Virus vs Bacteria!

Zeldovich, Lina.  The Living Medicine: How a Miraculous Healing Therapy was Nearly Lost -- 

         and  Why It Will Save Humanity When Antibiotics Fail.  New York: St. Martin's Press, 

        2024.  ISBN: 9781250283382

 

So what is a living medicine? And why would you want to take it?  In this title, it is a phage or more properly a bacteriophage which is a virus that attacks specific bacteria.  They are found anywhere there is bacteria and they "eat" that bacteria and leave other bacteria alone.  Plus they can work when antibiotics fail.  That is part of the point Lina Zeldovich  is making in The Living Medicine, part medical discovery, part historical account and part biography.

 

Lina Zeldovich opens the book with a description of the present day and the problem with antibiotic resistant bacteria.  She then jumps back to World War I and the search for cures to infectious diseases such as dysentery, cholera, and typhus.  They had vaccines, but those took time to prepare.  Giorgi Eliava was a doctor in Georgia (the country) who was working on cholera in Tbilisi when he accidentily discovered phages that were eating cholera bacteria in the samples he was testing, not that his microscope was powerful enough to see them, but he could see the results.  Around the same time Felix d'Herelle at the Pasteur Institute in Paris encountered similar action in regard to dysentery.  After the war Eliaya and d'Herelle got together in Paris and worked on refining the process of manufacturing phages that would kill various infectious diseases.  In the 1920's and 1930's they worked on creating institutes in Tbilisi (Soviet Republic of Georgia) and Paris.  Other folks started their own businesses doing the same in other parts of the world.  But capitalism killed phages in the US since there was no governmental regulation and the public did not trust the manufactures.  In the Soviet Union, phage research continued under government scrutiny and sort of thrived.  Phages played a part in saving Stalingrad from the German invasion by preventing a cholera outbreak.  But then there came the end of the Soviet Union and disintegration of many institutions which included the library of phages collected from all over the Soviet Union.  But with the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria, scientists and the FDA in the United States are more willing to try other means.  So do not be surprised if you get treated with phages in the near future. 

If you are looking for an engaging book dealing with history, science, and medicine, pick up Lina Zeldovich's The Living Medicine!  Your time will be rewarded!

 

Mountain Man Icon

Drury, Bob, and Tom Clavin.  Throne of Grace: A Mountain Man, an Epic Adventure, and the 

         Bloody Conquest of the American West.  New York: St. Martin's Press, 2024.  ISBN:  

         9781250285836  

How much do you know about the Mountain Men?  I mean the men who in the early 1800's who ventured west from St. Louis (MO) to trap beavers for their pelts.  Men such as Jim Bridger lauded by Johnny Horton  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SmZy_b-qlU) among others.  But among this company of men, Jedediah Smith stands out.  He stands out for his bravery, his fortitude, his knowledge and his honesty.  Throne of Grace is his story told in the context of history.

Jedediah Smith arrived in St. Louis (MO) in 1822, having grown up along Lake Eire in Pennsylvania and Ohio.  He joined General William Henry Ashley's fur trading expedition, and headed west up the Missouri River to explore.  But that expedition encountered trouble partway up the river with Madan Indians.  But the fighting he encountered did not deter Smith.  Nor did the hardships of winter weather in the Rocky Mountains, the close encounters with hostile forces (Native Americans, Spanish, or British), or dangerous animals which included a very close encounter with a grizzly bear.  Due to his bravery, common sense, and leadership, Jedediah Smith rose from being one of Ashley's men to a partner in charge in the Rocky Mountain area.  H set up rendezvous points in the spring for the mountain men to gather and trade their pelts for supplies.  He also led expeditions that opened up large sections of the West to  settlers traveling to Oregon and California.  He was know for mapping everything he encountered and kept multiple journals documenting his finds.  He kept this up until he decided to retire.  But he went on one last venture with his brothers leading a wagon train to Santa Fe when he had a fatal encounter with Comanches.

Bob Drury and Tom Clavin did a masterful job of documenting the life of Jedediah Smith in the context of his time using his journals and other sources to pain a picture of the West in 1820's in all its gore and glory.  Take the time to read a tale of a true Western adventure!

The Inside Story of LEGO!

Konstanski, Daniel.  The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks: The Story of a Design Icon.  n.p.: Unbound, 

          2024.   ISBN:  9781464234415  

Have you ever played with LEGO bricks?  Watched The LEGO Movie?  Bought a set just for yourself, not for some child in your life?  Then you are likely a LEGO fan and can appreciate the work Daniel Konstanski put into The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks!

 

In eleven chapters and 300+ pages, Konstanski takes the reader through the history of the LEGO company from its beginning as a wooden toy company to the concept of building with plastic bricks to the powerhouse company it is today.  Along the way the reader gets to see part of the patent for that first plastic brick, then follow the process on how sets are designed, storyboarded, prototyped, and manufactured.  The reader follows the evolution of the LEGO brand from sets being designed for kids to free build their imagination to sets to create familiar setting such as homes, fire stations, police stations to more exotic setting such as castles, pirates, and space travel.  Then along came Technic and Bionicle along with licensed sets such as Star Wars, Harry Potter, Avengers, and the like aimed for adults as well as children.  Along side that LEGO developed its own intellectual properties with Ninjago and its related TV series and stuffed toys which led to The LEGO Movie and its spin-offs.

 

So if you are interested from hearing from the people behind the LEGO products you love, read  The Secret Life of Lego Bricks!  You will not regret it!