Stone to Silicon

Timeline · 92 technologies

Health & biology

c. 7,000 BCE to September 2026. Each one is placed by when it first worked.

Open the living tree

  1. c. 7,000 BCETrepanationNeolithic healers drilled holes in living skulls, and many patients survived and healed.
  2. c. 1,600 BCEEdwin Smith PapyrusAn Egyptian surgical manual that examined, diagnosed and treated 48 injury cases rationally.
  3. c. 400 BCEHippocratic medicineGreek physicians treated disease as natural, not divine, and taught doctors to observe and record.
  4. c. 170 CEGalenic medicineGalen dissected animals and proved arteries carry blood, founding experimental physiology.
  5. 1025Canon of MedicineIbn Sina's five-volume encyclopedia of medicine taught doctors from Bukhara to Paris.
  6. 1543Vesalius's anatomyDe humani corporis fabrica corrected Galen with direct human dissection and superb woodcuts.
  7. c. 1620MicroscopeCompound lenses revealed a world too small for the eye, from insect eyes to living cells.
  8. 1628Blood circulationWilliam Harvey showed the heart pumps the same blood around the body in a closed loop.
  9. 1665Cells observedRobert Hooke saw tiny compartments in cork and named them cells.
  10. 1676Microorganisms discoveredAntonie van Leeuwenhoek saw swarming animalcules in pond water and dental plaque.
  11. 1721VariolationDeliberately infecting people with mild smallpox cut death rates from about 30 to 2 percent.
  12. 1747Controlled clinical trialJames Lind gave six pairs of scurvy-stricken sailors different remedies; citrus cured them.
  13. 1796VaccinationEdward Jenner used cowpox to protect a boy against smallpox, with far less risk than variolation.
  14. 1839Cell theorySchleiden and Schwann concluded that all plants and animals are built from cells.
  15. 1846Surgical anesthesiaWilliam Morton's public ether demonstration in Boston ended the era of fully conscious surgery.
  16. 1847Handwashing in hospitalsIgnaz Semmelweis cut maternal deaths from about 18 to under 2 percent with chlorine handwashing.
  17. 1859Theory of evolutionDarwin argued species change through natural selection, uniting all life in one family tree.
  18. 1861Germ theory of diseasePasteur showed microbes come from other microbes, not from spoiled matter itself.
  19. 1865Mendelian inheritanceCrossing about 28,000 pea plants, Gregor Mendel found traits pass on in discrete, countable units.
  20. 1867Antiseptic surgeryJoseph Lister sprayed carbolic acid on wounds and instruments, and surgical infection plunged.
  21. 1869Nucleic acid discoveredFriedrich Miescher isolated a phosphorus-rich substance from cell nuclei in pus-soaked bandages.
  22. 1876Koch's bacteriologyRobert Koch proved anthrax bacteria cause anthrax, and later found the tuberculosis bacillus.
  23. 1885Rabies vaccinePasteur saved nine-year-old Joseph Meister after a rabid dog bite with an attenuated vaccine.
  24. 1895X-raysWilhelm Rontgen's new rays passed through flesh and photographed his wife's hand bones.
  25. 1897Mosquito transmits malariaRonald Ross found malaria parasites in the gut of a mosquito, revealing how the disease spreads.
  26. 1901Blood typesKarl Landsteiner discovered the A, B and O groups, explaining why transfusions often killed.
  27. 1902Chromosome theorySutton and Boveri proposed Mendel's units of heredity ride on chromosomes.
  28. 1902Hormones discoveredBayliss and Starling found secretin, a chemical messenger carried in the blood, and coined hormone.
  29. 1910Genes on chromosomesThomas Hunt Morgan's white-eyed fruit flies tied a specific gene to a specific chromosome.
  30. 1910SalvarsanPaul Ehrlich's compound 606 cured syphilis, the first modern targeted drug.
  31. 1922InsulinExtracted pancreatic insulin turned type 1 diabetes from a death sentence into a manageable disease.
  32. 1924ElectroencephalographyHans Berger recorded the electrical rhythms of the human brain through the scalp.
  33. 1928PenicillinAlexander Fleming noticed a mould killing bacteria on a forgotten culture plate.
  34. 1935Sulfa drugsProntosil, a red dye, cured streptococcal infections, the first broad antibacterial drugs.
  35. 1943Mass-produced penicillinDeep-tank fermentation took penicillin from a lab curiosity to millions of doses.
  36. 1943StreptomycinA soil microbe yielded the first drug effective against tuberculosis.
  37. 1944DNA carries genesAvery, MacLeod and McCarty showed purified DNA could transform one bacterium into another type.
  38. 1951HeLa cell lineCells taken from Henrietta Lacks became the first human line to grow indefinitely in culture.
  39. 1953DNA double helixTwo twisted strands with paired bases explained at once how genes are copied.
  40. 1954Organ transplantJoseph Murray transplanted a kidney between identical twins, and the recipient lived eight years.
  41. 1955Polio vaccineJonas Salk's killed-virus vaccine, tested on 1.8 million children, was declared safe and effective.
  42. 1960Oral contraceptive pillA daily hormone pill gave women reliable, private control over pregnancy.
  43. 1961Genetic code crackedNirenberg and Matthaei showed the RNA triplet UUU codes for the amino acid phenylalanine.
  44. 1967Heart transplantChristiaan Barnard replaced Louis Washkansky's failing heart with a donor heart in Cape Town.
  45. 1968Oral rehydration therapyA simple drink of water, salt and sugar saves children dying of diarrhoea for pennies.
  46. 1970Restriction enzymesBacterial enzymes that cut DNA at precise sequences became molecular scissors.
  47. 1971CT scanningA computer combined thousands of X-ray angles into cross-section images of the brain.
