it decomposes. Once death occurs, human decomposition begins to take place about four minutes later. Cells that are deprived of their usual supply of nourishment begin to die. Rigor Mortis takes place a few hours later because the chemicals that normally allow muscle fibers to slide freely have been metabolized by that point.   

Blood pools in the lowermost regions of the body causing the pallid color corpses are known for. Flies can detect the scent of a corpse from up to a mile away. They are attracted to the scent as a corpse is an ideal place for them to lay their eggs. Once the eggs hatch into maggots, the larvae will feed on the subcutaneous layer of fat.  

The brain tissue slowly begins to liquefy and seep out of the orifices in the head over the course of the next several days. The abdomen begins to turn green and bloat due to activity from the bacteria that naturally live their. The same thing can happen to the neck and face, especially the mouth area, making identification difficult at this stage.   

Blisters sometimes begin to form on the surface of the skin which eventually begins to peel off in large sheets. The skin on the hands will often slough off in one complete piece in a process known as "gloving."   

One of my personal favorite discoveries made by the iron-stomached students there is that they can soak the piece of skin that has sloughed off the hand in warm water to restore its flexibility. Then they can slip the "glove" right onto their own hand and take a perfectly good set of fingerprints.    

After most or all of the skin is gone and bone tissue is now exposed, the decomposition process begins to slow down. The process of skeletonization occurs when the last of the soft tissue is gone. But even at this stage, the corpses serve a purpose. The bones are removed from the farm and steam cleaned. Then they are added to the skeletal archives at the University so they may aid science even further.   

Dr. Bass does not teach any longer but he continues to occupy the position of Head of Forensics Anthropology. He has written a few books about his experiences at the University and continues to advocate the need for more decomposition research facilities. Unfortunately that is easier said than done due to the fact that no one wants to live next to a forest filled with rotting corpses and college-aged CSI fans.  

While it's obvious why the practice lacks general appeal, it is indisputable that the information gathered at The Body Farm has made forensic science what it is today. Countless cases that would have gone unsolved are now closed thanks to the work performed by the students and their professors.

How Do You Know About Lake Vostok?!!

On June 23, 1961, The Antarctic Treaty System was officially put into force. Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, The Soviet Union, The United Kingdom, and The United States were the twelve original signatories.

Essentially, the treaty ensures that Antarctica will always be a place that all nations have free access to the continent in order to conduct scientific study, as long as all research has peaceful purposes. The treaty forbids any sort of military action, such as weapons testing, but not the presence of military personnel.

It is thanks to this treaty that Vostok Research Station exists. It sits about 800 miles from the geographic South Pole on an Australian piece of territory. Research conducted at Vostok consists of aerometeorology, actinometry, geophysics, medicine, climatology, and magnetometry. Due to its position on the globe, it is the most isolated research station in existence.

 Vostok is likely most well known to the public for two things. One, being the site of the lowest reliably recorded temperature on Earth. (-128.6 F) And two, the climate research they conduct by drilling massive core samples of ice out of the sheet they are situated on.

By analyzing the hundreds and hundreds of layers in these core samples, they are able to study Earth's bygone climates.  To date they have drilled through approximately 414,000 layers. This puts them about two miles deep in the ice.

However, once they reached this depth, the layers stopped. The samples that they began to pull from the hole at this point were clear and pretty much devoid of information. Scientists were baffled as to why this might be. In search of answers, the Russians drilled on.

It was not long until the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) used airborne radar and satellite altimetry to try to discover what was lying over two miles beneath the ice and causing the anomalies in the core samples. When the men and women at SCAR realized what could be seen using those imagery techniques, they urged their Russian colleagues to halt all drilling immediately.

As improbable as it was, it appeared that deep under Vostok there was a liquid freshwater lake. The core samples that the Russians had recently pulled from the ice were from where the liquid freshwater came in contact with the ice above it and froze. The hole they had bored stopped within a mere 300 feet of the surface of the lake.

