Medicine in the past

Medicine has existed for almost as long as humanity has, for as long as we have existed we have been attempting new ways to cure ourselves of ailments, prolong our lifespan and uncover the mysteries of our own working.

In this post I aim to find out the origins to some of the things I looked at in my present post and try to prove that the older ideals are still popular today. Through this I hope to prove that the popularity of medical issues and problems have been consistent.

The first examples of medicine are that of prehistoric man, who amazingly performed one quite a dangerous surgery on one another known as traphanning. Evidence suggests that even in prehistoric times people have survived having their skull cut open to relieve pressure upon their brains, this was said to be impossible and carry a 100% mortality rate up until 1962.
(Foster M, 2005)

Treppanned skulls image from an exhibit

(Bellatrix S, 2010)

This image above of a museum exhibit shows the popularity of surgery in prehistoric society, it also shows that the knowledge of these events is still marketable now as people still come to visit this exhibit. I think this proves that people have always been intrested in hearing about surgeries that they didn't believe possible.



Seeing as I covered it in present I think its important to look into syringes in the past.

Image taken of the first Syringe made

(Rynd F, 1844)

"In 1844, Francis Rynd (1801-61) developed the first syringe with a hollow needle, although he did not publicise it until 1861 after a rival claim to have invented the hypodermic syringe. With this particular example, Rynd used a cannula (a thin hollow tube) and a trocar (a sharp needle-like point). An incision is made by a lancet and the trocar inserted into the skin. The thin hollow tube, opened at both ends, is fitted over the top of the trocar. Once the cannula was inserted, the trocar was retracted and the medications or fluids placed into the cannula. Made by John Weiss, a surgical instrument maker, this example is constructed from steel and ivory and carried in a leatherette case. Hypodermic needles are hollow so treatments can be injected in the body under the skin. The needles are angled so that the sharp point easily penetrates the skin."

(Rynd F, 1844)

The syringe has been present in medicine for a long time, they have been important to surgeries and certain avenues of medical study, some would even say essential. This article shows that Syringes have been popular ever since their creation and before them there was a constant need for them.
But I feel I should look at something else used to remove liquids from the body before the syringe.
Since I covered medical myths I think I will talk about an age old treatment which turned out to have some degree or reality to it, LEECHES!

(Biofarm Leeches, 2004)

Leeches have been around in medicine for as long as Egyptian times, back then they were used for everything but without real rational reasoning. However more recent studies have shown they are useful in a medical sense as they promote healthy blood flow throughout the body, lower blood pressure and even promote the success of limb reattachment.

(Jackson M, 2004)

This BBC news article supports the popularity of leeches throughout history, also it strengthens the argument that they are still popular as the actual news article is about how leeches are making a comeback recently.

Another old form of medicinal healing is that of Cauterisation, the process is one of burning a wound closed to prevent it bleeding. This method of healing has been around for a long time, however its hard to find any information on it, I did however find a video of somebody demonstrating an older method of Cauterisation using black powder.

Screenshot of a video

(Yourdiscovery.com. 2011)

Link to Video

http://www.yourdiscovery.com/video/dual-survival-fire-bandage/

I think this video shows that the method must have been quite popular in the past and that popularity has bled through to the present day in this demonstration video.

This blog seems to have taken the angle of looking through a collection of medical methods which are still known about and valid today, this does prove that popularity of medical technique or method is shows by its effectiveness and that when it works it doesn't change. This shows that any method that exists now that still works the best in 20 years will still be used, that's all well and good but I still need to prove popularity of my chosen subjects.

Another older subject of medicine is the roots of Pharmacology, this is the ancient art of alchemy.

Egyptian image of Alchemy

(Cockren A, 2011)

Alchemy dates back to the ancient Egyptian times in which the process of alchemy was all in the hopes of unearthing the the power of the gods in strange elixirs. This included prolonged life, power over the weather and even true divinity, obviously they were not successful completely however they did have some successes. This was very popular in the past as an entire culture was gripped with it, it has been linked with the occult and witchcraft also in later cultures.

(Cockren A, 2011)

Alchemy is where I trace the origin of the superbug issue, as the beginning of chemistry and the creation of drugs and antibiotics which created the superbugs. This shows that people have always seen to thwart illness and other forms of illness, however it seems to be a battle of escalation. For as our treatments get smarter so do the bacteria we combat.

Another famous medical topic is that of Hippocrates, the famous doctor who famously made the Hippocratic oath.

Drawing of a sculpture

(Paulrubens P, 1638)

Hippocrates is still seen as one of the most famous doctors in history, his oath is still said and sworn by all doctors and physicians in the western world. He spent 20 years in prison for his workings on the human body,  he is also credited as the first person to believe that diseases were caused naturally and not by the gods.

