The World Within :: essays research papers fc

The World WithinWhat can be done with medicine today is truly astounding. In just a weensy oer a nose candy, we have gone from crude, anaesthetized surgery with non-sterilized instruments to the ability to delicately rebuild a hand or bypass a major artery with little risk to the patient and without even leaving a large scar. These great heights to which we have ascended argon based upon a number of breakthroughs in sanitization and sterilization, antibiotics, and any number of other small discoveries that make possible todays operating room but by far the most decent and groundbreaking advances have been made in the field of human imaging.For over sixteen hundred years, the edicts and guidelines of the Catholic Church forbade the exploration of the human body. This sad aver of affairs effectively limited our knowledge of the body to studies performed upon stolen cadavers and the rather inaccurate classical-era studies of Galen. Even when the ban upon anatomical study was lifte d, 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, both important discoveries ushered in a new era in medicine Roentgens discovery of x-rays in 1895 and Bequerels discovery of Uranium rays thermonuclear radiation in 1896. These forms of electromagnetic radiation, and their derivatives, form the basis of todays most prevalent and important imaging technology X-rays, Computed Tomography (CT), and nuclear medicine.At its most basic level, x-ray technology works by using a high-voltage current to generate a burst of x-rays (high-frequency electromagnetic radiation), which are then focused and directed through the human body. Certain materials, such as organise and cartilage, absorb more of the radiation than other tissues, which creates a trace in the x-ray beam that is recorded on a special cassette containing photographic film, si tuated on the other side of the patient. Upon development of the film, the image of the bone structure (and some other tissue) can be studied to diagnose any apparent pathologies (Wolbarst 33). Today, this technology is wildly popular almost everyone has had at least(prenominal) 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 highly 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).