Assignment 10 – Woman's History
#8: Marie Curie - She made ground-breaking work in the field of Radioactivity, enabling radioactive isotypes to be isolated for the first time. During the First World War, Curie developed the practical use of X-Rays; she also discovered two new elements, polonium and radium. Her pioneering scientific work was made more remarkable because of the discrimination which existed against women in science at the time. She was the first female professor at the University of Paris and broke down many barriers for women in science.
Task: Write about someone making an important discovering.
12 Uses of Dragon Blood – The Oven Cleaning Solution – 797 words
Dumbledore was currently standing in the lab he shared with Nicolas Flamel in their bid to further their research in Alchemy. He looked around at the mess that the recent explosion of the cauldron created. The explosion had occurred, when he tried to create a new potion that was supposed to emulate the effects of the potion the Philosopher's Stone. How great would it be if the potion was available to everyone without having to make the stone first - or a dozen or more to cover for the entire population?
He had dissected the potion he got from his friend Nicolas and was now trying to recreate it but so far, he only reached dead ends, it was infuriating.
Another of his attempts had come short and resulted in a huge explosion. Potion residues covered every inch of the table, floor, and everything else in a ten feet radius around the now molten cauldron. The only reason for why Dumbledore wasn't hurt or covered in the stuff was for his quick reflexes and the shield he had thrown up when it became apparent that something went wrong.
With a sigh, Dumbledore looked around. This would be a bitch and a half to clean up. He moved back over to the table and saw that a few vials with ingredients survived the explosion, it would be prudent to clean them up first before something happened, they reacted with the potions residue and another probably bigger explosion would occur.
So, he began to pick up the vials that were still whole, cleaned them and placed them in the cupboard for ingredients after making sure that they were still usable. He continued with that until he reached a larger bottle that contained a red liquid that had a green sheen to it.
Dumbledore just went to carefully pick it up when the bottle cracked and shattered under the strain and spilled its content over the already stained table.
He cursed up a storm because the red liquid was Dragon Blood, which was known for being magic resistant, which just made his job of cleaning up the mess even more difficult. That was when Nicholas entered the potions lab, having heard the explosion.
"What's wrong?" He asked when he saw the mess, hurrying over to his friend. "Are you hurt?"
"Nicholas, luckily not, I was able to put up a shield before the cauldron exploded," Dumbledore explained while walking over to the sink to get a rag and water to clean up the mess.
"Come, let me help you," Nicholas said, picking up a rag himself.
They went to work, trying to scrub the mess away, which thanks to the dragon blood had become hard as stone. However, that turned out to be fortunate for them because with some pressure the crust broke and could easily be peeled off the table.
Having an idea, Nicholas collected some more dragon blood from the supply cupboard and sprinkled it over a part where the other dragon blood hadn't reached. He watched fascinated, how the dragon blood was absorbed by the potion residue and hardened like the other part had, ready to be cracked and peeled off.
"I think we just found a good use for dragon blood," Nicolas told his friend with a broad smile. Sure, it was a bit expensive as a cleaning solution but it made their job easier and it wasn't as if they couldn't afford it.
Together and with the use of the blood they made quick work of the mess before they retreated tiredly to the living room of the manor they were in. They sat down in the arm chairs in front of the huge fire place when a house elf brought them a bottle of red wine with two glasses.
"Let's toast to the at least partial success of the day," Nicolas said which made Dumbledore chuckle.
A few days later they again tried to use the dragon blood to clean up the mess of yet another exploded potion, but it became quickly obvious that they had been lucky the first time around. It seemed that only that one certain mix reacted favourably to dragon blood while the rest had in the best case none to in the worst case highly explosive reactions when tried to be cleaned up with dragon blood.
However, later when Nicholas jokingly tried to clean up the oven with dragon blood in a bid to see whether it at least was good in cleaning one thing, it turned out that it was the perfect solution.
That was how they found out one use of what far later would be labelled as the "12 Uses of Dragon Blood", the Oven Cleaning Solution.