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Aug 6, 1538
Human Anatomy
human anatomyVesalius believes that understanding anatomy is crucial to performing surgery, so he dissects human corpses himself (unusual for the time). His anatomical charts detailing the blood and nervous systems, produced as a reference aid for his students, are copied so often that he is forced to publish them to protect their accuracy. In 1543 he publishes De Humani Corporis Fabrica, transforming the subject of anatomy. -
Blood Circulation
blood circulationWilliam Harvey discovers that blood circulates through the body and names the heart as the organ responsible for pumping the blood. His groundbreaking work, Anatomical Essay on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, published in 1628, -
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Vaccination
an English country doctor, performs the first vaccination against smallpox after discovering that inoculation with cowpox provides immunity. -
Germ Theory
germscertain microbes are disease-causing agents. At the time, the origin of diseases such as cholera, anthrax and rabies is a mystery. Pasteur formulates a germ theory, postulating that these diseases and many others are caused by bacteria -
Anesthesia
AnesthesiaSeveral scientists discover that certain chemicals can be used as anesthetics, making it possible to perform surgery without pain. The earliest experiments with anesthetic agents — nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and sulfuric ether — are performed mainly by 19th-century dentists. -
X-rays
Wilhelm Roentgen accidentally discovers X-rays as he conducts experiments with the radiation from cathode rays (electrons). He notices that the rays are able to penetrate opaque black paper wrapped around a cathode ray tube, causing a nearby table to glow with florescence. -
Vitamins
These "accessory food factors" are essential to health. -
Blood Groups
discover four blood groups and develop a system of classification. Knowledge of the different blood types is crucial to performing safe blood transfusions -
Penicillin
discovers penicillin, then Howard Florey and Boris Chain isolate and purify the compound, producing the first antibiotic. Fleming's discovery comes completely by accident when he notices that mold has killed a bacteria sample in a petri dish that is languishing under a pile in his lab's sink. Fleming isolates a sample of the mold and identifies it as Penicillium notatum. With controlled experimentation, Florey and Chain later find the compound cures mice with bacterial infections. -
M..R.I. discovery
Magnetic resonance imaging or scanning (also called an MRI) is a method of looking inside the body without using surgery, harmful dyes or x-rays. The MRI scanner uses magnetism and radio waves to produce clear pictures of the human anatomy -
Sulfa Drugs
Prontosil, an orange-red dye, cures infections caused by the common bacteria streptococci. The finding opens the door to the synthesis of chemotherapeutic drugs (or "wonder drugs") and sulfa drugs in particular. -
1st heart transplant
1st heart transplant Cape Town, South Africa, surgeon Christian Barnard (1922– ) conducted the first heart transplant; the patient, a fifty-five-year-old man, lived for eighteen days after the operation. The following year Barnard performed a second transplant, which was more successful. -
Oncogenes
oncogenesHarold Varmus and Michael Bishop discover oncogenes — normal genes that control growth in every living cell, but can contribute to converting normal cells into cancer cells if mutated or present in abnormally high amounts. Cancer cells are cells that multiply uncontrollably. Varmus and Bishop worked from the theory that the growth of cancerous cells does not occur as the result of an invasion from outside the cell, but as a result of mutations possibly aggravated by environmental toxins such as -
The Human Retrovirus
human retroviusthe human retrovirusCompeting scientists Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier separately discover a new retrovirus later dubbed HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), and identify it as the causative agent of AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome).
