woodchurch science

many of you won’t have heard of thalidomide but it was a drug first introduced in the 1950s as a sedative. because it was deemed to be so safe, it was prescribed to pregnant women to combat the nausea associated with morning sickness. however some women who took the drug in early pregnancy gave birth to children with severe birth defects such as missing or shortened limbs, known as phocomelia. approximately 40% of those children died within a year of their birth and survivors faced life with major physical challenges.
 

shortly after the link between thalidomide and birth defects was proven it was banned from use world-wide.

now thalidomide has what is known as a racemic structure – that is it contains both left and right-handed versions of the same molecule in equal amounts. can you see the difference? one is the mirror image of the other. one version is effective against morning sickness, the other causes birth defects. whether you were successful in not suffering from morning sickness or had a sadly deformed child was merely the luck of the draw.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 1st, 2006 at 7:01 pm and is filed under chemistry, ks3, ks4, medical, warren. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.