The satellite and radar images showed that the lake had a surface area approximately equivalent to that of Lake Ontario but was more than three times as deep as the great lake. The temperature is estimated to be about 26 degrees Fahrenheit but due to the enormous pressure of the ice slab above it, the water remains in liquid form. It is also suspected that geothermal heat provides some ambient warmth at that depth.

If it's difficult to picture, Columbia University has published this diagram of the lake.

The clear samples at the bottom of the Russian most recent cores provided some insight into the conditions of the lake. We know the lake is made up of freshwater because there is no salt present in the samples. We also know thanks to these samples that there is an incredible amount of oxygen in the water. Oxygen dissolves much more readily into water under enormous pressure.

If the Russians had continued drilling for much longer they may have encountered a geyser of unheard of proportions thanks to the astonishing amount of pressure the lake was under. Also, had they actually drilled into the surface of the lake, it would have been contaminated by the sixty tons of kerosene and freon they had filled their borehole with to prevent it from re-freezing and all hopes of studying this entirely untouched environment would have been lost.

Of course, as soon as the lake was discovered, a huge debate arose concerning the likelihood of finding life under such conditions. Because of the frigid temperature, the absence of sunlight, and the toxic levels of oxygen in the water, many scientists are certain that the lake is sterile. That would be a breakthrough discovery in its own right since there are presently no completely lifeless bodies of water known to mankind.

Others suggest that it is not unreasonable to expect life of some form to be discovered there. After all, extremophile organisms had been discovered in the most unlikely of places on our planet. There are some that live in the volcanic vents on the ocean floor, others that have been found living in the frozen arctic soil, and even some that have been found living in the rocks deep within the earth's crust. With this evidence, it is not ridiculous to assume there could be creatures suited to life under such conditions.

Another interesting point that scientists have made is that the conditions of Lake Vostok are remarkably similar to the ocean beneath the surface of Jupiter's ice moon, Europa. Analyzing such a similar environment on our own planet could have interesting extraterrestrial complications.

Presently, researchers are still contemplating the best method to investigate the lake without contaminating it. The introduction of any chemical or even a single microorganism from the surface could irreversibly pollute the ecosystem. There are also some scientist who advocate avoiding the lake altogether. Millions of years of evolutionary isolation could have resulted in bizarre organisms that may present a very real danger to humans

It has also been reported that the Russian researchers very much intend to reach the lake before anyone of their rivals. If something prompts them to restart their drilling, little can be done to stop them.

However, if science does get the opportunity to study Vostok Lake, the amounts of knowledge to be gained would be enormous. If the lake is found to be sterile, it would finally provide some context to the practical limits of life. But if life is indeed discovered, even if it's only in microbial form, it will not only have immense scientific implications beyond the scope of our planet, but it will show that world that life is made up of truly resilient stuff.

How Do You Know About Margarine Vs. Butter?!!

These days you expect to find butter and margarine side by side in your local dairy cooler. To not see one or the other would be out of the ordinary. But did you know that margarine companies had to fight to get, and keep, their products on those shelves?

It was 1866 and France was on the verge of a war with Prussia. Butter prices were soaring and Emperor Louis Napoleon III could only expect them to get worse if war was declared. A butter shortage was the last thing he needed on his plate.

Napoleon needed to find a butter substitute that was cheap to produce, plentiful, and easy to store on naval ships. So he offered a prize at the Paris World Exhibition to anyone who could come up with such a product. Some, including Napoleon himself, will attribute this to his concern for the poor classes and claim he was attempting to help them get the recommended allotment of fat into their diet. But let's face it, less money spent on butter means more to spend on guns.

The idea intrigued a man named Hippolyte Mege-Mouries. He began to research butter and milk and discovered that even starving cows give milk containing milk fat. He reasoned that since the fat wasn't coming from their food, it must be coming from the cows themselves. He then decided that it must be possible to do the same thing in a manufacturing process.

He invented a process to render oil from beef fat and combine that oil with milk to produce a spread that he called "Oleomargarine." He won Napoleon's prize and began to commercially manufacture margarine in 1873 near Paris. He had to close the business though when peace unexpectedly broke out and the predicted butter shortage never happened.

