Diagnosing Heart Ailments

Scientists have discovered that the beginning of coronary thrombosis can be detected and located by the use of radioactive iodine. The isotope of iodine is attracted to inflamed tissues and thus shows the exact place of thrombosis.

Electrocardiograms do not always show the beginning of a heart attack. The use of the radio-active iodine is better than electrocardiogram in this respect; it shows exactly the location of the thrombosis and it is helpful in treatment.

Proton Beams for Brain Operation

In some cases it is necessary to make a brain operation, cutting several nerve tracts. In 1958 surgeons made this operation for the first time with an “atomic knife” – a proton beam that required no cutting into the brain. Usually such operation required weeks of preparation and many weeks of recovery. The atomic operation took about two hours; as soon as it was over, the patient walked off a meal. He did not feel any pain and only said that he was tired from sitting in the same position for two hours. During the operation the patient was rotated from time to time so that the beam from synchrocyclotron could strike the brain at different angels. The surgeons directed the beam from another room, giving the patient instructions from time to time by telephone.

The proton beam was 10mm wide and 2 mm thick.

1938. Nylon is Invented

In 1928 a team of researchers, led by organic chemist Wallace H. Carothers of the United States and sponsored by the chemical firm, set out to discover what sorts of materials they could produce from varying combinations of long-chain molecules. In a pioneering process called polymerization they combined atoms into long molecules that varied in the types of atoms used and the ways they were joined, producing an assortment of unique materials. Then one day in 1930 they discovered an unusual property of one of their molten substances: it would stick to a glass rod and form a fine strand. As soon as the strand met the cold air, it solidified and formed a long continuous fiber that was both flexible and strong. If the fiber was then stretched to four or five times its original length, its properties changed further: it strengthened still more and at the same time became lustrous. Its structure was such that it could be spun into a fiber resembling silk, but it had high strength and elasticity and exceptional resistance to abrasion, rot, mildew and chemicals. For eight years chemists, physicists, engineers, and textile experts labored to develop this oddity into a usable fiber that could be manufactured on a large scale. In 1938 the announced their success. This synthetic textile fiber was to be called nylon.

1973. Biotechnology

Two American biochemists, Stanley H. Cohen and Herbert W. Boyer, inaugurated the science of genetic engineering – and its associated field of biotechnology – in 1973. They showed that it was possible to break down DNA into fragments and combine them into new genes, which could in turn be placed in living cells. There they would reproduce each time a cell divided into two parts.