The most important discoveries in the history of medicine
1. Human Anatomy (1538)
Andreas Vesalius analyzes human bodies from autopsies, provides detailed information about human anatomy, and refutes various interpretations on the topic. Vesalius believes that understanding anatomy is critical to performing operations, so he analyzes human cadavers (unusual for the time).
His anatomical diagrams of the circulatory and nervous systems, written as a standard to help his students, were copied so often that he was forced to publish them to protect their authenticity. In 1543, he published De Humani Corporis Fabrica, which marked the beginning of the birth of the science of anatomy.
2. Blood circulation (1628)
William Harvey discovers that blood circulates throughout the body and names the heart as the organ responsible for the circulation of blood. His pioneering work, an anatomical sketch of the heart and circulation of blood in animals, published in 1628, formed the basis for modern physiology.
3. Blood groups (1902)
Kapril Landsteiner
Austrian biologist Karl Landsteiner and his group discover four blood types in humans and develop a classification system. Knowledge of the different blood types is critical to performing safe blood transfusions, which is now common practice.
4. Anesthesia (1842-1846)
Some scientists have discovered that certain chemicals can be used as anesthesia, allowing operations to be performed without pain. The first experiments with anesthetics - nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and sulfuric ether - began to be used in the 19th century, mainly by dentists.
5. X-Rays (1895)
Wilhelm Roentgen accidentally discovers X-rays while conducting experiments with cathode ray emission (electron ejection). He notices that the rays are able to penetrate through the opaque black paper wrapped around the cathode ray tube. This causes the flowers located on the adjacent table to glow. His discovery revolutionized the fields of physics and medicine, earning him the first ever Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.
6. Germ Theory (1800)
French chemist Louis Pasteur believes that some microbes are pathogenic agents. At the same time, the origin of diseases such as cholera, anthrax and rabies remains a mystery. Pasteur formulates the germ theory, suggesting that these diseases and many others are caused by corresponding bacteria. Pasteur is called the "father of bacteriology" because his work became the threshold of new scientific research.
7. Vitamins (early 1900s)
Frederick Hopkins and others discovered that some diseases were caused by a lack of certain nutrients, which were later called vitamins. In experiments with nutrition on laboratory animals, Hopkins proves that these "nutritional accessory factors" are important for health.
Education is one of the foundations of human development. Only thanks to the fact that humanity has passed on its empirical knowledge from generation to generation, at the moment we can enjoy the benefits of civilization, live in a certain abundance and without destructive racial and tribal wars for access to the resources of existence.
Education has also penetrated into the Internet. One of the educational projects was called Otrok.
=============================================================================
8. Penicillin (1920-1930s)
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. Howard Florey and Ernst Boris isolated it in its pure form, creating an antibiotic.
Fleming's discovery happened completely by accident, he noticed that mold had killed bacteria of a certain sample in a Petri dish that was just lying around in the laboratory sink. Fleming isolates a specimen and calls it Penicillium notatum. In subsequent experiments, Howard Florey and Ernst Boris confirmed penicillin treatment of mice with bacterial infections.
9. Sulfur-containing preparations (1930)
Gerhard Domagk discovers that Prontosil, an orange-red dye, is effective in treating infections caused by the bacteria common streptococcus. This discovery opens the way to the synthesis of chemotherapy drugs (or "wonder drugs") and the production of sulfonamide drugs in particular.
10. Vaccination (1796)
Edward Jenner, an English physician, conducts the first vaccination against smallpox, having determined that cowpox vaccination provides immunity. Jenner formulated his theory after noticing that patients who worked with cattle and came into contact with cows did not get smallpox during an epidemic in 1788.
11. Insulin (1920)
Frederick Banting and his colleagues discovered the hormone insulin, which helps balance blood sugar levels in diabetics and allows them to live normal lives. Before the discovery of insulin, it was impossible to save diabetic patients.
12. Discovery of oncogenes (1975)
13. Discovery of the human retrovirus HIV (1980)
Scientists Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier separately discovered a new retrovirus, later named HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), and classified it as the causative agent of AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome).
The past year has been very fruitful for science. Scientists have made particular progress in the field of medicine. Humanity has made amazing discoveries, scientific breakthroughs and created many useful medicines, which will certainly soon be freely available. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the ten most amazing medical breakthroughs of 2015, which are sure to make a serious contribution to the development of medical services in the very near future.
