|
|
This is only a preview of the paper
Click here to register and get the full text.
Existing members click here to login
|
|
|
Within the past century, science has made living a long, healthy life possible for the ever-increasing world population. Medical researchers constantly make new discoveries about the human body and the many diseases that threaten it. At the same time, doctors and engineers collaborate in creating new medical devices and techniques for diagnosing and treating these diseases. Among the most resourceful and astonishing of these devices and techniques are those in the fields of nuclear medicine and radiology. These related fields use radiation, various kinds of invisible rays, to view bones, tissues and organs, even those hidden in the most obscure parts of the body. Nuclear medicine and radiology allow doctors to find, identify, and treat disease and other medical problems. Up until the early years of the 20th century, before the days of advanced medical radiology and nuclear medicine, the inside of the human body was largely unknown, it was a territory that only doctors and surgeons only partially understood. Even when doctors strongly believed they knew what was wrong with a patient, there was no way to be certain without actually performing surgery. There was no way to anticipate, before the first incision was made, how complicated the surgical procedure that doctor might face. The fields of medical diagnosis and surgery, however, took a giant leap forward with the development of radiology. Most of the basic principles of radiology were first observed and developed in the 18th and 19th centuries. Particularly important to this development were discoveries made in three fields: vacuums, electricity, and materials that can record visual images. The first significantly recognized vacuum was produced in Florence, Italy, in 1643 by a scientist named Evagelista Torricelli. Several years later, in 1646, Otto von Guericke of Germany created a device that could efficiently remove air from a container to produce an even better vacuum. Von Guericke also worked with the phenomenon of static electricity, creating a machine that generated electric sparks. It is said that von Guericke was the first person to have witnessed human-made electric light. Finally, in the 19th century, England’s Sir William Crookes succeeded in developing glass tubes with previously unmatched high vacuums.
Approximate Word count = 1407
Approximate Pages = 5.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
|
|
|
|
|
|