A MAGICAL MOMENT OF SCIENCE

When my friend showed this picture, at first sight, this scene looked like a scary scene from some horror movie. He asked me to guess the movie names, and I took some names of scary movies (obviously the ones that I had not seen).

That is when I was up for a shock when he told me the background behind this picture.

At the University of Toronto, the scientists wanted to test something which they believed could be a game-changer. They went to the ward (shown in the pic) where kids identified with ketoacidosis were kept. This was 1922 and unfortunately, they diabetic symptoms had no treatment at that time and most of them went into coma and then passed away.

It surely was less of a hospital ward and more of a mortuary. I can’t even imagine a hall full of parents sitting by the side of their child knowing for sure that it was just a matter of time when the child would be dead.

I am sure even those scientists would have felt the same. However, they took the onus upon themselves to be strong and went from bed-to-bed injecting children with some new purified extract.

No one knew what to expect or when to expect any miracle…. It was something that was just an assumption. However, what started the group of scientists and nurses were by the time they administered the new substance to the last comatose child on the list, the first child (who had already been injected with that extract), began to awaken.

Now, this was pure ‘magical’ moment.

Then, within a short span of time, all the children came to life after a diabetic coma. The room of death and darkness had become a place of joy and hope.

Insulin was discovered by Sir Frederick G Banting, Charles H Best, and JJR Macleod and it was later purified by James B Collip. This moment is considered one of the most magical moments of science.

(The Photo is colorized by AI)