Discovery of teixobactin
In 2014, the World Health Organization warned everyone that humanity was entering a so-called post-antibiotic era. And after all, she turned out to be right. Science and medicine have not really produced new types of antibiotics since 1987. However, diseases do not stand still. Every year new infections appear that are more resistant to existing medications. This has become a real world problem. However, in 2015, scientists made a discovery that they believe will bring dramatic changes.
Scientists have discovered a new class of antibiotics from 25 antimicrobial drugs, including a very important one called teixobactin. This antibiotic kills germs by blocking their ability to produce new cells. In other words, microbes under the influence of this drug cannot develop and develop resistance to the drug over time. Teixobactin has now proven highly effective in the fight against resistant Staphylococcus aureus and several bacteria that cause tuberculosis.
Laboratory tests of teixobactin were carried out on mice. The vast majority of experiments showed the effectiveness of the drug. Human trials are due to begin in 2017.
Doctors grew new vocal cords
One of the most interesting and promising areas in medicine is tissue regeneration. In 2015, the list of organs recreated artificially was supplemented with a new item. Doctors from the University of Wisconsin have learned to grow human vocal cords from virtually nothing.
A team of scientists led by Dr. Nathan Welhan has bioengineered tissue that can mimic the functioning of the mucous membrane of the vocal cords, namely, tissue that appears to be two lobes of the cords that vibrate to create human speech. The donor cells from which new ligaments were subsequently grown were taken from five volunteer patients. In laboratory conditions, scientists grew the necessary tissue over two weeks, and then added it to an artificial model of the larynx.
The sound created by the resulting vocal cords is described by scientists as metallic and compared to the sound of a robotic kazoo (a toy wind musical instrument). However, scientists are confident that the vocal cords they created in real conditions (that is, when implanted into a living organism) will sound almost like real ones.
In one of the latest experiments on laboratory mice with human immunity, researchers decided to test whether the rodents' body would reject the new tissue. Fortunately, this did not happen. Dr. Welham is confident that the tissue will not be rejected by the human body.
Cancer drug could help patients with Parkinson's disease
Tisinga (or nilotinib) is a tested and approved medicine that is commonly used to treat people with symptoms of leukemia. However, new research from Georgetown University Medical Center shows that the drug Tasinga may be a very powerful treatment for controlling motor symptoms in people with Parkinson's disease, improving their motor function and controlling non-motor symptoms of the disease.
Fernando Pagan, one of the doctors who led the study, believes that nilotinib therapy may be a first-of-its-kind effective treatment for reducing the decline of cognitive and motor function in patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease.
Scientists gave increased doses of nilotinib to 12 volunteer patients over a six-month period. All 12 patients who completed this drug trial experienced improvement in motor function. 10 of them showed significant improvement.
The main objective of this study was to test the safety and harmlessness of nilotinib in humans. The dose of the drug used was much less than what is usually given to patients with leukemia. Despite the fact that the drug showed its effectiveness, the study was still conducted on a small group of people without the involvement of control groups. Therefore, before Tasinga is used as a therapy for Parkinson's disease, several more trials and scientific studies will have to be conducted.
World's first 3D printed ribcage
Over the past few years, 3D printing technology has been making its way into many areas, leading to amazing discoveries, developments, and new manufacturing methods. In 2015, doctors at the University Hospital of Salamanca in Spain performed the world's first operation to replace a patient's damaged rib cage with a new 3D printed prosthesis.
The man suffered from a rare type of sarcoma, and doctors had no other choice. To prevent the tumor from spreading further throughout the body, specialists removed almost the entire sternum from the person and replaced the bones with a titanium implant.
As a rule, implants for large parts of the skeleton are made from a variety of materials, which can wear out over time. In addition, replacing bones as complex as the sternum, which are typically unique to each individual case, required doctors to carefully scan a person's sternum to design the correct size implant.
It was decided to use titanium alloy as the material for the new sternum. After conducting high-precision 3D CT scans, the scientists used a $1.3 million Arcam printer to create a new titanium rib cage. The operation to install a new sternum in the patient was successful, and the person has already completed a full course of rehabilitation.
From skin cells to brain cells
Scientists from the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, have spent the past year studying the human brain. They have developed a method for transforming skin cells into brain cells and have already found several useful applications for the new technology.
It should be noted that scientists have found a way to turn skin cells into old brain cells, which makes them easier to further use, for example, in research into Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and their relationship with the effects of aging. Historically, animal brain cells have been used for such research, but scientists have been limited in their capabilities.
