Imagine: I have just been cooked, and I am now waiting on a dish. Oh, what’s that? A metal thing with four prongs has just stuck itself into my chest, and it threw me into a shaking room with a gate moving up and down. There are, in this room, 32 flat and occluding rocks, some of which are sharp, while some are like millstones, all being lined up in a U-shape row. The frontal rocks have divided me into large pieces by squeezing and cutting. My pieces are pushed backwards by a soft shovel underneath. The rear rocks have made me almost like a paste, thoroughly mashing my pieces. Meanwhile, many taps on the right and left sides and in bottom of the room began flushing water upon me, and the carbohydrates within me have began dissolving by the pityalin enzyme (alpha amilaz) in this water. The flushing water contains substances such as lyzozym and antichore to eliminate any probable microbes within me.

I was fully softened and turned into something almost like gruel, when suddenly I was impelled by the actions of that soft shovel to an extremely tight tube inside of which movements continuously push me downward. A gate opened while I was being brought down and, as I was hoping to enter into a more spacious room and be saved from the compressive movements, I suddenly flopped into a well containing a light-colored liquid. I have come to know, while I was expecting to have some refreshment, that the liquid I flopped into was an acid capable of eroding marble (pH=0,8). I cried ‘Oh My God!’, but it was too late. This acid began to break my proteins down. The pepsinogen which was simultaneously being secreted by some cells over the walls of this large room and which were ineffective within an acid-free environment, became instantly activated by this acid and began to thoroughly break me up. Most of my proteins were broken. While I was wondering and asking ‘how come the liquid I flopped into is capable of eroding the marble but not capable of breaking up this well?’, I have come to notice that walls of the well were coated with a thin layer of mucous substance (membrane) which is unbreakable by acids.

I said ‘Oh My God! As long as you do not permit, these acids, which can erod marble, are not capable of damaging a soft tissue!’. Together with other foodstuff, I have been both blended and broken in this well-like room for about an hour. Later, the outer walls have again squeezed us, and we have been ejected yet again, this time into a new tube at an opposite direction to the one we were just pushed out of, by a sudden loosening and opening of a valve. This tube (called duodenum in Latin) has a length of about 15-18 cm and, appears as if lined up side by side. Here too, we felt wretched and were faced by a basic secretion (sodium bicarbonate) being ejaculated from a tap. This liquid was inactivating (neutralizing) the acids mixed with us, i.e., preventing them from damaging the unprotected walls of the tube which we were in.

Here again the amylaz, lipaz, trypsin, kymotrypsin and carbocsypolypeptidas attacked me, all of which break up, in a respective order, carbohydrates, fats and proteins of my ingredients, along with a lot many other enzymes, and they broke me up to my smallest constituents. Meanwhile, I started pondering the reasons why these enzymes, which are making mincemeat of me, are not damaging the tap (pancreas), which are composed of the same proteins, fats and carbohydrates that they come from. Then, I have come to realize that these enzymes could not become activated in pancreas tissue, since it does not have any activating factors, but they gained shredder features only after we arrived in the tube we are in, and only with the help of such factors which are being secreted from the intestinal walls.

After having been fully shredded within this narrow tube, a green liquid (bile), was poured on us as we were approaching its end. This detergent-like liquid was particularly responsible for shredding the fats in my ingredients. I understood, after all of this, that I was passing through a very excellent factory. As I and my fellow meatballs proceeded inside this narrow tube of approximately three meters long, no part of us remained un-shredded, except the cellulose fibers of plants such as parsley and onion which accompanied us. They continued their journey until arriving at a very thick and short tube. I have found out that their sap have been absorbed and their leftovers, after being amassed for some time, have been thrown into a cesspool called a toilet.

In the meantime, we have noticed that the walls of this tube are plicate and protuberant. These walls are apparently the places where our particles penetrate into another realm through two different ways. We understood that, via rather thin capillary channels situated inside these protuberances, we were being transferred into narrower tubes which contained two different (red and white) types of liquids (blood and lymph vessels). Now, there isn’t ‘me’ anymore, instead, there is only an ‘us’ which is composed of very smaller particles. While glucoses, the simplest forms of carbohydrates and aminoacids, the simplest forms of proteins are being transferred into the red liquid, our fat acid siblings are transferred into the white liquid of lymph vessels. Our glucose and aminoacid siblings have been carried by the red liquid to a factory called a liver. They are being returned to the red liquid after having passed through certain processes and being equipped with some useful characteristics here. But, the fats (lymphs) of the white liquid are, for some reason or another, being separately transferred into the red liquid, bypassing this factory. I learned the reason later: if the fat acids came to the liver together with glucoses and aminoacids, they would spoil this factory and kill its workers.

