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Inventions

Before the Aspirin was invented in 1898, common digestive problems such as dyspepsia or indigestion were best alleviated with a glass or two of natural volcanic spring water, rich as it is with natural minerals.  That said, not everyone had a volcano available when they needed it.  It was the curiosity of these naturally effervescent waters that drove initial experi.. Read More..

The history of the ambulance begins in ancient times, with the use of carts to transport incurable patients by force. Ambulances were first used for emergency transport in 1487 by the Spanish, and civilian variants were put into operation in the 1830s. Advances in technology throughout the 19th and 20th centuries led to the modern self-powered ambulances.There is evid.. Read More..

Humphry Davy first noted the anesthetic effects of nitrous oxide- a colorless,almost odorless gas- while experimenting at the pneumatic institute in bristol,England .Davy realized that nitrous oxide both made him want to laugh  and relieved his toothache.In 1800 he published a  book stating that the gas might "be used with advantage during surgical operations."After.. Read More..

The history of aspirin and the medical use of it and related substances stretches back to antiquity, though pure ASA has only been manufactured and marketed since 1899. Medicines made from willow and other salicylate-rich plants appear in Egyptian pharonic pharmacology papyri from the second millennium BCE. Hippocrates referred to their use of salicylic tea to reduce .. Read More..

An artificial heart is a device that replaces the heart. Artificial hearts are typically used to bridge the time to heart transplantation, or to permanently replace the heart in case heart transplantation is impossible. Although other similar inventions preceded it going back to the late 1940s, the first artificial heart to be successfully implanted in a human was the.. Read More..

A Gamow bag (pronounced Gam-Off) is an inflatable pressure bag large enough to accommodate a person inside. The Gamow bag, as named after Dr. Igor Gamow, is often a feature of aid stations high in the mountains. It is an inflatable pressure bag big enough to fit a person inside. It simulates the conditions at a lower altitude in order to help alleviate the symptoms o.. Read More..

The Balloon Embolectomy Catheter is a great example of simple inventions resulting in a powerful medical breakthrough. This invention pioneered minimally invasive vascular surgery, and extended life saving procedures to ten's of millions of people.During Fogarty’s years at Good Samaritan Hospital, he witnessed the deaths of many patients who died from complicati.. Read More..

A breathalyzer is a device for estimating blood alcohol content (BAC) from a breath sample. Breathalyzer is the brand name for the instrument developed by inventor Robert Frank Borkenstein.It was registered as a trademark on May 13, 1958, and is active as of 2014 but the word has become a generic trademark.In 1931 the first practical roadside breath-testing device was.. Read More..

Petroleum jelly or petrolatum is a byproduct of the refining of petroleum, made from the residue of petroleum distillation left in the still after all the oil has been vaporized.Vaseline is a brand of petroleum jelly based products owned by Anglo-Dutch company Unilever. Products include plain petroleum jelly and a selection of skin creams, soaps, lotions, cleansers, d.. Read More..

Band-Aid is a brand name of American pharmaceutical and medical devices giant Johnson & Johnson's line of adhesive bandages and related products.Band-Aids. I am struggling to write an introduction for the history of Band-Aids since, frankly, these adhesive strips speak for themselves. For me, the klutz magnet, Band-Aids have always played an intricate role in my l.. Read More..

It's impossible to determine how many hundreds of thousands of people would have lost their lives without the contributions of African-American inventor Dr. Charles Drew. This physician, researcher and surgeon revolutionized the understanding of blood plasma – leading to the invention of blood banks.Born in 1904 in Washington, D.C., Charles Drew excelled from ea.. Read More..

A contact lens, or simply contact, is a thin lens placed directly on the surface of the eye. Contact lenses are considered medical devices and can be worn to correct vision, or for cosmetic or therapeutic reasons.In 2004, it was estimated that 125 million people (2%) use contact lenses worldwide, including 28 to 38 million in the United States.In 2010, worldwide conta.. Read More..

Genetic fingerprinting, DNA testing and DNA profiling are techniques used to distinguish between individuals of the same species using only samples of their DNA. Its invention by Sir Alec Jeffreys at the University of Leicester was announced in 1985.Two humans will have the vast majority of their DNA sequence in common. Genetic fingerprinting exploits highly variable .. Read More..