Relatively recently, scientists have been able to turn stem cells into brain cells that can be used for research. However, this is a rather labor-intensive process, and the resulting cells are not capable of imitating the functioning of the brain of an elderly person.
Once researchers developed a way to artificially create brain cells, they turned their efforts to creating neurons that would have the ability to produce serotonin. And although the resulting cells have only a tiny fraction of the capabilities of the human brain, they actively help scientists research and find cures for diseases and disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and depression.
Birth control pills for men
Japanese scientists from the Research Institute for Microbial Diseases in Osaka have published a new scientific paper, according to which in the near future we will be able to produce actually working contraceptive pills for men. In their work, scientists describe studies of the drugs Tacrolimus and Cixlosporin A.
Typically, these drugs are used after organ transplant surgery to suppress the body's immune system so that it does not reject the new tissue. The blockade occurs by inhibiting the production of the enzyme calcineurin, which contains the PPP3R2 and PPP3CC proteins normally found in male semen.
In their study on laboratory mice, scientists found that as soon as rodents do not produce enough PPP3CC protein, their reproductive functions are sharply reduced. This led researchers to the conclusion that insufficient amounts of this protein could lead to sterility. After more careful study, experts concluded that this protein gives sperm cells the flexibility and the necessary strength and energy to penetrate the egg membrane.
Testing on healthy mice only confirmed their discovery. Just five days of using the drugs Tacrolimus and Ciclosporin A led to complete infertility in mice. However, their reproductive function was fully restored just a week after they stopped receiving these drugs. It is important to note that calcineurin is not a hormone, so the use of drugs in no way reduces libido or excitability of the body.
Despite the promising results, it will take several years to create a real male birth control pill. About 80 percent of mouse studies are not applicable to human cases. However, scientists still hope for success, since the effectiveness of the drugs has been proven. In addition, similar drugs have already passed human clinical trials and are widely used.
DNA stamp
3D printing technologies have led to the emergence of a unique new industry - the printing and sale of DNA. True, the term “printing” here is rather used specifically for commercial purposes, and does not necessarily describe what is actually happening in this area.
The executive director of Cambrian Genomics explains that the process is best described by the phrase “error checking” rather than “printing.” Millions of pieces of DNA are placed on tiny metal substrates and scanned by a computer, which selects those strands that will eventually make up the entire sequence of the DNA strand. After this, the necessary connections are carefully cut out with a laser and placed in a new chain, pre-ordered by the client.
Companies like Cambrian believe that in the future, people will be able to use special computer hardware and software to create new organisms just for fun. Of course, such assumptions will immediately cause the righteous anger of people who doubt the ethical correctness and practical benefits of these studies and opportunities, but sooner or later, no matter how much we want it or not, we will come to this.
Currently, DNA printing is showing some promising potential in the medical field. Drug manufacturers and research companies are among the early clients of companies like Cambrian.
Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden went even further and began to create various figures from DNA chains. DNA origami, as they call it, may at first glance seem like a simple prank, however, this technology also has practical potential for use. For example, it can be used in the delivery of drugs into the body.
Nanobots in a living organism
The robotics field scored a big win in early 2015 when a team of researchers at the University of California, San Diego announced they had conducted the first successful tests using nanobots that performed their task while inside a living organism.
The living organism in this case was laboratory mice. After placing the nanobots inside the animals, the micromachines went to the rodents’ stomachs and delivered the cargo placed on them, which were microscopic particles of gold. By the end of the procedure, the scientists did not note any damage to the internal organs of the mice and, thus, confirmed the usefulness, safety and effectiveness of the nanobots.
Further tests showed that more gold particles delivered by nanobots remained in the stomachs than those that were simply introduced there with food. This has led scientists to believe that nanobots in the future will be able to deliver needed drugs into the body much more efficiently than with more traditional methods of administering them.
The motor chain of the tiny robots is made of zinc. When it comes into contact with the acid-base environment of the body, a chemical reaction occurs, resulting in the production of hydrogen bubbles, which propel the nanobots inside. After some time, the nanobots simply dissolve in the acidic environment of the stomach.
Although the technology has been in development for almost a decade, it wasn't until 2015 that scientists were able to actually test it in a living environment rather than in regular petri dishes, as has been done many times before. In the future, nanobots could be used to identify and even treat various diseases of internal organs by exposing individual cells to the desired drugs.