Finally, the red liquid carried us to tiny cell chambers numbering almost 100 trillion. Each of our tiny particles were sent to separate cells. Here, water, carbondioxide and energy were being produced by primarily coupling of our sibling glucose with oxygen. I learned that energy was needed for the functioning of these cells. Our fat siblings were also being utilized (consumed) for producing energy if glucoses were found insufficient for that purpose. Our amino acid siblings were being utilized (consumed) in the production of sound (strong) proteins and glucoses, and of energy in cases of the unavailability of fat sources for use in the cells’ structures. Excessive amounts of fat and glucose were being stored in these tiny cells. That is to say, I, who was a meatball at the beginning, was converted into water, carbondioxide and energy at the end of this painstaking journey. I was promoted (exalted) to the degree of humanness and rewarded a great deal of honor, as some parts of me became constituent of and some other parts of me assumed responsibility in vital cell functions of the human body.

After all these disintegrations and absorptions, some parts of us took their share in the structure of the body, while some others which were used in energy production including me were converted into a choky and dirty gaseous state called carbondioxide. We have been thrown back into the red liquid again since we would perhaps choke the cells we are within should our density increase very much. We have been brought to a marvellous and sponge-like factory named a lung, and composed of millions of vesicles, by being placed onto a molecule called hemoglobin, which is being pushed by a big pump. We have replaced the oxygen of the fresh air arriving to the lung vesicles. Now is the time for bidding farewell the human body. I thanked God, for I regained my freedom as a carbondioxide passing through and escaping from very dark and narrow places.

However, I was placed upon the leaf of a green plant after aimlessly roaming in the air for some time. After being filtered through the little windows (stoma) over the leaf, I was brought inside by the chlorophyll factory marvelously functioning inside these cells. Here, they forced me to unite with the water brought by tubules from the soil. Upon telling them that I cannot afford to do that, they instantly changed my true nature with solar rays and turned met into a chemical energy depot. I was no more a simple carbon atom; thus, I found a place for myself within an energy-emiting glucose molecule. I was in a position suitably convertible to starch, protein or fats in accordance with the true nature and genetic program of the plant I was within. Something incredible happened while I was swinging around on a green clover leaf. The leaf I was in has been eaten by a cow with real pleasure.

A new chapter has now opened inside the cow’s body. I was assigned with certain duties within the muscle proteins of my new host after having passed through a number of chemical processes. And I really enjoyed them. I was feeling myself more as an animal protein than a simple grass. By leaving the grass for a cow’s body, I was promoted (exalted) one more degree on the way to becoming manifestations of the divine attributes of God.

This blessed animal in whom I was assigned has been sacrificed during a Muslim feast of sacrifice, its meat ground into a meat grinder, and I have been served to you once again as a meatball.

Ali Uguz is a teacher of biology. He lives in Turkey.

All parents do everything they can to keep their children healthy. The creation of a baby in a mother’s womb still remains a wonder not fully explained by scientists. Birth has been a mystery in the life of human beings since the beginning of history. Religious sources show the phases of a baby’s growth in the mother’s womb, the perfect design of the environment that supports the needy baby with everything it needs, and its birth, all as examples of God’s mercy and power. Although the whole process of pregnancy develops with almost no interference from outside, there are some precautions that parents can take to have a healthier baby.

How to start taking care of a baby even before pregnancy

Science makes it clear that we should not wait until we hold a baby in our arms before we start taking care of him or her. But how can we take care of a baby even before conception? Well, one of the answers is quite simple: by taking folic acid! If women have enough folic acid, vitamin B complex, in their bodies before pregnancy, this vitamin B complex can reduce the risk of neural birth defects by up to 70%. Neural tube defects (NTD) are a group of congenital birth defects that influence the central nervous system. The neural tube forms in the embryo between 4 to 6 weeks after conception and then closes. The neural tube eventually becomes the baby’s spinal cord, spine, brain, and skull. If the neural tube does not close properly, the baby may have neural birth defects, in which case the baby lacks either a developing brain, spinal cord or both. NTDs occur very early in pregnancy, even before most women know that they are pregnant. The most common neural birth defects are anencephaly and spina bifida. In anencephaly, the brain is either not fully developed or is completely absent, while in spina bifida part of the baby’s spinal cord remains outside the body.

