Who would have guessed that boring old aspirin would end up being touted as the next wonder drug, with a new study adding cancer to the list of things that it's effective at treating? Yet evidence of the medical use of willow bark dates back at least 4,000 years, to a stone tablet found in the city of Ur in present day Iraq. Hippocrates also recommended it for childbirth and fever. But it wasn't until the 19th century that the chemical element was isolated and commercialised by the German manufacturer Bayer, who sold it alongside their other trademark product, Heroin. Bayer was forced to give up the trademark at the Treaty of Versailles, thus making it widely available and cheap. But the wonder-drug tag is dangerous, with some arguing that the overuse of aspirin during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 made matters worse. Those who want to dose themselves up immediately might first take a cautionary history lesson.