The World Within :: essays research papers fc

The World WithinWhat can be done with medicine today is truly astounding. In just a little over a snow, we let gone from crude, anaesthetized surgery with non-sterilized instruments to the force to delicately rebuild a hand or bypass a major artery with little risk to the patient and without even release a large scar. These great heights to which we have ascended are base upon a number of breakthroughs in sanitation and sterilization, antibiotics, and both number of new(prenominal) small discoveries that make possible todays operating way of life but by far the most powerful and groundbreaking advances have been made in the field of human imaging.For over sixteen vitamin C years, the edicts and guidelines of the Catholic Church forbade the exploration of the human body. This sad state of affairs effectively limited our knowledge of the body to studies performed upon stolen cadavers and the rather inaccurate classical-era studies of Galen. flat when the ban upon anatomical study was lifted, by the end of the nineteenth century we had still progressed no further than an understanding of the basic anatomy as observed by dissection. Then, in the last five years of the nineteenth century, two important discoveries ushered in a new era in medicine Roentgens husking of roentgenograms in 1895 and Bequerels discovery of Uranium rays nuclear radiation in 1896. These forms of electromagnetic radiation, and their derivatives, form the behind of todays most prevalent and important imaging applied science X-rays, Computed Tomography (CT), and nuclear medicine.At its most basic level, x-ray applied science works by using a high-voltage current to concede a burst of x-rays (high-frequency electromagnetic radiation), which are then focused and tell through the human body. Certain materials, such as bone and cartilage, draw and quarter more of the radiation than other tissues, which creates a shadow in the x-ray beam that is recorded on a special cassette containing photographic film, determined on the other side of the patient. Upon development of the film, the image of the bone building (and any(prenominal) other tissue) can be studied to diagnose any apparent pathologies (Wolbarst 33). Today, this technology is wildly popular almost everyone has had at least one x-ray during his life. However, the two-dimensional nature of an x-ray does create some limitations in its usefulness but a further development of this technology has eliminated these.Computerized Tomography, invented in 1963, is essentially a development of x-ray technology that allows a physician to observe exceedingly detailed slices of the human body, and today is highly reliable, non-invasive, painless, quick, and available on an urgent, 24 hour-a-day basis at most hospitals (Kelly 50).