Folate deficiency and folic acid

Folate, also called vitamin B9, is a water-soluble vitamin. It is essential to human life and is found naturally in some foods such as liver, citrus fruits and juices, whole grains, and dark green leafy vegetables. Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate. Folic acid can be obtained from supplements and fortified breads and cereals. Both folic acid and folate work for the same purpose, and in this article the terms are used interchangeably.

In folate deficiency, the body is unable to transport folic acid to the brain, resulting in mobility problems, blindness and seizures. Pregnant women in particular can be at great risk of giving birth to low-birthweight, premature babies who may have neural birth defects. In children, folate deficiency can slow general development. In adults, a type of anemia appears in long-term folate deficiency. There are also other signs of folate deficiency such as headaches, loss of appetite, sore tongue, diarrhea, forgetfulness and irritability.

Why folic acid is important

Folic acid plays a very important role in various body processes including cell maintenance and repair, formation of red blood cells (which provide oxygen to tissue), formation of white blood cells (which defend the body against infectious disease), synthesis of DNA (hereditary material) and amino acid metabolism. It also plays a crucial role in preventing human illness. Folic acid supplements cannot prevent stroke or heart disease, but studies have shown that it can reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. Recent research shows that it supports the functioning of blood vessels, which improves the blood flow to the heart. In addition, folic acid helps to protect against the development of some forms of cancer, particularly colon, cervical, esophageal, breast, and stomach cancers.

A number of scientific experiments have shown that people who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease have low levels of folic acid in their blood. Thus, it is not surprising that folic acid is crucial for brain function and plays an important role in mental and emotional health.

If you are a married woman and have plans to have a child some day, you should definitely start to take folate because by the time you know you are pregnant, your baby’s brain and spine will already have been formed. This is why it is important for women to maintain sufficient levels of folic acid all through their child-bearing age even if they are not planning a pregnancy.

Should only women take folic acid?

No, not really. Every adult man and woman should consume it every day to reduce their risk of heart disease, colon cancer, and stroke.

If this is a vitamin that could change our life forever, how much should we consume and where can we get it from? You can get your folic acid naturally from foods such as liver, nuts, peanut butter, dried peas and beans, oranges, tomato and pineapple juice, avocados, cantaloupes, asparagus, and leafy green vegetables. Some breakfast cereals with 100% of the recommended daily allowance per serving are Crunchy Nuggets, Multi-Grain Cheerios Plus, Product 19, Whole-Grain Total, Total Corn- Flakes, Total Raisin Bran, and Special K. It can also be obtained from other, less processed grain products such as bread, pasta, and rice. Taking a multivitamin containing the recommended daily allowance of 400 micrograms is another option. The following table suggests a variety of dietary sources of folate.

Table 1: Selected Food Sources of Folate and Folic Acid

* Items marked with an asterisk (*) are fortified with folic acid as part of the Folate Fortification Program.

^ DV = Daily Value. DVs are reference numbers developed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help consumers determine if a food contains a lot or a little of a specific nutrient.

Sehnaz Dogu Ekicikol obtained a master’s degree on Microbiology from Georgia State University.

References

• Zittoun J. Anemias due to disorder of folate, vitamin B12 and transcobalamin metabolism. Rev Prat 1993;43:1358–63.
• Herbert V. Folic Acid. In: Shils M, Olson J, Shike M, Ross AC, ed. Nutrition in Health and Disease. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1999.
• Kamen B. Folate and antifolate pharmacology. Semin Oncol 1997;24:S18-30-S18-39.
• Agriculture’s Nutrient Database Web site: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl.
• http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/factsheets/folate.asp
• http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/folicacid/

At the end of the 1950s, Richard Feynman (1961, pp.282-96) described the possibility of building computers that were ‘sub-microscopic’. More recently, several people have advocated the realization of massively parallel computation using the techniques and chemistry of molecular biology.

At the end of 1994 Leonard Adleman published a paper on ‘Molecular Computation of Solutions of Combinatorial Problems’ (Science, vol.266, pp.1021 – 24). He explained how a problem could be set up by synthesizing DNA molecules with a particular sequence, and solved by letting the DNA molecules react in a test tube, producing a molecule whose sequence is the answer. In the same paper he recounted how he had put this theory into practice by solving a standard problem with a DNA reaction system. Adleman called his DNA computer the TT-100, for test tube filled with 100 microlitres of fluid, which is all it took for the reactions to occur.

