What changed in Medicine thanks to Science, what did not change (yet?) despite Science

By Vassili Soumelis

Abstract

Does science help medicine to improve? Vassili Soumelis begins his lecture by surprisingly claiming that medicine is not a scientific activity but an empirical art. However, he says, science has helped medicine become more efficient throughout history, especially statistics, chemistry and biology. For each of these sciences, Soumelis exposes examples where medicine improved thanks to scientific knowledge. He concludes his presentation with the historical example of tobacco, first developed as a therapeutic substance and later considered as dangerous to one’s health.

Summary

00:00:10 – 1. Introduction
00:00:11 – 1.1. Notions of living systems
00:04:09 – 1.2. Definition of medicine
00:10:14 – 1.3. The different aspects and time scales of patient medical care

00:15:20 – 2. Medicine and science
00:19:00 – 2.1. History of medicine
00:27:45 – 2.2. Revolutions in medicine
00:28:26 – 2.2.1. Statistics
00:43:55 – 2.2.2. Chemistry
00:52:24 – 2.2.3. Biology

01:09:56 – 3. How science helped medicine?
01:10:50 – 3.1. The historical example of tobacco
01:21:40 – 3.2. What about today: cellphone, GMOs?

01:25:56 – 4. Conclusion