How Has Nuclear Medicine Has Changed Society?

How has nuclear medicine innovated science and society itself? Within the last century, science faced several discoveries that changed society and the scientific enterprise. However, the definitive scientific discovery of the twentieth century was the sustainable nuclear chain reaction by Enrico Fermi, which led to a revolution in nuclear physics. However, the foundations for the study of nuclear medicine formed at the end of the nineteenth century with the discovery of X-Rays. As research progressed in nuclear science with the use of radioisotopes to treat tumors, a transformation in society took place. Following the Second World War, the world suddenly was plunged into the Atomic Age. Understanding the potential that radiation and nuclear physics had in the medical field, society’s acceptance of the Atomic Age influenced the study of nuclear medicine. The influence of social factors on the study of nuclear medicine led to a transformation in the scientific enterprise. Influencing the study of medicine, several social aspects such as ethics,

research, and what enterprise that funds the advancement of nuclear medicine. Although nuclear medicine altered the way that the scientific community understands the medical field, it is debatable that the social aspects that surround atomic studies in medicine influenced a transformation in the scientific enterprise.
The comprehension of the influence of how a particular field in science has benefited society is vital to understanding the concept that science is a social process.

The advancements throughout the study of nuclear medicine provide an illustration to how science has transformed society. Defining social process in science, the researcher must understand that the term that describes the changes of how science has altered society. However, the social process in science also provides an explanation for society’s ability to change the scientific enterprise. Since the discovery of radioactivity, scientists and physicists grappled with the idea of the benefits for society that emerging field of science presented. Evolving in the early studies of nuclear medicine, the social factor involving the benefits that the study offered to society influenced the way that science and society view the use of nuclear elements in medical

care.
Progressing medical treatments, the early studies in nuclear medicine provided a new outlook to scientists on ways for treating fatal illnesses such as cancer or thyroid disease. Wilhelm Roentgen acknowledged, during his experiments with cathode tubes, that he had stumbled upon discovery, which would influence medical practices that benefited society across the world. Roentgen’s experiments at the end of the nineteenth century laid the foundations for nuclear medicine. While working with electricity and its effects that it had on certain gasses in cathode tubes in 1895, Roentgen began to notice several anomalies that his experiments produced. Roentgen noticed that while charging the container with electricity that it presented a new type of ray. Darkening the room, that he conducted his experiments in, Roentgen decided to use a piece of barium platinocyanide covered cardboard and a photographic screen to illuminate his newly found rays. Perplexed by his discovery, the physicist used the screen to find that the rays would pass through many objects with the exceptions of lead and bones. This invention deemed as X-Rays by Roentgen influenced the study of nuclear science in great ways. His discovery drastically changed the scientific community as the X-Ray offered new techniques on observing broken bones and other medical phenomena in the early twentieth century.