MEPX
Chapter 9 of 10All chapters
  1. 1Before modern science
  2. 2The scientific revolution
  3. 3Chemistry and the elements
  4. 4Life sciences
  5. 5Modern physics
  6. 6The molecular era
  7. 7Computing and mathematics
  8. 8Astronomy and space
  9. 9Medicine and public health
  10. 10What the record shows

Chapter 9 of 10

Medicine and public health

Lives saved at scale.

Infection

Jenner's vaccination, Semmelweis on handwashing, Nightingale's statistics and Snow's cholera mapping all cut mortality before germ theory was accepted.

  • Semmelweis was dismissed and died in an asylum.
  • Nightingale was an outstanding statistician as well as a nurse.

Modern medicine

Fleming observed penicillin, Florey and Chain made it a usable drug, and Katalin Kariko's persistence on mRNA underpinned vaccines developed decades later.