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From Witch Doctors to Robot Surgeons, 250 Milestones in the History of Medicine
by Clifford A. Pickover
Sterling, 2012 (($29.95))
This coffee-table book lets readers browse more than 12,000 years of medical advances, including the first pregnancy tests (doctors used to inject a woman's urine into mice, frogs or rabbits to see if it would make the animals ovulate), the first sutures for surgery and the first face transplant in 2005. Pickover, a prolific author with a Ph.D. in biochemistry, notes that he was so fascinated by anatomy in college that he “wore only anatomy T-shirts featuring circulatory systems, dissected frogs, and the like.” His enthusiasm comes through in this illustrated history.
COMMENT ATScientificAmerican.com/sep2012
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