The U.S. Dairy Company saw potential in margarine though. They bought the rights the following year. Soon, meat packing houses all across the country began using fatty by-products left over from their processing to produce margarine.

Margarine sales grew quickly and those in the dairy industry began to see their profits slip. Manufacturers of cheap, low-grade butter were hit especially hard since when compared to margarine side by side, the two were roughly the same price but margarine was usually of better quality.

The dairy interests weren't going to take margarine's increase in popularity lying down. Lobbyists began to push for passage of laws requiring margarine to be specifically marked as something other than a dairy product. This really was of no concern to the margarine manufacturers since they figured that their consumers were well enough informed to already be aware that margarine wasn't technically a dairy product.

The dairy industry then began to run ad campaigns heavily featuring anti-margarine propaganda. They labeled margarine as "The slag of the butcher shop." They also hired a researcher by the name of Professor Piper to testify that in his research he had found margarine to contain "many kinds of living organisms, dead mould, bits of cellulose, shreds of hair, bristles, doubtful worms, corpuscles from a cockroach, small bits of claws, corpuscles from a sheep, tapeworm eggs, a dead hydravirus, and germs that cause cancer and insanity."

Even as the margarine companies tried to defend themselves against such blatant slander, dairy lobbyists in seven states forced legislation through that banned any article designed to take the place of butter.

Then The Supreme Court got involved. They ruled that the bans were unconstitutional since the unwholesomeness of margarine had not been demonstrated and the government could not prohibit one industry to protect another. They did have an alternative solution for the dairy industry though.

They suggested that since it was the color of the margarine that led to misconception about what the consumer was purchasing, states could legally ban dyed margarine but had to allow uncolored margarine to be sold freely.

By the turn of the century, thirty states had passed legislation banning the sale of colored margarine. (Little did consumers knows that butter and milk often contained additives to make their colors more appealing.) Uncolored margarine was a greyish color that proved very unappetizing and sales dropped. In five states, dairy interests shoved harder and passed laws that only allowed margarine that had been dyed pink to be sold. Sales plummeted in those states.

At this point, it was discovered that it was better to use vegetable oils rather than oils from animal fat to produce margarine. An added benefit was that by using vegetable oils with a yellow hue meant that margarine would be naturally colored yellow and could bypass the laws prohibiting artificial dyes. However it didn't take long for legislation to be pushed through banning the sale of all yellow margarines.

Margarine makers discovered that nothing in the law stated that consumers were prohibited from coloring their own margarine. The began to include a dye capsule with each purchase. The consumers would then take their margarine home from the grocery store, drop in the dye capsule, and knead the margarine inside a cellophane bag until the dye had been distributed. However inconvenient it may have been, consumers still wanted margarine as long as it didn't put them off their dinners, and sales started to rise.

Then the stock market crashed. The combination of financial hardships from The Great Depression and World War II butter rationing led consumers to switch to margarine. And then they began to wonder why they had to put up with coloring their own margarine.

Finally, after the war had ended, Congress narrowly passed legislation rescinding anti-margarine laws. Over the next five years every state but two followed suit.

They say that every dog has his day and margarine producers were long overdue for theirs by the time it showed up. In the 1960's and 1970's science told the public that animal fats were much more artery clogging that those that came from vegetables and margarine sales soared over those of butter.

We know now that the studies done in the 60's and 70's were wrong and vegetable oils that have been hydrogenated to make them semi-solid contain trans-fatty acids, popularly referred to as trans-fats. It's been proven now that trans-fats are one of the leading factors when it comes to elevated levels of cholesterol and the occurrence of heart disease.

Of course we know that butter, not to mention all dairy products, still contains saturated fats that also contribute to elevated cholesterol.

If you walk through your grocery store today you can see that manufacturers of both products are doing everything they can to persuade consumers to choose them. Nearly every margarine box states that the product no longer contains trans-fats and is obviously a heart healthy choice, while butter packaging attempts to appeal to those looking for a wholesome, more natural product.

