Life-Changing Technologies - Two Examples

Innovative culture must strive to change lives - Mike A.

On November 8, 1895 Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, accidentally discovered X-rays in his lab in Bavaria. This X-rays (X meaning unknown) would easily penetrate flesh and leave an opaque impression of bones.[1] This discovery provided a powerful tool in diagnostic medicine.[2] The introduction of this technology has had a tremendous impact on the way medicine helps individuals and the society. Diagnostic x-ray can help individuals in medical cases such as broken bones, detecting and treating tumors, cancer (radiation therapy) chest x-rays, surgery and much more.[3] The change it has brought to the society includes accurate diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment leading to higher life expectancy and general health.[4] 

In 1928, in St. Mary’s Hospital in London, Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, a revolutionary antibiotic that is capable of combating serious diseases such as syphilis, infections and other bacterial diseases.[5]  Penicillin works by preventing some bacteria from creating new cell wall. As such bacteria cannot divide and multiply and dies.[6]  Many individuals where cured form once-fatal bacterial infections. During World War II the true effect of this so-called “miracle drug” saved hundreds of lives. [7]  The individual and society impact of this antibiotic is that it still continues to save lives around the globe. Penicillin’s germ-killing power has probably saved most of our lives from infections.

---

[1] Otto Glasser, Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen and the Early History of the Roentgen Rays, Norman Publishing, 1993

[2] Francis Henry Williams, The Roentgen Rays in Medicine and Surgery, Macmillan, 1903

[3] Richard Francis Mould, A Century of X-Rays and Radioactivity in Medicine, CRC Press, 1993

[4] Clarence Bartlett, A Textbook of Clinical Medicine, Volume 1, Boericke & Taffel, 1903

[5] Guy De la Bedoyere, Camilla De la Bedoyere, The Discovery of Penicillin, Gareth Stevens, 2005

[6] Richard Tames, Penicillin: A Breakthrough in Medicine, Heinemann-Raintree Classroom, 2006

[7] Robert Bud, Penicillin: Triumph and Tragedy, Oxford University Press, 2007