The most important discovery of mankind.

        In the world today, scientists are often talking about what they think is the most beneficial discovery to mankind.  Some say that it was the wheel, others would talk about irrigation or the light bulb.  Me, I think that the most beneficial discovery that was made by mankind is medicine and different medicinal treatments.  In this blog, I will use four images to prove that medicine is the most important discovery and that it will continue to be the most important for a long time to come.

“Statue of Asclepius, Exhibited in the Museum of Epidaurus Theatre.” Wikipedia. N.p., 1 Sept. 2001. Web. 13 Jan. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepius#mediaviewer/File:Asklepios_-_Epidauros.jpg>.

        This is a sculpture of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine.  The most predominant theory is that the snake is used for the fact that all snakes shed their skin and have a new skin grow which can show rejuvenation and the venom of the snake symbolizing death.  The staff is symbolic of the walking stick of the physician who is often travelling in the ancient times and now a days, the physician who is travelling by ambulance.  The snake is actually supposed to be an aesculapian snake which is non-venomous and was the image that the ancient hospitals were built around.  These hospitals would actually have these snakes living in the building and crawling around on the floor in between the patients.  The snakes on a staff is still a prominent image in the medical industry today.  Also, the attitude of the sculpture is positive which shows that medicine is a good thing to continue to develop because it will help people.  This proves that medicine is the most beneficial discovery of mankind.

“Different Types of Medicine on a White Background.” 123rf. N.p., 9 Oct. 2005. Web. 13 Jan. 2015. <http://www.123rf.com/photo_11310079_different-types-of-drugs-on-white-background.html>.

This image shows how there is many different types of medicine that have been developed in order for people to become or stay healthy.  Most medicine is used in order to help make you healthy when you have from a common cold to sicknesses as devastating as cancer or malaria.  There is also another type of medicine that most people take every day in order to help boost their immune system and even get you some of the necessary nutrients into your body.  These are vitamins.  Some people take vitamins every day and some only take them around flu season or when they are feeling like they have a pre cold.  There are also different ways in order to get medicine into your body.  Medicines taken by the mouth are the most common type of medicine takes ie. pills, inhalers and liquid medicine.  Pills are the most commonly used of these but this does not mean that they are the most effective way at stopping whatever you are trying to cure or prevent.  For instance, asthma is a relatively common thing for people to have but they don’t take pills in order to help with an asthma attack, they would use their inhaler.  All of these different types of medicine show how people believe that medicine is an important study to continue to develop.

“Needle Pill.” New Drug Delivery Capsule May Replace Injections. MIT, 1 Oct. 2014. Web. 13 Jan. 2015. <http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/microneedles-drug-delivery-capsule-1001>.

Not many people can honestly say that they are a fan of needles, they are pointy and feel really weird and can, in some cases, really hurt.  But now, researchers at MIT are making a new way to get medicine into your body, through a pill that is made out of acrylic with 5mm long hollow needles covering the pill in order to get the medicine into the body that you cannot ingest and would therefore have to have a needle to get into you.  This pill is covered in a ph sensitive coating that when it reaches that ph, dissolves and allows the medicine to go through the needles and into your bloodstream.  In tests on pigs, the pill was filled with insulin in order to reduce the levels of glucose in the blood of these pigs and it reduced the levels throughout the whole body in less time than through an injection.  The team of researchers are now working on a way for the movements of the digestive system to squeeze the medication out of the pill.  They are also working on an alternative method that the needles will be made out of degradable polymers and sugar so that the needles will break off in your digestive tract and will release the medicine while they disintegrate inside of you.  Doing this will make people feel a little safer with the thought of swallowing needles part of this new medical innovation.

“Elderly Man Talking with an American Doctor.” Dreamstime. CAPA, 29 May 2000. Web. 15 Jan. 2015. <http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-elderly-man-talking-american-doctor-image23958702>.

Your doctor is someone that you should trust. They will always know what is best for you when you are sick or when you have injured yourself in some other way ie. a broken bone or surgery. The amount of people that doctors help in a year is the main reason why medicine is the most beneficial discovery. In this image, you can see through the attitude of the patient that he is happy that he has his doctor to help him through whatever he needs while he is hurt or sick. This point is shown especially through elderly people because they are more fragile than younger people and because of this, are more prone to injury. The doctor is also smiling showing that he is happy to help his patient. In the doctor's hands, he has an envelope which we can assume is the medicine that he is giving to the older man. This medicine could be for anything from the common cold to arthritis and for this reason, medicine is the most beneficial innovation to continue to develop to this day.

With this new knowledge, maybe you too will agree with me when I say that medicine is the most important discovery that was made by mankind and that it should continue to be developed and produced.