After nearly a century and a half, the war between margarine and butter still isn't over. May the best spread win! 

How do you know about Pirates?!!

In honor of tomorrow being "International Talk Like A Pirate Day," this week's article is all about pirates! No, not the pirates from Somalia... I'm talking about real, swashbuckling, rum-drinking, treasure-hunting Caribbean pirates!

This post spans a period that is commonly known as the Golden Age of Piracy. Historians argue about the dates of this age but the general consensus is that it spans from about AD 1630 to the 1720's. Our modern perception of pirates is derived largely from this time period.

Prior to this time and due to religious warring between European nations, piracy mostly happened under the guise of national interest. Many seaman labored as privateers in the navy who, with letters of mark giving permission, targeted ships belonging to rival nations, raided whatever they had on board, and split the proceeds with with their governments.

Sometime around 1630, England and France signed a treaty with Spain that allowed them to establish colonies along the Spanish Main. These colonies were mostly on the island of Hispaniola (now known as Haiti and The Dominican Republic.)

Since the relationship between these countries had grown more peaceful, they no longer found themselves in need of such massive navies. Thus, thousands of seamen suddenly found themselves relieved of military duty without any knowledge of another trade to support themselves.

Many of these seamen had settled in the new Caribbean colonies. The islands they lived on had large populations of wild pigs and the settlers had become quite fond of barbecuing the pigs over open fires called buccans or boucan. Thus, earning themselves the nickname of Buccaneers.

When the buccaneers suddenly found themselves unemployed and incapable of supporting themselves, they began to turn to piracy to meet their needs. A large number of the buccaneers, who also referred to themselves as Brethren Of The Coast, moved to an island off the coast of Hispaniola that proved to be an effective pirate stronghold. This island had fertile land, fresh water, good places to weigh anchor, and defensible harbors. It's name was Tortuga.

By the year of 1650, pirates patrolled the Caribbean, the Eastern seaboard of America, and the West coast of Africa. They were many merchant ships in this range that were part of the Triangular Trade. Ships would begin their journeys by picking up slaves from Africa, then they would sail to the Caribbean to sell the slaves, accepting goods such as sugar, molasses, and manufactured articles for payment. They would then continue on to America to sell those goods to the colonists. Ships in the triangular trade made a profit at each stop, for the most part. There were many ships also sailing from South and Central America directly back to Spain filled with treasure from the conquests of the Spanish Conquistadors.

Generally, pirates managed to raid ships with very little violence. They favored small, fast moving vessels and would often wait in sheltered bays where they would be able to quickly sneak up on a passing merchant ship. They would then fire warning shots from their cannons. At this point, most merchant ships would surrender since they were not capable of outrunning the pirates. Besides, it would be much more costly to lose a ship to damage inflicted by cannon fire than to give up a portion of the goods on board.

Of course, there were times when a vessel would refuse to surrender and the pirates would choose to use whatever means possible to take the ship, it's crew, and it's cargo.

Pirates did not only raid ships for the purpose of stealing treasure. They often also took food, water, alcohol, clothing, weapons, and, on occasion, the entire ship itself. Basically anything that they needed to live at sea.

Pirates were not an unpopular group in the Caribbean though. In fact, many ports welcomed pirates knowing that they had plenty of money to spend. One port, in particular, became a favorite to the buccaneers.

It had bars, gambling houses, brothels, and just about any other place that a pirate could imagine to spend all the money he had managed to acquire during his most recent stint at sea. This was Port Royal, Jamaica.

In the month of July of 1661 alone, forty new licenses were granted for taverns to be opened in the city. Such was the demand for pirates to entertain themselves on shore.

One minister traveled to Port Royal thinking that his services might be needed in the quickly developing colony. This is what he said of his time there:

"The majority of its population consists of pirates, cutthroats, whores and some of the vilest persons in the whole of the world. Therefore, I felt my permanence there was of no use."

He departed on the same ship on which he had arrived.

