Historian Conrad Keating has written Great Medical Discoveries: An Oxford Story as a guide to the latest exhibition at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
He is the author of Smoking Kills, a biography of Sir Richard Doll and naturally includes Doll’s proof that smoking causes cancer.
The book also focuses on 19 other breakthroughs, starting with Roger Bacon, who pioneered the ‘scientific method’ by accepting the evidence of his own eyes rather than theological dogma.
In the years surrounding the Civil War, Robert Hooke discovered the cell, William Harvey the circulation of blood, and Thomas Willis started to learn how the brain works.
In the 20th century, Lord Nuffield’s car factory funded more medical research and the exigencies of war prompted the development of penicillin in a cash-strapped physiology department.
Oxford also has Dorothy Hodgkin, who remains Britain's only female winner of a Nobel Prize for science for her work unravelling the structure of complex molecules such as insulin. Keating brings the story up to date with a look at modern research, including glucose sensors for diabetes and haemophilia treatments.
The exhibition is at the Bodleian until May next year, Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 9am-4.30pm, Sun 11am-5pm.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here