Bmed 66 Activity 2

https://youtu.be/NKn203M74fA Founders of Chemistry: Ancient Chemists

 Stone Age – Thousands of years, humans used stones to grab a food. They have
discovered fire (cook foods, give light, give warm). Fire’s finest feature, make stuff out of
other stuff.
 6000 years ago, Egyptians, used copper to make tools. If it is exposed to fire, it melts
and eventually mold to a form (tools was born). They also love to paint, egyptian blue
(first sythetic pigment formed in 3000 BC) – they have created murals.
 4000 years ago, African and asian, think that with a help of flame copper plus tin
makes a bronze
 Thousands of years before firework invention, Chinese were the emperors of bronze.
Ancient China used it for rituals, plates, cups, bowls, etc. for offerings and burial rites.
 With the help of fire, iron production and smelting (extract a metal from its ore by a
process involving heating and melting) in 1200 BC (middle east). Iron became more
useful. It took hundred years to spread it in Europe and China.
 Indians, true masters of irons, 300 BC.. they are making steels (iron + carbon). Sharp,
resilient and strong. Damascus steel from India (south) were strong during times. 2300
years later, scientists used the idea to make razor sharp blades.
 Ancient civilizations are not just doers but thinkers.. Democritus and Aristotle asked
how nature is build. Democritus, considered to be the father of modern science,
developed an idea that everything is made of atoms. There is also an infinite number of
indestructible units in also shape and sizes that always will be in motion. After centuries,
Democritus is considered fortunate, since recent findings have validated his theory.
 Aristotle (student of Plato), worked with the foundatiion of text of the western science
and philosophy… physics. He believed everything on planet are made up of four
elements (fire, water, air, earth). Heaven were made of quintessence substance aether.
 1500 (European Renaissance), classical discoveries dominates science in this era… you
don’t have to physically make something to be hugely influential (Chemistry).
 The Romans, in Chem, they invented coins, concretes and cements. Biggest chem
conquest—plumbing. Crafted pipes out of lead metal (not naturally occurred) extracting it
from rocks. Romans seal pipes in concrete to deal water pressure and burst in pipes…
 All of these happened for more than 4500 years.The civilizations talked about crafting
about metals (reshaped, formed, forged with Chem)

AACT Connect. (2014). Founders of Chemistry: Ancient Chemists [YouTube Video].

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKn203M74fA&feature=youtu.be

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Who are the Important Person in Chemistry and their contribution? 4pts

https://youtu.be/l1gg2I1rHw0 Getting "Under the Skin" of Chemistry's Role in Medicine

What are the important contribution to medicine ? 3 pts

 For centuries, physicians believed in Hippocrates theory of the four humors (yellow bile,
black bile, phlegm and blood). Eg. Feeling good? Humors are in balance, while if not…
well one of them is out of balance. Treatments: one most popular is blood letting. They
took a knife, cut the vein, collect blood in a bowl.
 Since, there was no germ theory at the time… once blood letting was done, they would
wipe off the tool place it in the shelf and use it again another day.
 Hazard’s of bloodletting was demonstrated in George Washington’s fate. In 1799, he
came down with laryngitin and pneumonia. In the cuourse of one day, his doctors took
almost half his blood (he died the next day). His doctors were condemned for having
kiled him. But that time, bloodletting was state-of-the-art medicine… keep in mind, they
were not only trying to keep his blood in balance, they were also trying to study it to
determine the cause of his illness.
 In order to do it, one of the tools they would have used is a centrifuge, it could separate
blood. By 1642, blood cells had been identified.
 In 1770, William Hewson not only identified white blood cells but also the clotting factor.
 In 1901, platelets were discovered as well as the various blood type groups.Physicians
had the better understanding of how the blood system worked in the human body.
 In the beginning of the 20th century, more knowledge about vitamins and hormones
came along, the thinking about the operation of the human body began to change. The
balance in four humors is not considered anymore, but keeping the chemicals in balance
is. Once that notion took hold, may new devices were created to study the chemical and
cellular structure of the body.
 Stirrup apparatus measures the pH balance or acidic level in human blood. With the
success of it, it rapidly gained use in ICU all over the world
 The coulter counter, changed the process of getting a blood count from a tedious error-
prove task that took at least an hour to a test that happened in less than a minute and
was extremely accurate

Science History Institute. (2013). Getting “Under the Skin” of Chemistry’s Role in Medicine
[YouTube Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=l1gg2I1rHw0&feature=youtu.be

https://youtu.be/B0Y2RkMLvPY Why chemistry: medical diagnosis

what is the importance of chemistry to diagnosis of disease? 3 pts

 Optical detection of biomolecules. Develop tech to transform community healthcare, to

optimise treatments. If you go to a doctor they do a very subjective analysis of the
patient, based on this standardised medicines are prescribed. But that does not work for
everybody. So to be able to do more objective analysis before you give medicines is
likely to reduce the recovery time and improve the quality of health. Developing light-
based sensors to do real-time monitoring of biomolecules that are of significance in
health care. It would empower individuals to manage self-treatment. At the same time, it
would enable timely and accurate diagnosis which is a first step towards providing right
medicine at the right time.
 Luminescent nanoparticles for imaging. Luminescence is an extremely sensitive
technique which can detect down to the single molecule level. At Birmingham, my
research group works with lanthanide and transition metal complexes which can detect
light at a wide range of a spectrum, from the visible to the near infra-red. We decorate
nano-sized particles, 13-100 nanometers, so that we can put loads of labels on a single
particle, making it quite luminiscent. These nano-sized labels have a very characteristic
signal, and can be detected in biological tissue with high sensitivity. These nanoparticles
can also be functionalised with antibodies that are specific to recognise diseased tissue.
The versatility of our metals to be attached to surfaces allow the development of
diagnostic kits that can be used quite easily and flexibly next to the patient, in a clinic so
that early and quick diagnosis can be achieved in few minutes.

 University of Birmingham. (2020). Why chemistry: medical diagnosis [YouTube Video].

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0Y2RkMLvPY&feature=youtu.be

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