Medical Discoveries

Earth is home to trillions of germs. But for most of human history, people didn't know germs existed! Healers of the past had different ideas about illnesses and their cures. They blamed illnesses on other causes and sometimes tried dangerous treatments. The invention of tools such as the microscope changed everything, allowing doctors and scientists to see germs and study their effects. This vivid history profiles the people who helped discover germs. Discover the ongoing breakthroughs in research—and germs' surprising benefits for safety and sustainable energy.

The search to find medicines is as old as disease, which is to say as old as the human race. Through serendipity - by chewing, brewing, and snorting - some Neolithic souls discovered opium, alcohol, snakeroot, juniper, frankincense, and other helpful substances. Ötzi the Iceman, the 5,000-year-old hunter frozen in the Italian Alps, was found to have whipworms in his intestines and Bronze Age medicine, a worm-killing birch fungus, knotted to his leggings.

In 1998, Dr. Louis J. Ignarro was awarded a rare and coveted Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking discovery of nitric oxide (NO) and its many critically important biological actions. But his work goes far beyond the development of Viagra. It has never been more urgently relevant to the world than it is today, as clinical trials are underway that involve using inhaled NO to treat patients suffering from COVID-19.

In the summer of 2015, Ross Douthat was moving his family, with two young daughters and a pregnant wife, from Washington, DC, to a sprawling farmhouse in a picturesque Connecticut town when he acquired a mysterious and devastating sickness. It left him sleepless, crippled, wracked with pain - a shell of himself. After months of seeing doctors and descending deeper into a physical inferno, he discovered that he had a disease which, according to CDC definitions, does not actually exist.

A tiny mutation on the X chromosome can shape a family’s history. Passed down from a “carrier” parent to a child, fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability and autism. Beyond that—and a rarity among genetic disorders—some fragile X carriers not only transmit the mutation, but also experience related conditions themselves.

In this book, Prusiner tells the remarkable story of his discovery of prions - infectious proteins that replicate and cause disease but surprisingly contain no genetic material - and reveals how superb and meticulous science is actually practiced with talented teams of researchers who persevere. He recounts the frustrations and rewards of years of research and offers fascinating portraits of his peers as they raced to discover the causes of fatal brain diseases.

The world has suffered many pandemics in the years since - at least three serious flu outbreaks among them - but no pandemic has been as deadly or as far-reaching as the Spanish flu. As the world reacts to a headline-grabbing - yet far, far less deadly - outbreak of this pandemic, Andrew Smith looks back to 1918 Spanish flu to see what we learned from one of the most devastating diseases in recent history.

Step into the captivating world of healthcare innovation and scientific breakthroughs with Medical Marvels: Amazing Discoveries in Health. This meticulously crafted journey takes you on a 30-day exploration of the most remarkable milestones in the field of medicine and healthcare. Each day unveils a new chapter in the story of humanity's quest for better health, offering a glimpse into the groundbreaking discoveries, cutting-edge technologies, and revolutionary advancements that have shaped the way we understand and approach healthcare.

In Deep Water Dream, Roedde recounts stories from her long career - from working with a Cree community in developing a medical dictionary in their own language, to training community-based health workers, to delivering Amish babies in her own home. Roedde redraws the boundaries between physician and community, strengthening the capacity to care for those close by, and offers a hopeful and powerful example to the rest of the world. 

With trusted expertise from Mayo Clinic, the Edge of Medicine series sets out to inspire and educate the next generation of young scientists by highlighting the medical breakthroughs of a diverse range of scientists and researchers. From the discovery of the double helix to mapping the human genome, this exploration of scientific inquiry celebrates the greatest developments to date in genetics. Get to know the physicians, scientists, and other researchers responsible for these breakthroughs in medicine, and explore the ups, the downs, and the eureka moments that are science in action.

Have we advanced so far that we have arrived full circle with the technology of ancient times? Dr. James Bartlow thinks so. Appointed by the president of the United States to head the country's first national center for live fetal-tissue research, Bartlow stumbles upon an ancient, unknown technology that he believes will open the gateway to a whole new paradigm.

Late one night, while Rebecca Fogg was alone in her apartment, her hand was partially amputated in an explosion. Quick thinking saved her life, but the journey to recovery would be a slow one. As the doctors rebuilt her hand, Rebecca (who also survived 9/11) began rebuilding her sense of self by studying the physical and psychological process of recovery.