Month: May 2024

A very interesting podcast about Ancient Egypt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDz45ELiquc

There, Viktor discusses how, over the course of thousands of years, at least two scientific disciplines — astronomy and medicine — systematically evolved in Egypt. And in another segment, the host asks Viktor what he would do if he had a time machine. Viktor answered that he would like to hear how the speech of a king sounded (because we do not know what the speech of the ancient Egyptians sounded like, though we are familiar with their writing).

And it got me thinking. Indeed, given a time machine, what could we bring back from the past that would actually be useful today? Clearly, 100% of Egyptian astronomy is scientifically useless to us now. But it’s a different story with medicine.

The fact is that the discovery of drugs nowadays largely occurs through a trial-and-error method (scientifically called “high-throughput screening” or HTS). HTS is a process of automated testing of a large number of chemical compounds for activity against a specific biological target (often a molecule, frequently a protein). Subsequently, “hits” are analyzed followed by many more tests on organisms, where 99% are filtered out for various reasons, in hopes that this eventually leads to a functioning drug.

In ancient medicine, ethical considerations were simpler, and they tested directly on humans. Let’s take a poisonous mushroom and feed it to the sick in hopes of curing them. If the patient died but, hypothetically, grew hair, then that mushroom should be given, but in half the dosage, to someone who needs hair growth. Oh, he died too. Next time, we give a quarter.

Thus, it’s generally beneficial for modern medicine to look into ancient books.

One notable example is the development of artemisinin, an anti-malarial drug, inspired by an ancient Chinese text. Led by Tu Youyou, the team analyzed about 2000 ancient recipes and from 640 selected prescriptions, they produced 380 extracts tested on animals. In 1971, one of these, artemisinin, was found to have good anti-malarial properties. It was derived from sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua), based on a recipe from the third part of Ge Hong’s book “Zhouhou Beiji Fang” (“Emergency Formulae at an Elbow’s Length”), dated to AD 340. Tu Youyou and her team isolated artemisinin from the wormwood, which proved to be very effective against malaria. This discovery earned Tu Youyou the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015.

And about Egypt, do watch. Viktor Solkin is very knowledgeable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDz45ELiquc

A very interesting podcast about Ancient Egypt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDz45ELiquc

There, Viktor discusses how over thousands of years, at least two scientific disciplines—astronomy and medicine—were systematically developed in Egypt. In another segment, the host asks Viktor what he would do if he had a time machine. Viktor answered that he would like to hear how the speech of a king sounded (because we do not understand how the speech of the ancient Egyptians sounded, although we are familiar with their writing).

And here’s what I thought. Indeed, given a time machine, what could we bring back from the past that would be truly useful in the present? Obviously, 100% of Egyptian astronomy is useless to us from a scientific standpoint. But it’s a different story with medicine.

The fact is that the discovery of drugs is now largely done by trial and error (scientifically called “high-throughput screening” or HTS). HTS is a process of automated testing of a large number of chemical compounds for activity against a specific biological target (often a molecule, frequently a protein). The “hits” are then analyzed, followed by many more tests on organisms, where 99% are filtered out for various reasons. And there is hope that eventually, this will lead to a working drug.

Thus, in ancient medicine, things were simpler ethics-wise, and they immediately tested on humans. Take a poisonous mushroom and feed it to the sick in the hope of curing them. If the patient died, but (hypothetically) his hair grew, then it would make sense to give half the dose to someone who needed hair. Oh, he died too. So, next time we give a quarter.

So, it is generally useful for modern medicine to look back at ancient books.

One notable example is the development of artemisinin, a drug against malaria, inspired by an ancient Chinese text. Under the leadership of Tu Youyou, the team analyzed about 2000 ancient recipes and based on 640 selected prescriptions, they produced 380 extracts, which were tested on animals. In 1971, one of these, artemisinin, showed good antimalarial properties. It was manufactured from the plant Artemisia annua, following a recipe from the third part of Ge Hong’s book “Zhouhou Beiji Fang” (“Emergency Prescriptions at an Elbow’s Reach”), dating back to AD 340. Tu Youyou and her team isolated artemisinin from the plant, which proved to be very effective against malaria. This discovery earned Tu Youyou the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015.

About Egypt, look it up. Viktor Solkin is very knowledgeable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDz45ELiquc