This is an article on the development of insulin that I found interestin. It's in today's NY Times.
They call it the first miracle drug.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/health/05insulin.html?pagewanted=1&ref=general&src=me
Banting didn't actually mean to discover insulin. it was actually all by accident. I found the article..meh. I did research on Banting for a CAPP project i did on diabetes and insulin when I was in grade 10..much better information on the discovery of insulin out there than this article.
Insulin is ABSOLUTELY a miracle drug. Every single one of us can thank the lives we have to this miraculous scientific discovery. It's one of the reasons I was so inspired to enter into medicine.
I'd be dead without modern medicine. That's pretty profound.
I kind of want to take a road trip to New York and check out this exhibit...
For all the complaining I do about having diabetes, I sure am grateful to have it today rather than back then...I've seen some horrific pictures of patients before insulin injections came along. Not pretty.
I'll go this weekend and let y'all know how it is:)
I was diagnosed 5 years ago, I've been on a pump for 3 so even MDI seemed kinda "you mean there isn't a better way than this????" to me!
Actually, there were a number of accidental discoveries leading up to this feat but, Banting was looking for the cause and, as any researcher would presumably want to do, the subsequent treatment. Most notable of the accidents was the discovery that the urine of the dogs whose pancreases had been tied off, attracted flies (it seems to be a mystery as to whether this discovery was made by one of the grad students or a custodian--then again, the two are often one ; )). It is a credit to whoever did make this discovery that the wrote it down and made it known. The questions that followed led to the discovery of glucose in the uring, and so on...
Joe