Dismissing folk beliefs without even rudimentary testing is, unfortunately, one of the big hangups of science. In real life she probably would have called them all crazy fakes and left without trying to test anything.
No, it really wasn’t. Yes, some medicines did derive from folk medicine, aspirin being the blatantly obvious one (willow bark tea was a thing long before salicylic acid was purified).
Penicillin, however, was developed when bread mold accidentally got into a petri dish in a lab. At no point prior to that was wrapping a wound with moldy bread a thing.
True. Covering wounds in honey was a thing, however (actual Greek and Roman medical practice, as per Galen and Hippocrates), and modern science has discovered that honey does have antibiotic properties.
On the other hand, the Aztecs used obsidian blades in surgery, which surprised a few materials scientists until they discovered that properly napped volcanic glass is actually sharper than modern steel scalpels.
Not bad for a bunch of backwards heathen savages, eh?
Surgeons TODAY still use Obsidian Scalpels for extremely small and/or dangerous procedures. We have robots and lasers now, but sometimes a steady hand and a piece of black sharp volcanic glass at the end of a metal stick is still necessary. LOL.
Obsidian blades can have edges only three nanometers wide. Maybe a couple molocules. Their blades are smooth even under an electron microscope, compared to the jagged edge of steel scalpels. They’re sharp enough to split DNA down the middle lengthwise.
I know it has nothing to do with today’s comic, but obsidian is kind of insane.
No, this is far more like real life than that. “What, you want to actually study our “magic”? But then you’ll uncover the tricks we use to defraud the gullible!
Dismissing folk beliefs without even rudimentary testing is, unfortunately, one of the big hangups of science. In real life she probably would have called them all crazy fakes and left without trying to test anything.
Opposite, usually.
Then there’s no effect, and they’re all “no it’s not about effect, it’s about belief”.
Which is kind of a medical issue. Specifically Placebo.
I don’t know, wrapping moldy bread on wounds was a folk belief, and testing it is how we got penicillin.
No, it really wasn’t. Yes, some medicines did derive from folk medicine, aspirin being the blatantly obvious one (willow bark tea was a thing long before salicylic acid was purified).
Penicillin, however, was developed when bread mold accidentally got into a petri dish in a lab. At no point prior to that was wrapping a wound with moldy bread a thing.
True. Covering wounds in honey was a thing, however (actual Greek and Roman medical practice, as per Galen and Hippocrates), and modern science has discovered that honey does have antibiotic properties.
On the other hand, the Aztecs used obsidian blades in surgery, which surprised a few materials scientists until they discovered that properly napped volcanic glass is actually sharper than modern steel scalpels.
Not bad for a bunch of backwards heathen savages, eh?
Surgeons TODAY still use Obsidian Scalpels for extremely small and/or dangerous procedures. We have robots and lasers now, but sometimes a steady hand and a piece of black sharp volcanic glass at the end of a metal stick is still necessary. LOL.
Obsidian blades can have edges only three nanometers wide. Maybe a couple molocules. Their blades are smooth even under an electron microscope, compared to the jagged edge of steel scalpels. They’re sharp enough to split DNA down the middle lengthwise.
I know it has nothing to do with today’s comic, but obsidian is kind of insane.
No, this is far more like real life than that. “What, you want to actually study our “magic”? But then you’ll uncover the tricks we use to defraud the gullible!
In the words of Agatha Heterodyne, Girl Genius: “Any sufficiently analysed magic is indistinguishable from SCIENCE!”
I find myself wishing I could somehow give your comment upvotes.
Meddle not in the affairs of Notaries, for you have the lift:drag ratio of a particularly unstreamlined brick.