Profile in Science: 1950

           The 1950s was a decade filled with new discoveries and trends, but one important discovery that not only changed American History but also life itself was that of the discovery of American Medical Researcher and Virologist of Jonas Salk, development of the first safe and successful polio vaccine in 1955.
            Salk admired many with his academic achiebiemen as a young student at the medical school at New York University. He early on in his studies he gravitated to researching medicines and started practicing participating in many studies like the one of Type B influenza virus in which he took pat in while only a student. This early discovery made him realize his potential and was motivated to start his own research.
           Once he understood how viruses and there qualities, he decided to isolate certain strands of the virus that where found in polio until he found the right strand isolated it and was what became included in the final vaccine. Salk set up many test in his research with over 200,000 volunteers and 20, 000 physicians and public health officers all help to contribute to the research that took eight years for him to completing the vaccine in April 12, 1955. The vaccine changed life in American for more then 1,000 people were infected with polio at the time.
           Salk’s work not only changed life in finding a cure to a virus that had killed and affected so many people but also for opening doors to other scientist and influencing them into researcher cure for many disease of the time.
            After his successful discovery Salk worked on other researches such as a cure for cancer which he never achieved but still was admire for the efforts and keep other motivated into following the same steps in finding a cure. Also he established his on institute for biological studies in 1963 in La Jolla, California. Salk contribution to science is something that will always will be admired for his discovery.

Bibliography

Kallen, Stuart A. A Culture History of the United States: The 1950s.San Diego: Lucent Books. 1999

Feinstein, Stephen. The 1950s from the Korean War to Elvis. Berkely Heights: Enslow. 2000

“Jonas Salk”. Wikipedia. 14 Mar. 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk.

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