Science and technology is the aggregation of a civilization's empirical knowledge and its practical applications. Most of the societies of the Superpowers timeline are ahead of OTL in its regard. Medicine for diseases such as Alzheimer's, diabetes and cancer exists; manned missions have been sent to the farthest reachest of the solar system; manufacturing is done on an atomic scale and weapons vary in precision from needle-thin lasers to continent-leveling nuclear bombs. However, the presence of these technologies alone does not distinguish this World's level of advancement. It is their ubiquity that sets It apart from other timelines.
A state's attitude toward the sciences can shape its scientific and technological development. Certain countries excel in particular fields. The Inca developed unbelievable medicines and the Maya formulate materials for virtually any desired purpose. Meanwhile, the Roman Empire stands above the rest in its masteries of mechanics, astrophysics, quantum physics and nanotechnology. Other states are tailing on the development of the more technological countries and are at a more understandable level of technology. Devices of the likes of jet engines, synchotrons, antibiotics and radio are available to various degrees in every country.
This article summarizes the most important technological and scientific advancements of the Superpowers world. Some concepts may be beyond a basic level of understanding of the subject matter. Quarks, electromagnetic induction, gamma radiation and the like are complex topics in themselves and their application to new technologies does not simplify matters. Ideally, the explanations will match the knowledge of most readers.
General
Rome is the world leader in military, electronic, information, aviation, space, and energy technologies. While machines taken from Inca or Maya could be reverse engineered by a less advanced civilization, a Roman device is physically beyond the understanding of most people. The simple answer to their technology's complexity is nanotechnology. It was said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and this rule of thumb finds its greatest real example in Roman engineering.
The field of medicine is dominated by scientists and doctors from Tawatinsuyu. Due to their rich environment, and the threat of extinction from foreign pathogens, the Inca developed medical practices in the 15th century that served them in the long-run. Today, they run the most advanced biotechnology and transgenic research in the world. Cloning, genetic engineering and artificial hormones are all produced in some Inca facilities.
While Roman nanotech confers a certain advantage in material production, this is insufficient without knowledge of chemical compositions and reaction pathways. The Maya have a proficiency in chemistry and chemical engineering that has persisted since their early discovery of gunpowder. Their discoveries of memory metals, high-density organometallic alloys and superlensing metamaterials has greatly benefitted the human race.
Technological Level
There is a logarithmic scale of a civilization's degree of advancement measured in energy output. This Kardashev Scale is a continuous medium for comparing societies and planet's by an approximation to their technology level. The meter is crowned by the Type IV civilization, one which controls the productive wealth of its entire universe, estimated at around 1045 J of energy per second. For perspective, a Type 0.7 culture produces a mere 1012 J/s, and is not officially Type I until the full potential of its planet is harnessed, a monumental 1016 J/s.
Rome in the year 2000 AD is a Type I civilization. Combining its planetary, extraplanetary, and vehicular power outputs equates to a total maximum energy production by Romans of 3.77 times 1016 J/s. A mere 32 TJ/s is used directly by Roman households. The majority of Rome's energy is put to government and interplanetary use. For example, the Troy colony on Mars generates 890 TW for terraforming, civil and military activity on the Red Planet. Asteroid mining, discluding shipping and handling of materials, accounts for a further 130 TW. The resources of our solar system are a plaything for the Imperium.
Other civilizations on the planet pale in comparison to Rome. The Mongol World Empire, failing to live up to its name, is only the 2nd largest producer of power. Its combined output is a meager 39 TW, but analysts believe this would almost double in the event of total war. As for the rest, Maya generate 31 TW, Japanese produce 9 TW and all the other countries together furnish about 12 TW in all.
World Marvels
After the tradition of Antipater, Romans held a cultural obsession with the seven theamata (sights) of the ancient Hellenic world. The magic number seven has found itself repeated throughout history; lists for "Seven Sights of Modern Rome" appeared in 857, 1247 and 1933. The most recent set of architectural marvels includes:
| name | function | built | present status | |
| 1 | Memphis Necropolis | cemetery for Egyptian pharaohs | 2560 BC & 1243 CE | good condition |
| 2 | Aelian Amphitheater | arena for the city of Rome | 858 CE | perfect |
| 3 | Statue of Victory | celebrates victory in WWI | 1709 CE | perfect |
| 4 | Tower of Babel | display of empire's wealth | 1886 CE | perfect |
| 5 | Mausoleo Alexandros | tomb of Caesar Alexander XIV | 1878 CE | perfect |
| 6 | Vallum Judaecum | frontier wall towards Persia | 295 CE | good condition |
| 7 | Samsāriam | monument to Hindu culture | 1854 CE | good condition |
Several sights of the Ancient World still stand as early modern reconstructions; the Memphis Necropolis or Great Pyramids of Memphis getting included among the modern marvels.
