History of The Beer

Ancient Near East  

Ancient Sumerians have the earliest written record mentioning beer. Their prayers or songs to their gods, specifically the Hymn to Ninkasi, which can be taken as an actual recipe. Hammurabi makes special mention of brewers also to assure quality. The beer in this case was most likely used for nutrition, like a liquid form of bread. Probably, the first brewers were women, the ones who processed harvested grain. Beers had a much higher nutrition value, and was a meal by itself. Could it be that nature did the process by herself, when wet grain was stored in the wrong place? What sort of person could you be to try out spoiled wet grain? 


Medieval Beer


He who drinks beer sleeps well. he who sleeps well cannot sin. He who does not sin goes to heaven. Amen.
Beer during the middle ages was very popular, and probably went through many changes. During the early medieval period, beer was being brewed in homes, and sometimes among communities. The brew probably tasted like a malted porridge of some sort, no way near what we have now. It was also probably much stronger in alcohol, since the preservative effects of hops had not yet been introduced. We can never be sure what herbs were used then, any ingredient from oak bark, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, rosemary or berries could have been used. One recipe called cock ale uses chicken for flavor! Charlemagne himself is said to have brewed and drank beer. The Domesday Book, Walter de Biblesworth, Chaucer and many other medieval authors write about ales and beer. What made beer so cherished was probably due to health reasons. In a period of plagues, water was probably the most unsafe beverage. However, beer, because of the "cooking" process was some how sterilized. By then beer had become a standard beverage, drank by men and women of all ages, and enjoyed with a meal or in a tavern. Monasteries had the best brews, with monks becoming experts at brewing. The beer they served, no doubt, had the effect of cheer for the troubled population. Hops were probably introduced in the early 16th century. From then on, beer got it's bitter taste, and aided the clearing process and improved shelf life.


Women and Beer


A woman is a lot like beer. They smell good, they look good, and you'd step over your own mother to get one.  
-Homer Simpson


We must credit women for their part in beer's development. Most likely, it was women who discovered beer. Furthermore, though most men claim this role today, beer brewers were mostly women up until the late medieval period. 

About Mandalas

Pronounced mahn-DAH-la, meaning 'house' or 'palace', the mandala represents a Buddha's divine place of residence. There are hundreds of mandalas representing each of the different tantric deities, each with its own unique set of details. To the practitioner, the mandala represents the activities and teachings of the particular deity represented in the mandala, and can be described as the residences of the respective deities and their retinues. 
Whether made of sand, cloth, or metal, mandalas are used to aid in visualizing these dwellings. Sand mandalas are one of the most magnificent types of mandala construction and are associated with the most profound and elaborate Buddhist ceremonies in Tibet. Every color, dot, and line in the mandala represents an essential part of the deity and Buddhist philosophy. Each component must be placed in exactly the same place every time the mandala is constructed. Although sand mandalas are made on a flat surface they are, to the devout, a three dimensional palace, representing the mind of the Buddha. The person contemplating the mandala enters into it, as they would a building or an enclosure.

The mandala construction itself is the result of long and disciplined effort, but it is nonetheless a temporary work. When the monks are finished, there is a dissolution ceremony where the deity is released by the dismantling of the mandala. The sand is cast into a body of water to emphasize and highlight the impermanence of all things and the importance of nonattachment. When the sand enters the water, the kindness and compassion of the deity are disseminated into the world to benefit all beings.

Mandalas are immensely complex symbolic structures, with many layers of meaning and beauty. Although very beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, mandalas are meant for religious use, and are not intended as museum works of art. It is only in recent years that the Dalai Lama has permitted mandalas to be made in public, as a means of teaching about Tibetan culture.

The teaching of the mandala is passed through an oral tradition started by Shakyamuni Buddha over 2500 years ago. It has been passed down over the ages and can be traced back through the lineages to the historical Buddha. 

In its most basic form, Tibetan Buddhism can be broken down into two schools of study. First, the study of sutras is perfected; these are the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha. The next phase of study is tantra, which was also taught by the Buddha to advanced practitioners. Tantra is the study of meditation on a deity, or Buddha, and is considered to be the swift path to enlightenment. Traditionally, a student of Buddhism is required to study the sutras before being allowed to study tantra. This still holds true for traditional monastic scholars in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

In 1988, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism allowed the first construction of a mandala in the west to be open to the public. This mandala was the Kalachakra Mandala and was constructed in sand by the Namgyal Monks from Dharamsala India at the Natural History Museum in New York City. His Holiness opened up the viewing of the mandala as a cultural offering, and as a means to preserve Tibetan culture. His Holiness felt that it would be a benefit to the world, as it would enhance the lives of all living beings near the construction site.

A mandala is thought to bring peace and harmony to the area where it is being constructed. Simply viewing a mandala is believed by Buddhists to be enough to change one's mind stream by creating a strong imprint of the beauty of perfection of the Buddha's mind, as is represented in the mandala itself. As a result of this imprint, one may be able to find greater compassion, awareness, and a better sense of well-being.

His Holiness also wished to open this practice to the west as there was much confusion and misunderstanding concerning the purpose of the mandala. Since the construction of the first mandala in the west, many mandalas have been created all over the world. Many people are said to feel strong emotions upon viewing a mandala, regardless of the culture or part of the world they are from.

