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First Insecticide is Produced (A.D. 100)

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First Insecticide is Produced (A.D. 100)

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Who: The Chinese

What: Produced insecticide from powdered chrysanthemums

When: AD 100

Where: China

Why: The Chinese used Pyrethrum, which is found in chrysanthemums, to kill off insects. Dried flowers were added to a carrier to help deliver pyrethrins directly onto the insect.

How: Helped the development of the modern fertilizers that we use today.

citations!!

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/pyrethrum#:~:text=Pyrethrum%20is%20a%20powerful%2C%20rapidly,is%20a%20manmade%20synthetic%20pyrethroid.

https://www.finegardening.com/article/pyrethrum-based-insecticides-from-chrysanthemums

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by William Olkowski, Sheila Darr, and Helga Olkowski
October 2000
from issue #29

Gardeners who follow Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices have many options before they consider using a toxic pesticide. The first step in IPM is monitoring for the problem, then employing mechanical methods of control. This includes hand-picking or spraying with a stream of water. The next choice in an IPM regimen may be Bt, a selective microbial insecticide that does not harm natural enemies. Alas, at this time, there are Bt formulations available only for caterpillars, some immature flies, and certain beetles. With other chewing or sucking insects, what can you do? Your first option would be to try an oil or a combination soap and oil spray. Then, as a last resort, you might consider stepping up to a pyrethrum-based insecticide.

Pyrethrum is derived from the flower of Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium. You might think that because it is derived from a natural source, a pyrethrum-based product is automatically safe. If you follow the directions for use on the package, it is relatively safe for people and pets, but it is unquestionably a true poison and will kill all insects it comes in contact with, both pests and beneficial insects alike. The most commonly available pyrethrum-based insecticides contain extracts from the flowers called pyrethrins.

The advantage in the vegetable garden is that a pyrethrin insecticide is effective against a wide variety of hard-to-kill insects like aphids, beetles, leafhoppers, and certain caterpillars. Because pyrethrins degrade rapidly in sunlight, they usually disappear from the garden within 24 hours, allowing you to pick your produce not long after spraying.

Pyrethrum, pyrethrins, pyrethroid...confused?
You're not alone if you find the names of these insecticides perplexing. Understanding the terms is the first step in choosing the appropriate insecticide. Pyrethrum is the dried, powdered flower heads from the plant. It can be purchased as a powder in some garden centers. Pyrethrins are the active ingredients found in the dried flower heads. (Sometimes you will see the active ingredient referred to as pyrethrin, but there is more than one active chemical in the powder, so the active ingredient should be referred to as pyrethrins.) Pyrethrins usually come as a liquid that is put into solution with water and used in conventional spray equipment. Pyrethroids are the imposters-synthetic, man-made pyrethrins.

What's in a name?

Pyrethrum is the dried, powdered flower heads of certain chrysanthemum species.

Pyrethrins are the active ingredients found in the dried flower heads. Pyrethrins degrade approximately 24 hours after spraying.

Piperonyl butoxide (PBO) is an additive that increases the effectiveness of pyrethrins. It has recently been discovered that PBO is an active ingredient itself, and as such, it is not yet widely accepted by organic growers.

Pyrethroids are synthetic, man-made chemicals based on the pyrethrins found in the dried flower heads of certain chrysanthemum species. Pyrethroids have a long residual period after spraying and are thus more lethal to a wider range of insects than pyrethrins. Pyrethroids are not considered organic.

Permethrin is a common synthetic pyrethroid that also contains chlorine. This has a very long residual life, so avoid using it on food crops.

Pyrethroids are a great example of how a chemical can be highly toxic even though it is based on a botanical source. Chemists have taken pyrethrum as a model and formed a whole group of poisons that have a structure similar to that of the natural compounds. The -oid suffix indicates "something like," so a pyrethroid is something like a pyrethrum. One of the most common pyrethroids is permethrin. The "per-" prefix, in this case means "chlorine," which is the key to the higher toxicity of permethrin. Gardeners with food crops will want to avoid permethrin since it has a relatively long residual life (two months or more) and is more toxic than pyrethrum.