Unfortunately, the pirate lifestyle couldn't last forever. By the 1700's the Europeans felt they had put up with enough piracy. They again began to bolster their navies by employing more men and adding more ships to their fleets so that they might accompany merchants on their voyages.

This move, combined with dwindling amounts of treasure being shipped from the New World back to Europe is what started the decline of piracy.

In the 1720's, Jamaica also began to take an anti-pirate stance on trade and was no longer welcoming pirates into the ports that they had once frequented. In addition, many men who had been privateers and pirates their whole lives had reached old age and began to retire from sailing. Piracy had nearly faded out of existence by the end of the decade.

In the late nineteenth century, stories drawing heavily on piracy and adventure gained popularity. Literature such as, Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson and plays such as J. M. Barry's Peter Pan, worked to associate glamour and romance with the buccaneers in the minds of the public. Movies later continued to advance this imagery and have forever fixed in our culture a fascination with this era.

Even though there has been a history of piracy throughout the time that man has been known to travel the oceans, the pirates of the Caribbean were literally the rulers of the sea during the Golden Age. No pirates before or since have ever held such notoriety. Even hundreds of years after they lived, we still find ourselves, even from a young age, knowing infamous pirates by name and enraptured by stories of their lives. 

This week's post is also subject to a personal note.

Grandpa Lloyd and Grandma Terry are two of my very favorite people in this world. I love them very much. And I have no doubts whatsoever that they would have made two of the most fearsome and terrible pirates who ever sailed the Spanish Main.

How Do You Know About The Petticoat Wars?!!

I want to take just a moment today to commemorate the anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Regardless of where you stand when it comes to politics, it is important that we do not forget what it means to be a patriot. 

It is also important that we do not forget the debt of gratitude that our nation owes to the heroes who laid their own lives on the line on this day eight years ago in order to save the lives of others. So if you see a soldier, a member of the police force, a firefighter, or an EMT today, take time out of your routine to thank them for the service they provide to our communities.

That being said, here's this week's article!

It seems that lately there have been several scandals in Washington D.C. that have had people all over the country up in arms. Scandals of a sexual nature seem to be more and more prevalent.  From the Lewinsky affair while President Clinton was in office, to Elliot Spitzer's latest embarrassment in being exposed as part of a prostitution ring, many consider this behavior in Washington to be a sign of the times and unparalleled throughout the history of our country.

However, in the early 1800's there was a scandal in Washington to rival those making headlines today. This one did measurable damage. Enough, in fact, that an entire Cabinet was overturned.

The newspapers called it "The Petticoat Wars." Never heard of it? Well, that's what I'm here for.

Margaret O'Neal, or Peggy as she preferred to be called, was the daughter of a Washington D.C. tavern-keeper. The tavern also served as a boarding house and was known as The Franklin House.

Peggy worked in the Franklin House as a barmaid. She was well-known and popular with the regular patrons as she was very beautiful. Her reputation for not having the strictest of morals may have had something to do with her popularity as well.

One regular patron of the Franklin House was a wealthy young Senator by the name of John Eaton. While it was hardly spoken of in polite company, it was not exactly a secret that Peggy and Senator Eaton had been settling more than his bar tab for quite some time.

Then Eaton's wife passed away. This left Eaton widowed at the young age of 28. He and Peggy married not long after on January 21, 1829. This was scandal enough in it's own right considering that social codes dictated that a much longer mourning period should be observed before remarrying. 

However, it was not long after they were married that President Andrew Jackson appointed Eaton to the position of Secretary of War. This catapulted the former barmaid to the status of Cabinet wife, the pinnacle of Washington society.

The other Cabinet wives resented the new Mrs. Eaton's sudden elevation in social status. Especially Second Lady Floride Calhoun, wife of Vice President John C. Calhoun.

Mrs. Calhoun, with the support of her husband, began to instigate an "Anti-Peggy Coalition" with the intent of freezing her out of their  circle. They refused to include Mrs. Eaton in any of their social functions at all.