Injectable brain nanoimplant
A team of Harvard scientists has developed an implant that promises to treat a range of neurodegenerative disorders that lead to paralysis. The implant is an electronic device consisting of a universal frame (mesh), to which various nanodevices can later be connected after it is inserted into the patient’s brain. Thanks to the implant, it will be possible to monitor the neural activity of the brain, stimulate the work of certain tissues, and also accelerate the regeneration of neurons.
The electronic mesh consists of conductive polymer filaments, transistors or nanoelectrodes that interconnect intersections. Almost the entire area of the mesh is made up of holes, allowing living cells to form new connections around it.
By the beginning of 2016, a team of scientists from Harvard was still testing the safety of using such an implant. For example, two mice were implanted into the brain with a device consisting of 16 electrical components. The devices have been successfully used to monitor and stimulate specific neurons.
Artificial production of tetrahydrocannabinol
For many years, marijuana has been used in medicine as a pain reliever and, in particular, to improve the conditions of cancer and AIDS patients. A synthetic substitute for marijuana, or more precisely its main psychoactive component tetrahydrocannabinol (or THC), is also actively used in medicine.
However, biochemists from the Technical University of Dortmund have announced the creation of a new type of yeast that produces THC. Moreover, unpublished data shows that these same scientists have created another type of yeast that produces cannabidiol, another psychoactive component of marijuana.
Marijuana contains several molecular compounds that interest researchers. Therefore, the discovery of an effective artificial way to create these components in large quantities could bring enormous benefits to medicine. However, the method of conventionally growing plants and then extracting the necessary molecular compounds is currently the most effective method. Up to 30 percent of the dry mass of modern marijuana varieties may contain the desired THC component.
Despite this, Dortmund scientists are confident that they will be able to find a more efficient and faster way to extract THC in the future. By now, the created yeast is regrown on molecules of the same fungus, instead of the preferred alternative of simple saccharides. All this leads to the fact that with each new batch of yeast the amount of free THC component decreases.
In the future, scientists promise to optimize the process, maximize THC production and scale it up to industrial scale, ultimately satisfying the needs of medical research and European regulators who are looking for new ways to produce THC without growing marijuana itself.
They changed our world and significantly influenced the lives of many generations.
Great physicists and their discoveries
(1856-1943) - inventor in the field of electrical and radio engineering of Serbian origin. Nikola is called the father of modern electricity. He made many discoveries and inventions, receiving more than 300 patents for his creations in all the countries where he worked. Nikola Tesla was not only a theoretical physicist, but also a brilliant engineer who created and tested his inventions.
Tesla discovered alternating current, wireless transmission of energy, electricity, his work led to the discovery of X-rays, and created a machine that caused vibrations in the surface of the earth. Nikola predicted the advent of an era of robots capable of doing any job.
(1643-1727) - one of the fathers of classical physics. He substantiated the movement of the planets of the solar system around the Sun, as well as the onset of ebbs and flows. Newton created the foundation for modern physical optics. The pinnacle of his work is the famous law of universal gravitation.
John Dalton- English physical chemist. Discovered the law of uniform expansion of gases when heated, the law of multiple ratios, the phenomenon of polymerization (using the example of ethylene and butylene). Creator of the atomic theory of the structure of matter.
Michael Faraday(1791 - 1867) - English physicist and chemist, founder of the doctrine of the electromagnetic field. He made so many scientific discoveries during his life that they would be enough for a dozen scientists to immortalize his name.
(1867 - 1934) - physicist and chemist of Polish origin. Together with her husband, she discovered the elements radium and polonium. She worked on problems of radioactivity.
Robert Boyle(1627 - 1691) - English physicist, chemist and theologian. Together with R. Townley, he established the dependence of the volume of the same mass of air on pressure at a constant temperature (Boyle-Mariotte law).
Ernest Rutherford- English physicist, unraveled the nature of induced radioactivity, discovered the emanation of thorium, radioactive decay and its law. Rutherford is often rightly called one of the titans of 20th century physics.
- German physicist, creator of the general theory of relativity. He suggested that all bodies do not attract each other, as was believed since the time of Newton, but bend the surrounding space and time. Einstein wrote more than 350 papers on physics. He is the creator of the special (1905) and general theories of relativity (1916), the principle of equivalence of mass and energy (1905). He developed many scientific theories: quantum photoelectric effect and quantum heat capacity. Together with Planck, he developed the foundations of quantum theory, which represents the basis of modern physics.