Another option is pyrethrins with PBO
Most of the world's supply of pyrethrum comes from eastern Africa, which has the right climate and the labor force to pick the flowers by hand. This makes the product relatively expensive compared with many other insecticides. In addition, some insects have the ability to break down the pyrethrins and recover from exposure to the chemical. To lower the amount of active ingredient (and thus lower the cost) while increasing the toxicity, manufacturers began routinely adding another component: piperonyl butoxide (PBO). It was assumed that PBO had little or no toxicity alone and merely made the mixture more potent, so it was considered a synergist.

The combination of pyrethrins and PBO produced greater toxicity against the same population of insects than the ingredients used individually. However, in this case 2 + 2 did not equal 4, but 40 or 400 or more. The two components are believed to block different biochemical pathways in insects and thus overwhelm the detoxifying powers of an insect exposed to it, making it much more toxic to the insect.

Recently, after more testing, PBO has been classified as an active ingredient. Although PBO is derived from a botanical source, many organic certification systems have been reluctant to include it among the permitted materials. Consequently, there are products on the market with only pyrethrins as well as those with pyrethrins and PBO. The latter products are less expensive and more toxic than the pyrethrins alone, though not as toxic as a synthetic pyrethroid. If you cannot obtain the pyrethrins-only products, use those with PBO, particularly if the only other choices are yet-more-toxic insecticides. If the package label is too complicated to figure out, most nursery personnel will be able to decipher it for you. If no one can help you, it's probably worth avoiding the chemical until you have more understandable information.

The importance of understanding toxicity levels
The ideal insecticide should kill the target pest without injuring non-target insects, other wildlife, or you, the gardener. Pyrethrins are toxic to a wide range of insects, not to just a selected few pests, so they are not an ideal pesticide. But since they have an extremely short residual life, they kill only the insects present at the time of application, minimizing the number of non-target pests killed, compared with most other commonly used poisons.

Pyrethrins have some selectivity with regard to mammals, since short-term (hours, days) exposure to skin or other parts of the human body does not lead to life-threatening or even health-threatening reactions. The only reported problems occurred with some people who were hypersensitive and who breathed in some of the material. These people may also have been reacting to various inert ingredients in the product they were using, and not to the pyrethrum itself. The respiratory problems once caused by using the ground flowers ceased when extracted pyrethrin products appeared on the market.

Pyrethrum is tried and true
It is possible that pyrethrum is one of the oldest insecticides known, and that in itself suggests its effectiveness and indicates acceptance by many people in many different situations. The ancient Chinese used the dried and powdered flowers as an insecticide and listed this material in a pharmacopoeia published around a.d. 100. The dried flowers were ground and added to an inert carrier to help deliver pyrethrins directly onto the insect.

Some modern seed catalogs carry Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium, the flowers of which can be made into a pyrethrum in the same way. (We don't advise this because the dust can cause respiratory problems.) Europeans learned about the powders and seeds of the plant when the Persians imported them in the early 1800s. In the early part of the 20th century, the insecticide was exported from Europe to the United States. Because pyrethrum-based products have had many incarnations over time, it is best to be informed when buying and using them, as some are much more toxic than others.

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Pyrethrum-based insecticides come from a natural source, but are still toxic. Learn more about them here, and how to choose among them.

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Who: The Chinese

What: Used moldy soybeans to treat boils

When: 500 BC

Where: China

Why: Moldy soybeans and cheese were both used to help treat infected wounds.

How: This helped the advancement of biotechnology because scientists now believe that the fungus that produces penicillin may have been the mold present in the soybean curds.

citations!

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/history-of-biotechnology-458b8c27-4443-477e-a9ed-3fc6a0190305

https://stacker.com/food-drink/history-fermentation-around-world#:~:text=Beginning%20in%20500%20BCE%2C%20moldy,used%20to%20treat%20infected%20wounds.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmadison.com%2Fcollection_cfb6e99f-facf-5e75-8e63-db202c699276.html&psig=AOvVaw12B-ZuABQn2K_oCBg3Vdm5&ust=1698771406927000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBEQjRxqFwoTCNjy1OSenoIDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

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Who: Robert Hooke

What: Described cells through a new and improved microscope

When: 1665

Where: Isle of Wight, England

Why: He changed the design of the old microscope, adding more lenses and a light which allowed him to see specimens easier. The first thing he tested with his microscope was a cork, calling to the similarities it shared with an actual cell.

