ABSTRACT
The ‘breakthrough’ motif today serves as one of the most pervasive temporal abstractions for describing key events in science and medicine. Of late, it has come to refer to commemorative moments including the introduction of penicillin, antibiotics, x-rays, vaccination, radiation therapy, transplantation, new genetics and much more. And every breakthrough has its towering ‘heroes’ and ‘pioneers’: Pasteur, Fleming, Florey, Jenner, Curie, Crick and Watson, etc. As such, breakthroughs signify unequivocal disjunctures in the overall temporal shape of innovation and science, designating all the major ‘steps forward’ of grand progress narratives (Lyotard, 1984). It is therefore, probably one of the most routine cultural methods available for making tacit sense of the dynamics of change and the relevance of ‘the new’ to the future.