This infuriated President Jackson, who may have been more sympathetic to the Eaton's situation due to the fact that his own wife had recently passed away and she too, had been the subject of innuendo.

Jackson called a special meeting of the Cabinet and their wives to defend his appointment of Eaton and call for an immediate stop to the malicious behavior towards Eaton's wife. And when the Cabinet wives continued to ostracize Peggy, Jackson chose to put a stop to it by purging the entire Cabinet, replacing everyone except for Postmaster General William Barry.

Due to his wife's intransigence, Vice President Calhoun's hope to ride Jackson's coattails into the Presidency had been put to an end. Jackson instead elevated Secretary of State Martin Van Buren as his favorite and chose him as a vice-presidential running mate in his re-election campaign.

Some speculate that Jackson chose to favor Van Buren because he had  managed to remain friendly with the Eatons throughout the Petticoat wars due to the fact that he was unmarried himself.

Van Buren replaced Calhoun as Vice President during Jackson's second term and then succeeded Jackson to the Presidency in 1837.

Calhoun and his wife returned to South Carolina where he won a seat in the U.S. Senate. He advocated states' rights, slavery, and economic issues affecting the South. Some historians say that had Calhoun become president instead of Van Buren, a northerner, he may have been able to ease some of the North-South tensions that lead to the outbreak of The Civil War in 1860.

Later in life, John Eaton became Minister to Spain and he and Peggy became the toast of Madrid. After Eaton passed away, leaving Peggy widowed in her sixties, she married a twenty-something Italian dance instructor, only to watch him run off with her granddaughter and most of her money.

So there you you have it. A short article for a short week.

Also, I would like to add a personal note to this week's post:

I love Tom "Dego" Dowers because he is so super awesome. He is genuinely a good person. And he's a good friend.

And that's all I have to say about that.

How Do You Know About Penicillin?!!

"A scientific experiment, briefly exposed to the air, became infected with a fungus whose spores had blown in through an open door... And left untended on a laboratory bench through the summer vacation, the fungus managed to destroy bacteria being grown as part of the experiment. The improbable results could not have been duplicated."

This account of the discovery of penicillin is adapted from Gilbert Shapiro's 1986 book, A Skeleton In The Darkroom.

Dr. Alexander Fleming was born August 6th, 1881 at Lochfield, in East Ayrshire, Scotland. When he was twenty years old he inherited some money from an uncle who had recently passed away. He had an older brother who was a physician and had suggested that Fleming follow the same career path. So he made the decision to enroll at St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London.

While there, Fleming had the option of becoming a surgeon. It was due to a suggestion from a fellow member of the rifle club, however, that Fleming instead joined the research department. During his time there, he became an assistant bacteriologist to Sir Almoth Wright. Wright is regarded in these days as a pioneer in vaccine therapy and immunology.

Fleming served throughout World War I as a captain in the Army Medical Corps. He worked in the battlefield hospitals of the Western Front in France. During this time, he saw many soldiers die as a result of septicemia, also referred to as blood poisoning, from infected wounds.

There is no doubt that Fleming's experiences during the war led to his personal desire to discover anti-bacterial agents.

Fleming's main focus at this point in his career became staphylococci, the germs that cause boils, carbuncles, and other surface infections. He was considered an expert when it came to staph bacteria and was known to be a brilliant researcher. He was also known to "play" with microbes as much as he conducted medical experiments with them

One of his favorite pastimes was to make what he called "germ paintings." To do so, he would draw a simple picture, such as a landscape, a ballerina, or a flag, on the surface of a four-inch glass petri dish. He would then fill each area of the drawing with a culture medium and seed it with the right strain of bacteria.

A day later, the maturing colonies would be visible, each with it's own distinct color, together forming the image of the sketch Fleming had made on the bottom of the dish.

Fleming also discovered that once the cultures had matured, he could preserve the "paintings" by spraying them with a chemical which killed the bacteria, but prevented the culture from deteriorating.

