The rapid advances in biochemistry and molecular biology that followed this discovery produced many practical applications in human health care. Notable applications included gene therapy, which offers hope for treating Alzheimer's and AIDS; and genetic engineering, which has been used to produce the human proteins needed to treat diabetes. The ongoing Human Genome Project is attempting to map the entire set of chemical instructions that control heredity in human beings and may be completed within a few years. |
Marianna A. Busch is the Chair and a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Baylor University. Her Top 10 list centers on the most important scientific events of the 1900's. She discusses what these events meant to scientists and society in general. She calls attention to a number of the groundbreaking scientists who left their mark on the world of science in this century. |