Milestones on the long road to knowledge

Medicine is about stories – the patient’s account, the doctor’s interpretation, the detective work of diagnosis, the research journey – and these 15 accounts are all good stories.

Good stories. Meglio di un romanzo. Sono alcuni dei passi compiuti verso la medicina moderna (Milestones on the long road to knowledge, BMJ).
Questo è l’elenco. Per ognuno c’è una storia.
Il mio romanzo preferito è: Germ theory: invisible killers revealed.

• Evidence based medicine: increasing, not dictating, choice
• Germ theory: invisible killers revealed
• Imaging: revealing the world within
• Immunology: making magic bullets
• Oral rehydration therapy: the simple solution for saving lives
• The pill: emblem of liberation
• Risks of smoking: all done and dusted
• Sanitation: pragmatism works
• Tissue culture: unlocking the mysteries of viruses and cancer
• Vaccines: conquering untreatable diseases
• I’ve got a little list
• Let’s pension off the “major breakthrough”
• Anaesthesia: symbol of humanitarianism
• Antibiotics: the epitome of a wonder drug
• Chlorpromazine: unlocking psychosis
• Computers: transcending our limits?
• Discovery of structure of DNA: the best is yet to come