"In most medical schools, students recite the Hippocratic Oath together to mark the start of their professional careers. The soon-to-be physicians swear to uphold the ethical standards of the medical profession and promise to stand for their patients without compromise."
(NPR Staff. 2011)

That is from a quite recent article about the fact that the raise in medical costs might put the Hippocratic oath.

I have looked into Hippocrates because it is where I trace the origin of the hospital and the institution of the doctor to. For that reason it stands as the origin of medical myths, for before Hippocrates there would have been no medical 'facts', as Hippocrates set up the Hippocratic oath he set up the institution which would say what was right and what was wrong for the worlds health.

The image is a artistic render of a bust of Hippocrates, showing his popularity in media.

Now since I have looked into the medical myths such as Zombies and Repo I feel I should talk about the oldest medical based horror story that is still popular to this date. With this article I hope to cement the idea that the best horror ideas which stand the test of time are those which have a link to a factual base in some way.

An image from the Movie Frankenstein
(Whale J 1931)

The great monster of Dr. Frankenstein! A horrible Promethean creation born of 5 bodies sown together. A story based on the story of Prometheus it follows a scientist who defies god to create a mockery of life which eventually kills him. Frankenstein was a great work of medical science fiction horror which has survived the test of time, however the creation itself is well documented but I always was more interested in the bizarre equipment which birthed the thing.

An image from the Movie Frankenstein

(Whale J 1931) 

The labs of the old world horror films are a strange mixture of fiction and horror projection. Where all of the fears of medicine people have link to science fiction to make a laboratory of horrors filled with horrifying tools, Tesla coils, loud machinery and beds with clamps. I feel that these places exist at the back brain of every person who is told they will be put unconscious for an operation, that the moment they are under the masks come off and they are wheeled to a secret basement lab for dark and horrifying experiments...

But hey everybody has their fears, they generate of our most creative ideas!

Well I think that the existence of the Frankenstein series is enough to prove its popularity throughout the ages, however it isn't all I looked at throughout my present medicine study. Another thing I looked into was prosthetics and nanotech, obviously its impossible to look at those with any great interest, however I can look at the worlds first transplant.

Image from a newspaper

(Murrey J, 1954)

"On Dec. 23, 1954, doctors in Boston gave a kidney to a seriously ill, 23-year-old man in the first successful long-term transplant of a human organ. Since then, transplants have saved more than 400,000 lives. But as NPR's Joseph Shapiro reports, that's something transplant pioneer Dr. Joseph Murray never imagined. " 

(NPR Staff. 2004)

 Well I think I have pr oven quite well the popularity of medicine throughout time and also that it persists as a popular media topic. I have also learnt that the best horror ideas and themes come from some sort of factual basis or genuine fear that is in some way exaggerated to an apocalyptic end.

The first medical transplant reported got Dr. Joseph Murray a Nobel prize, however when he did the surgery he was simply trying to save a patient. This was one of the most important moment in medical history and as the quote says. This shows the popularity of the surgery, also the picture taken from a newspaper shows the popularity.

The big picture past

In this post I shall look into the same subjects which I looked at in my present blog post and see if I can find out if those ideas were popular back then. I shall also look into other issues if I find any that are interesting and help validate any points I may want to prove.
So firstly I looked into a popular recent image which cites Pandora's box, so I will start with that story.

(Waterhouse W, 1896)

Pandora's box, known typically as original sin. The story goes that two brothers, Epimetheus and Prometheus angered zeus and so the vengeful god took away mans ability to make fire. however Promethus knew that Hephaestos had a fire to keep his forge working, he took fire from him and further angered Zeus so he planned a way to get revenge. He created a woman called pandora and gave him to Epimetheus as a gift, he fell in love with her and they were married. He then gave to Pandora a box and asked her to never open it, eventually curiosity got the better of her and she opened it, releasing upon the earth all the horrors within.
(Pontikis N, 2010)

(Arias G, 2008)

Original sin,  Categorised as eve and adam eating the forbidden fruit in the garden of eden. When you think about it the story in and of itself is a strange way of blaming all sins of man onto women, however I am not here to judge the purpose of religion...ill leave that to long winded books, this is a blog! The concept of god setting this situation up seems odd to me. It seems as though most stories are of god setting us up to sin, I mean god knew that by telling us not to eat the apple we would most defiantly eat the apple...he had to know he created us! So in essence he knew for a fact we were going to lie to him he was simply giving us the opportunity to do it. (no offence was intended in this opinion)

The aforementioned story in and of itself had to be a popular story as it has stood the test of time and it still used today and studied. However the image depicting original sin in the form of the apple in the garden of Eden also shows that this concept is a popular one.
But enough about religion, how about we move onto another avenue which the story looked at in depth?


LYING!

