Polio Giants Week

This was an important week for poliovirus (the virus I work on): Tuesday was the 50th anniversary of the licensure of Salk's polio vaccine strains. Salk attended medical school at NYU, and they have a week long celebration there in his honor. I gave a seminar on Tuesday as part of that celebration. On Monday they had a poster session, with contributions from students from a local middle school. They were great! I was happy to see that many of the students had found our work online, and used our images. By the way, not only did Salk attend NYU, but so did Albert Sabin, whose live poliovirus strains supplanted Salk's in 1961. Furthermore, at NYU Salk worked in the laboratory of Thomas Francis, who conducted Salk's clinical trial of his vaccine.

Yesterday I hosted Hilary Koprowski for a lecture on the history of rabies. Hilary is one of the remaining giants of virology. He developed the first oral poliovaccine, given to children in February 1950, made a vastly improved rabies vaccine, and developed the first therapeutically useful monoclonal antibodies. He's also an accomplished pianist and composer. I had met him before, but it was great to hear his story - he has been around so long, and rubbed shoulders with so many scientists, that he is full of history. I had him autograph a copy of his biography (Listen to the Music: The Life of Hilary Koprowski, by Roger Vaughan) which I will treasure.

Blue Norther

I read the following statement today: "I was taught... to urinate South when a blue Norther was coming through Dallas". What exactly is a 'blue Norther'? Here is the definition, from the Handbook of Texas Online (www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online):

"The term blue norther denotes a weather phenomenon common to large areas of the world's temperate zones–a rapidly moving autumnal cold front that causes temperatures to drop quickly and that often brings with it precipitation followed by a period of blue skies and cold weather. What is peculiar to Texas is the term itself. The derivation of blue norther is unclear; at least three folk attributions exist. The term refers, some say, to a norther that sweeps "out of the Panhandle under a blue-black sky"–that is, to a cold front named for the appearance of its leading edge. Another account states that the term refers to the appearance of the sky after the front has blown through, as the mid-nineteenth-century variant "blew-tailed norther" illustrates. Yet another derives the term from the fact that one supposedly turns blue from the cold brought by the front."

Arm & Hammer

I work in the Armand Hammer building. Someone asked me today who he was, and whether his name had anything to do with Arm & Hammer baking soda. He was a philanthropist and chair of Occidental Petroleum, and his name has nothing to do with baking soda.

Then the question arose as to the origin of the name 'Arm & Hammer'. Here it is:

THE HISTORY OF THE ARM AND HAMMER® TRADEMARK

The ARM & HAMMER symbol was first used in the early 1860’s by James A. Church, the son of Dr. Austin Church, one of the founders of our business. James A. Church operated a spice and mustard business known as the Vulcan Spice Mills. In Roman mythology, Vulcan, the god of fire, was especially skilled in fashioning ornaments and arms for the gods and heroes. The ARM & HAMMER symbol, therefore, represented the arm of Vulcan with hammer in hand about to descend on an anvil.

Church & Dwight, Company Information, History of the Logo
www.churchdwight.com/company/company_information.htm

John Paul II

I heard this morning that the papacy of John Paul II began in 1978. This brought back a few memories from that era - specifically, watching his motorcade drive through central park from the 16th floor of the Annenberg building (5th Avenue and 100th St.). I couldn't see in the car windows, and it was too high up anyway, but the idea that an important person was in there made it a memorable event. I suppose this was during his first visit to New York. A few days later, my alarm at home went off and I heard his farewell speech - of which I only remember 'the kingdom and the power', and his soothing, accented English. 'John Paul II, he's for you' also originated during that trip, I think.