- Colossus of Rhodes, rebuilt in 546 CE, an 80 meter tall brass statue of the god Apollo was built to ease tensions in Greece by celebrating its culture (Rhodes, Achaea, Roman Empire)
- Statue of Zeus, rebuilt in 247 CE, a seated 26 meter tall marble statue of the god Zeus was built by the emperor to open the first Capitoline Games (Olympia, Achaea, Roman Empire)
- Temple of Artemis, restored in 1453 CE, was rededicated as the Temple of the Virgin in 357 and damaged/abandoned after an earthquake 614; the site was restored as a memorial to the old religion by the emperor in 1453, several km outside the nearest city (Asia, Roman Empire)
- Tomb of Mausolus, partially restored in 1302 CE, is the ancient mausoleum from which the very term mausoleum derives its name but was damaged in a 13th century earthquake (Asia, Roman Empire)
- Hanging Gardens of Babylon, replaced in 1557 CE, is a beautiful complex of terraces built by a Caliph in the 16th century as part of a civil project (New Babylon, Ottoman Caliphate)
- Ishtar Gate, rebuilt in 1554 CE, is a stunning entranceway and 400 meter portion of road forming the main entrance to the Ottoman Caliph's planned city (New Babylon, Ottoman Caliphate)
- Memphis Necropolis, renovated in 1240 CE, were a series of three ancient pyramids until the colossal Great Pyramid of Magnus (240 m tall) was constructed as the tomb of Caesar Magnus II
The Lighthouse of Pharos, left out of Antipater's account, was renovated in 349 CE to become the tallest man-made structure of its day. Although the lighthouse was ruined by a series of earthquakes from 1303 to 1323, a replacement standing over 261 meters was completed for 1352, returning its old title of tallest building.
Military Technology
Military technology came a long way from the stone of prehistoric warfare. Modern weapons can strike targets anywhere on the planet and destroy areas the size of cities. Nothing in history compares to the destructive power of a 21st century military force. The contemporary soldier is a medium for the application of advanced sensor, defense and mobility technologies and drives vehicles akin to mobile fortresses. Numbers, willpower and strategy remain essential factors on the battefield but the technological gap can be so vast between countries that no training or population size can bridge the distance.
Shielding
The dream of military engineers was a defensive system that could repel any threat and heal from deterioration, like a kind of inpenetrible layer of skin. As an ideal, it is impossible to accomplish but engineers are close.
A strong electromagnetic field accelerates ferromagnetic materials along specific lines of force. This field can be deployed as an effective defense against railguns, particle beams and guided missiles - all of which contain the components necessary to fall under its influence. An EM field is the Achilles' Heel of advanced civilizations, whose weapons usually fall into these categories. In World War III, the Danes relied on EM fields to protect their major outposts from concentrated assaults and space-based weapons. Stronger fields require higher velocity or higher energy weapons to 'penetrate', i.e. not stray too far from the intended target, and are far from impenetrable. They consume enormous amounts of power. Less advanced societies cannot yet equip them on something as small as a vehicle but Roman engineers have built them into packs worn by legionaries.
No electromagnetic field is a perfect defense. Higher energy weapons will 'penetrate' further and further into the shield, until the highest energy ones would hardly notice. However, it does not deteriorate with use, except where power supply is concerned, and will mitigate the damage from penetrating weapons.
An incredible supplement to EM shielding is a plasma bubble. Whereas non-magnetic material is largely unaffected by electromagnetic fields, high-temperature plasma - a fourth state of matter - affects everything from bullets to human bodies. The bubble is a flat veil that extends over a controlled area around a target, usually a vehicle or structure being defended. Light and particle beams can pass through it freely but gases and bulk matter is not only pushed back from the veil but heated as well.
