Question

How did new scientific knowledge help the building of the panama canal?

Answer 1

The construction of the Panama Canal began in 1904 on the initiative of the United States government and its president Theodoro Roosevelt, as the best alternative to facilitate navigation between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

Although the cosntrucción of the channel required extensive knowledge of design and engineering, the most useful scientific knowledge to perform this work was the discovery of the mosquito and transmitter of Malaria and Yellow Fever.

Agree the number of workers who would participate in the work, and the time it would take the construction of the canal, had to prevent these workers fell ill.

By that time it had been established that the mosquito transmitter of the Yellow Fever was of the genus Stegomyia, specifically Stegomyia fasciata, which clarified doubts and ruled out another form of transmission of the disease.

On the initiative of the appointed medical chief, Dr. William Crawford Gorgas, the Ancón Hospital, the headquarters of health care for workers who could potentially get sick, was established at the same time that investigations were continued to prevent the disease.

The techniques to prevent yellow fever were simple: protect doors and windows with metal screens, house fumigation in the cities of Panama, facilitate the construction of pipelines for drinking water, and thus eliminate the storage of water that would serve as a reservoir for the reproduction of mosquito.

The result was the eradication of the mosquito that produces yellow fever.