Alexander Stoletov- Russian physicist, found that the value of the saturation photocurrent is proportional to the light flux incident on the cathode. He came close to establishing the laws of electrical discharges in gases.
(1858-1947) - German physicist, creator of quantum theory, which made a true revolution in physics. Classical physics, as opposed to modern physics, now means “physics before Planck.”
Paul Dirac- English physicist, discovered the statistical distribution of energy in a system of electrons. Received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory."
Doctor of Biological Sciences Y. PETRENKO.
Several years ago, the Faculty of Fundamental Medicine was opened at Moscow State University, which trains doctors with extensive knowledge in natural disciplines: mathematics, physics, chemistry, molecular biology. But the question of how much fundamental knowledge a doctor needs continues to cause heated debate.
Science and life // Illustrations
Among the symbols of medicine depicted on the pediments of the library building of the Russian State Medical University are hope and healing.
A wall painting in the foyer of the Russian State Medical University, which depicts the great doctors of the past sitting in thought at one long table.
W. Gilbert (1544-1603), court physician to the Queen of England, naturalist who discovered earthly magnetism.
T. Young (1773-1829), famous English doctor and physicist, one of the creators of the wave theory of light.
J.-B. L. Foucault (1819-1868), French doctor who was fond of physical research. With the help of a 67-meter pendulum, he proved the rotation of the Earth around its axis and made many discoveries in the field of optics and magnetism.
J. R. Mayer (1814-1878), German physician who established the basic principles of the law of conservation of energy.
G. Helmholtz (1821-1894), a German doctor, studied physiological optics and acoustics, formulated the theory of free energy.
Should future doctors be taught physics? Recently, this question has worried many, and not only those who train medical professionals. As usual, two extreme opinions exist and clash. Those in favor paint a gloomy picture, which is the fruit of a neglectful attitude towards the basic disciplines in education. Those who are “against” believe that a humanitarian approach should dominate in medicine and that a doctor should first of all be a psychologist.
MEDICAL CRISIS AND SOCIETY CRISISModern theoretical and practical medicine has achieved great success, and physical knowledge has greatly helped it. But in scientific articles and journalism, voices continue to be heard about the crisis of medicine in general and medical education in particular. There are definitely facts indicating a crisis - this is the emergence of “divine” healers and the revival of exotic healing methods. Spells like "abracadabra" and amulets like the frog's leg are back in use, just like in prehistoric times. Neovitalism is gaining popularity, one of the founders of which, Hans Driesch, believed that the essence of life phenomena is entelechy (a kind of soul), acting outside of time and space, and that living things cannot be reduced to a set of physical and chemical phenomena. Recognition of entelechy as a vital force denies the importance of physicochemical disciplines for medicine.
There are many examples of how pseudoscientific ideas replace and displace truly scientific knowledge. Why is this happening? According to Nobel laureate Francis Crick, the discoverer of the structure of DNA, when a society becomes very rich, young people show reluctance to work: they prefer to live an easy life and do trifles like astrology. This is true not only for rich countries.
As for the crisis in medicine, it can only be overcome by increasing the level of fundamentality. It is usually believed that fundamentality is a higher level of generalization of scientific ideas, in this case, ideas about human nature. But even on this path one can reach paradoxes, for example, considering a person as a quantum object, completely abstracting from the physical and chemical processes occurring in the body.
DOCTOR-THINKER OR DOCTOR-GURU?No one denies that the patient’s faith in healing plays an important, sometimes even decisive role (remember the placebo effect). So what kind of doctor does a patient need? Confidently pronouncing: “You will be healthy” or thinking for a long time about which medicine to choose in order to get the maximum effect without causing harm?
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the famous English scientist, thinker and doctor Thomas Young (1773-1829) often froze in indecision at the patient’s bedside, hesitated in making a diagnosis, and often fell silent for a long time, plunging into himself. He honestly and painfully searched for the truth in a very complex and confusing subject, about which he wrote: “There is no science whose complexity surpasses medicine. It goes beyond the limits of the human mind.”
From a psychological point of view, a doctor-thinker does not correspond well to the image of an ideal doctor. He lacks courage, arrogance, and categoricalness, which are often characteristic of the ignorant. Probably, this is human nature: when you get sick, you rely on the quick and energetic actions of the doctor, and not on reflection. But, as Goethe said, “there is nothing worse than active ignorance.” Jung, as a doctor, did not gain much popularity among patients, but among his colleagues his authority was high.
