There is no doubt that our current medical knowledge has both prolonged and improved the quality of many lives across the world. However the road to this version of medicine has not been such smooth sailing with many lives being lost to techniques that were medically inaccurate (as we know them today) as well as failed human trials (such as the death of the first penicillin patient). The story focussed on here is the story of thalidomide, something that is sometimes viewed as the largest man-made medical disaster in history

Although biology may be the subject, we all think of when it comes to medicine, when we zoom into the bigger picture, chemistry is what provides the building blocks for the foundation of medicine. This pertains to both our understanding of the body itself, but it also helps us create new treatments in order to figure out how they will react with humans once used. The below is by no means an exhaustive list but will hopefully provide an insight into the vast array of uses it has.

The knowledge of anaesthetics has not been around for very long, and the use of them is an even more recent development. Anaesthetics are used frequently in current medical practice, with most surgeries being done under some kind of anaesthesia (whether this is local or general), but the use of them only became widespread in the mid-1800s.