How: His research pioneered the fields of cell microbiology and microscopy

citations! https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/history-cell-discovering-cell/

https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/hooke.html

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/mystery-robert-hooke-portrait

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Discovering Protozoa and Bacteria (1674)

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Discovering Protozoa and Bacteria (1674)

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Who: Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

What: the first to observe bacteria and protozoa

When: 1674

Where: Netherlands

Why: Using microscopes he made with single high-quality lenses, Leeuwenhoek was able to isolate bacteria and protozoa from different sources

How: His research helped the field of microscopy

citations!

https://www.vox.com/2016/8/9/12405306/antoni-van-leeuwenhoekhttps://www.vox.com/2016/8/9/12405306/antoni-van-leeuwenhoek

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Who: Edward Jenner

What: Inoculated a child with a smallpox vaccine

When: 1796

Where: England

Why: Jenner learned that people who had cowpox didn’t catch smallpox. He decided to test his theory by taking viral smallpox, scratching it on the skin of a child. The kid quickly recovered and did not get drastically sick.

How: Doctors all over Europe used this technique and it paved the way for the development of new vaccines to fight other viruses.

citations!

https://www.jenner.ac.uk/about/edward-jenner

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1200696/

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Discovery of the Nucleus in Cells (1831)

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Discovery of the Nucleus in Cells (1831)

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Who: Robert Brown

What: When investigating plants he noticed a structure in plant cells, he called this the nucleus.

When: 1831

Where: Scotland

Why: Before this discovery, researchers were confused about the parts of the cell. Finding the nucleus helped researchers understand the function of plant cells.

How: His extensive research about plant cells helped researchers identify the parts of other cells.

citations!

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Brown-Scottish-botanist

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Robert Brown, (born December 21, 1773, Montrose, Angus, Scotland-died June 10, 1858, London, England), Scottish botanist best known for his descriptions of cell nuclei and of the continuous motion of minute particles in solution, which came to be called Brownian motion. In addition, he recognized the fundamental distinction between gymnosperms ( conifers and their allies) and angiosperms (flowering plants), and he improved plant taxonomy by establishing and defining new families and genera. He contributed substantially to the knowledge of plant morphology, embryology, and biogeography, in particular by his original work on the flora of Australia.

Brown was the son of a Scottish Episcopalian clergyman. He studied medicine at the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh and spent five years in the British army serving in Ireland as an ensign and assistant surgeon (1795-1800). A visit to London in 1798 brought Brown to the notice of Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society. Banks recommended Brown to the Admiralty for the post of naturalist aboard a ship, the Investigator, for a surveying voyage along the northern and southern coasts of Australia under the command of Matthew Flinders.

Brown sailed with the expedition in July 1801. The Investigator reached King George Sound, Western Australia, an area of great floral richness and diversity, in December 1801. Until June 1803, and while the ship circumnavigated Australia, Brown made extensive plant collections. Returning to England in October 1805, Brown devoted his time to classifying the approximately 3,900 species he had gathered, almost all of which were new to science.

silky oak Joaquim Alves Gaspar

The results of Brown's Australian trip were partially published in 1810 in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen, a classic of systematic botany and his major work. Though the publication laid the foundations for Australian botany while refining the prevailing systems of plant classification, Brown was disappointed by its small sale and published only one volume. Brown's close observation of minute but significant details was also shown in his publication on the plant family Proteaceae, in which he demonstrated how the study of pollen grain characters could assist in the classification of plants into new genera. In 1810 Banks appointed Brown as his librarian and in 1820 bequeathed him his extensive botanical collection and library. Brown transferred them to the British Museum in 1827, when he became keeper of its newly formed botanical department.

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In 1828 Brown published a pamphlet, A Brief Account of Microscopical Observations..., about his observations of the "rapid oscillatory motion" of a variety of microscopic particles. He recorded that, after noticing moving particles (now known to be amyloplasts, organelles involved with starch synthesis) suspended within living pollen grains of Clarkia pulchella, he examined both living and dead pollen grains of many other plants and observed a similar motion in all of them. Brown then experimented with organic and inorganic substances reduced to a fine powder and suspended in water. His work revealed the random movement to be a general property of matter in that state, and the phenomenon has long been known as Brownian motion in his honour.