Electroencephalography is the neurophysiologic measurement of the electrical activity of the brain by recording from electrodes placed to the scalp, or in the special cases on the cortex. The resulting traces are known as an electroencephalogram (EEG) and represent so-called brainwaves. This device is used to assess brain damage, epilepsy and other problems. In some j.. Read More..

Defibrillation is a common treatment for life-threatening cardiac dysrhythmias, ventricular fibrillation and pulseless ventricular tachycardia. Defibrillation consists of delivering a therapeutic dose of electrical energy to the heart with a device called a defibrillator. This depolarizes a critical mass of the heart muscle, terminates the dysrhythmia and allows norma.. Read More..

An artificial cell or minimal cell is an engineered particle that mimics one or many functions of a biological cell. The term does not refer to a specific physical entity, but rather to the idea that certain functions or structures of biological cells can be replaced or supplemented with a synthetic entity. Often, artificial cells are biological or polymeric membranes.. Read More..

Wright's stain is a histologic stain that facilitates the differentiation of blood cell types. It is classically a mixture of eosin (red) and methylene blue dyes. It is used primarily to stain peripheral blood smears and bone marrow aspirates which are examined under a light microscope. In cytogenetics, it is used to stain chromosomes to facilitate diagnosis of sy.. Read More..

Artemisinin, and its derivatives are a group of drugs that possess the most rapid action of all current drugs against Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Treatments containing an artemisinin derivative (artemisinin-combination therapies, ACTs) are now standard treatment worldwide for P. falciparum malaria. Artemisinin is isolated from the plant Artemisia annua, sweet wormw.. Read More..

Neurosurgery (or neurological surgery) is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, and extra-cranial cerebrovascular system.Mahmut Gazi Ya?argil is a Turkish medical scientist and neurosurgeon,who collabo.. Read More..

A genetically modified mouse is a mouse that has had its genome altered through the use of genetic engineering techniques. Genetically modified mice are commonly used for research or as animal models of human diseases.ResearchGenetics research often concentrates on identifying minute differences in the genome that give rise to assorted phenotypes. However, a large par.. Read More..

The stethoscope is an acoustic medical device for auscultation, or listening to the internal sounds of an animal or human body. It is often used to listen to lung and heart sounds. It is also used to listen to intestines and blood flow in arteries and veins. In combination with a sphygmomanometer, it is commonly used for measurements of blood pressure. Less commonly, .. Read More..

Galantamine is used for the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease and various other memory impairments, in particular those of vascular origin. It is an alkaloid that is obtained synthetically or from the bulbs and flowers of Galanthus caucasicus (Caucasian snowdrop, Voronov's snowdrop), Galanthus woronowii (Amaryllidaceae) and related genera like .. Read More..

An operant conditioning chamber is a laboratory apparatus used in the experimental analysis of animal behavior. It was invented by Skinner while he was a graduate student at Harvard University, where he received the doctorate in 1931. As used by Skinner, the box had a lever (for rats) or a disk in one wall (for pigeons). A press on this "manipulandum" could deliver fo.. Read More..

The Schick test, invented between 1910 and 1911 is a test used to determine whether or not a person is susceptible to diphtheria.It was named after its inventor, Béla Schick (1877–1967), a Hungarian-born American pediatrician.The test is a simple procedure. A small amount (0.1 ml) of diluted (1/50 MLD) diphtheria toxin is injected intradermally into the arm of the .. Read More..

Recombinant DNA (rDNA) molecules are DNA molecules formed by laboratory methods of genetic recombination (such as molecular cloning) to bring together genetic material from multiple sources, creating sequences that would not otherwise be found in biological organisms. Recombinant DNA is possible because DNA molecules from all organisms share the same chemical structur.. Read More..

Immunofluorescence is a technique used for light microscopy with a fluorescence microscope and is used primarily on microbiological samples. This technique uses the specificity of antibodies to their antigen to target fluorescent dyes to specific biomolecule targets within a cell, and therefore allows visualisation of the distribution of the target molecule through th.. Read More..