He was rather proud of his germ paintings and at any given time he often displayed several around his laboratory. He also made sure to have several paintings ready on special occasions and for royal visitors. Dr. Fleming's work was once featured at the opening of a new building and he included several of his germ paintings in the exhibition. There, Fleming had the opportunity to show them to Queen Mary.

She seemed puzzled by his enthusiasm for the paintings and as she was leaving, Fleming overheard her say, "Yes... But what good is it?"

Little did Her Majesty know, that the answer to her question was soon to be applied.

In 1928, Fleming was going to spend part of the summer away from London and his laboratory. He planned on lending the use of his lab to a colleague named Dr. Stuart Craddock while he was out of town. Before he left for his vacation though, he started growing a species of staphylococci called S. Aureus on some culture plates.

Fleming had read a report about color changes in this variation of staph which normally produces golden yellow colonies. The paper suggested that if you cut the incubation short and left the culture at room temperature for several days, interesting color changes took place.

Fleming wanted to see these color changes for himself. If nothing else came of it, at least he might be able to add a few more colors to his painting palette.

In September, Fleming returned to London and set to work preparing his lab for new research. There had been a heat spell in the few weeks before he returned. This was counter active to the color change experiment he was conducting as the changes were supposed to take place only at cool temperatures.

Fleming took all of the cultures and set them into a tub of lysol to kill the bacteria so the experiment could be started over. It was then that a colleague dropped in unannounced to see how the summer research was going. Fleming told his colleague that the heat spell had ruined his latest experiment and reached for one of the cultures at random to show him.

The dish that he happened to pick up was on the top of the pile of cultures and hadn't yet been submersed in the lysol. A fungus had contaminated the dish while Fleming had been away. This was not unusual, as spores floating around in the air often landed on plates while they were uncovered and started to grow.

Fleming noticed the large mold spot on the dish and started to reach for another in the pile to show to his friend, probably thinking that he could at least show him a better example of why the color change experiment had gone wrong.

But something caught Fleming's eye. "That's strange," he muttered

Half the dish was covered with yellow colonies of staph, like all the other dishes. But near the edge of the moldy spot on the dish, the staph cells had become translucent and some of them even looked like they were starting to dissolve away. Even stranger than that, inside a circle about an inch in diameter in the center of the mold spot, there no staph cells visible at all.

There could only be one explanation for why this was happening: something near the mold that had landed on the dish was killing off the staph bacteria.

It was an incredibly lucky accident that brought that particular mold spore to land on one of Fleming's experiments. Even more incredible that Fleming had grabbed that culture dish out of the pile considering that after inspection, it was the only one that the fungus had started to grow on.

Fleming immediately took action to preserve the mold. He scraped samples from the culture dish and placed them in test tubes with a liquid used to grow samples of fungi.

The mold that Fleming managed to preserve was a species of Penicllium. These types of molds usually grow on cheese, decaying fruit, and stale bread. The name comes from the same Latin root that gives us the word "pencil."

So, Fleming decided to name his discovery "Penicillin."

The truly astonishing part of this story is that that specific mold, happened to land in Fleming's culture plate. Because none of the other molds that Fleming or his colleague could come up with were able to kill bacteria. In fact, in the years since then, even though intensive searches have been conducted, not one species of fungus that produces Penicillin has been found anywhere in the Old World.

Not since that September day in 1928, has Fleming's particular species, now known as Penicillium Notatum, ever been found outside of laboratory-grown cultures.

In 1943, a strain called Penicillium Crysogenum was found in Illinois that is even more potent that Fleming's strain and is now used in the commercial manufacture of Penicillin.

Fleming was always modest, preferring to give credit to the scientists who furthered his research and were responsible for the formulation of the drug.

He would later say of his discovery,

"When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn't plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world's first antibiotic, or bacteria killer...But I guess that was exactly what I did."

Many people consider the discover of penicillin the most important discovery of that millennium. In the year 2000, the number estimated to have been saved through the use of  the drug was as high as 200 million lives.

There is no doubt that his discovery changed the world of modern medicine by introducing useful antibiotics. To this day, Penicillin has saved and is still saving millions of people all over the world.