One of these will be the winner of the greatest medical breakthrough of the last 166 years according to voter on the BMJ site:
Anesthesia
Antibiotics
Chlorpromazine [an anti-seizure drug, perhaps better known as Thorazine]
Computers
DNA
Evidence based medicine
Germ theory
Imaging
Immunology
Oral rehydration therapy
The Pill
[The discovery of the] Risks of smoking
Sanitation
Tissue culture
Vaccines
I’d say germ theory, anaesthesia, or antibiotics. Or even sanitation… though I was reading that unsanitary habits were becoming problematic in hospitals again. Staff just don’t wash their hands any more, apparently. Gross.
Anyway, this story was via Wired BodyHack which is a great little blog of interesting science-y things. Here’s a recent selection:
Hand Sanitizer Can Make You Drunk
Inbreeding: Bad for Kings, Good for Fish
Vaccines Don’t Cause Autism
Great Moments in Research: Psychologists Are Humble
Brits: Who Needs Orthodontic Braces?
Study: Treatment Possible for Mad Cow Disease
2 comments ↓
I will go for germ theory, pain-free surgery and antibiotics. On clean hands and related matters, check out the terrible Semmelweis story.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis
It’s a hard call… it’s like saying who is your favourite child (if you had 15 of them), they should have just done the top 10 (I’m sure if I had 15 children there would be 5 that I didn’t like so much).
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