PHYSICS WAS CREATED BY DOCTORSKnow yourself and you will know the whole world. The first is medicine, the second is physics. Initially, the connection between medicine and physics was close; it was not for nothing that joint congresses of naturalists and doctors took place until the beginning of the 20th century. And by the way, physics was largely created by doctors, and they were often prompted to research by the questions posed by medicine.
The medical thinkers of antiquity were the first to think about the question of what heat is. They knew that a person's health is related to the warmth of his body. The great Galen (2nd century AD) introduced the concepts of “temperature” and “degree” into use, which became fundamental for physics and other disciplines. So ancient doctors laid the foundations for the science of heat and invented the first thermometers.
William Gilbert (1544-1603), physician to the Queen of England, studied the properties of magnets. He called the Earth a large magnet, proved it experimentally and came up with a model to describe terrestrial magnetism.
Thomas Young, already mentioned, was a practicing physician, but at the same time made great discoveries in many areas of physics. He is rightfully considered, together with Fresnel, the creator of wave optics. By the way, it was Jung who discovered one of the visual defects - color blindness (the inability to distinguish between red and green colors). Ironically, this discovery immortalized in medicine the name not of the doctor Jung, but of the physicist Dalton, who was the first to discover this defect.
Julius Robert Mayer (1814-1878), who made a huge contribution to the discovery of the law of conservation of energy, served as a doctor on the Dutch ship Java. He treated sailors with bloodletting, which was considered at that time a cure for all diseases. On this occasion, they even joked that doctors released more human blood than was shed on the battlefields in the entire history of mankind. Mayer noticed that when the ship is in the tropics, during bloodletting, venous blood is almost as light as arterial blood (usually venous blood is darker). He suggested that the human body, like a steam engine, in the tropics, at high air temperatures, consumes less “fuel” and therefore emits less “smoke”, which is why the venous blood brightens. In addition, having thought about the words of one navigator that during storms the water in the sea heats up, Mayer came to the conclusion that everywhere there must be a certain relationship between work and heat. He expressed the principles that essentially formed the basis of the law of conservation of energy.
The outstanding German scientist Hermann Helmholtz (1821-1894), also a doctor, independently of Mayer formulated the law of conservation of energy and expressed it in a modern mathematical form, which is still used by everyone who studies and uses physics. In addition, Helmholtz made great discoveries in the field of electromagnetic phenomena, thermodynamics, optics, acoustics, as well as in the physiology of vision, hearing, nervous and muscular systems, and invented a number of important instruments. Having received his medical training and being a medical professional, he tried to apply physics and mathematics to physiological research. At the age of 50, the professional doctor became a professor of physics, and in 1888 - director of the Institute of Physics and Mathematics in Berlin.
The French physician Jean-Louis Poiseuille (1799-1869) experimentally studied the power of the heart as a pump that pumps blood, and investigated the laws of blood movement in the veins and capillaries. Having summarized the results obtained, he derived a formula that turned out to be extremely important for physics. For his services to physics, the unit of dynamic viscosity, the poise, is named after him.
The picture showing the contribution of medicine to the development of physics looks quite convincing, but a few more strokes can be added to it. Any motorist has heard about the cardan shaft, which transmits rotational motion at different angles, but few people know that it was invented by the Italian doctor Gerolamo Cardano (1501-1576). The famous Foucault pendulum, which preserves the plane of oscillation, is named after the French scientist Jean-Bernard-Leon Foucault (1819-1868), a doctor by training. The famous Russian doctor Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov (1829-1905), whose name is given to the Moscow State Medical Academy, studied physical chemistry and established an important physical and chemical law that describes the change in solubility of gases in an aquatic environment depending on the presence of electrolytes in it. This law is still studied by students, and not only in medical schools.
