Breakin' Through

If I could go back in time and work on any piece of biomedical technology, I would have to choose antiseptics. Antiseptics revolutionized the medical community in both theory and practice. The idea was a wild one: that millions of microscopic beings were making people sick and they could be combated by treating the instruments and table and doctors and air with a simple liquid. By doing so, survival rates skyrocketed, pain eased, and limbs remained. The development and use of antiseptics was perhaps the most important biomedical breakthrough in recorded history.