Modern plasma bubbles can withstand pressures up to 25 atmospheres before being penetrated, need 13,500 KW per meter of a bubble's diameter and can be generated at 107,000 K. While the shield's pressure is not enough to stop projectiles, its temperature melts them into a harmless, warm paste before impact and denotes missiles prematurely. The advantage of the shield's pressure is in personnel restriction and atmospheric containment; people can be kept out of certain areas in a facility or on a battlefield and air can be kept inside the hangar of a space shuttle while objects are extractible.
Military Aircraft
Early History
The human activity of aviation started in 1811 when an Italian initiated the first-powered flight in history on a beach near Pompeii. His journey was made possible by the ingenuity of his brother, a modest Surrentumian autokineticus mechanic. At university in the 1800's, the future engineer was taught the Principle of Pressure Differentiation which proposes the idealization that a fluid's pressure decreases the faster it flows. This basic rule was known for hundreds of years. His father being an auti mechanic, he knew that racing auti used airfoils to push themselves against the ground in accordance with the principle. He believed that at a high speed the force could exceed a vehicle's weight. Reversing the airfoil to generate lift and increasing its width, he built prototype autokinetici and had his older brother test them for flight. One of his smallest models took flight on 9 July 1811.
The airplane was adapted for a military role by the government in 1820. They called it a Caelus Tercialae (Eng: Triplane) for its three sets of wings. The design was fitted for greater rigidity and a stronger motor without extra weight. The Maya removed a set of wings in their 1829 design to create a Caelus Dualae (Eng: Biplane). Unlike the electric triplanes of Rome, the biplane was propelled by an internal combustion engine using oil. Neither craft had a range beyond about a hundred km but they were effective forward scouts for the army.
The pinnacle of airplane types, single-winged Caeli Unicarum, were invented by Alexandrian scientists in 1842 to solve the inherent inefficiencies of extra wings. It took 12 more years for single-wing aircraft to be deployed dropping explosives onto enemy forces. The Romans called these Deliquia (Eng: Bombers). The primary advantage of using bombers in warfare was that no one outside Rome and the Conglomerate had a clue aviation technology existed. No defense could yet be mounted against them.
Roman Models
In the present, aircraft technology has tremendously advanced. Perhaps the most impressive modern plane is the A-138 Hypersonic Jet, an improvement over an unmanned predecessor, the A-126. The heart of this plane is its twin nuclear batteries that provide its systems with power. Their most important function is to initiate a nucleonic gamma reaction to propel the A-138 through scramjet engines. Normal scramjet engines cannot function at subsonic velocities. However, short bursts from the nucleonic reactor accelerate the ship to an appropriate velocity where continuous thrust is possible. Impressively, the engine's can push the craft to an atmospheric velocity of 25,400 kph. This means that the A-138 can travel around the equator in less than two hours, which pilots have done several times now for recreation and military operations. This maximum atmospheric velocity can be reached in about 100 seconds, requiring acceleration equivalent to 26 G. A powerful electromagnet diamagnetically exerts a force on the pilot and supplements a pressurized suit that together protect the pilot from these otherwise fatal accelerations. For safety reasons, rapid acceleration is only performed in emergency circumstances, such as escaping anti-aircraft fire or missiles. The Empire has stationed 1,200 A-138's around the world, so problems can be dealt with about four to six minutes after being reported.
Due to the high energy density of a nuclear battery, an A-138 can operate under fighting conditions for a little over 2 days. At full speed, this gives it a maximum operating range of about 1,400,000 km (35 times around the equator). This distance can actually be lengthened by a technique where the plane is piloted briefly out of the atmosphere like a dolphin jumping out of water. The reduction in friction allows it to travel longer distances on a single charge; however, the engines cannot be used outside the atmosphere.
An A-138's armament is equally as impressive as its flight capabilities. Its primary load consists of six thermobaric mini-bunker busters (0.5 kt yield each). On its wings are two machine guns firing fist-sized explosives (50 per gun) that can obliterate most kinds of tanks in one hit. However, the craft's most potent weapon is a 200 MW ventral laser fed directly by the nuclear batteries. By briefly diverting power away from the engines, it can fire a high-energy beam vaporizing armored vehicles and other aircraft or at low-power it can cut through lines of infantry.
The radar system onboard is accurate enough to detect all but the best attempts at cloaking and identify objects as small as a foot-long missile. When threatened by either anti-aircraft fire or guided missiles, the craft has two options. If the mission is complete, it can escape the threat through its incredible accelerative abilities, or if work is left, it can activate built in electromagnets to redirect bullets and prematurely detonate missiles. However, these strategies cannot be used at the same time since the inertial dampening electromagnets and the shielding electromagnets are part of the same system. Safety measures prevent a pilot from accidentally killing himself by trying to activate both (the engines cut off when the shield is active).
