IGNAZ SEMMELWEIS (1818–1865)
Known as the ‘‘father of infection control’’, Dr Ignaz (or Ignac) Semmelweis (fig 1) was a Hungarian born physician who received his MD degree in Vienna in 1844. In 1847 he was given a 2 year appointment as an assistant in obstetrics with responsibility for the First Division of the maternity service of the vast Allgemeine Krankenhaus teaching hospital in Vienna.4 There he observed that women delivered by physicians and medical students had a much higher rate (13–18%) of post-delivery mortality (called puerperal fever or childbed fever) than women delivered by midwife trainees or midwives (2%). This case-control analysis led Semmelweis to consider
several hypotheses. He concluded that the higher rates of infections in women delivered by physicians and medical students were associated with the handling of corpses during autopsies before attending the pregnant women. This was not done by the midwives. He associated the exposure to cadaveric material with an increased risk of childbed fever,5 and conducted a study in which the intervention was hand washing. Although Dr Semmelweis was the first healthcare professional to demonstrate experimentally that hand washing could prevent infections, it was not until approximately two decades after his death that his work was revisited and he was given credit. Only after Pasteur, Koch, and Lister had produced more evidence of the germ theory and antiseptic techniques was the value of hand washing appreciated.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1743827/pdf/v013p00233.pdf

Welcome, red giant, new visitor to our galaxy by Balasubramanyam Seshan
Visitors tend to visit our home at any time, but this time an immigrant red giant from another galaxy has arrived in our Milky Way. This happens to be a new planet at least the size of Jupiter that came from another galaxy and is orbiting a star called HIP 13044. While this star is now in the Milky Way, researchers at the Germany's Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and the European Space Agency said that it originated in a separate galaxy that was later cannibalized by our galaxy. The planet lives 2,000 light years away inside the Helmi stream, a ring of ancient stars that cuts through the plane of the Milky Way. Astronomers have detected over the last 15 years nearly 500 exoplanets orbiting ordinary stars in our cosmic neighborhood
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/83760/20101119/milky-way-galaxy-jupiter-earth-sun-star-european-space-agency-max-planck-institute-for-astronomy-red.htm

The name "Olmec" (or "rubber people") was given to the oldest-known culture in the Americas almost 2,000 years after that culture had disappeared, and was accepted by scholars only in 1932. We have no idea what these people of what is now eastern Mexico, just inland from the Gulf at its southernmost point, called themselves. In fact, we know almost nothing about them, except that they seem to have endured from about 2,000 to 400 B.C. What we do know, or think we know, comes almost entirely from the carved stone monuments and other artifacts that outlived them underground, because stone does not rot. The first—one of those colossal heads for which the Olmec are famous—was found by a Mexican farmer in 1850 and made known to the world in 1869. Not until 1942 was it publicly asserted that the Olmec was the "mother culture" of Mesoamerica (i.e., Mexico plus Central America). Seventeen huge heads (c. 1400-1000 B.C.) have been discovered so far, in four sites within a 90-mile range, measuring from just under five feet to just over 11 feet tall and weighing (it is estimated) as much as 50 tons. One archaeologist has figured that it took 1,500 people three or four months to move an apppropriate boulder from its source in the mountains to its designated location. With presumably less effort, two of the smaller heads were hauled up from their homeland to Los Angeles, where they are the stars of the first major museum exhibition outside of Mexico devoted to the "people of Olman" and their art. The two great heads are set up at the front and the back of the light-filled central space of the new Resnick Pavilion at LACMA through January 9, 2011.
http://topics.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052702304510704575562263276050720.html

Egg wash can be used as a glue to seal two pieces of dough together, or as a finish. When brushed on an unbaked pastry or loaf, it creates a sticky surface that will help sprinkled seeds or sugar adhere, and an attractive color and sheen once baked.
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
Pinch of salt
Whisk all of the ingredients together and brush onto baked goods before they go in the oven. If you have any leftovers, you can add them to your scrambled eggs at breakfast the next morning.
Weeknight Kitchen® with Lynne Rossetto Kasper November 17, 2010

Connexions is:
a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. Anyone may view or contribute:
authors create and collaborate
instructors rapidly build and share custom collections
learners find and explore content
I found the Web site by accident when putting in four related terms, and when I viewed it there were 17232 reusable modules woven into 1033 collections.
http://cnx.org/

On February 23, 1857, 13 architects met in Richard Upjohn's office to form what would become The American Institute of Architects. The group sought to create an architecture organization that would "promote the scientific and practical perfection of its members" and "elevate the standing of the profession." Richard Upjohn, FAIA, was AIA’s first President. He served from 1857 to 1876. He is also one of the founders of AIA. His business location was in New York, NY. http://www.aia150.org/hst150_default.php

When people advise avoiding the adverb, they're referring to words ending in -ly: extremely, really, endlessly, etc. It may be OK to use such words sparingly, but your writing appears stilted if they are used often. Many adverbs don't end in -ly.
in situ (in SY-too, SEE-, -tyoo, -choo) adverb
In the original place.
From Latin in situ (in place). The word is used in medicine to indicate a condition in a localized state, not spread beyond. First recorded use: 1740.
wherefore (HWAIR-for)
adverb: For what reason?
noun: Reason or purpose.
From Middle English, a combination of where + for. The word often appears in the phrase "the whys and wherefores (of something)", meaning its reasons. First recorded use: c. 1200.
in toto (in TO-to) adverb
Totally; as a whole. From Latin totus (total). First recorded use: 1639.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg