Virginia Apgar is a scientist who is believed to have changed the face of medicine significantly by her contributions in the field of anesthesiology and neonatology. The American physician is best known for developing the Apgar Newborn Scoring System, also known as the Apgar Score; a simple, quick method for judging newborn viability. The newborn’s appearance color, reflex irritability, muscle tone, and respiration are assessed one minute after birth and again after five minutes; low scores indicate possible health issues. Her test has saved countless infants, laid the foundations of neonatology, and discovered potentially grave conditions. She was one of Columbia University’s first female MDs and one of the first American women to specialize in anesthesia.

Ayah Bdeir is a woman who is passionate about making hardware accessible to people of all ages and walks of life. She studied computer engineering at the American University of Beirut and went on to earn her Master’s of Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). When she started to learn about electric circuits in university, she realized many people give up on the subject because they found it too hard to understand. From this point onwards she has been on a mission to make that complex idea accessible to all people, whether you are into engineering or not.

Alice Hamilton was a pioneer in the field of toxicology, studying occupational illnesses and the dangerous effects of industrial metals and chemical compounds on the human body. In her quest to uncover industrial toxins, Hamilton roamed dangerous parts of hazardous workplaces, descended into mines, and coaxed her way into factories reluctant to admit her.

Gertrude Elion was an American biochemist and pharmacologist well-known for discovering many medications, including medications for HIV/AIDS, herpes, immunity disorders, and leukemia. Elion developed a multitude of new drugs, using innovative research methods that later led to the development of the first drug used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS: Zidovudine (AZT). She and her colleague, George H. Hitchings, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1988.

Arab pioneers in medicine were not only physicians and surgeons, but Arab nurses played a valuable part too. One of the most famous names in Arab nursing is Rufaida bint Saad Al-Aslameya, the first nurse in the Islamic and Eastern world.

One of the Arab scientists’ major contributions was in astrolabes. Astrolabes were primarily invented by the ancient Greeks in 225 BCE by Apollonius based on the theories and the findings of Hipparchus. The main uses of astrolabes were to tell time during day or night, to identify the time of sunrise and sunset, and the length of the day, and to locate celestial objects in the sky. These uses were essential for astronomers, astrologers, and of course navigators.

Ibn al-Nafis was a great Arab physician and surgeon, who also made contributions in astronomy, Islamic theology philosophy, history, and science fiction writing. Ibn al-Nafis recorded his own experiences, observations, and deductions in his books and manuscripts; 300 years after his original writings, some of his work was translated into Latin and became available to European physicians.

Inspired by his father, Magdi Yacoub decided to be a doctor, and the death of his aunt due to a heart disease motivated him to specialize as a cardiac surgeon. He studied medicine at Cairo University, then he moved to London. After more than 40 years of hard work and success, Dr. Magdi Yacoub is now one of the world’s leading cardiac surgeons. He was awarded the UK Order of Merit and knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to medicine and surgery, becoming the first Egyptian to receive this prestigious award.

Al-Razi, known as “Rhazes” in the West, was a physician, philosopher, and scholar who made fundamental contributions to many scientific fields, especially medicine, pioneering in the fields of pediatrics, obstetrics, and ophthalmology. A special feature of his medical system was that he favored cure through correct and regulated food, avoiding excessive use of chemical drugs. Moreover, he tested remedies on animals in order to evaluate their effects before using them on humans.

Vaccination helps protect the human body from serious diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, or germs through the administration of antigenic material to stimulate an individual’s immune system to develop adaptive immunity to a pathogen.

The human heart is an amazing pump, it works reliably for decades, and it safely pumps blood—one of the trickiest and most sophisticated liquids around.

Like good nutrition and exercise, adequate sleep is part of a healthy lifestyle. Sleep deprivation is an unrecognized cause of many problems. 

Autism is a general term for a group of complex disorders of brain development. These disorders are characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and repetitive behaviors.