Since then, many advances have been proposed to refine the protocol for programming a DNA computer to reduce the complexity of the operations and eliminate errors (see Lipton, n.d.; and Boneh and Lipton, nd.). Despite their respective complexities, biological and mathematical operations have some similarities:

The very complex structure of a living being is the result of applying simple operations to initial information encoded in a DNA sequence.

The result f(w) of applying a computable function to an argument can be obtained by applying a combination of basic simple functions to w.

For the same reasons that DNA was probably selected for living organisms as a genetic material, its stability and predictability in reactions, DNA strings can also be used to encode information for mathematical systems.

Conventional computers represent information in terms of 0’s and l’s, physically expressed in terms of the flow of electrons through logical circuits. Builders of DNA computers represent information in terms of the chemical units of DNA. Calculating with an ordinary computer is done with a program that instructs electrons to travel on particular paths; with a DNA computer, calculation requires synthesizing particular sequences of DNA and letting them react in a test tube. In a scheme devised by Lipton (n.d.), the logical command AND is performed by separating DNA strands according to their sequences, and the command OR is done by pouring together DNA solutions containing specific sequences.

‘It will fill a bathtub, not the universe,’ says Lipton, ‘and it will be incredibly cheap to build.’ A pound of DNA in 1,000 quarts of fluid, about three-feet square, will hold more memory than all the computers ever made. The chemicals are inexpensive; DNA runs virtually on its own power, and the soup, with a little splicing, can be re-used from one experiment to the next. Lipton estimates that a superparallel DNA computer, offering trillions of processors working simultaneously, could be built for $100,000.

The fastest supercomputers can currently perform 1000 million instructions per second (MIPS); a single DNA molecule requires approximately 1000 seconds to perform an instruction (.001 MIPS). Obviously, if you want to perform one calculation at a time (serial logic), DNA computers are not a viable option. However, if one wanted to perform many calculations simultaneously (parallel logic), a computer such as the one described above can easily perform 1014 MIPS. DNA computers also require less energy and space. While existing supercomputers operate 109 operations per joule, a DNA computer could perform 2 x 1019 operations per joule (many times more efficient). Data can be stored on DNA at a density of approximately 1 bit per cubic nm, while existing storage media require 1012 cubic nm to store 1 bit (Adleman, 1995).

Thus, the potential of molecular computation is impressive. However, it is too early for either great optimism or great pessimism. It is possible that DNA computers will become more common for solving very complex problems and DNA computers may also become automated. In addition to the direct benefits of using DNA computers for performing complex computations, some of the operations of DNA computers already have (Adleman, 1995), and more could be, used in molecular and biochemical research.

References

• Adleman,L.(1994).’Moleculer computation of solutions to combinatorial problems’,Science,vol.266,pp.1021-24.
• Adleman,L.(1995 ‘On constructing a moleculer computer’:ftp://usc.edu/pub/csinfo/papers/adleman/molecular_coputer.ps
• Boneh,D.&Lipton,R.J.’Making DNA computers error resitant’.(Unpublished manuscript.)
• Feynman,R.P. (1961)’Minaturization’,in D.H.Gilbert (ed.)Reinhold,New York.
• Lipton,R.J.(n.d.)’Speeding up computations via molecular biology’:ftp://ftp.cs.princeton.edu/pub/people/rjl/bio.ps

I am sure, to most of us who have learned about scientists as unapproachable figures sitting on top of Mount Everest (and somehow almost all of whom are Western), this viewpoint may seem quite new. Yet, there is more to it. The same thinker points to another equally important factor in the development of civilization and advancement of sciences: with a great strength in his weakness and potency in his impotence, man is very much like a pampered child in creation. If he recognizes his weakness and performs his worship with his words, actions and state of mind, if he knows his own impotence and asks for God’s aid, he will then have fulfilled the obligation of gratitude for the subjugation of creation to his needs.

As with a petted child who by means of a little cry or simply a sad look obtains the assistance of adults to serve him: even the tiniest part of what they do for him by far exceeds what lies in the child’s own power to do for himself, and their great help he owes to his great weakness. So too, the apparent dominance of man over the rest of creation and his progress in civilization are not the result of his own deserving but they were subjugated to him because he himself was weak: he received aid because he was helpless; he was enriched thereby because he was poor; he was inspired because he was ignorant; he was bestowed with favours because he was in need of them (Nursi, 23rd Word). 

Penicillin

Most people believe that great discoveries are results of deliberate, directed effort, planning. exhaustive experiment and logical inference. The discovery of penicillin is the most famous counter example. Although the role of planning, experimenting and research has an undeniable role in scientific discoveries, events do not always form a logical sequence, and this is what I am here trying to emphasize.

