Summary: Although Alexander Fleming is usually credited with the discovery of penicillin in 1928, no penicillin-based antibiotic was actually developed for human use until 1938 through the work of Australian pathologist Howard Florey and German biochemist Ernst Chain. This program puts Fleming's contribution in scientific perspective. Live interviews, journal accounts, and archival footage lead the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Some doctors are wary of prescribing medication for ADD or ADHD, especially when treating young patients-but the majority rely on psychotropic drugs. This program challenges the status quo, supported by a staggering amount of testimony and documentation. Incorporating detailed interviews with psychiatrists, neurologists, and education experts-as well as parents and kids who have suffered...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Modern medicine owes much of its success to drugs. How do these chemical molecules treat and cure aches and illnesses? This program explains that these substances are usually "copies" of natural substances produced by our own bodies. We witness the invention of a new drug by two researchers working at a major pharmaceutical laboratory-computer-assisted, of course. Finally, we are introduced to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Do the world's rainforests contain a cure for cancer and AIDS? This intriguing program travels to Jakarta, Surabaya, and the jungles of Kalimantan to investigate the preparation and use of natural remedies to combat illnesses such as skin fungus, malaria, and even AIDS. But logging continues unabated, even as ethnobiologists from the National Cancer Institute and the Harvard Medical School...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: They lurk in nursing homes and hospitals-anywhere where people's resistance is down. One, VRE, a usually harmless microbe found in the human bowel and genital tract, is already drug-resistant; the other, MSRA, currently treatable with vancomycin-type antibiotics, is quickly becoming resistant to their effects. Using real-life case studies of patients who are infected, this program studies the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Antibiotics initially worked miracles, saving millions of lives. In just decades, many of the wonder drugs are ineffective. How did it happen? This program reports on a battle for survival between humans and microbes, providing a concise history of antibiotics, as well as tracing their decline in efficacy. Their overuse and misuse is examined in medicine, agriculture, and domestic cleaning...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Today's antibiotics are quickly losing their ability to combat bacterial infections. What has caused this pharmacological disaster? This program examines the link between the use of antibiotics in livestock as growth promoters and the rise of resistance to their effectiveness in humans. Although certain classes of antibiotics have already been banned in agricultural use, some authorities are...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Antibiotics have saved countless lives from potentially deadly infections-but bacteria keep rebounding in stronger mutations. This program focuses on one of the most lethal pathogens: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. Outlining the microbe's alarming ability to withstand methicillin, amoxicillin, and related antibiotics, the program examines the emergence of two separate...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006