  48. 1971Protein Data BankA shared archive of solved protein structures that opened with seven entries.
  49. 1973Magnetic resonance imagingNuclear magnetic resonance became an image, showing soft tissue with no ionising radiation.
  50. 1973Recombinant DNAStanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer spliced foreign genes into bacteria that copied them.
  51. 1974Monoclonal antibodiesFusing immune cells with cancer cells produced endless supplies of one precise antibody.
  52. 1977Sanger DNA sequencingChain-terminating nucleotides let scientists read DNA letter by letter.
  53. 1978In vitro fertilisationLouise Brown, the first baby conceived in a lab dish, was born in Oldham, England.
  54. 1978Recombinant insulinGenentech and City of Hope made human insulin using engineered bacteria.
  55. 1980Smallpox eradicatedThe WHO declared the first human disease wiped out, after a global vaccination campaign.
  56. 1983PCRThe polymerase chain reaction copies a DNA segment a billionfold in hours.
  57. 1987AZT, first HIV drugZidovudine became the first approved treatment for HIV, just four years after the virus was identified.
  58. 1987GLP-1 insulin actionResearchers found a gut hormone fragment, GLP-1(7-37), strongly boosts insulin release.
  59. 1990Gene therapyFour-year-old Ashanti DeSilva received her own cells carrying a working ADA gene.
  60. 1994CASPA biennial contest scoring blind predictions of protein structures against lab results.
  61. 1996Combination HIV therapyThree-drug cocktails with protease inhibitors turned HIV into a chronic, manageable condition.
  62. 1998RNA interferenceAndrew Fire and Craig Mello showed double-stranded RNA silences matching genes.
  63. 2003Human Genome ProjectThe first human genome, about 3 billion letters, was read at a cost of around $3 billion.
  64. 2004BrainGate implantA paralysed man moved a computer cursor with his thoughts via an implanted electrode array.
  65. 2005Modified mRNASwapping uridine for pseudouridine let injected mRNA avoid triggering inflammation.
  66. 2005Next-generation sequencingMassively parallel sequencing read millions of fragments at once and collapsed costs.
  67. 2007CRISPR bacterial immunityYogurt bacteria were shown to store virus DNA snippets as a memory to fight phages.
  68. 2012CRISPR gene editingCas9 guided by a short RNA cuts any chosen DNA sequence, making genome editing easy.
  69. 2016Base editingA disabled Cas9 fused to a deaminase changes a single DNA letter without cutting the helix.
  70. 2017AAV gene therapy approvedLuxturna restored useful vision to people with an inherited retinal disease.
  71. 2017CAR-T cell therapyPatients' own T cells, engineered with an antibody-like receptor, hunt down leukaemia.
  72. 2017SemaglutideA once-weekly GLP-1 drug for diabetes that also produced around 15 percent weight loss.
  73. 2019Prime editingA search-and-replace editor that writes small insertions, deletions and all 12 base swaps.
  74. 2020AlphaFold 2DeepMind's network predicted protein structures at near-experimental accuracy in CASP14.
  75. 2020mRNA vaccinesCOVID-19 vaccines were designed within days of the virus genome being published.
  76. 2021AlphaFold Protein DatabasePredicted structures for nearly every known protein were released free to all.
  77. 2022TirzepatideA dual GIP and GLP-1 agonist produced average weight loss of around 20 percent.
  78. 2023Casgevy, first CRISPR therapyThe first approved CRISPR medicine freed sickle cell patients from painful crises.
  79. 2024AlphaFold 3Extended structure prediction to protein complexes with DNA, RNA and drug molecules.
  80. 2024Gene-edited pig kidneyA pig kidney with 69 genetic edits was transplanted into a living patient.
  81. 2024Neuralink first implantA wireless 1,024-electrode implant let a paralysed man play chess by thought.
  82. 2025Twice-yearly HIV preventionA lenacapavir injection every six months prevented nearly all HIV infections in trials.
  83. September 2025AI-designed viable genomesA genome language model writes working viruses.
  84. September 2025Gene therapy slows Huntington'sA one-time gene therapy slows Huntington's disease by 75%.
  85. October 2025PRIMA retinal implantA 2 mm solar chip under the retina brings back reading vision.
  86. November 2025One-shot CRISPR lowers cholesterolA single infusion edits a liver gene and halves LDL cholesterol.
  87. December 2025GLP-1 pill for obesityObesity treatment moves from injection to a daily pill.
  88. January 2026AlphaGenomeOne model predicts how any DNA change alters gene regulation.
  89. April 2026OrforglipronA small-molecule GLP-1 pill, cheap to make and taken any time.
  90. June 2026Implanted speech BCI trialThe first FDA-approved trial of a fully implanted speech prosthesis begins.
  91. August 2026Pan-RAS inhibitor for pancreatic cancerA pill that blocks mutant RAS doubles survival in pancreatic cancer.
  92. September 2026Pig kidney bridges to transplantA gene-edited pig kidney kept a patient off dialysis for 271 days.

Projections 4

  1. around 2029Personalised cancer vaccinesAn mRNA vaccine designed from each patient's tumour mutations trains the immune system to hunt it.
  2. around 2032Routine in-body gene editingA single infusion edits genes inside the body, curing inherited and common diseases.
  3. around 2035Routine pig-organ transplantsGene-edited pig kidneys end transplant waiting lists.
  4. around 2040Therapies that slow ageingThe first approved treatment that measurably slows biological ageing in people.