In 1831, while investigating the fertilization mechanisms of plants in the Orchidaceae and Asclepiadaceae families, he noted the existence of a structure within the cells of orchids, as well as many other plants, that he termed the "nucleus" of the cell. Although his were not the first observations of cell nuclei, his designation of the term has persisted. His observations testify to the range and depth of his pioneering microscopical work and his ability to draw far-reaching conclusions from isolated data or selected structures.

Brown was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1810 and served as president of the Linnean Society from 1849 to 1853. A number of Australian plant species, including Brown's banksia ( Banksia brownii) and Brown's box (Eucalyptus brownii), are named after him.

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Robert Brown, Scottish botanist best known for his descriptions of cell nuclei and of the continuous motion of minute particles in solution, which came to be called Brownian motion. In addition, he recognized the fundamental distinction between gymnosperms (conifers and their allies) and

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Who: William James Beal

What: Beal crossed two different corn types, successfully making a hybrid

When: 1870

Where: Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University)

Why: By crossing corn types, Beal was able to create a larger crop of corn.

How: His discovery allowed for the multiple varieties of corn we now have today. His research is also being used with other plants.

citations!

https://tdaynard.com/2019/10/25/a-brief-history-of-the-hybrid-corn-industry/

https://alumni.msu.edu/stay-informed/alumni-stories/what-william-james-beal-built#:~:text=That%20optimistic%20push%20fueled%20Beal%27s,yields%20of%20corn%20present%20today.

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Discovery of a Treatment for Leprosy (1910)

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Discovery of a Treatment for Leprosy (1910)

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Who: Alice Ball

What: Found out how to cure leprosy using the oil from the chaulmoogra fruit’s seeds

When: 1910

Where: University of Hawaiʻi

Why: Before antibiotics, Alice Ball's method was the universally used way to cure leprosy which affected many people. Sadly she wasn't able to recive recognition for her work because it was stollen by one of her male colleagues after she died.

How: This helped the field of biotechnology since the Ball Method was a new and innovative way to cure a disease, many treatments now take inspiration from Ball's research.

citations!

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-trailblazing-black-woman-chemist-who-discovered-a-treatment-for-leprosy-180979772/

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On the east side of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa's campus, a 25-foot tree with long, narrow leaves and velvety brown fruit pays tribute to Alice Augusta Ball, the first woman and first African American student to receive a master's degree from the school.

Known as a chaulmoogra, the tree was planted in 1935 in honor of Ball's groundbreaking research on Hansen's disease, or leprosy. As a chemist at the university-then known as the College of Hawaiʻi-in the mid-1910s, she developed one of the first effective treatments for the chronic infection, extracting oil from the chaulmoogra fruit's seeds for injection into the bloodstream.

Before the introduction of sulfone antibiotics in the 1940s, the so-called Ball Method was one of the primary treatments for leprosy, which affects the nerves and skin and can dramatically alter the appearance of the extremities. For decades, however, the woman behind the discovery was overlooked, with the achievements of her short life (she died in 1916 at age 24) forgotten in favor of presenting a male-centric narrative of scientific ingenuity.

"Since we cannot bring Alice back to life, the least we can do is tell the story of her life as honestly and thoroughly as possible so people will know about her outstanding work today and in the future," says Paul Wermager, a retired librarian who has dedicated the past 20 years to resurfacing Ball's life and legacy. "She and her work can help educate and inspire [people to] do the seemingly impossible."

Beyond opening a window into the pervasive racism and sexism of early 20th-century academia, Ball's story sheds light on a dark chapter in Hawaiian history. Between 1866 and 1969, authorities forcibly removed more than 8,000 leprosy patients, almost all of them Native Hawaiians, to the remote peninsula of Kalaupapa. While white, or haole, leprosy sufferers were allowed to leave Hawaiʻi and seek treatment on the mainland, Hawaiians exiled to the colony were expected to remain there for life-at least until quarantine laws were lifted in 1969.

"It was a total double standard, which is classic during this time," says Doug Herman, executive director of the Pacific Worlds Institute, a nonprofit that seeks to preserve and share the culture of Hawaiʻi and Micronesia.

Ball was born in Seattle on July 24, 1892, to Black newspaper editor, photographer and lawyer James Presley Ball Jr. and white photographer Laura Louise Howard Ball. She grew up in a middle-class, distinguished family. Her paternal grandfather, James Presley Ball, was a renowned Black photographer who'd captured portraits of such individuals as abolitionist Frederick Douglass, opera singer Jenny Lind and writer Charles Dickens.

