Medical Advances: X-rays and Penicillin (PDF)

# 4.1 ## Pronunciation - Mark the stressed syllable on the words in Exercise 2a and say what the stressed vowel sound is. - Listen and check your answers. ## Reading - You are going to read about some important medical advances. - What medical breakthroughs can you think of? ## Work in Pairs - Eac...

# 4.1 ## Pronunciation - Mark the stressed syllable on the words in Exercise 2a and say what the stressed vowel sound is. - Listen and check your answers. ## Reading - You are going to read about some important medical advances. - What medical breakthroughs can you think of? ## Work in Pairs - Each student reads two texts. - Make notes about the medical advances, using the questions below. You may not find answers to all the questions. - What? - Where? - How? - Results/benefits? - Who? - When? - Problems? ## Student A: - Look at the texts below. ## Student B: - Turn to page 162. ## Using Your Notes - Tell your partner about the two breakthroughs. ## The First Text Is About X-Rays - X-rays are images that are used to diagnose disease. - They were discovered by Wilhelm Röntgen, a German scientist working in Munich, in 1895. - He was working on a cathode ray tube developed by one of his colleagues, when he noticed that it was projecting a green light on the wall. - Strangely, the light was passing through some materials, including paper, wood, and books. - As he experimented by placing other materials in the way, he noticed that the outline of the bones in his hand was projected onto the wall. - In the following weeks, he continued to investigate the new rays, which he temporarily called X-rays. - Two months later, he published his paper “On a new kind of X-rays", and in 1901 he was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics. - Although the new rays would eventually be known as Röntgen rays, he always preferred the term X-rays. - Today, Röntgen is considered the father of Diagnostic Radiology, a medical speciality using images to diagnose disease. - Nowadays, radiologists can examine all areas of the body for different types of disease. ## In Pairs, Discuss These Questions About The Medical Advances: 1. Which do you think is the greatest of the advances? 2. What other medical inventions do you think are very important, e.g., the thermometer, the scalpel, the stethoscope? ## Speaking - Look at these general issues about medicine and the medical profession. - Talk about them in small groups. 1. Should people have to pay for health care? 2. Do you think nurses and midwives are paid enough in your country? Why/why not? 3. Soon medical advances will allow people to live to a very old age. Is this desirable? Why/why not? 4. Should new drugs be tested on both animals and humans before being prescribed by doctors? ## Penicillin - This was the first effective antibiotic. - It was discovered by Alexander Fleming, who was a brilliant medical researcher at St. Mary's Hospital, London. - He was also careless, and his laboratory was often untidy. - In 1928, after returning from holiday, he noticed a glass dish that had some mold growing on it. - His analysis of this and its effect on the bacteria in the dish led to the discovery of penicillin. - This paved the way for the treatment of infectious disease. - Fleming published his findings in 1929, but little attention was paid to them. - He continued his research, but found it was difficult to grow penicillin mold and even more difficult to refine it. - Fleming shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Ernst Chain, who worked out how to isolate and concentrate penicillin. - Howard Florey also shared the prize for his work on mass producing penicillin. - Fleming's accidental discovery marks the start of modern antibiotics. - It is estimated that penicillin has saved nearly 200 million lives. ## Medicine Unit 4 The image is labeled "Medicine Unit 4" which is an indication that it is related to the subject of medicine. ## Picture - The image shows a black and white x-ray of a hand. - The picture appears to be of the bones in the hand. - The image is likely from the chapter about x-rays in the book. ## Picture - The image shows four petri dishes with some sort of bacteria or fungi growing on them. - This could be a depiction of the experiment involving penicillin as described in the text.