"WE CAN'T UNDERSTAND THE FORMULAS!"Unlike doctors of the past, many modern medical students simply do not understand why they are taught science subjects. I remember one story from my practice. Tense silence, second-year students of the Faculty of Fundamental Medicine of Moscow State University are writing a test. The topic is photobiology and its application in medicine. Note that photobiological approaches based on the physical and chemical principles of the action of light on matter are now recognized as the most promising for the treatment of cancer. Ignorance of this section and its fundamentals is a serious disadvantage in medical education. The questions are not too difficult, everything is within the framework of the material of lectures and seminars. But the result is disappointing: almost half of the students received bad marks. And for everyone who failed the task, one thing is typical - physics was not taught at school or was taught carelessly. For some, this item brings real horror. In the stack of test papers I came across a piece of poetry. A student, unable to answer the questions, complained in poetic form that she had to cram not Latin (the eternal torment of medical students), but physics, and at the end exclaimed: “What to do? After all, we are doctors, we can’t understand the formulas!” The young poetess, who called the test “doomsday” in her poems, failed the physics test and eventually transferred to the Faculty of Humanities.
When students, future doctors, operate on a rat, no one would even think of asking why this is necessary, although the human and rat organisms are quite different. Why future doctors need physics is not so obvious. But can a doctor who does not understand the basic physical laws competently work with the most complex diagnostic equipment that modern clinics are crammed with? By the way, many students, having overcome their first failures, begin to study biophysics with passion. At the end of the academic year, when such topics as “Molecular systems and their chaotic states”, “New analytical principles of pH-metry”, “Physical nature of chemical transformations of substances”, “Antioxidant regulation of lipid peroxidation processes” were studied, the second-year students wrote: “We discovered the fundamental laws that determine the basis of living things and, possibly, the universe. We discovered them not on the basis of speculative theoretical constructions, but in a real objective experiment. It was difficult for us, but interesting.” Perhaps among these guys there are future Fedorovs, Ilizarovs, Shumakovs.
“The best way to learn something is to discover it yourself,” said the German physicist and writer Georg Lichtenberg. “What you were forced to discover yourself leaves a path in your mind that you can use again when the need arises.” This most effective teaching principle is as old as time. It underlies the “Socratic method” and is called the principle of active learning. It is on this principle that the teaching of biophysics at the Faculty of Fundamental Medicine is built.
DEVELOPING FUNDAMENTALITYFundamentality for medicine is the key to its current viability and future development. You can truly achieve your goal by considering the body as a system of systems and following the path of a more in-depth physical and chemical understanding of it. What about medical education? The answer is clear: to increase the level of students' knowledge in the field of physics and chemistry. In 1992, the Faculty of Fundamental Medicine was created at Moscow State University. The goal was not only to return medicine to the university, but also, without reducing the quality of medical training, to sharply strengthen the natural science knowledge base of future doctors. Such a task requires intensive work by both teachers and students. It is assumed that students consciously choose fundamental medicine rather than conventional medicine.
Even earlier, a serious attempt in this direction was the creation of a medical and biological faculty at the Russian State Medical University. Over the 30 years of work of the faculty, a large number of medical specialists have been trained: biophysicists, biochemists and cyberneticists. But the problem of this faculty is that until now its graduates could only engage in medical research, without the right to treat patients. Now this problem is being solved - at the Russian State Medical University, together with the Institute for Advanced Training of Doctors, an educational and scientific complex has been created, which allows senior students to undergo additional medical training.
Doctor of Biological Sciences Y. PETRENKO.The main anti-hero of our time - cancer - seems to have finally been caught in the network of scientists. Israeli specialists from Bar-Ilan University talked about their scientific discovery: they created nanorobots that can kill cancer cells. Killer cells are composed of DNA, a natural, biocompatible and biodegradable material, and can carry bioactive molecules and drugs. Robots are able to move with the bloodstream and recognize malignant cells, immediately destroying them. This mechanism is similar to the work of our immunity, but more precise.
Scientists have already conducted 2 stages of the experiment.
- First, they planted nanorobots in a test tube with healthy and cancer cells. After just 3 days, half of the malignant ones were destroyed, and not a single healthy one was harmed!
- The researchers then inserted hunters into cockroaches (scientists have a strange love for barbels in general, so they will appear in this article), proving that robots could successfully assemble fragments of DNA and accurately find target cells, not necessarily cancerous ones, inside a living creature.
Changing eye color
The problem of improving or changing a person’s appearance is still solved by plastic surgery. Looking at Mickey Rourke, attempts cannot always be called successful, and we have heard about all sorts of complications. But, fortunately, science offers more and more new ways of transformation.
Californian doctors from Stroma Medical also committed scientific discovery: learned to turn brown eyes into blue. Several dozen operations have already been performed in Mexico and Costa Rica (in the United States, permission for such manipulations has not yet been received due to a lack of safety data).
