Have you ever wondered who developed the COVID-19 vaccines or how they did it so quickly? Meet Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, viral immunologist and lead scientist for the NIH Coronavirus Vaccines and Immunopathogenesis Team. For the past six years, Dr. Corbett's work has focused on the biology of coronaviruses. Her research laid the groundwork for the Moderna vaccine.
From NIH Record, Vol. LXXII, No. 25, December 11,2020
Congratulations to WHSLA Member Xou Lee Va Vang, Research Help and Instruction Librarian, from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
Xou Lee has been accepted into the MLA Research Training Institute for 2021-2022 and will begin this summer.
WHSLA Member Kellee Selden recently came across this article from the BBC about medlars, a forgotten fruit that was also used for medicinal purposes back in the day. [It looks like a giant rose hip ... among other things. Check out the article to find out some of it's other not-so-affectionate names.]
Although it has an interesting history in it's own right and appears to be attempting a comeback, the term medlars got me thinking about the original Medline -- the one before PubMed. Back when I was in Library School, and working in a hospital library, I had the opportunity to go to Chicago to take a multi-day in-person training by NLM on searching Medlars, so--yes-- I am old enough to have some experience with it. PubMed only began in 1997 ...
And I started to wonder if the original MEDLARS might have been named after this strange fruit?
So I did a little digging and found this article:
The development of the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (MEDLARS).
Dee CR.J Med Libr Assoc. 2007 Oct;95(4):416-25. doi: 10.3163/1536-5050.95.4.416.PMID: 17971889 Free PMC article.
Turns out MEDLARS stands for Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System. Aside from creating a sense of awe for the incredible profession I am a part of and how it helped to usher in the dawn of computers, there was no mention of rotten fruit in this abbreviated history of MEDLARS, but still, it makes me wonder if someone coined the acronym with a cheeky (Pun intended!) sense of humor?
Food for thought ... Or not! ;-)
Reposted from NPR's Goats & Soda blog. Article by Joe Palca. April 1, 2021.
(No it's NOT April Fool's.)
"I've spent 30 years trying to make complicated science understandable. Explaining how vaccines work can be especially tricky. Explaining the new technology used in COVID-19 vaccines can be trickier still.
So my heart filled with joy and delight when I saw Vick Krishna's TikTok explaining how the vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna work. So simple. So straightforward. So well done."
I’m not
sure where you would find this collection of essays shelved in
bookstores. The pieces deal with nature, cosmology, and the world of
fables, often blurred together into a satisfying whole. But perhaps it
should be shelved in the poetry section as her accounts of the natural sciences
reads like the finest prose. I found myself marveling every few
paragraphs over the inventiveness of her wordplay.
This book is a rich dessert and is best sampled in small doses. Each of the twenty-six essays is just the right size to be consumed in a single sitting. While whimsical in nature, one comes away with a better understanding of the natural world, the universe, and humankind as well. Except for one brief instance, the author does not insert her own voice into any of the essays. Rather, the observant narrator seems an omnipotent presence.
The reader is guaranteed to encounter words no dictionary has ever cataloged, but on the tongue (and mentally) they delight nonetheless. Examples include mouldywarps, sagittaries, starflakes, vasty, argle-bargle, and Crocodilopolis. For the serious writer, reading these essays will inspire and also humble. Amy Leach’s prose is so sumptuous, thoughtful, and inventive that an author is sure to wonder how dare they try to compete. It is the rare dessert that proves to also be nutritious.
