Research at the heart of hematology: thrombocytopenias and platelet function disorders

摘要

Natural selection drove the evolution of all living beings for millions of years until mankind acquired the ability to interfere with this mechanism by counteracting the natural hazards that tend to eliminate the weakest humans and select the strongest ones for the continuation of the species. Medicine, which has acquired the ability to cure many common diseases that were previously lethal, is an important result of the attempt to oppose natural selection. Medical progress was initially very slow, but with the advent of the scientific revolution in the 18~(th) century, this has continued to get faster and has played a role in doubling the life expectancy in Western countries since the beginning of the 19~(th) century.~(~(1))Strenuous research, brilliant insights and, much more rarely, serendipity, were at the basis of medical progress. Importantly, some major advances in medicine derived from a widening of knowledge in other disciplines. For example, the development of the microscope (the occhiolino or little eye of Galileo Galilei) in the early 17~(th) century was the prerequisite for recognizing blood cells and starting to identify blood disorders. Thus, a major advance in optical science made the birth of hematology possible.