(Holm P, Found 2011, creation date unknown)

Lying is the defence mechanism that all people use to get through all situations, from simple ones to the most complex. The process of denying the truth to escape the consequences when they are less then favourable, its almost something people do without thinking. It seems that lying seems to be part of everyday life as most people on average lie at least twice a day, lies can also include deception such as wearing makeup to hide wrinkles and wearing a tupet to hide baldness.

A popular game which recently implemented a system was LA noire, where you played a Detective in the 1940's. A core mechanic in this game was to read facial expressions to detect lies, it was quite revolutionary facial recognition...

(Rockstar, 2011)

Lying is interesting but this poster is more so, it seems to be a certain style...

(Kulagina V, 1930)

Communist Propaganda, a style of artwork made for Russia in world war 2, very striking with a lot of use of the colour red these posters were a very nice and quite unique style. The art style was influenced by the many styles that were blooming in western Europe at the time however it retained its own style, the red was most likely for the soviet union and communism. It is easy to call this manipulative advertising however the west were just as bad, early superman comics were completely racist and were almost completely designed as war propaganda for the masses.

The poster shows that there was a vested interest in the past in using fear to control people, making fear a viable and popular tool in the media.


Speaking of odd propaganda, here's something Ive covered in my present post.

Zombie themed board game

Twilight creations. (2001)

Zombies, the re-animated remains of humans who eat the flesh of their living brethren. The idea seems to originate from the Haitian religion Voodoo, in which the sorcerers were able to animate the corpses of the recently departed to do their bidding. This is obviously a work of fiction and fear but it is interesting to see how much the idea has run away from its origin. From servants of sorcerers to the self-destructive plagues of the undead which will one day cause an apocalypse and wipe humanity out.
(Omega R, 2009)

I honestly think that the zombie apocalypse fascination is so apparent to us these days is because of the swelling in a population, the zombie apocalypse which occurs now would be devastating due to the amount of human beings which are around. On another note if we are to believe that the population of the human race is our only problem it would be a fantastic mechanism to prevent overpopulation form occurring, if every time our race became too dominant it preyed on itself. This would also probably cause a speed up of the survival of the fittest system allowing the surviving humans to advance...

So what is our version of self- destructive contest?

Nagasaki Nuclear bomb, 1945

(Fried E, 2004)

Ah yes...war. War is the name given to the battles between disagreeing political groups, it is not called war on a smaller scale or in any other genre, for it to be war it must be between political groups for political reasons.
("war." Collins English Dictionary, 2011)


War seems to be our natural solution to an oversized population and it also seems to be when we advance at our fastest, I suppose its a form of competition which allows us to excel. When you look at the big picture at war you notice that the larger a group is the more the the group seems to be acting like a child, if that is the case then war is a falling out between toddlers which inevitably ends with a winner and a looser but nothing but regret remains for each parts at the very end...

I do not think I need to prove the popularity of war as a concept in media, however the image above was taken from a national archive which details the bombings. This website shows the popularity of war due to its existence.


Keeping with the theme of my angle on the big picture I think I should look into one of the topics I looked into for my present subject, Artwork in general. For this I will need to back to the origins of art.

(Hitchcock  D, 2011).

[Cave or rock art] consists of engraved or painted works on open air rocks or on the floors, walls and ceilings of caves, some of them in deep and almost inaccessible crannies. They were created during the Upper Palaeolithic period (40,000 to 10,000 BC), and the best were done by what we call the Magdalenians (from the name of a site), peoples who flourished in Europe from 18,000 to 10,000 BC. Such works have a unity, and can be described as the Magdalenian art system, the first in human history. it was also the longest, lasting for more than two thirds of the total time when humans have produced art.

(Johnson P, 2003)

It seems that our first phase of artwork was still our longest, showing how much our development sped up later on in our existence. The origins of artwork show that this form of expression is as old as we are and it is seems simply to be a part of the human condition. Maybe before we could communicate though vocals we communicated through visuals?

The above image is taken from a website depicting images from a variety of sources including a french book, this shows popularity both back then and now for this sort of artwork and the origins of artwork.

Another topic I am interested to learn the origins of is the cross species Anthropomorphism, so I have gone to one of the oldest and most well known examples on the subject..

Werewolves!

"The first recorded Werewolf sighting took place around the countryside of German town Colongne and Bedburg in 1591. An age-old pamphlet describes those shivering moments vividly. Few people cornered a large wolf and set their dogs upon it. They started to pierce it with sharp sticks and spears. Surprisingly the ferocious wolf did not run away or tried to protect itself, rather it stood up and turned out to be a middle-aged man he was Peter Stubbe from the same village."

(Sk. Nur-Ul-Alam, 2001 )

The above image is that of the fate of stubbe, after admitting to his extremely unimaginable crimes he was tied to a torture wheel, his arms and legs broken and his skin removed with a hot implement, then finally he was decapitated. His brutal crime spree coupled with the feat of wolf attacks is said to be the basis of the warewolf story.