The first heart-lung machine was built by physician, John Heysham Gibbon in 1937 who also performed the first human open heart operation. He is considered the inventor of the heart-lung or pump oxygenator. This experimental machine used two roller pumps and had the capacity to replace the heart and lung action of a cat. John Gibbon joined forces with Thomas Watson in .. Read More..

Giemsa stain is used in cytogenetics and for the histopathological diagnosis of malaria and other parasites.ApplicationsIt is specific for the phosphate groups of DNA and attaches itself to regions of DNA where there are high amounts of adenine-thymine bonding. Giemsa stain is used in Giemsa banding, commonly called G-banding, to stain chromosomes and often used to cr.. Read More..

Earmuffs are objects designed to cover a person's ears for protection. They consist of a thermoplastic or metal head-band, that fits over the top or back of the head, and a pad at each end, to cover the external ears.Incident force to Invent EarmuffsIt was on a cold March day in 1873 and Chester Greenwood was testing out a new pair of ice skates and Chester was fr.. Read More..

The Mantoux test is a screening tool for tuberculosis (TB). It is one of the major tuberculin skin tests used around the world, largely replacing multiple-puncture tests such as the Tine test. The Heaf test was used until 2005 in the UK, when it was replaced by the Mantoux test. It is endorsed by the American Thoracic Society and Centers for Disease Control and Preven.. Read More..

Probiotics are microorganisms that are believed to provide health benefits when consumed.The term probiotic is currently used to name ingested microorganisms associated with beneficial effects to humans and animals.Introduction of the concept is generally attributed to Nobel Prize recipient Elie Metchnikoff, who in 1907 suggested that "the dependence of the intestinal.. Read More..

A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing.A cochlear implant is a medical device that is implanted into the head behind the ear of a deaf person. When used with a microphone and speech processor it electrically stimulates the auditory nerve and resul.. Read More..

A negative pressure ventilator, often referred to colloquially as an iron lung, is a form of medical ventilator that enables a person to breathe when normal muscle control has been lost or the work of breathing exceeds the person's ability. Examples of the device include both the Drinker respirator and the Both respirator. The negative form of pressure ventilation.. Read More..

Magnetic resonance imaging or scanning (also called an MRI) is a method of looking inside the body without using surgery, harmful dyes or x-rays. The MRI scanner uses magnetism and radio waves to produce clear pictures of the human anatomy.Damadian's early work on NMR concerned investigating potassium ions inside cells.He found that the potassium relaxation times .. Read More..

A CT scan, also called X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT) or computerized axial tomography scan (CAT scan),makes use of computer-processed combinations of many X-ray images taken from different angles to produce cross-sectional (tomographic) images (virtual 'slices') of specific areas of a scanned object, allowing the user to see inside the object without cu.. Read More..

A transdermal patch is a medicated adhesive patch that is placed on the skin to deliver a specific dose of medication through the skin and into the bloodstream. Often, this promotes healing to an injured area of the body. An advantage of a transdermal drug delivery route over other types of medication delivery such as oral, topical, intravenous, intramuscular, etc. is.. Read More..

Penicillin is one of the earliest discovered and widely used antibiotic agents, derived from the Penicillium mold. Antibiotics are natural substances that are released by bacteria and fungi into the their environment, as a means of inhibiting other organisms - it is chemical warfare on a microscopic scale.In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming observed that colonies of the ba.. Read More..

Virginia Apgar developed a simple system (1952) for quickly evaluating the condition and viability of newborns. The Apgar Score System relies on five simple observations to be made by delivery room personnel of the infant within one minute of birth and periodically thereafter. The Apgar Score System soon came into general use throughout the United States and was adopt.. Read More..

The Ames test is a widely employed method that uses bacteria to test whether a given chemical can cause mutations in the DNA of the test organism. More formally, it is a biological assay to assess the mutagenic potential of chemical compounds.A positive test indicates that the chemical is mutagenic and therefore may act as a carcinogen, because cancer is often linked .. Read More..

Babesia is a genus of protozoan apicomplexan piroplasms which was discovered by the Romanian bacteriologist Victor Babe?, that infect the blood and cause a parasitic, hemolytic disease known as babesiosis. Over 100 species of Babesia have been identified, but only a few have been documented to be pathogenic in humans.Early HistoryFor centuries, babesiosis was known to.. Read More..

