To electronics and medicine

Since time immemorial scientists have dreamed about eliminating di­sease. Medieval alchemists believed that doing so would result in human immortality. But it was only in 1912 that Austrian scientist Nager introdu­ced the term "geriatrics", marking the beginning of the science of aging.

The works of Botkin and Mechnikov confirmed the assumption of ancient physicians. By the middle of the 20th century scientists established that the coordinated work of all internal organs depends on the hypothalamus — a spe­cial part of brain. It processes the infor­mation, and sends signals to organs. It became known that these driving pul­ses are of electric nature, and interrup­tions in this system have catastrophic consequences. Never did medicine have the means to influence this sys­tem.

Late in the 1970s Soviet military electronics made fantastic progress. No wonder that it was in this sphere that the discovery at the junction of electronics and medicine was made. Having investigated the characteristics of signals sent from the brain to all the organs of a healthy organism, electron­ics experts made a tiny microprocessor which can imitate such impulses. Their underlying idea was very simple: if there are some failures in the organism control system, the microprocessor would compensate.

The electronic pill, once it is in the stomach, comes into contact with nerve endings and begins to send pul­ses through them. These pulses get into the central nervous system and arouse reciprocal reaction. The orga­nism begins to look younger. After 25-30 hours the pill is released naturally. One pill is sufficient for several months.

In 1984 the security bodies stamped the discovery as classified. Hundreds of experiments were staged on dogs, after which each of the inventors swal­lowed several pills and thoroughly re­corded their observations:

"...20-40 minutes after taking the pill a person begins to feel inside his body a self-contained electro-stimulant, and a little later, its movement inside the body... Women who have given birth to a baby, experience a feeling close to pregnancy, some men note the unusual sensations and a certain state of an­xiety..."

Then the stimulant was tested by pa­tients, and only after that the official clinical testsof the autonomous elec­tro-stimulant started in the leading clinics of the country, including the In­stitute of Surgery, headed by Academi­cian Petrovsky (in those years the USSR Minister of Public Health). It is also known that once these pills saved the life of a cosmonaut after a grave op­eration.

At this stage the story of the elec­tronic pill comes abruptly to an end. It is known that in ten years this pill was used nearly two million times in the former 4th Main Department of the Ministry of Public Health. It was used to cure the patients of special elite clin­ics. The pill was produced by the milit­ary-industrial complex, in extremely li­mited numbers.

The pill project was almost lost once the Politburo was dissolved and the unknown military plant underwent conversion. But thank God people came forward to save the unique indus­try. In November 1991 the manage­ment of the Public Health Ministry sig­ned the quality certificate of the self-contained electric stimulant. Thereby, a permission was granted for a wide use of such stimulants. The pills were on sale at the chemist's, but even the sa­lesmen could not explain clearly what pains this strange remedy relieves. After that the Soviet Union disinte­grated and the economic crisis intensified.

Despite this, scientists go on work­ing on the improvement of the pill. It turned out that if the surface of the cap­sule is covered with a thin coating of zinc, copper or silver, the atoms of metal will get directly into the blood. This will make it possible to cure with greater success, and in the future to make the pill remote-controlled. Most likely, our children will use such pills for treatment.

Notes on the text:

I. Read the text ‘Sensational Discovery Relating to Electronics and Medicine’. Answer the questions that follow.

1. What have scientists dreamed about since time immemorial?

2. What does the coordinated work of all internal organs depend on?

3. How does hypothalmus work?

4. What discovery did Soviet scientists make in 1970s?

5. How does the electronic pill work?

6. How was the electronic pill tested?

7. Did the experiments prove the assumption of scientists?

8. Is electro-stimulant introduced into pharmaceutical production?

9. Do the scientists work on the improvement of the pill? And what do they plan to do?

II. Make up a brief plan how electronic pill was invented and introduced into practice.

III. Make up the summary of the text. The following phrases will help you:

It is described in short…

It is shown that…

It is dealt with…

Data are given about…

Attempts are made to analyze (to formulate)…

… is (are) given…

… is provided for…

… is designed for…

… is examined…

… is investigated…

… is analyzed…

… is formulated…

The need is stressed…

Attention is drawn to…

Conclusions are drawn…

I. Read the dialogue in pairs.