The above documented story shows the popularity in the past of the wolfman story as a man died over it. Below the movie reference shows that it is still popular in the present as a horror movie idea.


Werewolves are second only to vampires in their popular media presence, a good example is the recent film which came out about werewolves, known as the wolf man.

(Johnson J, 2010)

This about covers the past versions of the topics I have looked into so at this point I think its about time I looked into a different big picture.

THE BIBLE

Image of a Bible taken from a web article

(McDowall, C. 2011)

I have decided to look into the bible slightly because in my present post I have looked into culture, nothing has effected culture more then religion and one of the largest ones is Christianity. I look into it in the past not to prove that religion or that culture have a lot of media popularity but to mention that they used to be very very popular and their popularity in media culture have wained over the years. 

 There is a lot to be said about religion, but I am trying to get ahold of my own angle on the topic, there is no need to say why this is popular I feel. So I will say that it seems to be a large part of who we are as a species, it decides a lot of our actions and behaviour as a whole and is the cause of a lot of the human atrocities. Indeed religion is has just as many negative points as it does positive, a good example of my viewpoint on this double edged sword is the short animation called "a backwater gospel"

(Mathorne B, 2011)

The backwater gospel is a short animation by a group of university students, it covers a small town gripped by fear and controlled by religion. Who when the grim reaper comes to town panic and kill the only man who doesn't go to church, and then when the grim reaper doesn't leave after they kill him they kill one another in fear leaving nothing but a massacre. At this point the "undertaker" stands up and and begins measuring the bodies, the idea being that fear and religion brought about the towns destruction.

The message of the backwater gospel is clear, religion can cause violence and sin through fear if people arnt careful. On this angle religion is suggested to be a system of control brought about by fear. this is a critical angle on religion and not the right one per say, however it is a view on the subject and has relevance in the big picture.

Looking into the past of the issues that I looked into in the big picture at present has brought up some interesting points. It has proven that a lot of the issues that I looked into in my present used to be a lot more popular in general, specifically issues such as culture, religion and fears used to be a lot more popular in our social consciousness. Also it has shown however that a lot of the things I looked into are only popular because of what they are based on in the past I.e. anthropomorphism and zombies!

I think from here I can show that there is a lot of popularity for large ideas which effect everybody being turned into smaller media applications of any kind. It seems that a good way to make any idea or marketable strategy is to take a large overlying theme which we all share and apply it to anything you wish to sell.

Hmm... I am concerned with this being my only realisation for this data. With that in mind in my big picture horizons post I think I shall try something a little different to prove popularity of the big picture will continue.

The big picture at present

The big picture can mean literally anything, I mean the phrase itself is defined as:

 "A broad, overall view or perspective of an issue or problem."

(Dictionary.com, 2011)

Because of this its remit covers everything, so I am free to find widespread subjects to look into and try and see how they fit into the big picture. I plan to find my own angle on the larger issues that affront mankind trying to stay away from what people have already said, hopefully I will come up with some interesting results.

(Anders C, 2010)

And this is my first topic of discovery! an image I found about the season finale of doctor who! A very popular series at present.

But away from the actual topic of doctor who the image itself, it seems to be a depiction of Pandora’s box in dome subterranean resting place disturbed only by the doctor. But looking at the focal point of the image the glowing aqua lights give the feel of old world technology, against the black material of the cube adds a sinister tone to it also. Another thing I notice is the main visible point is a design which imitates an eye on each side of the cube, because it depicts two eyes but they do not in any way line up it adds another unnerving element to the cube, it’s a strange image.

I have chosen this image because of its references to a religious story, Religion has played a major part of defining humanity. However I wanted to cover the actual religious basis in the past section of this blog and cover a popular culture reference in this section.

As I have already said this image is concept art for the season finale of Doctor who, the popular Tv series. This shows it is popular and marketable to use ideas themed on religious ideas in modern media culture.

However I think that it would be best to look at the large issues that we face as a culture in the modern day.

OVERPOPULATION

(Eugenecho.com, 2011)

I feel that it is necessary to mention the start of my medicine at present post in this section as it links perfectly to this subject.

The subject talks about the aims of modern medicine in making the human lifespan longer and preventing death, however due to the massive overpopulation caused by allowing humans to live longer and die less the planet will soon have 4 times the population it can sustain, making humanity its own greatest threat.

(Ryerson W, 2010)

I feel that for this reason if you look at the big picture medicine is not actually helping humanity so much as leading it to a different type of problem, one that is much harder to solve. A good example of the media presence of this fear is the Happening, a movie about plants  which evolve to cause humans to commit suicide in response to the human population getting too large.