During World War I, doctors depended on antiseptics to cure battIe wounds. A. Fleming, a bacteriologist, observed that phenol (or carbolic acid, the most common antiseptic at that time) did more harm than good, in that it killed the leukocytes (white blood cells) faster than it killed the bacteria, and he knew this was bad because the leukocytes are the body’s natural defenders against bacteria.

In 1922, while suffering from a cold, Fleming made a culture from some of his own nasal secretions. As he examined the culture dish filled with yellow bacteria, a tear fell into it from his eye. The next day, when he examined the culture, he found a clear space where the tear had fallen. He correctly concluded that the tear contained a substance that caused rapid destruction of the bacteria, but was harmless to human tissue. The antibiotic enzyme in the tear he named lysozyme. It turned out to be of little practical importance because the germs that lysozyme killed were relatively harmless, but this discovery was an essential prelude to that of penicillin.

In the summer of 1928, Fleming was engaged in research on influenza. While doing some routine laboratory work involving microscopic examination of cultures of bacteria grown in petri dishes (flat glass dishes provided with covers), Fleming noticed in one dish an unusual clear area. Examination showed that the clear area surrounded a spot where a bit of mould had fallen into the dish, apparently while the dish was uncovered. Remembering his experience with lysozyme, Fleming concluded that the mould was producing something that was deadly to the staphylococcus in the culture dish. Later he would say: ‘There are thousands of different moulds and there are thousands of different bacteria, and that chance putting the mould in the right spot at the right time was like winning the Irish sweep.’

Fleming’s own words are enough as a response to those who attribute scientific discoveries to chance or idolize scientists. However, I will give other examples to make the point clearer.

Teflon

From non-stick frying pans to space suits to artificial heart valves, Teflon has found several areas of application. Its discovery resulted from an apparently ‘accidental’ observation by a young chemist, R. Plunket, working in Du Pont laboratories. On April 6, 1938, Plunket opened a tank of gaseous tetrafluoerothylene in the hope of preparing a non-toxic refrigerant from it, but no gas came out, to the surprise of Plunkett and his assistant. Plunkett could not understand this because the weight of the tank indicated that it should be full of the gaseous fluorocarbon.

Instead of discarding the tank and getting another in order to get on with his refrigerant research, Plunkett decided to satisfy his curiosity about the ‘empty tank’. Having determined that the valve was not faulty by running a wire through its opening, he sawed the tank open and looked inside. There he found a waxy white powder and, being a chemist, he realized what it must mean.

The molecules of the gaseous tetrafluoroethylene had combined with one another ‘polymerized’ to such an extent that they now formed a solid material. The waxy white powder did indeed have remarkable properties: it was more inert than sand – not affected by strong acids, bases or heat and no solvent could dissolve it – but, in contrast to sand, it was extremely slippery.

X (Roentgen) Rays

Physicist W. Roentgen discovered the rays which were later to be named after him, in an unexpected and unplanned manner. Roentgen was repeating experiments by other physicists in which electricity at high voltage was discharged through air or other gases in a partially evacuated glass tube. We now know that cathode rays are actually streams of electrons being emitted from the cathode, and the impact of these electrons on the walls of the glass tubes produces the phosphorescence.

In 1892, it was demonstrated that cathode rays could penetrate thin metallic foils. Discharge tubes having thin aluminium windows allowed the cathode rays to pass out of the tube where they could be detected by the light they produced on a screen of phosphorescent material (such screens were also used to detect ultraviolet light), but they were found to travel only two or three centimetres in the air at ordinary pressure outside the evacuated tube.

Roentgen repeated some of these experiments to familiarize himself with the techniques. He then decided to see whether he could detect cathode rays issuing from an evacuated all-glass tube, that is, one with no thin aliminium window. Na one had observed cathode rays under these conditions. Roentgen thought the reason for the failure might be that strong phosphorescence of the cathode tube obscured the weak fluorescence of the detecting screen. To test this theory, he devised a black cardboard cover for the cathode tube. To determine the effectiveness of the shield, he then darkened the room and turned on the high voltage coil to energize the tube. Satisfied that his black shield did indeed cover the tube and allowed no phosphorescent light to escape, he was about to shut off the coil and turn on the room lights so that he could position the phosphorescent screen at varying short distances from the vacuum tube:

Just at that moment, he noticed a weak light shimmering from a point in the dark room more than a yard from the vacuum tube. At first, he thought there must be, after all, a light leak from the black mask around the tube, which was being reflected from a mirror in the room. However, there was no mirror. When he passed another series of charges through the cathode tube, he saw the light appear in the same location again, looking like faint green clouds moving in synchronism with the fluctuating discharges of the cathode tube. Hurriedly lighting a match, Roentgen found to his amazement that the source of the mysterious light was the little fluorescent screen that he had planned to use as a detector near the blinded cathode tube, but it was lying on the bench more than a yard from the tube.

