TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE? 
By Kort S. Lion 
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
Cambridge, Mass. 
Hardly any other field of science is as misunderstood by the general 
public as that of medical research. Excessive dramatization is partly 
responsible for several popular misconceptions. Most common of 
these ideas is that the predominant number of advances in medicine 
begin with a man, sitting at a sick bed, utterly shaken by the effects of 
an incurable disease. Suddenly he has a new idea. He makes a few 
experiments, preferably on himself, which are successful. At first, no 
one believes in his work, but finally he is recognized and cures thou- 
sands of people. 
Medical research does not follow such a course. Nor does a medical 
research center suddenly flourish into full bloom after a chance meet- 
ing has brought together a physician, a chemist, a physicist, and an 
organizer who become united in their humanitarian collaboration by 
a burning desire to relieve the sufferings of humanity. 
For the past 20 or 30 years chemistry has played an important role 
in medicine, whereas the participation of physics has been relatively 
limited. This condition is easily understandable. With the explora- 
tion of the chemical composition of, and processes occurring within, 
the body, a number of specifically acting compounds were found which 
could be used therapeutically. Not so in physics. The physical phe- 
nomena and forms of energy—particularly those employed in physi- 
cal medicine—are mostly nonspecific, at least in the way in which they 
were used in the past. Another reason for the relatively small influ- 
ence of physical sciences in medicine is simply that physics is too 
difficult. ‘The physical phenomena in biology and medicine are for 
the most part so complicated that they have not yet been explored. 
The whole arsenal of physical research, from quantum theory to the 
technique of instruments of the highest sensitivity, is needed to inves- 
tigate these problems. Without these powerful tools, any research i in 
the biophysical field was formerly rather hopeless. 
1 Reprinted by permission from The Technology Review, vol. 48, No. 4, February 1946, 
edited at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. 
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