This Horror film shows that the theme of overpopulation is popular in our modern culture simply because it exists, because horror films only really work when the fear is based on some sort of realistic possibility even if it is simply speculation. I will be exploring this theory more thorughout my blog by looking into true horror stories in my past posts.

(Shyamalan M, 2008)

I think that I can move onto another large factor in peoples definition of the big picture, you see I think that people see the world differently depending on their perspective, a large part of what goes to defining this perspective for each and every person is Human nature.

HUMAN NATURE AT A GLANCE

Human nature is an interesting idea, everybody talks about it but nobody can actually define it. The basis of the idea is that it is not only our experiences that define us but those of our ancestors and their ancestors, information passed through to us by our DNA. This information governs our actions and preferences; however this doesn’t always result in actions by people perceived as 'good'. The results of human nature include things such as racism and sexism, prejudice is usually a direct result if not partially because of our human nature. Some examples are included in this list of 10 politically incorrect truths of human nature:

(Gondry M, 2001)
This image is taken from a comedy film called human nature

The first truth is that men like blonde bombshells, not a popular truth. However evolutionary psychology shows there is a link between each of these features that makes them the most attractive.
(Miller A, 2009)

Personally I do not agree, however it’s interesting to see the explanations.

 Finally blue eyes, blue eyes are not an indication of health but they do make it easier to see when the pupils dilate, which is the easiest way to see when somebody is looking at something they are interested in.
(Miller A, 2009)

A good example of this in media is Species, a movie about an alien who wishes to breed with humans and chooses a blonde hair blue eyed female body to do so.

(Donaldson R, 1995)

This Movie shows that horror films play upon true fears people have by playing on the idea of an alien race could pretend to be exactly what we want out of life to get us at our most vulnerable. It also shows these psychological truths about human nature due to the form which she takes.

Another truth given on this list is that having a son reduces the chance of divorce. The reason behind this truth is that a man is measured by his wealth, status and power; these things require the father to be consistently investing in the son. Whereas a woman’s status is measured mostly by her natural beauty and youthfulness, the parental involvement in a daughter is less important than in a son.

This form of study is interesting, mostly because it highlights the human race as what it actually is, mammals. A race just like any other, with its own trends and preferences predetermined by its nature. It’s easy for us to see ourselves as superior to other animals or even detached from the common systems which govern animal behaviour.
(Miller A, 2009)

A good example of this is planet of the apes, where humanity is reminded how close they are to apes and their roles are reversed.

This film shows good marketability for the fear of our predetermined roles, along with the fear of another race of beings finally rising up and knocking us from our position from the top of the food chain.

(Burton T, 2001)

I also find it interesting when people say that we are defying our own nature with the advent of technology and shaping the planet to our own needs. I do not believe that to be possible at all, as although the changes to the world and our lifestyle change our nature I do not think we are in any way defying it. I think that it is simply the next step of our natural progression, seeing as we got to this point following our nature we have in no way defied it, simply changed it. I do not see a way of possibly defying human nature as it is inbuilt into us and governs what we do on a very crucial level; it seems to me that it is simply just another illusion given to us by our pride.

Well I am starting to develop some proof that horror films are based on true fears which is what makes them popular, but i feel I am getting ahead of myself. To return to looking into the issues that define our perspective of the world I will now look into another great part in defining how we percieve the world.

CULTURE:

This is an image defining the many different cultures around the world

(Image from blog by Fahmi D, 2011)

Culture is defined in many ways; usually it defines a series of communal goals, attitudes and beliefs. Basically it is a word used to define the series of imprints that being part of a collective leaves on the human mind. These imprints define parts of the world to us as they represent the human collective in that area and we feel slightly outcast because of our differences. (freedomdefined.org, 2011)

This has a large media presence but usually not in the entertainment areas so as to not offend, however culture has a very large media presence in the form of music. Music is often linked to the culture which created the music, a good example is this recent book that has been released for the kindle which is a collection of essays and interviews to represent black music culture. The existance of this Ebook shows marketability for Culture themed ideals in the modern world and further strenghens the argument that ideas linked to large ideas are the most popular ones.

(Banfield W, 2011)

It can also be used to describe an understanding of the arts using the phrase "high cultured", the phrase is also used to describe the creme de la crème of the arts themselves and a cultures most prised works.

A famous example of such a thing is the Mona Lisa:

(Vinchi L, 1519)

The Mona Lisa is a very famous painting by Leonardo Da Vinci however in present day culture this figure painting doesn’t have much of an impact on us. However people are fascinated by Da Vinchi and it seems anything he is attached to is a success, a fine example of this is the book which through popularity became a film.

'The Da Vinchi Code'

 Spawned from the many conspiracy theories that follow around the brilliant renaissance painter.
This book shows popularity even in the modern day for Da vinchi and High culture, however it shows also that it has bled through to the modern day in a very different way then how it was popular back then. People arnt so much intrested in the painting but more the mystery that surrounds him now.
 

