Some Women Pioneers In Haematology

Some nineteenth-century pioneers of haematology.

IN THE course of the nineteenth century, the foundations of our modern understanding of the blood were laid. The part played by the cell in the body's economy was worked out, particularly by Virchow,1 and this permitted a rational understanding of the nature and role of blood cells. Technological advances such as the refinement of microscopes and the development of staining techniques enabled t...

Some pioneers of European human genetics.

Some of the pioneers of human genetics across Europe are described, based on a series of 100 recorded interviews made by the author. These interviews, and the memories of earlier workers in the field recalled by interviewees, provide a vivid picture, albeit incomplete, of the early years of human and medical genetics. From small beginnings in the immediate post-World War 2 years, human genetics...

From Pioneers to Players: Women in the Netherlands

The history of cytogenetics. Portraits of some pioneers.

In his book “La Mémoire, l’Histoire, l’Oubli” Paul Ricoeur reminds us of “the diffıcult path that must be traversed between memory and its historic representation”. It is hazardous to try it. But it is worth attempting to sketch some faces—those that oblivion has not erased—and to find again the climate of the times, sometimes full of sound and fury, progressing from the polytene chromosomes of...

Women as moral pioneers? Experiences of first trimester antenatal screening.

The implementation of innovative medical technologies can raise unprecedented ethical, legal and social dilemmas. This is particularly so in the area of antenatal screening, which is dominated by the language of risk and probabilities. Second trimester serum screening for Down's syndrome and neural tube defects has a well-established place in antenatal care. Increasingly, first trimester screen...