Medical Marvels: The 100 Greatest Advances in Medicine - Tapa dura

""This book provides a fascinating overview of the history of modern medicine. With figures ranging in time from the beginnings of medicine with Hippocrates, to the cutting edge of modern discoveries, it's an essential addition to the general interest literature on medical history." Dr. Rosalyn S. Yalow, Nobel Laureate "At a time when bedrock scientific principles like evolution are being challenged anew, it's refreshing and important to read a book which takes as its goal the celebration of science. Medical Marvels is an immensely engrossing survey which makes clear how dramatically scientific understanding has improved our lives. It's also a textbook example of how to write short, entertaining, and informative capsule biographies. For this alone, it should be required reading in all writing programs." Peter Rothberg, Associate Publisher, The Nation

Medical Marvels is an introduction to some of the ideas, people, and accomplishments that have influenced the development of healing. While it examines and celebrates human ingenuity's most hallowed ground, it is not a history per se of medicine - it is equally concerned with our current climate, and it is a call to thought and action.

Meet the people who continue to make a telling difference to the human condition - people like Hippocrates, Galen, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Gregor Mendel, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Louis Pasteur, Florence Nightingale, Oswald Theodore Avery, Harold Varmus, and Rosalyn S. Yalow. Discover what drove them and marvel at the brilliance of their contributions.

Encounter great ideas - including the doctor-patient relationship, the germ theory of disease, vaccination, immunology, genetics, preventive medicine, stem cells, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and treatment - and learn about the art, science, and significance of these ideas.

Within the context of discovery and compassion at the heart of every medical advance, Medical Marvels considers the powerful forces controlling both the science and distribution of healthcare. By reading this absorbing and important book, everyone interested in good healthcare will gain a new appreciation for the achievements, the roadblocks that have been overcome and those still looming, as well as the great promise medicine holds for the future.

Healthcare is among the most significant issues of our time, and it will be more so in the future. If you want a powerful and accurate lens to understand the history of medicine as well as the societal and scientific challenges it is facing now and in the future - then Medical Marvels is for you.