Science and Medicine

Entry Category: Science and Medicine - Starting with R

Rubella

Rubella or “German measles” is a contagious disease caused by a virus of the genus rubivirus, which is identified as a member of either the family matonviridae or togaviridae. Present only in humans, the rubella virus is unrelated to the measles virus. The disease acquired the name German measles because it was first described by German physicians in the mid-eighteenth century. Typically a mild illness of childhood, rubella spreads from person to person through respiratory droplets, appearing following an incubation period of twelve to twenty-three days. Symptoms include a low-grade fever, enlarged lymph nodes, and a diffuse, fine, light-red rash. Recovery usually confers immunity. Rubella is most dangerous during pregnancy. Prenatal maternal rubella infection, particularly if it occurs during the …

Rust, John Daniel

John Daniel Rust invented the first practical spindle cotton picker in the late 1930s. The Rust cotton picker threatened to wipe out the old plantation system and throw millions of people out of work, creating a social revolution. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin had created the “Cotton South,” but the Rust picker threatened to destroy it. In 1949, Rust moved to Pine Bluff (Jefferson County), where the Ben Pearson Company produced cotton pickers using the Rust patents. John D. Rust was born on September 6, 1892, near Necessity, Texas, to Benjamin Daniel Rust, a farmer and schoolteacher, and Susan Minerva Burnett, a homemaker. As a youngster, Rust did farm work and displayed an aptitude for mechanical tinkering. His parents died when …