Medical Discovery News
Science permeates everyday life. Yet the understanding of advances in biomedical science is limited at best. Few people make the connection that biomedical science is medicine and that biomedical scientists are working today for the medicine of tomorrow. Our weekly five-hundred-word newspaper column (http://www.illuminascicom.com/) and two-minute radio show provide insights into a broad range of biomedical science topics. Medical Discovery News is dedicated to explaining discoveries in biomedical research and their promise for the future of medicine. Each release is designed to stimulate listeners to think, question and appreciate how science affects their health as well as that of the rest of the world. We also delve into significant biomedical discoveries and portray how science (or the lack of it) has impacted health throughout history.
Medical Discovery News
Painting Could be Risky
946 Painting Could Be Risky
Welcome to Medical Discovery News. I’m Dr. Norbert Herzog.
And I’m Dr. David Niesel
When chemists analyzed the paint used in a masterpiece painting from four centuries ago, they found a list of toxic ingredients.
The massive masterpiece displayed at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is The Night Watch which measures twelve by fifteen feet. Dutch painter, Rembrandt van Rijn painted it in sixteen forty-two.
It depicts a militia company charged with protecting Amsterdam. Typically, these portraits would show the militia in neat rows, but Rembrandt wanted action and used light and shadow to achieve it.
The focal point of the painting is a lieutenant’s gold tunic which pops from the painting with a golden glow. Rembrandt used an unusual combination of paints, including lead-tin yellow and red-orange pigments made with arsenic and sulfur. Both lead and arsenic are highly toxic.
In utero and early childhood exposure impacts cognitive development and increases death in young adults. The immediate symptoms of acute arsenic poisoning include vomiting and diarrhea and eventually death
Sulfur which he also used causes skin rashes and breathing it over time can cause chronic bronchitis.
To make matters worse, some of the rich pigments were made by adding extra arsenic or sulfur to heated arsenic sulfur ores like bright yellow or bright red realgar also known as ″arsenic blende″, ″ruby sulfur″ or ″ruby of arsenic″.
We’re only now learning the hazards of being a painter during that time period and hope Rembrandt didn’t like to lick his paintbrushes!
We are Drs. David Niesel and Norbert Herzog, at UTMB and Quinnipiac University, where biomedical discoveries shape the future of medicine. For much more and our disclaimer go to medicaldiscoverynews.com or subscribe to our podcast. Sign up for expanded print episodes at www.illuminascicom.com