Despite their capabilities, there are two disadvantages to the A-138 and its ancestors. The first is that the enormously powerful nucleonic gamma reactor makes it impossible to cloak them, even using the most advanced technology and materials in existence. This isn't especially problematic because they can go in and out of an area before an appropriate response can meet them. Nevertheless, it does make them useless for covert operations. The second, more fundamental problem only occurs if they crash, as an A-126 famously did in the Rebel-controlled Australafrica. The crash, right in the city's center, sufficiently damaged the craft that its nuclear battery went critical and released a great deal of its energy. The resulting explosion wiped out several city blocks, killing well over 20,000 people. So far, 0 A-138's, 14 A-126's and 22 A-100's have crashed. Nearly 60% of crashes ended in a nuclear explosion.
Roman bomber designs are equally impressive. Their second most recent invention is the SC-26 Atmospheric Bomber. Similar to the later A-series, it has its own nucleonic gamma reactor but it supplements this with twin ion engines to allow flight inside and outside the atmosphere. Due to its size, its maximum atmospheric velocity is 15,000 km/h. However, in outer space, there is no limit to its speed; yet fuel concerns make interplanetary flight unlikely. The Roman standard for nucleonic gamma reactors allows the SC-26 to continue operating for the same two days as an A-138. In the Earth's atmosphere, this equates to a little less than 850,000 km. However, if the same amount of energy is instead diverted to the ion engines, the craft can continue accelerating in space for approximately four days straight before running out of fuel.
The more advanced SC-40 Atmospheric Bomber uses an electromagnetic pulse engine powered by an array of four nuclear batteries. Unlike a scramjet engine, electromagnetic pulse propulsion is not limited to operation in the atmosphere and can continue working even at low velocities. The two extra nuclear batteries give SC-40s the ability to reach an atmospheric velocity of 22,000 kph for a period of up to five days. While this technically allows it to achieve interplanetary travel, the year long trip makes this nearly as unfeasible as with the SC-26. Both bomber classes are outfitted with deflector shield and radar technologies similar to their fighter brethren.
The armament of an SC-40 classifies it as the heaviest and most destructive bomber in the world. Within its bowels are 40 satellite-guided MIRVs, each containing 40 entry-rockets to blanket an area of one sq km. Everything within this area, short of fortified targets, will be uncompromisingly destroyed. Attached to the bomber's wings are 20 thermobaric bunker busters (2 kt yield each). These are laser-guided and intended to take out more heavily-armored targets. The last of its weapons are machine guns similar to those of the A-138, firing anti-tank explosives, built into the wings. A single SC-40 can basically devastate a 40 sq km area, rendering it completely devoid of life, without a radioactive by-product. In a classic case of psychological warfare, SC-40 pilots take advantage of a deafening sound that the craft makes when decelerating (and accelerating) to immediately broadcast its presence to the enemy. The sound is audible for km around and, since the last World War, has become widely considered as one of the most frightening noises for a modern soldier to hear.
Modern Aircraft
Although the Romans lead the field of aircraft research, other states still have their own unique designs to contribute. The standard for Japanese jets is a pulse detonation engine that allows for their planes to easily reach speeds between Mach 2 and Mach 5, the Jet Type 12 Fighter has been known to reach speeds of nearly 6000 kph, and has a maximum range of 27,000 km. It is armed with an internally mounted electromagnetic machine gun (coil gun) that can unload its 12,000 rounds in only three minutes (4000 rounds per minute). On its wings can be any assortment of missiles, usually two heavy missiles on each wingtip and between 2-5 more per wing. Though the heavy missiles are almost always 100 ton yield bunker busters, the others can be anything from Kawasaki H-9 AA rockets, to the Kamikaze K-30 anti-tank missiles. In general though, the Type 12 fighter is an all-purpose plane that is able to hold its own against most enemy threats.
