Science, Technology, and Medicine
The 1950s, known as the Eisenhower era, is debated to be either the best or the worst. Science of the 1950s gave us the most awful weapon ever developed. The hydrogen bomb cast a shadow of nuclear Armageddon over the world. The 50s also brought research in other areas, often also brought on by military agendas that made a direct, positive impact on the daily lives of Americans. In medicine and electronics, innovations that came to fruition in the Fifties offered mankind tremendous benefits, starting with the computer you're staring at right now.
We take computers so much for granted today that it's hard even to imagine a time when they didn't exist. The closest thing to a computer in 1950 was the Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator or ENIAC. Constructed out of 18,000 vacuum tubes and consuming about 180,000 watts of electrical power, the ENIAC was capable of multiplying numbers rapidly. With the rapid growth in population, the U.S. Census Bureau wanted a new machine for tabulating its data and in 1951 took delivery of a Universal Automatic Computer or UNIVAC, the first commercial computer. In 1952, CBS borrowed UNIVAC and used it to correctly predict Eisenhower's victory over Stevenson from the early results of the presidential election.
By the end of the decade Digital Equipment Corporation's state-of-the-art PDP-1 stored data on punched paper tape and had a memory of 9 kilobytes ( it could be upgraded to 144 kilobytes). In modern terms, this memory is laughably small. A single average-size photograph stored in your computer requires about 1,000 kilobytes. In spite of its limitations, customers at the time thought the machine was worth its price tag: $120,000. And it was used to play the first ever video game called Spacewar.
Research into rockets during the 1950s had a military purpose as well. The Germans had experimented with ballistic missiles during World War II and both the Americans and Soviets wanted a rocket that could carry bombs into enemy territory without a human pilot to fly them on airplanes. Sputnik, the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth, was passing over the United States every 92 minutes as it circled the planet at 18,000 miles an hour. And it was a Russian creation. Over the course of the decade, American scientists caught up to and quickly surpassed their Soviet rivals. In 1958, Eisenhower centralized all space efforts in a civilian agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
the 1950s was also a time of advancement in medicine. April 12th, 1955 is noted to be one of the most exciting days of the decade. It is the day the researches announced that the Salk vaccine had been proven effective in preventing polio. Science had conquered a dreaded disease that had, time and time again, swept through the country with devastating effects. Many Americans thought of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, crippled by polio, who had died exactly ten years earlier.
An epidemic in 1950 afflicted 32,000 children. Another in 1952 made 58,000 ill and killed 1,400. Dr. Jonas Salk, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, developed a vaccine from killed viruses. 100 million Americans contributed to the March of Dimes, a charity that was started in 1938 specifically to find a cure for polio. Salk began a program in 1954, and once the vaccine's effectiveness was shown, widespread vaccination virtually eradicated polio. By 1962, just a few years after the vaccine was introduced, only 910 cases were reported nationwide.
There were many breakthroughs for this decade. The fight against heart disease moved forward with new techniques for open-heart surgery. Doctors could implant artificial valves and pacemakers to keep heart patients alive. Vaccines for whooping cough and diphtheria helped restrict those diseases, which had killed many children during earlier decades. The average life expectancy reached nearly 70 years by 1960. There was also an increase in nutrition and children grew to be bigger and taller than their parents.
Medical science was also moving forward on many other fronts. Many things that are so vital, yet taken for granted today, we would not have without the medical and scientific breakthroughs of the 50s. Researchers developed new antibiotics to treat a wide range of infectious diseases. Scientists invented antihistamines to ease the effects of allergies. Meprobamate, the first tranquilizer, began to be marketed in 1955. Also, one of the most notable new drugs of the period was the birth control pill. Approved for use in 1960, the Pill would change the lives of millions of women and contribute to the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
The 1950s, known as the Eisenhower era, is debated to be either the best or the worst. Science of the 1950s gave us the most awful weapon ever developed. The hydrogen bomb cast a shadow of nuclear Armageddon over the world. The 50s also brought research in other areas, often also brought on by military agendas that made a direct, positive impact on the daily lives of Americans. In medicine and electronics, innovations that came to fruition in the Fifties offered mankind tremendous benefits, starting with the computer you're staring at right now.
We take computers so much for granted today that it's hard even to imagine a time when they didn't exist. The closest thing to a computer in 1950 was the Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator or ENIAC. Constructed out of 18,000 vacuum tubes and consuming about 180,000 watts of electrical power, the ENIAC was capable of multiplying numbers rapidly. With the rapid growth in population, the U.S. Census Bureau wanted a new machine for tabulating its data and in 1951 took delivery of a Universal Automatic Computer or UNIVAC, the first commercial computer. In 1952, CBS borrowed UNIVAC and used it to correctly predict Eisenhower's victory over Stevenson from the early results of the presidential election.
By the end of the decade Digital Equipment Corporation's state-of-the-art PDP-1 stored data on punched paper tape and had a memory of 9 kilobytes ( it could be upgraded to 144 kilobytes). In modern terms, this memory is laughably small. A single average-size photograph stored in your computer requires about 1,000 kilobytes. In spite of its limitations, customers at the time thought the machine was worth its price tag: $120,000. And it was used to play the first ever video game called Spacewar.
Research into rockets during the 1950s had a military purpose as well. The Germans had experimented with ballistic missiles during World War II and both the Americans and Soviets wanted a rocket that could carry bombs into enemy territory without a human pilot to fly them on airplanes. Sputnik, the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth, was passing over the United States every 92 minutes as it circled the planet at 18,000 miles an hour. And it was a Russian creation. Over the course of the decade, American scientists caught up to and quickly surpassed their Soviet rivals. In 1958, Eisenhower centralized all space efforts in a civilian agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
the 1950s was also a time of advancement in medicine. April 12th, 1955 is noted to be one of the most exciting days of the decade. It is the day the researches announced that the Salk vaccine had been proven effective in preventing polio. Science had conquered a dreaded disease that had, time and time again, swept through the country with devastating effects. Many Americans thought of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, crippled by polio, who had died exactly ten years earlier.
An epidemic in 1950 afflicted 32,000 children. Another in 1952 made 58,000 ill and killed 1,400. Dr. Jonas Salk, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, developed a vaccine from killed viruses. 100 million Americans contributed to the March of Dimes, a charity that was started in 1938 specifically to find a cure for polio. Salk began a program in 1954, and once the vaccine's effectiveness was shown, widespread vaccination virtually eradicated polio. By 1962, just a few years after the vaccine was introduced, only 910 cases were reported nationwide.
There were many breakthroughs for this decade. The fight against heart disease moved forward with new techniques for open-heart surgery. Doctors could implant artificial valves and pacemakers to keep heart patients alive. Vaccines for whooping cough and diphtheria helped restrict those diseases, which had killed many children during earlier decades. The average life expectancy reached nearly 70 years by 1960. There was also an increase in nutrition and children grew to be bigger and taller than their parents.
Medical science was also moving forward on many other fronts. Many things that are so vital, yet taken for granted today, we would not have without the medical and scientific breakthroughs of the 50s. Researchers developed new antibiotics to treat a wide range of infectious diseases. Scientists invented antihistamines to ease the effects of allergies. Meprobamate, the first tranquilizer, began to be marketed in 1955. Also, one of the most notable new drugs of the period was the birth control pill. Approved for use in 1960, the Pill would change the lives of millions of women and contribute to the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