(Brown D, 2004)

 However oddly another figure painting of less fame has made an impact on modern Internet culture.

(Ducreux J, 1793)

Joseph Baron Ducreux, (1735-1802) was a French painter who painted a self-portrait of him pointing at the observer with an expression of smug superiority.

This picture however has become more famous than the actual artist, because the Internet has picked the image up and super imposed over it archaic vocabulary versions of modern day hip hop lyrics. This form of joke is called a meme, a joke which has many possibilities and a simple formula to create so that many people can make them and share them in all their different forms.

This 'Meme' shows popularity for the figure painting, but more then that is shows that things that were popular back when they were created can come back and be popular again in very odd ways. It seems that when somthing was amazingly popular or marketable that popularity returns in new forms given time.

(Hipforums.com, 2011)

This small avenue of research ties into the big picture as my viewpoint on art, one of the major forms of human expression. Expression in this way has played a large part of human life as a whole, from the large
amounts of money attached to high cultured art to the simple graphic designs of every piece of sold items. My view on this topic has covered how the popularity of great pieces of work has survived and brought about odd avenues of replication. As time passes it seems we do not forget our greatest expressions triumphs and we also seem to try to make our own version of them.

Speaking of artists, I like this image:

This image created by by an upaid artist is very popular on deviantart, a free art community. However it shows marketability for the idea of cross species because if its popularity on a free art society.
The mighty bear maid. Hm...begs the question why haven’t animals crossed species...

(Drachenmagier, 2011)

According to the University Of Bloomington Indiana the crossing of closely related species can rapidly propel the evolutionary process. (Indiana university, 2003)

 So why can’t special splicing such as the one shown here work? I mean there will absolutely be problems with it but surely on some level and in some way it will be advantageous in creating new species.

Let’s see if there is any basis for this...

"The evolutionary continuity between humans and other animals suggests that some dimensions of personality may be common across a wide range of species"

(Gosling S, John O, 1999)

This quote from an abstract in a psychological journal mentions that it is widely accepted that human beings share a lot of the traits found with animals and vise verse, however although it says that cross-special breeding would be advantageous it does not offer any proof that it is in any way possible apart from saying we share the DNA of certain animals.

Cross species breeding fits well into the big picture as my take on evolution. The idea being that we are made strong by our diversity and merging or different types of DNA it seems odd to me that cross special breeding isn't possible as yet another way for humanity to ensure its survival and diversity. A popular media reference of this cross species mutation is the cartoon and comic series Teenage mutant ninja turtles, the story of 4 turtles who are mutated by radioactive substance and become super crime fighting anthropomorphic creatures.

This popular comic series shows marketability for the idea of evolution and cross species merging. An idea which has been popular with certain popular fears throughout the world.

(Eastman K, Laird P, 2010)
 

Another avenue or research I should look into is the appearance of the phrase 'the big picture' in the media, what I have found is a magazine known as "The big picture magazine". The magazine seems to be centred around looking deeper into the world of cinema and analysing parts of it to find hidden meaning, it is in publication today which makes it relevant to today's media presence.

(Yazdani M, 2009)

Another link I have found to the phrase "the big picture" is a media outlet on Boston.com. The website covers all large issues in world news in the form of a blog, this is another media based version of the phrase the big picture. In this sense the big picture is a collection of news reports which effect the entire world, for this reason it is relevant to justifying the big picture's media presence because it covers all important and popular news stories at present.

This image is from the recent Occupy wall street protests, a important and popular media event. This protest in itself shows popularity for big issues, simply put if so many people are willing to get together, face adversity and endure hardships to force people to accept and react to their opinions then it has to be a popular idea!

(Turner L, 2011)

Well, this has been an intresting post! I have looked into a lot of influencial themes throughout this post and boiled them down into popular ideas and refrances which they effect. Through this method I think what I have found is that The main popular ideas that we hold true to these days are based upon things we either believed true in the past or at some point were popular before. The way I have shown that is by showing that a lot of popular horror films are based on fears we believed to be true, I have also looked into Human nature as a possible explination for this.

I think I shall now look into the past and see if I can find origins for the popularity of these ideas, whilst also looking into some other issues which were important to us in the past.

Medicine at present

It seems that one of the main issues that interests medicine at present is the prospect of further increasing the longevity of human life.

"After remaining fairly constant for most of human history, life

Expectancy (the average number of years a person can expect

To live) has nearly doubled in the past century."

The Future of Human Life Expectancy (Sonnega A, 2006)

However it seems that our natural survival instinct still drives us to live for as long as possible. Not that we would be better without such an instinct but as it stands I believe we are becoming a great threat to our own survival.

In this blog post I feel that its best to look into the large issues that medicine will be facing and try to see how medicine will combat the threats it is faced with.

