Medical discoveries

This selection brings together events, individual lives, and awards related to medicine. Those types can be separated in the atlas: a biography or prize is not equivalent to a medical discovery.

Canonical records
400
Events
155
People
236
Processes and periods
9
Compare in the atlasSelection criteria and limits

Topics represented

Medicine (270) · Nobel laureates (233) · People (233) · Physiology or Medicine (116) · Nobel Prizes (116) · Science (43) · Epidemics & public health (7) · Personas científicas (6) · Roman Empire (3) · Vacunación (3) · VIH/sida (3) · Antirretrovirales (2)

View distribution by region and period
Canonical records by regional label and start date. These are numerical analysis bins, not universal historical periods. A multi-region record appears in multiple rows; do not add rows as a unique-record total.
RegionBefore 3000 BCE3000–1 BCE1–14991500–17991800–18991900–1999Since 2000
Africa0030230
Americas0000261152
Asia00402120
Europe01345817028
Oceania0000260
Global / no specific region01102131

Records and sources

Ordered by start date. Long lives and processes may begin before the period you want to study.

  1. 1860–1904

    Niels Ryberg Finsen

    Niels Ryberg Finsen (1860–1904) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1903). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  2. 1860–1927

    Willem Einthoven

    Willem Einthoven (1860–1927) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1924). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  3. 1861

    Germ theory

    Louis Pasteur’s experiments support the role of microorganisms in biological processes and disease.

  4. 1861–1947

    Sir Frederick Hopkins

    Sir Frederick Hopkins (1861–1947) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1929). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  5. 1862–1930

    Allvar Gullstrand

    Allvar Gullstrand (1862–1930) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1911). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  6. 1866–1936

    Charles Nicolle

    Charles Nicolle (1866–1936) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1928). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  7. 1866–1945

    Thomas H. Morgan

    Thomas H. Morgan (1866–1945) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1933). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  8. 1867

    Antiseptic surgery

    Joseph Lister applies antiseptic principles to surgery, reducing postoperative infections.

  9. 1867–1928

    Johannes Fibiger

    Johannes Fibiger (1867–1928) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1926). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  10. 1867–1934

    Marie Skłodowska Curie

    A physicist and chemist born in Warsaw whose work with Pierre Curie led to the discovery of polonium and radium and to the study of radioactivity. This entry recognizes that collaboration and its later scientific and medical uses.

  11. 1868–1943

    Karl Landsteiner

    Karl Landsteiner (1868–1943) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1930). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  12. 1869–1941

    Hans Spemann

    Hans Spemann (1869–1941) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1935). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  13. 1870–1961

    Jules Bordet

    Jules Bordet (1870–1961) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1919). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  14. 1873–1944

    Alexis Carrel

    Alexis Carrel (1873–1944) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1912). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  15. 1873–1961

    Otto Loewi

    Otto Loewi (1873–1961) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1936). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  16. 1874–1949

    August Krogh

    August Krogh (1874–1949) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1920). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  17. 1874–1965

    Joseph Erlanger

    Joseph Erlanger (1874–1965) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1944). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  18. 1874–1955

    Egas Moniz

    Egas Moniz (1874–1955) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1949). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  19. 1875–1968

    Sir Henry Dale

    Sir Henry Dale (1875–1968) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1936). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  20. 1876–1936

    Robert Bárány

    Robert Bárány (1876–1936) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1914). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  21. 1876–1935

    John Macleod

    John Macleod (1876–1935) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1923). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  22. 1878–1976

    George H. Whipple

    George H. Whipple (1878–1976) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1934). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  23. 1879–1970

    Peyton Rous

    Peyton Rous (1879–1970) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1966). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  24. 1881–1955

    Sir Alexander Fleming

    Sir Alexander Fleming (1881–1955) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1945). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  25. 1881–1973

    Walter Hess

    Walter Hess (1881–1973) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1949). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  26. 1883–1970

    Otto Warburg

    Otto Warburg (1883–1970) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1931). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  27. 1884–1951

    Otto Meyerhof

    Otto Meyerhof (1884–1951) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1922). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  28. 1885

    Pasteur’s rabies vaccination

    Louis Pasteur applies rabies vaccination after an exposure, an early landmark in post-exposure prophylaxis. It was not equivalent to a modern preventive vaccine for an entire population.

  29. 1885–1950

    George R. Minot

    George R. Minot (1885–1950) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1934). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  30. 1886–1977

    Archibald V. Hill

    Archibald V. Hill (1886–1977) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1922). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.