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The Development of the Polio Vaccine: A Medical Miracle
How the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines of the 1950s and early 1960s emerged, how they differ, and how polio went from a feared epidemic disease to a rare one.
Medicine and the Body
Vaccines and Genetics
Polio vaccine, DNA and gene editing.
The Discovery of DNA: A Fundamental Breakthrough in Science
From Miescher's 1869 nuclein to Avery's 1944 experiment and the 1953 double helix, plus the debate over how much credit Rosalind Franklin received.
The Discovery of the CRISPR Gene Editing Tool: A Revolutionary Breakthrough in Genetics
How odd repeats in bacterial DNA were recognized as an immune system, then turned into the programmable CRISPR-Cas9 tool in 2012, and who gets credit.
The Discovery of the Polio Vaccine: A Medical Breakthrough
How the 1954 polio vaccine field trial worked: roughly 1.8 million children, placebo and observed controls, and the 1955 announcement of Salk vaccine results.
Related topics
More in medicine and the body
Prosthetic Limbs Artificial arms, hands, legs and feet through the centuries. Sight and Hearing Aids Bionic eyes and ears, implants and the microscope. Exoskeletons and Artificial Tissue Wearable assistive frames, soft robotics, artificial muscle and skin. Microscopy How lenses opened the microscopic world and changed medicine. Medical Imaging Seeing inside the body with scans. X-Rays Discovery and early use of X-ray machines. Heart Devices and Implants Pacemakers, defibrillators, valves and artificial hearts. Diabetes Care Technology Insulin, pumps and the artificial pancreas. Medical Instruments Everyday tools of examination and treatment, told as history.