OVERPOPULATION

(Spagnoli F, (2009)

As it stands our increased lifespan and chance of survival has led to overpopulation.

Every annual year the population increases by about 80 million, which is the equivalent of adding a new Egypt to the planet. As such the population is close to 7 times what it used to be in 1800, at this moment the population is on its way to 8 billion by July 8th 2019.

(Ryerson W, 2010)

This is 4 times the estimated sustainable population of earth.

(Figure taken from the U.S. Census beuro, last revised 27/6/2011)

If things keep going this way humanity is going to become (if it hasn’t already) its own biggest threat as we make the planet barren and unable of holding human life, Making the work of medicine at present counter-productive to human survival. A good example of this fear in the media (which was suggested to me by the people commenting on this blog), is the book by John Brunner Stand on Zanzibar. This tells of a science fiction based future in which overpopulation has led to war.

This Book shows marketability for the fear of overpopulation as a book was created around the concept and that book was popular. I do not wish however for both my big picture and medicine posts to be completely the same so I feel next I will take a more direct look into medicine.

(Brunner J, 1968)

Okay, let me pick a less apocalyptic subject:

(Image taken by me of a syringe I bought, 2011)

THE SYRINGE

The above is a photo I took of a syringe from a set I bought at a car boot sale; they were 1920's syringes and cost £5. This shows that these syringes have a definite market as people buy them from websites and in this case open markets.

So the syringe, a staple of medicine and a timeless symbol of the science. However it is feared by many for the pain it brings leading to phobias and even the syringe being used in horror films. When you think about it they are simply a system for transferring substances into and out of the human body. Something about that is terrifying to humans however; perhaps it is the idea of messing with the blood which is so very important to our survival...

(Krix H, 2009)

This is a little sister’s syringe from Bio shock. The simple device extracts a strange liquid called "Adam" from dead users of the stuff and collects it in a baby’s bottle at the top; the users of this syringe patrol the fantasy underwater city of Rapture to find this substance. Stepping away from the game and genre for a moment the syringe itself has been made from period appropriate objects as picked to create the original design by the designer. A gas pump forms the handle, a real baby’s bottle forms the bottle and the syringe is...well in not so sure about that part but it’s good to see how the original design was taken from real objects.

Both of these images show a great deal of popularity for syringes in media, firstly I can prove that people still buy syringes for all sorts of reasons simply because they were on sale and I bought them. Secondly I can show they have a media presence in all forms due to the face somebody has remade a prop from a popular computer game and even that has become popular!

Alright...new topic...I believe that there is a possibility for me in looking into other things based around medicine and fear, with that in mind.

TOP TEN MEDICAL & HEALTH MYTHS!

(Dubner A, 2011)

These include that Sugar does not make your kids hyper, you don’t catch a cold from cold weather, You can’t starve a cold or feed a fever (in fact odd food intake during illness is dangerous) and my absolute favourite you don’t need to drink 8 glasses of water a day. (Dubner A, 2011)

These are all myths that have been created by the health conscious to keep people safe however they do not have any real founding or proof, it’s interesting how people can get an idea from nowhere.

The image and information was taken from an online Poll where people vote for their favourite medical myths from a larger list. This shows popularity for medical myths because people voted for their favourites.

Well this poll shows that people are interested in disproving fears that people as a whole have accepted without proof, through that it proves the popularity of medical based fears.

I feel at this point I should move onto a fast advancing form of medicine which has appeared as a theme in recent popular media series.

PROSTHETIC LIMBS

(Jolly A, 2009)

A new and fast approaching avenue of science is that of biometric prosthetics, robotic limbs which replace the functionality of lost organic limbs. So far the majority of our knowledge on this as a culture has been science fiction, many science fiction films have introduced the idea of man merged with machine as the next advancement of human technology, and a recent popular example of Prosthetic limbs in media is the recent game release Deus ex, human revolution. A game which focuses on an industry and world where robotic augments to the human figure are completely open to everybody.

This game shows the popularity of this avenue of medical science as a media theme.

(Square enix. 2011)

Since Prosthetics were in this game as a main theme maybe I will find intrest in another one of the main themes of this game?

NANOTECHNOLOGY

Nanotechnology is the fictional idea of micro-robots which work in the body en masse and modify the body’s functions along with adding new ones; this however is just a scientific pipe dream...

Aside from nanotechnology being an interesting side point for science fiction games I can see no extreme attraction to using it for an IP.

(Orca S, 2009)

Unfortunately I couldn't find any really grabbing information on this to show that it is anything more then an add on theme for popular science fiction at present, so failing with fictional medical tech how about we look into some real medical tech which is just coming through?

HAPTICS

Continuing with my theme of  technology which is popular and being used in the field of medicine today I think I should mention the Haptics, a Force feedback system which makes simulated surgery as real as possible.