When she was 10 years old, Ball's family moved to Honolulu, hoping that the warm weather would help treat her grandfather's arthritis. Even as a young student, she showed intelligence beyond her years, with one middle school classmate later describing her as "brilliant," according to Wermager, who served as head of the science and technology department at U.H. Mānoa's Hamilton Library for decades.

When Ball's grandfather passed away in 1904, the family moved back to Washington. Small in stature due to her chronic asthma, Ball was far from a wallflower-she participated in her high school drama club and earned a reputation for her quick wit. Her graduation quote, immortalized in a class of 1910 yearbook, sums up her ambitious personality: "I work and work and still it seems I have nothing done."

Ball went on to study at the University of Washington, earning two bachelor's degrees in four years: the first in pharmaceutical chemistry in 1912 and the second in the science of pharmacy in 1914. As an undergraduate, she co-authored an article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society-"the most prestigious chemistry journal at the time," says Wermager.

After graduating, Ball moved back to her childhood home of Hawaiʻi to earn a master's degree in chemistry. She graduated in 1915 and continued her history-making streak by becoming the university's first Black, woman chemistry instructor, in addition to its first Black and first female master's degree holder.

"[Ball is] certainly a trailblazer and role model," says Philip Williams, current chair of U.H. Mānoa's chemistry department. "It wasn't every day you found an African American woman in a chemistry lab. It's hard enough for students going through graduate school these days-I can't imagine what it was like for her over a century ago."

As a master's student, Ball researched the chemical makeup of plants, particularly the Hawaiian 'awa root, also known as kava. In Hawaiʻi, 'awa root is used like a panacea for conditions ranging from insomnia to headaches to kidney disorders. Ball studied the plant's acids, solubility and resins to determine how it could be injected as a treatment for medical conditions.

Ball's research caught the attention of Harry T. Hollmann, a physician and U.S. Public Health Officer who was using chaulmoogra tree oil to treat mild cases of leprosy. Though people in Asia had used the oil as a salve for skin conditions for centuries, British physician Frederic John Moaut only brought its curative properties to the Western world's attention in 1854. Western doctors struggled to use chaulmoogra effectively: Too often, oral doses caused nausea, while injections resulted in painful skin abscesses.

In 1915, Hollmann recruited Ball to help find a way to make the oil more easily injectable. At the time, Native Hawaiians were facing a pandemic of leprosy, a chronic infectious disease caused by slow-growing bacteria. The disease affects people of all ages, and symptoms can appear any time between 1 and 20-plus years after infection. Described in literature dating back to ancient times, leprosy was first documented in Hawaiʻi in 1835.

"Hawaiians had been through multiple pandemics before leprosy arrived, like whooping cough, mumps and dysentery," says Herman, who authored a 2001 journal article on leprosy's links to race and colonization. "This is a population that has been massively devastated already. Imagine everybody you see and know in your daily life. Fifty years from now, there's only 20 percent of them left. This is what the Native Hawaiians had gone through."

Much of this devastation can be traced to diseases introduced by Western missionaries and colonizers. As early 1778, Captain James Cook and his crew landed on the island of Ni'ihau, spreading an unknown venereal disease across the archipelago. Though Hawaiʻi had been unified under one kingdom in 1795, the Indigenous population and the kingdom's monarchs were under immense pressure to Westernize and cede to colonizers' demands. "It was a tumultuous time of transformation, and [then] we have this disease coming in," says Herman.

Likely brought by immigrant plantation workers from Asia and Europe, leprosy spread quickly, infecting 274 people across the islands by 1866. The diseasedisproportionately affected Native Hawaiians, who lacked the protective immunity enjoyed by Western transplants to the region. In 1865, the kingdom passed an act establishing a leprosarium, or hospital for people with leprosy, on 800 acres of state-owned land on Kalaupapa Peninsula. Patients with advanced cases of the disease were temporarily detained before being exiled to Kalaupapa for life; those with milder cases were treated at hospitals and released.

