Top inventions of 20-th century

Antibiotics

Until Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, almost any little bug that someone picked up was potentially fatal. Once penicillin—and later a whole range of other antibiotics—came on the scene, however, death due to bacterial infection became rare, resulting in a greatly reduced mortality rate and much longer life-span. It also rendered many scourges of the past—from small pox and typhoid to gonorrhea and syphilis - obsolete or, at least in the case of venereal disease, something easily treatable.

My opinion

Before the discovery of antibiotics people died of different infectious diseases, for example, pneumonia. People had big problems even when they had the flu.

       

X-Ray

In 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen was experimenting with a new type of ray which he referred to as “X.” Little did he know that those rays would improve the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in the future? Röntgen discovered the medical application of X-rays when he photographed his wife’s hand, creating the first image of a human body part made by X-rays. The early tubes used to create the rays were very inefficient, but around 1920 a more efficient vacuum tube was invented, making way for wide spread use of X-rays for medical purposes. Today they are used to identify diseases mainly in bone, but also in soft tissue (pneumonia, lung cancer, kidney stones, etc.)

My opinion

X-ray helps doctors to see inside the human body. They help detect fractures, diseased organs. Without X-rays doctors wouldn’t be able to diagnose in the right way.