From anti-ague to anti-Alzheimer's agent: over the 112 years since it was first trademarked, Aspirin has evolved from popular painkiller to powerful preventative against heart attacks, strokes and even cancer. In this week's show we trace its history from the extraction of aspirin-like chemicals from willow bark to the creation of the drug itself. Plus, in the news, how the chemistry of life could have come to Earth in a meteorite and why we need to be careful with stem cells: a new study finds they have an above-average mutation rate. Also, a new technique to etch graphene sheets with single-atom precision, an insight into how our drugs are made and how painkillers hit pain where it hurts...
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The origins of life on earth are a hotly debated topic among scientists. One theory suggests that meteorites brought some of the chemical building blocks for amino acids – the molecules that make up proteins. Now tests on a meteorite provide more evidence that they might have ki...
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On the 6th March 1899, the Beyer pharmaceutical company officially registered Aspirin as a trademark, following their chemist Felix Hoffman’s successful synthesis of a stable form of acetylsalicylic acid – the chemical name for aspirin - in 1897...
Is hot water heavier than cold water? I was wondering this while watching ice float in my drink.
Aspirin was touted originally as treatment for pain; but, 100 years on, we now know it’s much more powerful than that. Peter Rothwell is Oxford University’s Professor of Clinical Neurology and he’s with us to discuss what else aspirin can do...
We’ve heard how drugs like aspirin can be used, but how are they actually made? For this week’s Naked Engineering, Meera and Dave have been to take a look at GlaxoSmithKline’s tablet manufacturing site in Ware, Hertfordshire...
Aspirin addiction. Does it actually exist, and if so how does it work?
Has Aspirin been effective for animals with heart problems also? Like pets-dogs and cats?
Is it true Aspirin is poisonous to cats?
I love Aspirin! I'd like to know about the raw material, wich willow is best provider ? And to what purpose does that tree make the precursor of aspirin?
Asprin - when shouldn't it be used?
Question from the wife, can you take Aspirin with alcohol? I hope she means can you drink alcohol if you've taken aspirin!
How does Aspirin interact with food or other drugs?
Does Aspirin alter blood pressure?
Do regular small doses of Aspirin affect red blood cells?
Given Aspirin's side effects, do you think it would be approved it was discovered as a new drug today?
Dear Naked Scientists,
I was wondering how Pain relief drugs target pain, and why we don't just go numb in random parts of the body? I hope you can help me in this,
Yours,
Andrew McCluskey
Researchers at Rice university have developed a new way to etch structures into stacked piles of graphene, the marvellous material consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms. This could allow manufacturers to make computer chips from graphene in much the same way they current...
If I wake up with a raging hangover-induced headache, is aspirin a miracle cure, or will it make things worse? I've heard it both ways. Thanks!
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