Leprosy has long been a highly stigmatized disease, with patients often ostracized by society or forced into quarantine to prevent its spread. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, officials established a handful of leprosy colonies across the U.S., from Carville, Louisiana, to the coast of Massachusetts. Kalaupapa was the largest of these leprosariums, housing some 1,100 people -almost all of whom were Native Hawaiians-at its height around 1890.

Blockaded by 2,000-foot-tall cliffs, the remote settlement was only accessible by boat (or later plane), mule, or foot. Initially, conditions were stark, with patients lacking adequate housing and supplies. Board of Health workers, Christian missionaries and (people who voluntarily joined their loved ones in isolation) helped the exiles transform the leprosarium into a community, constructing churches, a bar, a store, a theater and a social hall that hosted dances. Some residents held jobs, working as clerks, waitresses, fishermen or hospital orderlies. But the fact remained that patients were forcibly removed to Kalaupapa-sometimes by bounty hunters tasked with tracking down leprosy patients across the islands-and expected to remain there for the rest of their lives.

"They catch you like a crook and you don't have any rights at all," wrote Olivia Robello Breitha, who was 18 when she was sent to Kalaupapa in 1937, in her memoir. "They didn't care about ruining a life. They didn't even give me a few days to take care of my personal life. So be it. I was just a number."

In Hawaiian culture, the idea of isolating people who are sick is "completely foreign," says Herman. "Family is super, super close, even extended family," he adds. "The idea that you yank someone from the household and send them away when they're sick is traumatic. A lot of times they were little kids being taken away." (Missionaries established group homes for these unaccompanied children.)

Family members were allowed to visit their relatives but had to stay in separate housing and communicate through a chicken wire screen. If patients managed to escape from Kalaupapa, they were tracked by bounty hunters and could be arrested. A restrictive set of rules governed life in the settlement, even prohibiting residents from raising children. The government seized thousands of infants born to leprosy patients in Kalaupapa, putting them up for adoption and hiding their origins to avoid the stigma associated with the disease.

When she wasn't lecturing at the university or volunteering as an English teacher, Ball was in the lab trying to find a way to make chaulmoogra dissolvable in water. Aided by Arthur L. Dean, then a chemistry professor and later the president of U.H. Mānoa, she achieved this goal in under a year-despite conducting her research off duty and without pay. The key, she discovered in 1915, was freezing the oil's fatty acids to isolate its ester compounds, which could be modified to form an injectable, water-soluble yet effective treatment.

Ball continued teaching while perfecting her technique. In 1916, she reportedly inhaled chlorine gas while demonstrating how to use a gas mask and fell gravely ill. (Alternatively, she may have contracted tuberculosis, which was listed as the cause of death on her death certificate.) Her mother took her back to Seattle, where she died on New Year's Eve at the age of 24.

Following Ball's death, Dean made small tweaks to her discovery before publishing it and claiming it as his own. Dubbed the Dean Method, the treatment proved promising. According to a 1922 reportby the Department of Interior, it resulted in "rapid improvement, especially in severe cases of leprosy." Between 1919 and 1923, no leprosy patients were sent to Kalaupapa: Instead, they were treated at Kalihi Hospital and released.

According to the National Park Service (NPS), authorities initially hoped that the chaulmoogra treatment would prove effective enough to allow them to close down Kalaupapa. By the early 1930s, however, "belief in the curative powers of the oil [had] waned." A highly effective treatment for leprosy only arrived in the 1940s, with the development of sulfone antibiotics.

The state of Hawaii abolished its forced quarantine laws in 1969. Offered the chance to leave Kalaupapa, many longtime residents elected to stay in the settlement, either out of affection for the place they'd come to consider home or fear of reintegrating back into the broader community. "It would be pretty hard to be turned out to the public, the way I am," Timothy, an elderly man who was sent to Kalaupapa in 1939, told the New York Times in 1971. Breitha, for her part, traveled around the world but continued to reside in Kalaupapa until her death in 2006. As of 2021, the settlement-now part of a National Historical Park- had a population of ten former patients. An additional 80 to 100 people work on the remote peninsula as NPS staff, priests and nuns, volunteers, and more.

These days, leprosy is curable but continues to affect tens of thousands each year. In 2020, the World Health Organization recorded 127,558 new leprosy cases globally, more than of half of which were in India.