The essence of the method is to remove a thin layer containing melanin pigment using a laser (the procedure takes 20 seconds). After a few weeks, the dead particles are eliminated by the body on their own, and a natural Blue Eye looks at the patient from the mirror. (The trick is that at birth all people have blue eyes, but in 83% they are obscured by a layer filled with melanin to varying degrees.) It is possible that after the destruction of the pigment layer, doctors will learn to fill the eyes with new colors. Then people with orange, gold or purple eyes will flood the streets, delighting songwriters.
Change in skin color
And on the other side of the world, in Switzerland, scientists have finally figured out the secret of the chameleon's tricks. What allows it to change color is a network of nanocrystals located in special skin cells - iridophores. There is nothing supernatural about these crystals: they are made of guanine, an integral component of DNA. In a relaxed state, nanoheroes form a dense network that reflects green and blue colors. When excited, the network tightens, the distance between the crystals increases, and the skin begins to reflect red, yellow and other colors.
In general, once genetic engineering makes it possible to create iridophore-like cells, we will wake up in a society where the mood can be conveyed not only by facial expressions, but also by the color of the hand. And it’s not far from conscious control of appearance, like Mystique from the movie “X-Men”.
3D printed organs
An important breakthrough in the repair of human bodies has been made in our homeland. Scientists from the 3D Bioprinting Solutions laboratory have created a unique 3D printer that prints body tissue. Recently, for the first time, mouse thyroid tissue was obtained, which is going to be transplanted into a living rodent in the coming months. Structural components of the body, such as the trachea, have been stamped before. The goal of Russian scientists is to obtain fully functioning tissue. These may be endocrine glands, kidneys or liver. Printing tissues with known parameters will avoid incompatibility, one of the main problems of transplantology.
Cockroaches in the service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations
Another amazing development could save the lives of people stuck under rubble after disasters or trapped in hard-to-reach places like mines or caves. Using special acoustic stimuli transmitted using a “backpack” on the back of a cockroach, the minds made scientific discovery: learned to manipulate an insect like a radio-controlled car. The benefit of using a living creature lies in its instinct of self-preservation and ability to navigate, thanks to which the barbel overcomes obstacles and avoids danger. By hanging a small camera on a cockroach, you can successfully “inspect” hard-to-reach places and make decisions about the method of evacuation.
Telepathy and telekinesis for everyone
Another incredible news: telepathy and telekinesis, which were considered quackery all along, are actually real. In recent years, scientists have been able to establish a telepathic connection between two animals, an animal and a human, and, finally, recently, for the first time, a thought was transmitted over a distance - from one citizen to another. The miracle happened thanks to 3 technologies.
- Electroencephalography (EEG) records the electrical activity of the brain in the form of waves and serves as an “output device.” With some training, certain waves can be associated with specific images in the head.
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) uses a magnetic field to create an electrical current in the brain, which allows images to be stored in the gray matter. The TMS serves as the “input device.”
- Finally, the Internet allows these images to be transmitted as digital signals from one person to another. So far, the images and words being transmitted are very primitive, but any complex technology must start somewhere.
Telekinesis became possible thanks to the same electrical activity of gray matter. So far, this technology requires surgical intervention: signals are collected from the brain using a tiny grid of electrodes and transmitted digitally to a manipulator. Recently, 53-year-old paralyzed woman Jen Schoerman, with the help of this scientific discovery by specialists from the University of Pittsburgh, successfully flew an airplane in a computer simulator of the F-35 fighter jet. For example, the author of the article has difficulty using flight simulators, even with two functioning hands.
In the future, technologies for transmitting thoughts and movements at a distance will not only improve the quality of life of paralyzed people, but will also certainly become part of everyday life, allowing you to heat up dinner with the power of thought.
Safe driving
The best minds are working on a car that does not require active driver participation. Tesla cars, for example, already know how to park independently, leave the garage on a timer and drive up to the owner, change lanes in traffic and obey road signs that limit the speed of movement. And the day is approaching when computer control will finally allow you to throw your feet up on the dashboard and calmly get a pedicure on the way to work.
At the same time, Slovak engineers from the AeroMobil company actually created a car straight out of science fiction films. Double the car drives on the highway, but as soon as it turns into a field, it literally spreads its wings and takes off to take a shortcut. Or jump over the toll booth on toll roads. (You can see this with your own eyes on YouTube.) Of course, custom flying units have been produced before, but this time the engineers promise to launch a car with wings on the market in 2 years.
