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Surgeon
Performs operations to treat injuries, diseases, and deformities.
Did you know?
The first human-to-human heart transplant was performed by surgeon Christiaan Barnard in Cape Town, South Africa, on 3 December 1967.
How subjects help
- Biology: Know how wounds heal and how to stop infection creeping in after an operation.
- Chemistry: Choose the right antiseptic to clean skin and understand how stitches dissolve.
- Physics: Use tools that cut and seal blood vessels with heat from electric current.
- Anatomy: Find the exact nerve, artery or organ to avoid while cutting through layers of the body.
A famous name
Christiaan Barnard: South African surgeon who performed the world's first human heart transplant in 1967.
Try it yourself: Train steady hands like a surgeon
- Put cereal in one bowl and an empty bowl a hand's length away. Move pieces one at a time with the chopsticks for one minute and count them.
- Try again with your other hand and compare the two scores.
- Lay the strings across the table a little apart and put the banana on top. Practise tying a knot over the banana with the first string.
- Time how many knots you can tie in one minute, then try to beat your score.
Surgeons practise knots and fine tool control for years, often timed on training boxes, before they stitch up a real patient.
Adapted from Imperial College London (STEM in Action): Dexterity: three activities.
Also try: Guess the object from its shadow.
Known for it in
USA, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea