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350
YEARS
OF
SCIENCE
27
© Arterra Picture Library - Alamy
Radiograph of the hand of
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen's wife
Brain imaging showing the functional regions activated during the brain deve-
lopment of a healthy child aged from 5 days to 3 years old
© zneb076 - Fotolia
© N. Boddaert/Hôpital Necker-Enfants-Malades, Paris
consider the volumes, shapes and some functional aspects – whether normal or pathological – of all the
organs. Now combined with algorithmic science, using them is a key element in the development of digital
medicine, which shall be mentioned further on.
The birth of organic chemistry at the end of the 19th Century, the concepts of
enzyme/substrate, ligand/receptor (Paul Erlich) have been deci-
sive. A new form of research was born, which, starting
from the use of natural substances, had come to
create chemical molecules used as drugs.
As a consequence, the pharmaceu-
tical industry has been booming
for the last 70 years, and crea-
ting an impressive number
and diversity of classes
of active molecules: anti-
infectives,
anti-hyper-
tensives, neuroleptics,
analgesics, anesthetics,
etc.
Biology, with the rise of
molecular biology, gene-
tics and cell biology– thanks,
once again, to progress phy-
sics had made possible in the