Iron and Fever

Warm-blooded animals have an elaborate physiological control system to maintain a constant body temperature. In man, this temperature is about 37°C. Any significant deviation from this temperature puts stress on the body and makes it difficult to maintain metabolic processes at their normal rates. Why then, during sickness, should the temperature rise? It would seem that development of fever would cause things to go from bad to worse, and make it more difficult for the body to recuperate. Fe...

 1945 Warning of Bacterial Antibiotic Resistance

But I would like to sound one note of warning. Penicillin is to all intents and purposes non-poisonous so there is no need to worry about giving an overdose and poisoning the patient. There may be a danger, though, in underdosage. It is not difficult to make microbes resistant to penicillin in the laboratory by exposing them to concentrations not sufficient to kill them, and the same thing has occasionally happened in the body. The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the...

 Perspectives on Gaia

TREVIZE WAS surrounded by the tameness of Gaia. The temperature, as always, was comfortable, and the air moved pleasantly, refreshing but not chilling. Clouds drifted across the sky, interrupting the sunlight now and then, and, no doubt, if the water vapor level per meter of open land surface dropped sufficiently in this place or that, there would be enough rain to restore it. The trees grew in regular spacings, like an orchard, and did so, no doubt, all over the world. The land and sea were...