The first modern asthma inhaler
Asthma affects more children than any other non-communicable disease - and it was a teenager who first asked her father "why can't they put my asthma medication in a spray can like hairspray?". Luckily her father ran a pharmaceutical company and got a team of scientists to work on the idea. Charlie Thiel is the one surviving member of the team. The chemist helped create a drug formulation of fine spray that reached further into the lungs than any previous treatment. Claire Bowes hears from him and his colleague Stephen Stein who has helped him document his story.Photo: Girl using metered dose inhaler 2001 (BBC)
19 Elo 202010min
The lost King of England
In 2012, archaeologists from the University of Leicester discovered the lost grave of Richard III under a car park in Leicester. Richard was the King of England more than 500 years ago and for centuries was portrayed as one of the great villains of English history. He was killed in 1485 leading his army in battle against a rival claimant to the throne, Henry Tudor. After the battle, Richard III corpse was stripped naked, paraded around down, before being hastily buried in a church within a friary in Leicester, which was later demolished. Alex Last spoke to Dr Richard Buckley who led the archaeological project to find the remains.Photo: Remains of King Richard III being studied at The University of Leicester (BBC)
18 Elo 202012min
Surviving Saddam
Zainab Salbi grew up in the inner social circle of the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, in the 1980s because her father worked as Saddam’s personal pilot. It was a world of apparently glamorous parties on the River Tigris, but where the slightest falling-out with the dictator could lead to execution. After years of psychological pressure, Zainab’s family got her out of Saddam’s Iraq by setting up an arranged marriage for her in the US. She tells her story to Susan Hulme.PHOTO: Zainab Salbi as a teenager with Saddam Hussein (private collection)
17 Elo 20209min
The invention of the modern ventilator
In August 1952, the Blegdam Hospital in the Danish capital Copenhagen was overwhelmed by hundreds of seriously ill polio patients. During the first weeks of the epidemic over 80 percent of the patients died, most within days of admission. The patients, who were mostly children, were dying of respiratory failure. Desperate for a solution an anaesthetist, Bjørn Iben, came up with a strategy that led to today’s ventilators and revolutionised medicine. Farhana Haider has been speaking to Anne Holton who was a medical student at the time of the polio epidemic and helped treat patients.Photo A medical student in Denmark 1952 treating a polio patient in Blegdam Hospital, Copenhagen. Credit used with permission of Jørgen Viby-Mogensen.
14 Elo 202013min
Scoring a victory for women's rights in Turkey
In 2004 feminist campaigners in Turkey forced a radical change in the law on crimes against women. The overhaul of the country's 80-year-old penal code meant a redefinition of crimes such as rape and sexual assault; references to chastity, honour and virginity were also removed from the legislation. It was a major victory for a group of women who had been pressing for reform for years and was also one of the conditions for Turkey's accession talks with the European Union. Mike Lanchin has been speaking to Pinar Ilkkaracan, who led the successful campaign for legal change.(PHOTO: TARIK TINAZAY/AFP via Getty Images)
13 Elo 20209min
Beirut's Hotel War
At the start of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, Beirut’s luxury hotel district was turned into a battlefield, with rival groups of gunmen holed up in some of the most expensive accommodation in the Middle East. In 2014, William Kremer spoke to two former employees of the Holiday Inn about what came to be known as the Battle of the Hotels. Photo: The ruins of the Holiday Inn. (Credit: Getty Images)
12 Elo 20208min
Bremen’s Elephant Statue
Amid the ongoing debate about how to handle historical monuments which commemorate colonialism and slavery, Witness History hears the story of a giant statue of an elephant in the German city of Bremen.The port city had played a significant role in Germany's colonial past, and after Germany lost its territories in Africa following the First World War the statue was built there in memory of the period.But in the 1980s, a group of anti-apartheid activists campaigned to raise awareness of Germany's colonial history - and to rededicate the elephant statue.Lucy Burns speaks to Professor Manfred Hinz, who was part of the campaign.Photo: Shutterstock - the anti-colonial elephant monument in Bremen, 08/07/2020
11 Elo 202010min
Radar and World War Two
During World War Two, British women were employed as operators of a top-secret radar system for detecting aircraft. The new technology had helped shift the balance of power in the air war with Nazi Germany. Laura Fitzpatrick talks to Margaret Faulds, who was stationed at a Royal Navy Air Station during the war.PHOTO: Margaret Faulds in naval uniform during World War Two (Personal Collection).
10 Elo 20208min
