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Cancer has been around as long as humankind, but only in the second half of the twentieth century did the number of cancer cases explode.
More than 2,500 barbiturates have been synthesized. At the height of their popularity, about 50 were marketed for human use.
Malaria mortality rates are falling. Increased malaria prevention and control measures have greatly improved these rates. Since 2000, malaria mortality rates have fallen globally by 60% among all age groups, and by 65% among children under age 5.
When Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the first mercury thermometer, he called "zero degrees" the lowest temperature he was able to attain with a mixture of ice and salt. For the upper point of his scale, he used 96°, which he measured as normal human body temperature (we know it to be 98.6° today because of more accurate thermometers).
Russia has the highest death rate from cardiovascular disease followed by the Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, and Poland.