July 7th 1928:
The Chillicothe Baking Company in Chillicothe, Missouri, US, first produced sliced bread, advertised as "the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped", which then led to the popular phrase "the greatest thing since sliced bread".

Just learned that there is a Chillicothe outside Ohio. That was the Chillicothe that I knew of.

Gastro enteritis is caused by bacteria that thrive in the stomach's acid environment. In the olden days, stress and diet were deemed to be the causes and anti-acid tablets would be prescribed, and stomach ulcers could lead to drastic gastric surgery. Now, it's cured by a two-week dose of antibiotics.

All this only came about because of a chance observation on a microscopic analysis of some stomach lining, and then a few years of research, followed by a self-administered dose of the bacteria and antibiotic cure.

I'd wondered why "ulcers" had slipped off my radar in the past few years.

I watched that program too

I love the series!

I only caught it by accident, and I'm sure I've seen something like it before. I assume it's a repeat.

The same guy did another series very recently call "The Story of Science" where he showed how accident and happenstance lead to most of the scientific discoveries that we attribute to long studies in their respective fields.

This is more of the same but about self-experimentation in medicine.

That cure is at least a decade old, if not fifteen years old.

We've series stacked the "Story" shows. Bloody excellent. Don't let anyone tell you the BBC isn't making seriously good telly any more.

I know. I just hadn't heard of it. Maybe because I don't suffer with GE, and nor does anyone I know.

The show did say it's been the regular treatment since the mid-90s. I refer the honourable gentlemen to the title of the thread...

I watched that How to make a jet engine and that was excellent as well.

As was the nuclear submarine one of the same series

There's one of the New Scientist compilation books - I think it's 'How to Build A Tornado' - has a chapter that tells the story of the bloke who discovered that most stomach ulcers have a bacterial cause. He spent years trying to convince the medical establishment who happily ignored him while chopping open patients to fix stomach ulcers. In the end he got so desperate that at a medical conference he swallowed a phial of the relevant bacteria and waited to get a stomach ulcer, which happened within days. He had the fact verified by an eminent doctor then went on a two week course of antibiotics and got the same doctor to certify the ulcer had healed. Talk about putting your money where your mouth is...

Jon

I learned it yesterday, but: a show based upon Countdown can be chuffing hilarious!

Shouldn't that be...

Talk about putting your tummy where your mouth is...?

On these couple of comments and having a day off today (due to bad weather) I have watched both on iPlayer. Whilst I found them both very entertaining and also informative, I do have a couple of issues.

I found them a little too PC when it came to apprenticeships, focusing on the ethnic minority and female rather than having more of a balance that I'm sure there is in the workplace. And then some of the terminology used for both programs that was either incorrect or confusing.

To stress though they are only small issues. Overall a much better program than any of the free channels could have come up with and very enjoyable. If only they would scrap Eastenders so they could make more stuff like this.