Greatest inventions of the XX-th century.
Some people consider television as the most important invention of the last 100 years. It greatly influenced our cultural life, being one of the main sources of information and all kinds of entertainment. But is that a reason good enough to call the invention of television the most important of them all, even within just a hundred of years? I think not, and here are two inventions I consider more important: Apgar scale and Blood bank.
The Apgar scale is a standardized scale that is used to determine the physical status of an infant at birth. This simple, easy-to-perform test was devised in 1953 by Dr. Virginia Apgar (1909-1974), a professor of anesthesia at the New York Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. The Apgar scale is administered to a newborn at one minute after birth and five minutes after birth. It scores the baby's heart rate, respiration, muscle tone, reflex response, and color. This test quickly alerts medical personnel that the newborn needs assistance and it saves quite a lot of infants each year.
The idea of a blood bank was pioneered by Dr. Charles Richard Drew (1904-1950). Dr. Drew was an American medical doctor and surgeon who started the idea of a blood bank and a system for the long term preservation of blood plasma (he found that plasma kept longer than whole blood). His ideas revolutionized the medical profession and saved many, many lives. Dr. Drew set up and operated the blood plasma bank at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, NY. Drew's project was the model for the Red Cross' system of blood banks, of which he became the first director.
I don't say that television doesn't make a valuable contribution into saving of people's life, because it does: broadcasting the breaking news about natural disasters and wars, warning us about all the troubles we can get into and telling us to be extremely careful. But in case of emergency it will not help you. That's why I think television is not the most important invention of the last 100 years.
Some people consider television as the most important invention of the last 100 years. It greatly influenced our cultural life, being one of the main sources of information and all kinds of entertainment. But is that a reason good enough to call the invention of television the most important of them all, even within just a hundred of years? I think not, and here are two inventions I consider more important: Apgar scale and Blood bank.
The Apgar scale is a standardized scale that is used to determine the physical status of an infant at birth. This simple, easy-to-perform test was devised in 1953 by Dr. Virginia Apgar (1909-1974), a professor of anesthesia at the New York Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. The Apgar scale is administered to a newborn at one minute after birth and five minutes after birth. It scores the baby's heart rate, respiration, muscle tone, reflex response, and color. This test quickly alerts medical personnel that the newborn needs assistance and it saves quite a lot of infants each year.
The idea of a blood bank was pioneered by Dr. Charles Richard Drew (1904-1950). Dr. Drew was an American medical doctor and surgeon who started the idea of a blood bank and a system for the long term preservation of blood plasma (he found that plasma kept longer than whole blood). His ideas revolutionized the medical profession and saved many, many lives. Dr. Drew set up and operated the blood plasma bank at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, NY. Drew's project was the model for the Red Cross' system of blood banks, of which he became the first director.
I don't say that television doesn't make a valuable contribution into saving of people's life, because it does: broadcasting the breaking news about natural disasters and wars, warning us about all the troubles we can get into and telling us to be extremely careful. But in case of emergency it will not help you. That's why I think television is not the most important invention of the last 100 years.
