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Hippocrates knew that something in the willow tree could be used to ease aches and pains, recommending that people chew the leaves and bark to ease the pain of childbirth. The compounds in the willow, called salicylates, were used as arthritis treatments in the late 1800's, but they tended to irritate the stomach. But then just over 100 years ago, Felix Hoffmann, a researcher at a small German company named Bayer, developed a compound that could take care of aching muscles or aching heads -- without producing an aching stomach. His work provided Bayer with one of its first major products, propelling it from obscurity to a major corporation, and provided people with safe pain relief. Today, Americans consume an estimated 80 billion tablets of aspirin each year, for problems ranging from headaches to heart disease. Take two hours of Science Friday, and call us in the afternoon, as we look at the history of aspirin and at what it's being used for today. Then... In early October, NASA plans to launch Cassini, an unmanned probe to Saturn. The probe, which is scheduled to arrive at Saturn more than six years later, will use traditional rockets and gravity to propel it towards its goal, but will also bear a plutonium-powered generator to produce electricity for its scientific instruments. NASA claims that the nuclear generators are neccessary because solar panels will not provide enough power that far from the sun. Furthermore, NASA argues, the chance of having an accident is very small, and the effects on human health if there were to be an accident would be minimal. Others are not so sure, however. A vocal group of dissenters claims that NASA seriously understated the risks to human life from the mission. They argue that there is a real risk of a catastophic failure of the craft, either during its launch, or later, as the probe flys by the Earth for a gravitational boost. Such a failure, they claim, might scatter the 72 pounds of plutonium on board throughout the atmosphere and water of Earth, bringing more frequent cases of cancer worldwide. On this segment of Science Friday, we'll look at the mission, its risks, and at what effect, if any, a newly-discovered tear in the craft's insulation might have on the scheduled launch date.
Guests: Michio Kaku Otto Raabe Beverly Cook Books/Articles Discussed: "The Aspirin Wars," by Mark Plummer and Charles Mann, Harvard Business School Press Related links: Pro-Cassini: Anti-Cassini:
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