/oss/taxonomy/term/1445/all en /oss/article/health/dyk-penicillin-used-be-recycled-urine <p>After Alexander Fleming’s 1928 discovery of a mold that inhibited <i>Staphylococci</i> bacteria growth and the first treatment of a patient with penicillin <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/the-real-story-behind-the-worlds-first-antibiotic">in 1942</a>, demand for this antibiotic grew rapidly. Unfortunately, due to the difficulties of growing molds and isolating the penicillin molecules from them, the medication was extremely difficult to produce in large scale.</p> Tue, 02 Jun 2020 21:11:37 +0000 Ada McVean B.Sc. 8265 at /oss /oss/article/environment-health-news/moldyuuck <p>Molds can sometimes grow to an impressive size. A story has been making the rounds in Montreal about a large piece of mold being found in a sample of Oasis juice. You would think from the press coverage that such a thing has never been seen before. Another sample was found last March in a carton of Minute Maid orange juice in Britain. In that case a little girl got sick from drinking the juice. In Montreal it was just yuuuck.</p> Thu, 23 Jan 2014 03:32:00 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2076 at /oss /oss/article/food-quackery-you-asked/does-blue-cheese-cause-cancer <p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/?attachment_id=3387" rel="attachment wp-att-3387"><img alt="cheese" height="150" src="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/files/2012/11/blue-cheese-150x150.jpg" width="150" /></a>Is it true that eating blue cheese causes cancer? That is what one of our correspondents wanted to know. Mercifully, the answer is: no. But I think I know how this story got started. Blue cheese is mouldy cheese. Originally it got that way because it was stored in caves where there were plenty of mould spores in the air, like in natural limestone caves in Roquefort in France. Since ancient times it was known that some cheeses have to be aged to develop their proper flavor. Cheese makers in Roquefort took to storing the cheese in the cool limestone caves. Then one day, a batch of cheese got contaminated with a blue mould. Some adventurous soul tasted it and liked the flavor. And seeing that he survived the adventure, others tried it as well. Soon it became one of France’s most popular cheeses.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">Today Roquefort cheese is made by spraying a suspension of Penicillium roqueforti over the curds before aging. This mould needs oxygen to live so the cheese has to be porous. The cheese is usually pierced with stainless steel needles to allow more oxygen to enter. <a href="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/2012/11/18/does-blue-cheese-cause-cancer/">Read more</a></p> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 00:38:20 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1811 at /oss