Filters reduce angioplasty risks

CHICAGO (AP) - Doctors have found they can substantially improve the safety of balloon angioplasty to clean out the arteries in the neck by temporarily inserting a tiny filter to trap stirred-up gunk before it floats to the brain. This approach could make angioplasty the preferred way of treating blockages in the carotid arteries, the main blood vessels to the brain, researchers say. See the full story

3M: The Magic of Mistakes

Then there are "Mistakes & Accidents" and these are almost as profound. A classic (reported by Fortune on April 18 2003) is 3M Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing - famous more for Scotch or Cellotape and Post It notes rather than the grinding wheels and sand paper it started business with 101 years ago. William Mcknight was the person who ended up at 3M by mistake. 3M refused to hire him as a laborer. A year later they offered him a job as a book keeper, he refused because of his mother's illness.

The founders made many mistakes in their sandpaper and grinding wheels and then this 20 year old bookkeeper, Mcknight, moved through the ranks to set a creative example that has been followed since. 3M people have freedom to use 10% of their time on what some might call "wild goose chases."

3M grew to $ in 1.6 Billion sales per year in 1966 when Mcknight retired. Today the R&D budget is $1 Billion and sales have passed $16 Billion. See the full story at www.fortune.com.

What has Watermelons got to do with this? Well, Nature created the round and oval watermelon without the vision of small countries like Japan having limited storage space in iceboxes or Fridges!

Then came a creative person who found a way to make them grow square by enclosing the small melon inside a square glass (and later plastic) container to control its shape and size. See the full article.

What has this to do with PolyPops, history or pioneers or Manns one of the Founders? In the 90's Manns standard sales pitch was that he was willing to make a Microplate with square, rectangular, or hexagonal well shapes. This made many researchers in Biopharma laugh at first, but soon several called asking for different shapes for various reasons and this soon broke the "round test tube or micro well" standard. Mann's company Polyfiltronics developed rectangular and square well plates and many more odd sizes. See Microplate History.

A chemist in England forgot to turn of his lab oven when leaving one evening. On his return to work the next morning he found a "gooey mess smelling like melted candles " on the lab bench. The curios chemist checked this out and - eureka - Polyethylene was discovered and the rest is history. Learn more about plastics by visiting the web site of the Plastics Historical Society