"No one nation, no one language, would have achieved what it has, if the same art had not been cultivated in neighboring countries and in different languages." - T.S. Eliot .
The Building Blocks of Medicine.
It has often been claimed that the United States, of all the countries, leads the world in scientific and medical innovation. This statement is valid to a certain extent. The term "leads the world" refers to having the most, recent advancements. It is true that many of the recent advancements were invented and carried out by the United States. But as T.S. Eliot states in his essay on The Definition of Culture, "No one nation, no one language, would have achieved what it has, if the same art had not been cultivated in neighboring countries and in different languages" (pg. 3). This is true for medical innovations as well. No one country would have made the advancements in medicine that it has, if it were not for the other countries and their advancements. .
In science, there are always new advancements being made. Advancement types could vary, though. It could be that a past experiment was done incorrectly and now corrected, or it could be that modern technology has given us an opportunity that was not available before. For the most part, each advancement currently being made, was built off of a past finding or idea. Take for the example, the invention of the cardiac pacemaker. In 1889, J.A. McWilliam, from the United Kingdom, thought with the idea for a pacemaker. Although he was the person who thought of the idea, Earl Bakken, from the United States, was the first to develop an externally wearable pacemaker. Then, from the advancements made by Bakken, Rune Elmqvist and Ake Senning, from Sweden, were able to design the first implantable pacemaker. This is just one example of how past discoveries from all over the world, help with current advancements. Past discoveries are the building blocks of advancements; each new finding uses a past discovery as a base, in order to grow and excel.