Ball's contributions to the treatment of leprosy were overlooked for decades. Hollmann clung to the truth of the discovery, giving credit to Ball in a 1922 journal article. "After a great amount of experimental work," he wrote, "Miss Ball solved the problem for me by making the ethyl esters of the fatty acids found in chaulmoogra oil."

More recently, the scientist's legacy has resurfaced thanks to researchers at U.H. Mānoa and a Baltimore retiree named Stan Ali. In the 1990s, Ali came across Ball's story in The Samaritans of Molokai, a 1932 book about Christian missionaries living among the leprosy patients, while researching Black people in Hawaiʻi. The book mentions a "young Negro chemist" whom Ali later identified as Ball.

In his quest to find more about Ball, Ali met with Wermager, who'd started researching the scientist's life in 1988, and his colleagues at U.H. Mānoa. The two shared information on Ball whenever they could. "It was just painstaking going through newspaper after newspaper looking for little tidbits," says Wermager. "I finally got enough to envision what she was like: not a selfish person and very caring and giving."

"I work and work and still it seems I have nothing done."

Speaking with the Honolulu Star-Bulletinin 2000, Ali credited the scientist's erasure from history to sexism and racism. During and just after her lifetime, she was believed to be part Hawaiian, not Black. (Her birth and death certificates list both Ball and her parents as white, perhaps to "make travel, business and life in general easier," according to the Star-Bulletin.) In 1910, Black people made up just 0.4 percent of Hawaiʻi's population.

"When [the newspapers] realized she was not part Hawaiian, but [Black], they felt they had made an embarrassing mistake, forgetting about it and hoping it would go away," Ali said. "It did for 75 years."

Gifted by King Prajadhipok of Siam (now Thailand) in recognition of Ball's trailblazing research, the chaulmoogra tree has stood on U.H. Mānoa's campus since 1935. But it wasn't until 2000 that Ball received additional recognition, in the form of a bronze plaque placed in front of the tree and the designation of February 29, Leap Day, as Alice Ball Day. In 2007, the university awarded her its Regents' Medal of Distinction, and in 2017, Wermager established the Alice August Ball Endowed Scholarship, which honors Ball's achievements by supporting science students from marginalized groups. Visitors to U.H. Mãnoa's Hamilton Library can find her portrait and thesis on display there.

Members of the school's student government are also working to spotlight Ball. This year, student leaders are advocating for the school to rename Dean Hall -an earth sciences building named after Arthur Dean-Alice Ball Hall.

"Visible acknowledgements of minority leaders are encouraging, especially to students who face similar struggles, who just need to know that it is possible to make a difference in the world no matter who you are," says senior Alyssa Renteria, one of the students who introduced the resolution to rename the building. She first heard Ball's story from a friend.

"As a student from a marginalized community," Renteria says, "I want to see and hear more of the stories of people who were just like me and still made a change despite all the obstacles."

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The Trailblazing Black Woman Chemist Who Discovered a Treatment for Leprosy

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On the east side of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa's campus, a 25-foot tree with long, narrow leaves and velvety brown fruit pays tribute to Alice Augusta Ball, the first woman and first African American student to receive a master's degree from the school.

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Alexander Fleming discovers pennicilin (1928)

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Alexander Fleming discovers pennicilin (1928)

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Who: Alexander Fleming

What: Discovered penicillin from mold on a petri dish of Staphylococcus bacteria

When: 1928

Where: London

Why: Penicillin was the first antibiotic to kill bacteria. This helped immensely in the hospital setting as it allowed patients to recover faster

How: This helped the field of Biotechnology because penicillin is now one of the most commonly used medication in the medical field, and this discovery helped pave the way for new and innovative medicines.

citations!

https://www.acs.org/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/flemingpenicillin.html#:~:text=In%201928%2C%20at%20St.,number%20of%20deaths%20from%20infection.

https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/how-was-penicillin-developed#:~:text=1928%20to%201929,chemical%20that%20could%20kill%20bacteria.

https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Penicillin_detail1.jpg

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Development of the first treatment against influenzal meningitis (1939)

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Development of the first treatment against influenzal meningitis (1939)

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Who: Hattie Elizabeth Alexander

What: Developed a treatment against infant influenza

When: 1939

Where: Baltimore/New York

Why: Her treatment helped reduce the mortality rates of the disease since influenza was a major killer among infants. Through her research, she also found out that some influenza cultures are resistant to antibiotics because of genetic mutations.

