ABSTRACT
One of the more dramatic occurrences of the twentieth century has been the large increase in human life expectancy at birth. This increase came about for several reasons, prominent among which are improved diet and improved health care, based in part on improved medical technology. Much of modern medical technology is derived from adaptation of prototype inventions and discoveries that originally did not originate from work on medical problems. The industry that grew out of knowledge of organic chemistry was chemicals with its subdivision, pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceutical progress certainly occurred prior to the gaining of full understanding of the structure of DNA and its genetic role. The pharmaceutical industry has created a number of new drugs that have brought cure or at least control to a number of diseases previously thought to be beyond the ability of medical technology to influence. The "big three" of twentieth century medical diagnosis imaging are X-ray based technology, ultrasonics, and magnetic resonance imaging.