History of antibiotics

The Ancient Egyptians, the Chinese and Indians of central America all used molds to treat infected wounds. However, thy didn't understand the connection of the antibacterials properties of mold and the treatment of diseases. 

Late 1800's

The search for antibiotics began in the late 1800s, with the growing acceptance of the germ theory of disease, a theory which linked bacteria and other microbes to the causation of a variety of ailments. As a result, scientists began to devote time to searching for drugs that would kill these disease-causing bacteria.

1871

The surgeon Joseph Lister, began researching the phenomenon that urine contaminated with mold would not allow the successful growth of bacteria.

1890s

German doctors, Rudolf Emmerich and Oscar Low were the first to make an effective medication that they called pyocyanase from microbes. It was the first antibiotic to be used in hospitals. However, the drug often did not work.

1928

Sir Alexander Fleming observed that colonies of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus could be destroyed by the mold Penicillium notatum, demonstrating antibacterial properties.

1935

Prontosil, the first sulfa drug, was discovered in 1935 by German chemist Gerhard Domagk (1895–1964).

1942

The manufacturing process for Penicillin G Procaine was invented by Howard Florey (1898–1968) and Ernst Chain (1906–1979). Penicillin could now be sold as a drug. Fleming, Florey, and Chain shared the 1945 Nobel Prize for medicine for their work on penicillin.

1943

In 1943, American microbiologist Selman Waksman (1888–1973) made the drug streptomycin from soil bacteria, the first of a new class of drugs called aminoglycosides. Streptomycin could treat diseases like tuberculosis, however, the side effects were often too severe.

1955

Tetracycline was patented by Lloyd Conover, which became the most prescribed broad spectrum antibiotic in the United States.

1957

Nystatin was patented and used to cure many disfiguring and disabling fungal infections.

1981

SmithKline Beecham patented Amoxicillin or amoxicillin/clavulanate potassium tablets, and first sold the antibiotic in 1998 under the tradenames of Amoxicillin, Amoxil, and Trimox. Amoxicillin is a semisynthetic antibiotic.

The Penicillin ( II )

It was not until 1939 that Dr. Howard Florey, a future Nobel Laureate, and three colleagues at Oxford University began intensive research and were able to demonstrate penicillin's ability to kill infectious bacteria. As the war with Germany continued to drain industrial and government resources, the British scientists could not produce the quantities of penicillin needed for clinical trials on humans and turned to the United States for help. They were quickly referred to the Peoria Lab where the scientists were already working on fermentation methods to increase the growth rate of fungal cultures. On July 9, 1941, Howard Florey and Norman Heatley, Oxford University Scientists came to the U.S. with a small but valuable package containing a small amount of penicillin to begin work.
Pumping air into deep vats containing corn steep liquor (a non-alcoholic by product of the wet milling process) and the addition of other key ingredients was shown to produce faster growth and larger amounts of penicillin than the previous surface growth method. Ironically, after a worldwide search, it was a strain of penicillin from a moldy cantaloupe in a Peoria market that was found and improved to produce the largest amount of penicillin when grown in the deep vat, submerged conditions.


Andrew J. Moyer 


By Novemeber 26, 1941, Andrew J. Moyer, the lab's expert on the nutrition of molds, had succeeded, with the assistance of Dr. Heatley, in increasing the yields of penicillin 10 times. In 1943, the required clinical trials were performed and the penicillin was shown to be the most effective antibacterial agent to date. Penicillin production was quickly scaled up and available in quantity to treat Allied soldiers wounded in D-Day. As production was increased the price dropped from nearly priceless in 1940, to $20 per dose in July 1943, to $0,53 per dose by 1946.
As a result of their work, two members of the British group  were awarded the Nobel Prize. Dr. Andrew J. Moyer from the Peoria lab was inducted into the inventors Hall of Fame and both the British and Peoria laboratories were designated as International Historic Chemical Landmarks.

The Penicillin

In 1928 Sir Alexander Fleming observed that the colonies of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus could be destroyed  by the mold Penicillium notatum, proving that there was an antibacterial agent there in principle. This principle later lead to medicines that could kill certain types of disease-causing bacteria inside the body.

At that time, however, the importance of Alexander Fleming's discovery was not known. Use of penicillin did not begin until the 1940s and Howard Florey and Ernst Chain isolated the active ingredient and developed a powdery form of the medicine.

History of Penicillin

Originally noticed by a French medical student, Ernest Duchesne in 1896. Penicillin was rediscovered by bacteriologist Alexander Fleming working at St. Mary's Hospital in London in 1928. He observed that a plate Staphylococcus has been contaminated by a blue-green mold and that colonies of bacteria adjacent to the mold were being dissolved. Curios, Alexander Fleming grew the mold in a pure culture and found that it produced a substance that killed a number of disease-cause bacteria. Naming the substance penicillin, Dr. Fleming in 1929 published the results of his investigations noting that his discovery might have therapeutic value if it could be produced in quantity. 

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin used x-rays to find the structural layouts of atoms and the overall molecular shape of over 100 molecules including penicillin. Dorothy's discovery of the molecular layout of penicillin helped lead scientists to develop other antibiotics.


The Source of the post is www.about.com