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May
1999 Issue- Science and the Citizen WINK OF AN EYE
- Cyber View PUTTING THE SQUEEZE ON MUSIC
- From the Editors Survivors and a Winner
- Buy the Digital Edition
Aspirin was invented in the late 1890s by German chemist Felix Hoffmann, who was seeking to ease his father's arthritis pain. In the 100 years since then, aspirin--or as it is known to chemists, acetylsalicylic acid--has become the world's most widely used drug. But until recently, no one knew how aspirin actually works.
In the 1970s scientists learned that injuries to human tissue trigger the release of prostaglandins, hormonelike molecules that cause fever and inflammation. They also discovered that aspirin somehow blocks the production of these molecules. To reveal exactly how this happens, a team of researchers, including myself, began several years ago to analyze the enzyme that produces prostaglandins--prostaglandin H2 synthase, or PGHS.
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