MODELLING MEDICINE: Wet clumps of Kisameet clay (left) and a dried and ground clay sample (right)SHEKOOH BEHROOZIAN
About three years ago, University of British Columbia (UBC) microbiologist Julian Davies hosted an unusual meeting in his lab in Vancouver, Canada. The visitors explained that they had recently acquired the rights to a clay deposit 250 miles north, on the edge of the Kisameet Basin, which is within territory belonging to a group of native, or First Nations, people, the Heiltsuk. The owners of the deposit planned to use the clay to create and sell cosmetics through their company, Kisameet Glacial Clay Inc., they said. They also speculated, based on scientific and medical reports about the clay published in the 1940s and ’50s, that the clay had antimicrobial properties, and wondered if Davies would be willing to look into it. “This sounds like quackery, ...
