The snow was falling all day yesterday, but the temperature was indeed too warm. None of it stuck. This morning, though, it snowed a little more heavily and actually accumulated to about an inch or so when the temps started to rise. Now, all the accumulation is gone, and although it is still snowing, the flakes are small and again the temps too warm for it to stick. But you know me, I will never complain about seeing snow.
Today is the 110th anniversary of what some tout as a miracle drug - the aspirin. Aspirin, here in Germany and many other countries, is the trademarked name of acetylsalicylic acid. In Germany and more than 80 other countries around the world, the word must be capitalized and used in reference to the German company, Bayer.
The use of salicylic acids to ease many common symptoms has been around for thousands of years, in thanks to a common tree, the willow. The bark of the willow naturally contains these compounds, and for many years dating back to the ancient Greeks, the ancient Egyptians, and even the Native Americans, it was boiled to make a tea which contained the compound. In 1853, a French scientist, Charles Frederic Gerhardt, began working with the chemical in his laboratory to explore its use in pharmaceuticals. His successes produced the first manmade variations of the drug. By 1869, many others were also able to produce the chemical in their labs, but in various forms that were not always tolerated by the human body. In 1897, Bayer began additional research to find a form that was better tolerated by the body. Their product, created by Felix Hoffmann, was trademarked and released as Aspirin, from "A = Acetyl and "Spirsäure" = an old (German) name for salicylic acid" (wikipedia source on aspirin), on March 6th, 1899. The drug gained massive appeal during the Spanish flu outbreak in 1918, towards the end of World War I, for its ability to deal with the fever and aches of the devastating strain. Bayer lost its trademark status on the drug with the US, UK, France and Russia as a part of the World War I reparations on Germany. In these countries, competition with other drug companies and the lack of this trademarked status led to the use of the term aspirin to mean all salicylates marketed to the public. In the 1960s through the 1980s, new wonder drugs had come on to the market in the form of Advil and Tylenol that diminished the status of the tried and true drugs; but more recently, it became widely understood how aspirin also works as an anti-inflammatory drug as well as for its anti-clotting abilities that can help in the prevention of strokes and heart attacks. However, in recent times, it has become a known problem for children with the increased dangers of Reye's Syndrome as a side effect of the drug. Baby aspirin, which I can remember taking over the years, has now become a popular low-dose standard for prevention of heart attacks and strokes in adults.
Bayer, first established in 1863 by dye salesman Friedrich Bayer and dyer Johann Weskott in the suburb of Barmen in the city of Wuppertal, Germany, as a chemical dye manufacturing company, has remained a strong company despite the trademark losses, and is still the most recognizable producer of the drug. Bayer, over the years, has been a leader in scientific research. Their most recent journey into the cutting edge of science is the beginnings of construction on the largest nanotube facility which will be located in Leverkusen, Germany, the home of the Bayer sponsored national league soccer team and the current headquarters for the company. These nanotubes are used in computers, cell phones, and even wind turbines for green energy. This facility is a part of the Bayer Materials Science group. They also produce agricultural products with their Bayer Crop Science group. Other parts of the Bayer Group include the Information and Technology group of Bayer Technology Services, health care related services with Bayer HealthCare, and their business services division. Today, research is carried out in plant science, materials science (including the above mentioned nanotube production, polycarbonates used to make CDs, as well as being the biggest producer of polyurethanes), nanotube technology, pharmaceuticals, climate impact studies, and animal products (such as the well-known flea and tick treatment Advantix). Their sports clubs support goes to youth, adults and disabled of 27 different sporting clubs ranging from soccer, volleyball and basketball to golf and handball. Their foundations provide support for education, disaster relief, and innovative science.
Although there is no doubt that this company has had a tremendous impact on the world for its achievements, it is not entirely a rosy story. Bayer, due to constraints caused by war, resorted to making chemical weapons and explosives. For its part in the war, Bayer was significantly impacted by the outcomes of World War I. The company was dramatically reduced and unable to make a profit after the war, but it managed to reorganize itself and hang on as a part of a group consortium of companies. During this time, Bayer had a direct hand in the development of rubber synthesis and the development of polyurethanes. As World War II approached, many of the employees of the company were taken by the draft, so Bayer relied on immigrants and the forced labor camps from occupied European countries for personnel. Once World War II ended, the group consortium of companies was divided, and Bayer again became a single entity company in 1951.
Today, the company's history is still in great contention, and truth with details seems hard to find, yet speculation is rampant that Bayer was a Nazi sympathizer and sponsored experiments during World War II by the heinous Dr. Mengele. The Chairman of Bayer starting in 1956 was a man who had been tried and sentenced as part of the Nuremberg Trials for war crimes for his involvements with Auschwitz. More recently, Bayer has been linked with other scandals related to its genetically engineered rice, environmental effects with its pesticides products, mishandled blood products, deaths related to its pharmaceutical products, and financing the Congo Civil War through illegal trade. I attest that these are still allegations, and of course from the Bayer website, for which some of the info for this blog came from, I could find no references to this bit of dirty laundry. As a lesson to the kids, it is important to note that not all that you read on the Internet is true, so take such allegations with a grain of salt - there may be some truth to this, or it may just be a smear campaign. Can you find other examples of people falsely planting information to harm the reputation of others? If nothing else, think of modern tabloids. Is everything in those types of media true? Do some research and see what you can find out.
The words for the day are headache: die Kopfschmerzen (kopf shmarts ehn where both the "p" and the "f" of "kopf" are pronounced and the "a" in "shmarts" is long like in air) and medicine: die Medizin (med eets in).
The question of the day is: "Just who is Heidi Klum?"
Auf Wiedersehen,
Frau Spitzer
