Transforming Health with Medicine

You wake up and open your eyes, your head is pounding. Maybe a little breakfast will help. You try a few bites of an egg on toast, but your head hurts too much to eat. Maybe you’re getting sick? With a groan, you walk to the medicine cabinet. You find a bottle of Tylenol. (The technical name of this medicine is acetaminophen). You pop a pill in your mouth, take a gulp of water and swallow. Then you lie down and wait. As the medicine starts to work, your headache will go away.

Compared to eukaryotic cells, bacteria may seem much smaller and simpler—yet, their way of living provides insights into fundamental metabolic processes that have implications far greater than their size suggests. While the vast majority of bacteria that cluster in the human body are necessary for our existence and survival, certain types of bacteria are disease-causing organisms, or pathogens, and pose a danger to humans due to their ability to infect our cells.

King Tutankhamun only ruled ancient Egypt for a few short years before dying as a teenager. His mummy was discovered in a tomb filled with gold and jewels. But what killed him? He had been sickly throughout his whole life and had a broken leg when he died. But scientists found traces of a terrible disease that likely ended his life. That disease is called malaria.

As a teenager, Hugh Herr got lost during a blizzard on a mountain. He surived the ordeal but was gravely injured. “Both of my legs were amputated just below the knee due to tissue damage from frostbite,” he explained in a 2020 talk. As he adjusted to his new body, he said, “I began to imagine a world with such advanced technology that disability is no more.”