Week 4: Medicine + Technology + Art

This week’s lecture and materials made we realize that art is all around us and has always been.  Technology has made the biggest change when it comes to medicine and this changes happened centuries ago.  Technology is most useful and well known now because people now understand it’s significant. Anatomy and dissection has existed since the beginning of times but is now its has evolved into a more safer and secure process. As the world change so does the ways of things. Anatomy is more advanced now due to use of technology.  I thought surgeries didn’t exist till the twentieth century but this week’s materials made realize it had been happening for more than three thousand years ago.

Figure 1: This is a picture of the processes of mummification in ancient Egypt. 

In ancient Egypt when the king or an important figure died mummification process was done to preserve their bodies in the tombs. This process included dissection whereby a 10cm incision was made in the side of the corpse using an obsidian knife to remove the organs then a solution of natron salt was put inside to help preserve the body from decaying. This shows how anatomy and the study of the human body existed along ago. Even though the research of the human body has been going on for centuries, the invention of the technology made things easier and less complicated to the ordinary human.

Figure 2: This a Lab Test of Raymond Damadian readies assistant Larry Minkoff for a body scan in his 1977 MRI prototype. ( Raymond Damadian is the inventor of the MRI)

During the 1800s doctors and biomedical scientists developed instruments to examine and understand the body. Devices such as the thermometer, microscope and kymograph revealed how healthy and diseased bodies worked.  Some of the very important instruments are the x-ray and MRI scanners, which help us, examine what is wrong with certain parts of our human body that the human eyes cannot explain by just looking at it.  The development of these instruments has made very huge impact in our daily lives. Just last week I went and got an x-ray for my thumb and when I got the results back, it said my thumb was fine. My trainer told me to go and get an  MRI and when I got the result back, it’s said I had torn some ligaments in my thumb. This shows how these technologies play a very important and useful role in our daily lives.  

Figure 3: Prescription Medicines 

Art is the base of all these great inventions, which has been helpful to our daily lives.  All these medicines that are prescribed to us by doctors are very useful due to the use of these new instruments that helps determine how many doses are safe for us to take to help us and thermometers that help that to tell us how if how temperature is too high or low.  The insulin pump for type one diabetes is a great example of how technology + art has develop something very in import to help save human lives. it has been programed to pump sugar into your body automatically when the body is need of it. This show has far technology has evolved. 

Figure 4: Insuline Pump 

With the combination of art and technology this world is about to discover so many great technologies that will help us do the most unthinkable things and helped create medicines to help cure many disease that centuries ago seemed impossible to cure.

Citation

"Researcher Battles Insulin Pump Maker over Security Flaw - CNET." CNET. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.


"Mummies and Mummification - History in an Hour." History in an Hour. N.p., 04 Jan. 2011. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.


"Science Museum. Brought to Life: Exploring the History of Medicine." Technology and Medicine. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.


Hendricks, Drew. "How Technology Is Changing the Medical and Health Care Field." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.

"Technology, Support Groups Help Man Manage Diabetes for Decades."RTV6. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.