In 1961, Mani Lal Bhaumik joined the Quantum Electronics Division at Xerox Electro-Optical Systems in Pasadena and began his career as a laser scientist. Concurrently, he taught Quantum physics and Astronomy at the California State University at Long Beach. In 1968, he was enlisted by the Northrop Corporate Research Laboratory, where he rose to become the director of .. Read More..

Gene therapy is a rapidly growing field of medicine in which genes are introduced into the body to treat diseases. Genes control heredity and provide the basic biological code for determining a cell's specific functions. Gene therapy seeks to provide genes that correct or supplant the disease-controlling functions of cells that are not, in essence, doing their job.. Read More..

The lithotripter gave the world a anew,noninvasive way to treat kidney stones with little to no pain.Discoveries in aerospace engineering and research on shock waves in the 1970s led to the technology's birth.Early studies at the dornier research group(founded by german engineer claude dornier) focused on aerospace technology.One new phenomenon noted by dornier sc.. Read More..

Hepatitis B vaccine is a vaccine for the prevention of hepatitis B, an infection caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV).The hepatitis B vaccine is the first anti-cancer vaccine because it can prevent liver cancer. Worldwide, chronic hepatitis B causes 80% of all liver cancer, which is  the 9th leading cause of death. Therefore, a vaccine that protects against a hepati.. Read More..

Interferons (IFNs) are a group of signaling proteins[1] made and released by host cells in response to the presence of pathogens, such as viruses, bacteria, parasites, or tumor cells. In a typical scenario, a virus-infected cell will release interferons causing nearby cells to heighten their anti-viral defenses.In 1969,Sidney Pestka is an American biochemist and genet.. Read More..

Automated DNA sequencer is a scientific instrument used to automate the DNA sequencing process. Given a sample of DNA, a DNA sequencer is used to determine the order of the four bases: G (guanine), C (cytosine), A (adenine) and T (thymine). This is then reported as a text string, called a read. Some DNA sequencers can be also considered optical instruments as they ana.. Read More..

The first robotic system was introduced into the medical world in 1985. Dr. Yik San Kwoh of the Long Beach Memorial Medical Center used a robotic arm to direct a needle into his patients brain. Dr. Kwoh said about the surgery, ”The robotic arm is safer, faster and far less invasive than current surgical procedures.”Since then, robotics have played key active roles.. Read More..

A stent is a tube or other device placed in the body to create a passage between two hollow spaces in medicine, and stenting is the placement of such a stent. There are a wide variety of stents used for different purposes, from expandable coronary, vascular and billiary stents, to simple plastic stents used to allow the flow of urine between kidney and bladder. Stent .. Read More..

A DNA microarray is a collection of microscopic DNA spots attached to a solid surface. Scientists use DNA microarrays to measure the expression levels of large numbers of genes simultaneously or to genotype multiple regions of a genome. Each DNA spot contains picomoles (10?12 moles) of a specific DNA sequence, known as probes (or reporters or oligos). These can be a s.. Read More..

Radial keratotomy (RK) is a refractive surgical procedure to correct myopia (nearsightedness) that was developed in 1974, by Svyatoslav Fyodorov, a Russian ophthalmologist. Though it has been largely supplanted by newer operations, such as photorefractive keratectomy, LASIK, Epi-LASIK and the phakic intraocular lens, RK remains popular for correction of astigmatism in.. Read More..

A method of differentiating bacterial species into two large groups ie)gram-positive and gram-negative known as Gram staining. The name comes from the Danish bacteriologist Hans Christian Gram, who developed the technique.Gram staining differentiates bacteria by the chemical and physical properties of their cell walls by detecting peptidoglycan, which is present in a .. Read More..

Hemodialysis is a method that is used to achieve the extracorporeal removal of waste products such as creatinine and urea and free water from the blood when the kidneys are in a state of renal failure. Hemodialysis is one of three renal replacement therapies (the other two being renal transplant and peritoneal dialysis). An alternative method for extracorporeal separa.. Read More..

