For starters, I think this article is quite interesting. It seems that in December of 1971 prostaglandins was an up-and-coming field of research with potential for breakthroughs in the treatment of various diseases. The author, Lawrence Galton, does a nice job of clarifying complex scientific concepts for the lay reader. However, I think that basic high school knowledge of biology and chemistry is required to understand even the simplified version presented in this article. Additionally, the article is rather long and would probably not hold the attention of today’s readers since we live in a generation where people expect information on demand, at their fingertips, and very very quickly. I doubt most people trying to stay abreast of the news will take the time (for me it was over an hour) to read an in-depth article on some hormones which may be used in the future of medicine. We hire unpaid interns for that kind of work.

Anyhow, as I was reading through the article I had a few questions and comments about the content. Firstly, the article notes that “…easily available abortion became legal in July 1970…” – a crucial point to focus on because this article was written only a little over a year after this law was implemented! Logically during the early 1970’s the public would have been embroiled in the ethics of abortion (and the author does bring down differing opinions of scientists) which would make this article particularly important at the time.

Another point of interest is that the article mentions “…a Welsh psychologist…who discovered a substance which caused powerful contractions of the uterus during menstruation…” Although the article merely breezes past this earlier usage of prostaglandins, I wonder if science in the 70’s and science today has utilized further research on this topic. How would society be changed in women could take a substance speeding up menstruation to a few hours instead of up to a week? This concept is mind blowing and even more surprising is that nobody seems to be discussing it.

When discussing the use of prostaglandins to induce labor, the article notes that oxytocin “failed to induce labor in 44” out of 100 patients. I was thinking it’s a failure on the author’s part that he didn’t declare what the time constraints for labor induction are. Obviously, eventually every pregnant woman will give birth. The question in my mind is how short after the drug was delivered would a birth be considered “medically induced” as opposed to naturally occurring.

Lastly, the article notes that in addition to inducing abortion, prostaglandins can be added to semen so that sperm travel faster through the fallopian tubes to arrive at the egg. In both processes, the prostaglandins cause the uterine lining to contract. I was particularly fascinated that the same hormone group known as prostaglandins may play a role in opposite fertility processes.