The Maya have developed their own jets that are equally as impressive as those of the Japanese. The Guku-40 is an all-purpose aircraft powered by a similar engine to the Japanese Type 12 fighter. The only difference is that a special type of fuel, standard to all Maya aircraft, allows it travel 1.5 times as far on a smaller tank. The craft is outfitted for an anti-air role. Standard weaponry on the Guku is four electromagnetic machine gun (coil guns) housing 4000 rounds each which can be unloaded at 2000 rounds per minute. However, unlike the Japanese, the Maya have added a Roman computer system which auto-targets for all four guns, giving them far greater accuracy in dogfights. Furthermore, they have four AA missiles which fly ahead of an enemy plane or formation before detonating a flak burst. Thie blast destroys any planes within 100 meters.
Maya bombers operate under the principle that they will be immune to enemy fire, something achieved through high altitude operation to evade AA guns, point-defense turrets to stop AA missiles and escorts by the swift Guku craft to defend from other planes. The Maya's number of aircraft and level of technology make this is a very effective tactic. Hq-4000 "Huraqan" Bombers are the latest example of this class of plane. They utilize large fans to levitate their mass at a brisk hover over the battlefield, allowing them to circle an area and bombard it with its weaponry. All Huraqan are outfitted with a central 200 mm shell artillery spiece with 600 diamond tipped shells that can cut through the heaviest of vehicle armor as well as virtually any above ground defenses. For those defenses against which it is ineffective, like deep-underground bunkers, the Huraqan has 80 bunker busters with a yield of 3 Ktons each. Though it lacks the utter devastation and speed of an SC-40, it is just as practical in most situations.
One of the most interesting modern fighters in the Maya arsenal is the Tabai Stealth Fighter. The armament is standard, with the addition of a silenced rifle on its belly that can discreetly take out targets one at a time, but the plane itself is unique for its covering of electromagnetic metamaterial plates. When active, these "reflective plates" divert electromagnetic radiation in the 310 to 97,426 nm range around the vessel. This renders it undetectable in the visible and high-energy infrared spectra. A second layer of metamaterial diverts radio waves around the craft so that it is undetectable by radar. The Tabai becomes like a stone in a river, where the water passes around it and anyone downstream is none the wiser.
Modern Armor
Modern armor denotes a heavily-armored assault vehicle propelled across the battlefield over ground. Unlike mechanized infantry vehicles like APCs, modern armor does not deploy troops but is directly armed with a primary means of destroying the enemy. In this sense, modern armor emerged 1242 years ago in an invention of the brilliant engineer Archaedavincus Acutula. His infamous Testudos Invictos were mobile siege engines driven by manpower with the defensive capabilities of a small fortress - the pinnacle siege weapon on the battlefield.
Testudo technology saw gradual evolution from man-powered to battery-powered over the next 560 years or so. Then in 1818, Rome manufactured the first modern Testudo, the Constantine medium tank. The modern testudo was under Roman guidance able to be copied by Japanese and Maya engineers in 1866. Mongols reverse engineered the technology by 1911 to produce their unique Behemoths, 2800 ton vehicles firing 700 mm shells and boasting nearly impenetrable outer armor - literally in a class of their own. A slight modification of the Maya testudo was a model for Inca heavy testudos in 1924. All first tank designs that followed came from uninspired engineering, considered to be outright copies of old tanks from more advanced countries. {C}Given their history with the machine, Romans manufacture the most advanced modern testudos. Rome's deadliest tank, the most powerful one ever built, is unarguably the T-146 heavy testudo. For preliminary results, its predecessor was only ever destroyed in nuclear artillery strikes and then only by a direct hit. The modern T-class testudo is reportedly invulnerable due to almost excessive armor plating.
Over much of its main body, the T-146 is covered by one ft of a hardened carbon-tungsten nanotube alloy, 200 times greater tensile strength than steel by volume, a third of its weight and a melting point of 3,580 K. An inner layer of lead plates blocks harmful radiation. Essentially, troops inside this tank are impervious to external harm. Bunker busters, cruise missiles and indirect nuclear bombs, which tend be one-shot wonders against tanks, are equally ineffective against the T-146, merely denting its armor. This testudo reflects a design suited for a nuclear age of warfare, where weapons are orders of a magnitude above those from older wars.
Of course, this seeming invulnerability does not take into account the T-146's other defense - particle shields. Generated by electromagnets beneath the armor, the shield is several Tesla's in strength (coincidentally the Roman unit of magnetic field strength too) and is supplemented by a plasma bubble that manifests as a circular band 1 m wide around the T-146, defending against lateral ballistics. This shield vaporizes small rounds before giving them the chance the penetrate and prematurely detonates missiles. As a last defense, the T-146 is equipped with aecis-aegis radionervae (point-defense lasers), seamlessly built-into the outer armor, that actively protect the testudo against missiles from above and close-detonations of nuclear warheads.
