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=**African Americans Contributions to Science**=

African Americans have made many contributions to science that have made a major impact on everyday life, although most people don't understand where these contributions have come from. Things are often taken for granted and we don't give credit to such important people that create these things. These are small things, such as preservatives that help make our food last, contribtutions to our space programs and NASA, gas masks, medical devices, and many others. Many of these African Americans also perform some very important medical procedures for the first time, such as heart procedures and orgran transplants.
 * ~ Contents ||
 * 1930's || Gas Masks, Food Preservation, Heart Device and Procedure ||
 * 1940's || Hormones, Steroids, Blood Advancement ||
 * 1950's || No African American contributions were found ||
 * 1960's || Kidney Transplant, "Space Race" ||
 * 1970's || "Space Race", Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph ||
 * 1980's || Cataract Surgery, NASA space inventions ||
 * 1990's || Computers, African American Genetics and Diseases ||
 * 2000's || African American Genetics and Diseases ||

Inventions and Contributions to Science
In 1912 Dr. Garrett A. Morgan invented the safety hood that is used for the gas mask. It was originally made for firefighters to enter houses that were smoke filled. He patented the device in 1914 and had originally called his device the breathing machine. This is used in modern days. Gas masks are used in wars, with urban developments, by grafitti taggers, and even to fight fires still. Although the gas mask has drastically changed and there are many different variations these days, this was still an important invention to modern day science. [3]

Preserving foods for later consumption is a major part of modern lifestyle, especially since the shift from producing one’s own food to purchasing it. The preservation, especially of meats, would not be what it is today without the work of chemical scientist Lloyd A. Hall. Since focus at the time was shifting from how to grow food to how to preserve it, Hall was one of the first to discover a new way to cure meats with a salt and nitrate solution that would preserve the meat much quicker, and for much longer. Hall also discovered a technique that preserves the fats in oils in food. If this technique had never emerged, it would be much more difficult to not only preserve meats in our own homes, but also transport the meat products across the country. [|[1]]

Vivien T. Thomas was the main person in coming up with a mechanical device that was used in performing surgical heart procedures. The device was use for the pulmonary artery. In the 1930's the invention was known as the Blalock-Taussig shunt. This was a very important device in saving lives, as it made performing heart surgeries an easier and less risky task. Thomas later joined Dr. Alfred Blalock, chief surgeon at John Hopkins University's medical school, and his team in 1941. The pair performed a procedure that would correct a congenital heart defect. The defect was known as "Baby Blue Syndrome". [4]

In the 1940's Dr. Percy L. Julian made many discoveries in the world of science. He did many studies with steroids, progesterone, testosterone, and estrogen. He received 131 patents in his lifetime for his scientific discoveries. Julian made an isolated soy protein which he sent on to the National Foam System Inc. They used this to develop Aer-O-Foam, better known as the foam that helps to fight fires. In 1940 he began mixing 100 lbs of soy sterols a day. He later ozoned these to make large amounts of the female hormone, progesterone. Some of his other inventions included developing a way to make the development of cortisone easier. Cortisone is very important in helping with Rheumatoid Arthritis, but used to be very difficult to create. He left the company that he was doing all this work for and opened his own labratory, one of the first African American owned, Julian Laboratories Inc. Here he did much work with the creation of many other female and male hormones as well as with steroids. The amazing thing is that he created almost all of these things with plants, mostly soy and Mexican yams. He later sold his labratory for $2.3 million due to his great success in the science industry.[8][10]

Also in the 1940's Dr. Charles Richard Drew developed a simplified method for colllecting, screening, and distributing blood and plasma. He was one of the main men that helped get people of other races allowed to donate as well. He did a lot of work in Britain, getting 15,000 people to donate blood and collecting over 5,500 vials of plasma, He did not invent donating plasma, or the blood transfusions but his efforts with blood was a great deal of help to many people and the world of science. [11] A physician and forerunner in organ transplantation, Samuel L Kountz (Jr.) made strides in the world of surgery and capabilities of surgeons world wide. In 1961 Kountz was the first to successfully transplant a kidney without the donor or recipient being identical twins. Kountz also made the revolutionary discovery that using high doses of the steroid methyloprednisolone prevented the rejection of kidneys. This was a huge discovery that resulted in the regular use of the drug for kidney transplants, as well as most other organ transplant operations. [|[2]] Picture at right[5]

Although in the 1950's I could find many inventions such as the hydogen bomb, black box for airplanes, hovercraft, solar cell, and many others I could not seem to find a single invention or piece of science linked to African Americans in this decade. This is hard for me to believe, but we searched for hours for anything!

