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The vast majority of discoveries and inventions began as accidents. A military radar technician that walked in front of an active radar dish noticed that it melted the chocolate bar in his shirt pocket. This was the basis of the microwave oven concept. A glue chemist accidentally created a very weak glue, but noticed that it remained sticky and could be reused many times. Those popular yellow sticky notes were born. Modern medical miracles have also had such humble beginnings. At the rate that land is being cleared, will we have a chance to find these hidden miracles?

One such example is the medicinal property of willow bark. Somehow, it was discovered that chewing willow bark was an effective pain reliever. It worked very well, because the practice spread and was continued for hundreds or thousands of years. Today we know that willow bark contains the active ingredient found in common aspirin.

More than a hundred years ago, a smart but very messy scientist was growing different types of bacteria. He noticed that something was contaminating his bacteria cultures and killing them. He traced the offender to the kind of mold that grows on old bread. This pencil-shaped mold is known as penicillin, and has saved countless lives around the world.

When smallpox was ravaging the English countryside 300 years ago, a certain farmer and his family were terrified. He noticed that the spots on the victims were very similar to the spots that cow milkers got from a rash on certain cows. The quick-thinking farmer also noticed that the people who got the mild rash from cows almost never got the deadly smallpox! The farmer deliberately infected his family with the cow rash, saving them from death by smallpox. This was probably the first-known instance of a vaccination.

Penicillin has cured many people who would have otherwise died from common diseases. Aspirin and its synthetic cousins continue to be used worldwide as pain relievers. The disease of smallpox has been virtually eradicated around the globe. Is there a vine in the rainforest, a succulent in the desert, or even a weed in your backyard that can have similar medicinal effects? The accounts noted above suggest that the answer might be yes.

There are many new diseases to be conquered, and a shrinking supply of potential natural remedies with which to fight them. These short anecdotes show that natural remedies can be waiting to be discovered where they are least expected. Let us hope that the promise of these undiscovered future remedies is a bright one.

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