(Sensable inc. 2011)

The haptic is used in modern day medicine to train surgeons perform.

Ahh yes the Haptic, used a lot in 3D modelling, this program creates a pen tool which works in 3D and represents resistance to the wearer when they move against it. This product is already out, however this technology has a large amount of scope, for the moment it is almost impossible to get a hold of one as they are extremely expensive costing close to £9000 at the lower end of the price range, hopefully soon in the not too distant future they will become a little more commercially viable.

difficult operations without killing patients.

(Immersion.com, 2011)

This is an image of the CAE EndoscopyVR Surgical Simulator, a program using haptic technology to train modern day surgeons to perform very complex and dangerous operations without there being any danger of killing patients. However the company which make this product also talk about the possibility of the haptics performing the surgery instead of the surgeon! So robots that perform surgery aren’t too far from the operating theatre!

The very existence of this product shows its marketability, as does the possibility of it one day replacing surgons!

Well it seems medicine has made some great strides towards brand new technology, but what kinds of technology and treatments are they still making use of which we think are outdated?

ELECTROSHOCK THERAPY

(Meshelle, 2010)

Electroshock therapy is still being used today to the disbelief of most people,

"In fact 9 out of 10 people will reply "are they still using that?" when asked about it."
This phrase was taken from an Internet article on electroshock therapy.

(Meshelle, 2010)

Regardless of how archaic and dangerous it seems it is said that more than 100,000 patients are subjected to this every year worldwide, despite the fact that treatment has many associated dangers and side effects and uses theories similar to those of treatments abandoned in the Victorian era. So why would we still use it?

Well there’s only one possible reason...

.it works?

This treatment by definition is a popular as it it used. It is also a commonly used media idea thanks to Frankenstein (covered in my past post), however its also a very feared practise as it seems dangerous and painful. This links back to how fear changes how we perceive things, on top of this the existence of a discussion on the Internet which cites a poll taken about electroshock therapy also shows its modern media popularity.

So there still seems to be fear around a lot of the things medicine is capable of, however there also seems to be more genuine fears based around the natural worlds reaction to our medical advancements.

SUPERBUGS

(Roberts M, 2010)

Another recent medical problem which has occurred is this, Superbugs.

"A new superbug that is resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics has entered UK hospitals, experts warn."

(Roberts M, 2010)

Virus and bacteria which have become completely impossible to wipe out and very lethal, said to have developed in hospitals they threaten everybody who steps foot within one. The BBC have done an article on this brand new superbug which will go global soon and is unstoppable, it seems that the our societies obsession with cleanliness has come back to get us, it is always on the media's minds as the new age fear of incurable illness brought upon us by medicine.

The fact that there is a BBC news article on this topic shows that there is defiantly popularity around the subject and it defiantly has a media presence.

Well I seem to have found that a lot of medicine based stories are prevention of issues, so most of the time you report on the problems which medicine faces, with that in mind I feel I must talk about a certain event where the news played on a fear that people have always shared.

FEAR

(Wright E, 2004)

I think I should mention seeing as I am talking about recent medical based fears in the media a certain hoax I heard about where a BBC news article was faked reporting that a form of swine flu had caused the first ever zombie outbreak. This April fool’s prank was very well revealed and spread quite fast over twitter and other social media networks causing quite a small panic in 2005. It just goes to show that at any one point we are almost willing to believe the almost possible fiction these days since the truth sounds more far fetched.
(Stransky T, 2009)

I feel that this BBC news prank which almost caused a panic in England shows that this fear has a lot of popularity, on top of that zombies have a lot of popularity in media even though they have no actual factual basis. The still shot at the top of the screen is from Shaun of the dead, a popular zombie comedy, this shows the popularity of the zombie fear.

Which leads me to a final expression to media based medical fear and horror.

REEPO!

(Bausman D, 2008)

Repo is a musical movie in which the world has moved on to genetic perfection as the next stage of fashion. It is possible in this world to replace all your organs for designer ones and become literally a brand new person, however this has led to addiction to surgery and drugs which allow it and another form of corruption, the story follows a girl being introduced to this world whose father secretly repossesses the organs out of the bodies of those who cannot pay for them. A horrible world to exist in and one wreathed in horror; however it is not too hard to imagine our world becoming one like this, which is to me the basis of a good horror movie, possibility...

This musical shows that that medical based horror ideals have a popularity in the modern world by its own existence.

Well I seem to have come to the conclusion that to look into medicine I must look into the problems that medicine must tackle, it also seems that the media references I shall be looking into are usually horror based as a lot of the fears that medicine conjours make good horror themes. Alongside that I have started to find interest in the advent of technology as a viable topic of research, I think I shall continue to see if there was any popularity for these things in the past.