Roentgen realized immediately that he had encountered an entirely new phenomenon. These were not cathode rays that lit up the fluorescent screen more than a yard from the tube! With feverish activity, he devoted himself single-mindedly in the next several weeks to exploring this new form of radiation. He reported his findings in a paper published in Wunburg, dated December 28, 1895, and entitled ‘A New Kind of Ray, a Preliminary Communication’. Although he described accurately most of the basic qualitative properties of the new rays in this paper, his acknowledgement that he did not yet fully understand them was indicated by the name he chose for them, X-rays. (They have also often been called Roentgen rays.)

He reported that the new rays were not affected by a magnet, as cathode rays were known to be. Not only would they penetrate more than a yard of air, in contrast to the two or three inch limit of cathode rays, but also (to quote his paper):

‘All bodies are transparent to this agent, though in very different degrees. Paper is very transparent; behind a bound book of about one thousand pages I saw the fluorescent screen light up brightly. In the same way the fluorescence appeared behind a double pack of cards. Thick blocks of wood are also transparent, pine boards two or three centimetres thick absorbing only slightly. A plate of aluminium about fifteen millimetres thick, though it enfeebled the action seriously, did not cause the fluorescence to disappear entirely. If the hand be held between the discharge tube and the screen, the darker shadow of the bones is seen within the slightly dark shadow image of the hand itself.’

He found that he could even record such skeletal images on photographic film. This property of X-rays captured the attention of the medical world immediately. In an incredibly short time X-rays were used routinely for diagnosis in hospitals throughout the world.

Insulin

If a relative or a friend of yours has diabetes, you will probably know how important insulin is for them. As a partial remedy for most diabetics today, insulin was discovered as an answer to the prayers of hundreds of thousands of diabetics by the Most Merciful One. Perhaps, even better relief and remedy are awaiting discovery in some unexpected time or place.

In 1889, while studying the function of the pancreas in digestion, two researchers removed the pancreas from a dog. The very next day a laboratory assistant called their attention to a swarm of flies around the urine from this dog. Curious about why the flies were attracted to the urine, they analysed it and found it was loaded with sugar. Sugar in urine is a common sign of diabetes.

The researchers realized that they were seeing for the first time evidence of the experimental production of diabetes in an animal. The fact that this animal had no pancreas suggested a relationship between that organ and diabetes. The researchers subsequently proved that the pancreas produces a secretion that controls the use of sugar, and that lack of this secretion causes defects in sugar metabolism then exhibited as symptoms of diabetes.

Many attempts were made to isolate the secretion, with little success until 1921. A young Canadian medical student extracted the secretion from the pancreas of dogs. When they injected the extracts into dogs rendered diabetic by removal of their pancreases, the blood sugar levels of these dogs returned to normal or below, and the urine became sugar-free. The general condition of the dogs also improved.

Until recently, all insulin used for the treatment of human diabetes came from the pancreases of some animals. As a result of genetic engineering, based on knowing how DNA controls protein synthesis, a major pharmaceutical firm has begun to produce human insulin by using bacteria. The fact that a microscopic creature, like the bacterium can be made to work for the wellbeing of human beings is a subject worthy of study on its own.

Of course, these are by no means the only examples worth mentioning of ‘happy, chance discoveries’. Here are some more to add to the list: the discovery of molecular structure of organic compounds, saccharin and nutra-sweet (sugar substitutes, again for diabetics), ‘safety glass used in automobiles and planes, oxygen and several other chemical elements, radioactivity, astronomical discoveries like pulsars and background Big Bang radiation, many mathematical theorems, high temperature superconductors, synthetic dyes, etc., etc.

Can one really call all of these marvellous discoveries simply ‘happy, chance accidents’? I believe human conscience and reason must resist such a misconception. Surely, any person of common sense would say: ‘I am thankful to the Merciful One, who has bestowed upon us the favour of these discoveries, enabled us to benefit from them, among His innumerable other bounties’.