The convo today was another example of the impact of little things. The speaker today was a medical doctor, not naming names, who had developed an artificial lung for temporary treatment of respiratory illness. The main three differences between his invention and the preexisting respirator was its size, its impact on the body, and the invasiveness of the opperation. Which do you think was the most important? if you guessed any of them, you're wrong. Any one of these are great, but the combination gives a small, seemingly insignificant difference: the patient can still move about for very short periods of time. Normal artificial lungs leave the patient bed-ridden, often for months or years. The ability to move for a very few minutes every day, even if it takes the whole time just to walk to the bathroom and back, has actually saved lives. You may ask, "How could three minutes of hobbling do anything?" That three minutes keeps muscle from atrophying, meaning that the patient can leave the hospital months earlier, and therapy is over years sooner. The weakness people have after an operation opens the door for new illnesses, and the minute amount of exercise the new lung gives them boosts the imune system greatly.
In the end, it is always the little things that make the world go round. The deffinition of small means diferent things to different people. We can mean it in terms of size, or signifficance, or duration, but no matter the definition of the word, it is the little things that define our suroundings, our lives, and our futures. Three minutes can save a life the same way twenty-two millimeters can end it. All we need to do is notice it.
I actually found his remark about using "old" research to make new technology to be the most important. Not that I disagree with the importance of the other. Imagine for a minute: his convo address today would likely have been much different (or never been) if it weren't for that "old" research.
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