How: This helped the field of biotechnology by improving how medications work against illnesses.

citations!

https://www.whatisbiotechnology.org/index.php/women/profiles

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hattie-Elizabeth-Alexander

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The first kidney transplant between identical twins (1954) 

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The first kidney transplant between identical twins (1954) 

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Who: Dr. Joseph Murray

What: Kidney transplant between twins

When: 1954

Where: Boston

Why: This was the first sucessfull transplantation between identical donors which had never been done in the medical feild. The chance for organ rejection is also low since the organ comes from somone who is identical to the recpiant.

How: His work impacted the field of biotechnology since it started more reseach within the field of transplantation.

citations!

https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)62883-8/fulltext#:~:text=He%20performed%20the%20first%20human,kidney%20lived%20for%208%20years.

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Discovery of a gene responsible for breast/ovarian cancer (1990)

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Discovery of a gene responsible for breast/ovarian cancer (1990)

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Who: Mary-Claire King

What: Found out that BRCA1, a single gene on chromosome 17, was responsible for breast and ovarian cancer

When: 1990

Where: University of California, Berkley

Why: Her discovery has now made it easier for doctors to screen their patients for mutated BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes to see if they are at risk for breast and ovarian cancer.

How: Her work influenced the field of biotechnology by providing researchers with even more information about how cancer can mutate in our bodies.

citations!

https://www.whatisbiotechnology.org/index.php/women/profiles

https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/mary-claire-king-1946

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Who: Novartis (healthcare company)

What: Gleevec is a medication for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia

When: 2001

Where: Switzerland

Why: Gleevec is a gene-targeted drug that works by slowing or stopping the growth of certain cancer cells. Because the medication is so precise it creates better outcomes for patients.

How: This drug is the first of its kind to be approved by the FDA, creating a pathway for even more drugs like it to enter the marketplace for patients.

citations!

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjN8IGbwqGCAxVFAjQIHT-RDa8QFnoECBEQAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.drugs.com%2Fmedical-answers%2Fgleevec-imatinib-work-3556556%2F%23%3A~%3Atext%3DGleevec%252C%2520known%2520generically%2520as%2520imatinib%2C)%252C%2520growth%252C%2520and%2520division.&usg=AOvVaw3Mt6ZY6Rg11AM0zMbNEFEl&opi=89978449

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjN8IGbwqGCAxVFAjQIHT-RDa8QFnoECB8QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.medicalnewstoday.com%2Farticles%2Fdrugs-gleevec-how-it-works&usg=AOvVaw1_rvZEWQT--oryQaw9e71C&opi=89978449

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Who: Michael Riehle

What: Created malaria resistant Mosquitos using CRISPR

When: 2010

Where: University of Arizona

Why: Malaria is a deadly illness that mainly affects pregnant women. By eliminating malaria from mosquitos, who are the main carriers of the disease, it would help lower mortality rates.

How: This helped improve the field of biotechnology by creating new ways to stop the spread of illnesses.

citations!

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/malaria-proof-mosquito-created-scientists/story?id=11179900#:~:text=July%2017%2C%202010—,Public%20Library%20of%20Science%20Pathogens.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/07/20/1188631213/mosquitoes-spread-malaria-these-researchers-want-them-to-fight-it-instead#:~:text=The%20malaria%20parasite%20doesn%27t,systems%20do%20fight%20human%20malaria.

https://www.genengnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/20130819malaria1052188157-scaled.jpg

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Who: Barbara E. Murray

What: Scientists have discovered a new antibiotic, Teixobactin, that can treat common bacterial infections.

When: 2010

Where: Northeastern University

Why: Because there is a lack of new drugs on the market, many strains of bacteria have become resistant to medications. This is why Teixobactin is such an important discovery since it will take bacteria a long time to become resistant to this drug.

How: This discovery could pave the way for more antibiotics to be created.

citations!

https://civas.net/en/2015/01/07/first-new-antibiotic-in-30-years-discovered-in-major-breakthrough/#:~:text=The%20first%20new%20antibiotic%20to,be%20available%20within%20five%20years.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4433155/

https://civas.net/cms/assets/uploads/2015/01/penemuan-antibiotik-baru-600x426.jpg