The 1960s and 70s - This was the age of “The Space Race”, which was time period when space exploration was one of the biggest goals of the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States left both countries in a state of desperation to be the first country to send its astronauts into space. The ultimate goal of their space exploration was to be the first country to send it’s finest astronauts to the moon. Because of the great need for sustainable technology for these missions, many NASA scientists headed to the labs to develop instruments that would aid the astronauts in their travel. A giant concern was placed on the safety and health of the space travelers. Emmett W. Chappelle, a NASA biochemist, was the first to discover that some single celled organisms such as algae could transfer carbon dioxide into oxygen. These plants were lightweight and could easily be transferred, which led to the creation of safe food supply for astronauts. This was just a small step in a much bigger picture of Chappelle’s experiment. Chappelle went on to prove in his work with bioluminescence that the amount of bacteria in semen can be measured by the amount of light given off by that bacteria. This idea branched into the discovery that satellites can display luminescence levels to help monitor the well being of crops. Using Chappelle’s discovery, farmers and plant specialists are able to adjust planting, irrigation, and fertilization patterns to dramatically increase and improve food production. Chappelle’s experiments which were originally meant to impact the well being of NASA’s men in space eventually shifted to benefit a great amount of people here on Earth.[6][7]

Lonnie Johnson had also been inventing small things, since he was a small boy. When he graduated high school he joined the Air Force, but later had got out to go work for NASA. In the 1970's and 80's he had worked developing many vital things for them. He had developed thermodynamic and control systems for space projects. He had worked on the Mars observer project, the Saturn Cassini mission project, and the Kraft mission that studied asteroids. He was a very important part of space development, but wanted to invent other projects. He had started a company, Johnson Research and Development Co. He was working on making a system to use water instead of freon in cooling systems, when that back fired and squirted water through a hose across the room. This is when his interest changed to toys. In 1989, he invented the "Super Soaker water gun", which was the most popular toy for many years. He is still creating toys such as cars, waterguns, and Nerf guns. He was such an important engineer and inventor for NASA and has went on to be a hero for children. [15] [16] [17]

In the 1972 aboard the Apollo 16 mission there was a new very important tool. George Carruthers had invented the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph. The camera was positioned and the surface of the moon during the mission. The camera was used to examine large concentrations of pollutants in Earth's atmosphere. He has heleped develop many other cameras that have been aboard space shuttles. Thse other cameras help survey the ozone layer, stars, planets, and Earth's surface to be analyzed by computers. He has also a big part of some of the electronic telescopes aboard NASA' satelites. [14]

Around 1987-1988, African American opthamologist and inventor Dr. Patricia E. Bath studied ways to improve the life of people suffering from visual handicaps. She developed a tool, known as the Laserphaco Probe, which aided her in developing a way to accurately remove cataracts in a safer and much more comfortable way. The tool only required a 1mm wide incision to perform its work, instead of wider and much more dangerous incisions used for mechanical grinders which had been used before. The Laserphaco Probe provided laser technology which proved to be much more accurate, and it also included suction tubes and an irrigation system to remove vaporized lens material. The Laserphaco Probe and the laser surgery process was the first of its kind, and an innovative step towards eye surgery. [13][21]

Starting in Early 1990, science began to change. Alot more is based on computers and inventions for computer parts, which play an overall large part in the whole world not just science. 22 years ago a very important man, Mark Dean invented in large part the PC. He holds 1/3 (3 of the 9) original patents on pc's that all other pc's are based on. It is crazy that he is such an important person in the development in the computer as we know it and we have not heard much about him. He is now the vice president of IBM and has more than 30 patents pending now. With the amount of importance this African American inventor has you think he would be more widely known.[12] Rick Kittles has been a very important African American in helping to establish a network dealing with African American genetics. From 1997 to 2004, He coordinated an effort which was used to study hereditary links dealing with prostate cancer in the African American community. His network was called the AAHPC study network. He had over 100 families that joined his study. These were all African American families that had prostate cancer. This study greatly helped in the discovery on the link between genetics and diseases. His work as a geneticist is not only for diseases in African Americans, but also helps them to trace their Ancestry. He has worked so hard on this project as he had never known much about his ancestry and wanted other people of African descent to know their heritage. [18] [19] [20]

One of the main connections to gather from seeing inventions connected to a time period on a timeline is that many (not all) inventions have some sort of relationship with the current demands and needs of the country at that time. Take, for example, the gas masks that were invented during the same time that chemical warfare emerged. There was a demand; Dr. Morgan met that demand with his invention that enabled soldiers to withstand the harmful gases encountered during warfare. Also, take for example, the techniques that were invented during the Great Depression for preserving foods. The Great Depression left the United States economy in shambles, and many families were left with little to no income. Families had to do whatever they could to save money and preserve whatever they had. Preserving meats for later occasions saved many families money and resources that could be used at a later time. The creation of Dr. Julian's Aer-O-Foam, the firefighting foam was used as a main source in fighting oil and gasoline fires in World War II [9] Also, Dr. Drew's efforts with collecting and distributing blood helped to save a lot of soldiers lives during World War II. His efforts did not only help Americans, but many allies as well [11] Medical devices and procedures weren't necessarily linked to a certain current event in history; however, medicine is always trying to be progressed and some of these helpful breakthroughs led to the progression of medical science. Many of these procedures, devices, and medications led to more and more discoveries about what can be done to help prevent and cure medical issues.