Category: Science
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The origins of NIH medical research grants
Edward Tabor Bethesda, MD, United States The main administration building at the “National Institute of Health,” photographed sometime between 1940–1947, before the name was changed to “National Institutes of Health.” The original name can be seen under the cornice. From the “Images from the History of Medicine” collection at the National Library of Medicine,…
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Francis Bacon’s natural philosophy and medicine
JMS Pearce Hull, England Fig 1. Novum Organum Scientiarum, 2nd edition, 1645. EC.B1328.620ib, Houghton Library, Harvard University. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. Lord Bacon was the greatest genius that England, or perhaps any country, ever produced. – Alexander Pope, 1741 The early seventeenth century was a time when natural philosophy, the precursor of modern…
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Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield: Inventor of the CT scanner
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England The name Godfrey Hounsfield is not familiar to most healthcare professionals, yet his invention of the CT (Computerized Tomography) scanner is one of the greatest radiological advances since Röntgen discovered X-rays in 1895. Nearly all modern hospitals have a CT scanner, which enables doctors to make a more accurate diagnosis, especially…
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The beginnings of cell theory: Schleiden, Schwann, and Virchow
JMS Pearce Hull, England Figure 1. Robert Hooke’s pores (cells) of the cork oak. Wellcome Collection. CC BY 4.0. Every schoolchild is taught in biology about cells and their elemental importance. Students of biological and medical sciences also learn about the Schwann cell sheath that invests nerve fibers. What is less well known is…
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Berzelius, father of Swedish chemistry
Jons Jakob Berzelius. Engraving by Charles W. Sharpe and published by William Mackenzie, 1860. After Johan Olaf Sodermark. Smithsonian Libraries Image Gallery via Wikimedia. Public domain. Born in 1779 in East Gotland in the southern part of Sweden, Jons Jacob Berzelius descended from an old Swedish family in which many of his ancestors had…
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“Can you define the word ‘woman’?”
Jayant Radhakrishnan Darien, Illinois, United States Venus is considered to be the epitome of feminine beauty in the western world. Does it matter that she has no arms? Venus de Milo. Louvre Museum. Photo by Tupungato on Dreamstime. “The more you know the more you realize you don’t know.” — Aristotle (384 BCE-322 BCE)…
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Dr. Fritz Kahn and medical infographics
Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Der Mensch als Industriepalast (Man as Industrial Palace). A human head in profile divided into offices, staffed by little men, and areas of industrial production. Artwork by Fritz Kahn in Das Leben des Menschen; eine volkstümliche Anatomie, Biologie, Physiologie und Entwick-lungs-geschichte des Menschen (Kosmus publishers, Stuttgart, 1926). Chromolithograph. Via the…
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Xenotransplantation—giving animal organs to humans
Dr. Alexis Carrel. Photo originally published by Bain News Service, June 1922. From Flickr Commons project and The Evening World via the Library of Congress George Grantham Bain Collection. Via Wikimedia. No known restrictions on publication. In the early 1990s a distinguished scientist predicted that within twenty years thousands of lives would be saved by…
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Rabbit starvation (protein poisoning)
Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Kitchen – Hotel Dieu, Beaune. A model of a nun preparing rabbit. Crop of photo by Elekes Andor. May 17, 2016. Via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. “Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean…“ — Sixteenth-century nursery rhyme Rabbit starvation (fat starvation, mal de caribou,…