Tag: Science
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Albrecht von Haller, physiologist and polymath
Medicine was only one of the many interests of Albrecht von Haller. He was physician, anatomist, botanist, and physiologist, wrote poetry, studied religion and philosophy, and has been called the father of physiology and founder of hemodynamics.1,2 Born in 1708 in Bern, Switzerland, into a family of priests and magistrates, he was a weak and…
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The Fantus clinic and the blood bank of Chicago
There was an old four-story building on the campus of Cook County Hospital that had long served as its outpatient department. It had on each floor crowded clinics where patients waited long on hard benches to be seen. It had clinics for high blood pressure, where pills were prescribed, but not necessarily taken; clinics for…
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The men who standardized temperature measurements
Einar PermanStockholm, Sweden In the world of medical science the names of people are often associated with the diseases they described (Crohn, Alzheimer, Dupuytren) or the procedures they introduced or pioneered (Heimlich, Valsalva, Romberg). Ranking high among such innovators are those who standardized temperature measurements. They remain household words, as shown by a Google search…
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The future of medicine
Hannah WilsonCambridge, Massachusetts, United States “Nobody can be told what the Matrix is, you have to see it for yourself. … Morpheus: If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then ‘real’ is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.” —Neo (The Matrix, 1999) Tomorrow was louder than I had expected, the…
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Taking the bat out of Hell
Tajri SalekBirmingham, UK “Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!”― Bram Stoker, Dracula If you ever trek through the dense undergrowth of the Borneo rainforests, you will eventually get to a clearing where monkey song and colorful epiphytes give way to the gigantic rocky face of Deer Cave. If you…
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That hospital smell
Mariel TishmaChicago, Illinois, United States What smells good to you? Do you know why? To many people smell seems of little significance, yet it is a powerful sense, having evolved earlier than the more complex senses of sight and hearing.1, 2 Smell is unique in how it is processed, being first detected by neurons which…
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John Tyndall, FRS: The beauty of science
JMS PearceHull, England, United Kingdom Over many centuries non-medical people have carried out research into disease and its causes, often making important advances. The 1841 Census estimates suggest a third of all medical practitioners in England were unqualified.a The great scientist John Tyndall (1820–1893) (Fig 1) was not a medical practitioner, but an Irish physicist,…
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Giovanni Borelli, polymath of Naples and Pisa
Giovanni Borelli lived during one of the darkest periods of Italy, when much of its territory was ruled by foreign powers and the Inquisition controlled the minds and bodies of its people. Born in Naples in 1608, he was mentored in his youth by the distinguished philosopher Tommaso Campanella, a prisoner in a castle in…
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Claude Bernard, one of the greatest scientists
Claude Bernard (1813–1878), “one of the greatest of all men of science,” originated the term milieu intérieur, and furthered the concept of homeostasis. After an early high school and college education, he become an assistant in a druggist’s shop and contemplated becoming a writer, but was persuaded to study medicine and became an intern at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in…
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Van Leeuwenhoek’s discovery of “animalcules”
George DuneaChicago Illinois, United States “I then most always saw, with great wonder, that in the said matter there were many very little living animalcules, very prettily a-moving. The biggest sort. . . had a very strong and swift motion, and shot through the water (or spittle) like a pike does through the water. The…