Bacteriophages or "phage" are viruses that invade bacterial cells and, in the case of lytic phages, disrupt bacterial metabolism and cause the bacterium to lyse [destruct]. Phage Therapy is the therapeutic use of lytic bacteriophages to treat pathogenic bacterial infections.Invention HistoryThe discovery of bacteriophages was reported by Frederick Twort in 1915 and Fe.. Read More..

In medicine, a Holter monitor (often simply "Holter" or occasionally ambulatory electrocardiography device) is a portable device for continuously monitoring various electrical activity of the cardiovascular system for at least 24 hours (often for two weeks at a time).0-Heart disease is the leading killer of men and women in America. An estimated 2,200 men and women di.. Read More..

Electroconvulsive therapy, commonly called ECT, was developed in 1938. During the period following its introduction, ECT was found effective for treating multiple psychiatric illnesses, especially depression. With the development of psychiatric medications and stigma associated with ECT in the 1960's, the use of ECT treatment declined. The use of ECT has increased.. Read More..

Combined oral contraceptive pill or birth control pill is a birth control method that includes a combination of an estrogen (estradiol) and a progestogen (progestin). When taken by mouth every day, these pills inhibit female fertility. They were first approved for contraceptive use in the United States in 1960, and are a very popular form of birth control. They are cu.. Read More..

Abdominal thrusts or Heimlich maneuver, is a first aid procedure used to treat upper airway obstructions (or choking) by foreign objects. The term Heimlich maneuver is named after Dr. Henry Heimlich, who first described it in 1974.Henry Heimlich, noted for promulgating abdominal thrusts, claimed that back slaps were proven to cause death by lodging foreign objects int.. Read More..

Plastination is a technique or process used in anatomy to preserve bodies or body parts, first developed by Gunther von Hagens in 1977.The water and fat are replaced by certain plastics, yielding specimens that can be touched, do not smell or decay, and even retain most properties of the original sample.In July 1977, while working as a scientist and research assistant.. Read More..

The iBOT is a powered wheelchair developed by Dean Kamen in a partnership between DEKA and Johnson and Johnson's Independence Technology division.As of 2009, it is no longer available for sale from Independence Technology, but support for existing units was available until the end of 2013.In 2010, one organization was trying to revive the manufacture and maintenan.. Read More..

The patch clamp technique is a laboratory technique in electrophysiology that allows the study of single or multiple ion channels in cells. The technique can be applied to a wide variety of cells, but is especially useful in the study of excitable cells such as neurons, cardiomyocytes, muscle fibers, and pancreatic beta cells. It can also be applied to the study of ba.. Read More..

In Situ Hybridization (ISH) is a powerful technique that allows for specific localization of nucleic acid targets in fixed tissues, cells and circulating tumor cells (CTCs).  The principle of ISH is that nucleic acids, when preserved adequately in a histologic specimen and when fixed appropriately, can be detected by using a nucleic acid probe, allowing you to obtain.. Read More..

Pulsed field gel electrophoresis is a technique used for the separation of large deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules by applying to a gel matrix an electric field that periodically changes direction.Standard gel electrophoresis techniques for separation of DNA molecules provided huge advantages for molecular biology research. However, it was unable to separate very .. Read More..

A Snellen chart is an eye chart that can be used to measure visual acuity. Snellen charts are named after the Dutch ophthalmologist Herman Snellen who developed the chart in 1862.Many vision scientists and clinicians now use an improved chart known as the LogMAR chart.Dr. Herman Snellen did for the field of vision testing is comparable to what the first automobile eng.. Read More..

The green fluorescent protein (GFP) is a protein composed of 238 amino acid residues (26.9 kDa) that exhibits bright green fluorescence when exposed to light in the blue to ultraviolet range.Although many other marine organisms have similar green fluorescent proteins, GFP traditionally refers to the protein first isolated from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria. The GFP .. Read More..

Fogarty arterial embolectomy catheter is a device developed by Dr. Thomas J. Fogarty to remove fresh emboli in the arterial system.It consists of a hollow tube with an inflatable balloon attached to its tip. The catheter is inserted into the blood vessel through a clot. The balloon is then inflated to extract it from the vessel.It is available in different lengths and.. Read More..