Doing research can be such fun! Maybe it’s because I used to be a journalist, but I really enjoy interviewing people as a way to learn about different professions and challenges and stuff that happened in the past. For Don’t Put the Boats Away, I interviewed a jazz musician, chemists and chemistry teachers, recovering alcoholics, board members of two private day schools that merged, a financial advisor, a tax attorney, and a family foundation advisor. I toured a cereal mill in Northfield (Minnesota), took a field trip to the university at Madison (Wisconsin), and walked around a house in Minneapolis where I had Nat and Dorie live.
I read interviews of grain millers and jazz musicians, books about the chemistry department at Madison, histories about the development of penicillin and about heart surgery at the University of Minnesota. I studied the 1948 map of the University of Wisconsin’s campus and papers on fungicides. One of the best things I read was A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer. a great World War II murder mystery having to do with penicillin.
Surprises? The British scientist Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 but it took many years before it became a viable medication. Penicillin wasn’t available to ordinary citizens until after WWII, but by D-Day every medic going shore in France carried penicillin in his pack.
While I grew up in Minnesota, I was astonished to learn that the first successful open-heart surgery was actually conducted in 1952 at the University of Minnesota by surgeons F. John Lewis and C. Walton Lillehei.
And I learned that women are twice as likely to develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as men. I wonder why that might be. What do you think?
I read interviews of grain millers and jazz musicians, books about the chemistry department at Madison, histories about the development of penicillin and about heart surgery at the University of Minnesota. I studied the 1948 map of the University of Wisconsin’s campus and papers on fungicides. One of the best things I read was A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer. a great World War II murder mystery having to do with penicillin.
Surprises? The British scientist Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 but it took many years before it became a viable medication. Penicillin wasn’t available to ordinary citizens until after WWII, but by D-Day every medic going shore in France carried penicillin in his pack.
While I grew up in Minnesota, I was astonished to learn that the first successful open-heart surgery was actually conducted in 1952 at the University of Minnesota by surgeons F. John Lewis and C. Walton Lillehei.
And I learned that women are twice as likely to develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as men. I wonder why that might be. What do you think?
Don't Put the Boats Away