Unit Two Individual Project

Jack Lilly

Colorado Technical University

CS875: Futuring and Innovation

Dr. Calongne

January 12, 2022

Abstract

This paper looks at two different accidental discoveries: nitrous oxide for anesthesia and the Cosmic Background Radiation (CMB). It was found that while nitrous oxide was used recreationally at parties, it also had a robust desensitizing effect and could be used in dentistry. Utilizing a now-obsolete antenna, two physicists were lucky to discover a consistent form of radio interference on their readings: the CMB. This paper also presents a few of the forces that influenced these discoveries. 

Unit Two Individual Project

Anesthesia 

    Anesthesia has been around for many centuries and has been available in multiple forms. In 650BC, at the Oracle of Delphi, Apollo’s Pythian priestesses would speak prophecy after breathing in fumes from geologic fault lines in the floor under the temple. In 400BC, the Assyrians and Egyptians would employ carotid compression to induce unconsciousness before a circumcision or eye surgery. In 64AD, the Greeks would boil mandrakes in wine to numb patients that would experience incisions or cauterizations (Wood Library, 2020).

    The forces that can motivate these techniques and practices are mainly societal and geographical. Apollo’s priestess can only perform her work at this temple because that is where the fumes that allowed her prophetic state emanated. The Egyptians and Assyrians were geographically limited in the herbs they could obtain. The Greeks did have access to herbs, and wine and society would prefer drinking a concoction to carotid compression to induce the same effects. 

Nitrous Oxide

    There are numerous other techniques, chemicals, and practices associated with anesthetizing patients, but we will focus on a particular approach that came about quite by accident. Horace Wells, a dentist, attended a lecture on nitrous oxide by Gardner Colton. While under the influence of nitrous oxide, Samuel Cooley, a clerk in an apothecary shop, injured his legs by running into wooden benches. The clerk was unaware of any injury until the nitrous oxide had worn off, and Wells questioned him about any pain. Finding that nitrous oxide desensitized the clerk, Wells decided with Colton to conduct a trial of the gas for use in dentistry (Haridas R., 2013). 

    The forces applied in this case could be medical and global. The discovery of a new desensitizing agent lends itself to the medical workforce while the medical party consistently seeks to improve its current techniques and materials. The global force is quite similar in that all societies are searching for improvements to the current system. With yet another material in their arsenals, patients are rendered improved care globally. 

Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

    The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is a faint glow in microwave radiation that is almost perfectly uniform and helped establish the Big Bang paradigm (Stanford University, n.d). This accidental discovery was significant enough that the two physicists involved were awarded the Nobel Prize. As the story goes, Bell Labs had constructed an antenna that was soon made obsolete a few years later with a satellite. The two physicists, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson proposed this antenna be used to measure the space between galaxies to determine if galaxies were drifting apart. Despite their best efforts, they could not remove a sort of interference that occurred regardless of where they pointed the telescope. It wasn’t until they contacted another physicist named Robert Dicke, who theorized such interference as proof of the Big Bang, that all three Physicists realized they had accidentally discovered the CMB (APS Physics, 2002). 

    There were two forces at work here: technological and scientifical. This discovery was just waiting to be found, but the technology had to be made available first. This occurred when the antenna became obsolete due to the satellite launch. The second force was scientifical, which is the intention to propagate knowledge. While the two physicists had not intended this discovery, its existence upended some scientific theories almost overnight. 

References

APS Physics. (2002). June 1963: Discovery of the cosmic microwave background. American Physical Society. Retrieved January 10, 2022, from https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200207/history.cfm 

Haridas R. (2013). Horace wells’ demonstration of nitrous oxide in boston. Anesthesiology 2013; 119:1014–1022

Stanford University. (n.d.). Cosmic microwave background: kavli institute for particle astrophysics and cosmology (KIPAC). Cosmic Microwave Background | Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC). Retrieved January 10, 2022, from https://kipac.stanford.edu/research/topics/cosmic-microwave-background 

Wood Library. (2020). History of anesthesia. Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology. Retrieved January 6, 2022, from https://www.woodlibrarymuseum.org/history-of-anesthesia/