A T-146 testudo has four weapons. Primary weapon is a ventral cannon, a short-barrel turret (unlike stereotypical tank turrets) containing a high-energy ballista radionerva (laser cannon) that can rotate 360° laterally and 71° vertically. The laser projector's output suffices to penetrate all kinds of testudo armor - even the T-146's own - and tear through city walls and bunkers, by digging up to it through the ground. Its cannon measures up to the most typical depiction of a death ray since no present materials can block its path - the perfect LOS weapon. Another energy weapon on the T-146 are four laser rifles undetectably built on its surface, looking out at equal angles from each other like square octagonal molecular geometry. These 100 kW lasers are weak compared to the 1 GW ventral cannon, but are not designed to combat vehicles. Their purpose is rapidly tearing apart infantry formations by searing flesh and microwaving internal organs. Generally, the advantage of laser weapons is that electromagnetic radiation is the only thing able to safely cross the threshold of a high-energy plasma bubble.
When the shield is off, however, the T-146 has use of dual-railguns flanking the main cannon. These fire plastic bullets, with metal casing for acceleration, that can be fired while the non-plasma shield is up to target infantry, light vehicles and aircraft. Unlike the automated laser rifles, these railguns are operated by living artillerymen, albeit by radio from a safe location off the battlefield. The testudo's pilots may override this function if radio contact is lost with upper command. The 17,500 ms-1 muzzle velocity is enough to tear through metal and hit a target 30 km away in less than two seconds.
Finally, on the testudo's rear is a flameprojector to deter flanking manoeuvers by enemy infantry. Using a high-density equivalent of the traditional Greek fire, the flame is so hot that survivors report excruciating pain even in its proximity. Direct projection can even melt another T-146 if necessary.
Piloted by one to two soldiers, a T-146 is one of the most functionally independent armored vehicles. Power is generated by an onboard fusion reactor that can run on maximum output for several days. However, starting the reactor is a lengthy and costly process so it is kept in operation for each tank's service period, lasting until peace is declared or the unit is removed for a brief respite.
Medicine
The art and science of healing advanced substantially in the last two centuries. Life expectancies and living standards are the highest in history, even in less-developed states, and residents of countries with the best medical technology can live indefinitely. But few individuals are permitted biological immortality. Among the general population, medical deaths are rare since cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's and all manner of infections, both viral and bacterial, are easily curable. Medical advancement shows no sign of slowing down. Cheaper and more efficient medicine continues to be created in the leading technological states.
Medicine will be subdivided into four sections: antibacterial drugs, cancer therapy, surgery, and transhumanism in its own section. Discussions will encompass the present state of pathology, genetics, nueroscience, nutrition, endocrinology, biochemistry and more medical fields.
Antibiotics
For thousands of years, the ancient Greeks and ancient Egyptians used mold, as part of their medicinal folklore, in the treatment of disease. The Roman scientist Archaedavincus noted the effectiveness of these sorts of fungi in his book On the Treatment of Illness and suggested that some compound within the mold was the cause. However, he could not develop a means of extracting or independently producing this compound. What he could do was categorize various fungi by function of their anti-disease properties (microorganisms had not yet been discovered). In his research, he determined that the best antibacterial was a blue mold produced by rotting bread which he termed Caerucilium. Cultures of the mold in bread were spread throughout European galenariae by 759 for use during surgeries and in the general treatment of the sick.
Caerucilium stayed in widespread use by the Roman Empire for the next 1,100 years until better methods for the development of bacteria cultures were brought over from the Inca Provinces in 1845. From that point, pharmacists, known by the Greek words for Chemists (Khemistoi), were then able to produce the mold outside of a biological medium such as bread. The greatest breakthrough in antibiotic research was when Maya scientists identified a method for chemically producing Caerucilianum (the antibiotic compound itself), without the need for the fungus, in 1906. Their discovery jump-started the field of antibiotics, leading to continuous developments up to the present.
In the 1960's there was a media scare when a new strain of Staphylos Coagulos (OTL: Staphylococcus Aureus) that was immune to existing antibiotics was discovered in hospitals in Mediolanum. The strain spread throughout the civilized world, causing high-level epidemic alerts in the Zulu and Columbian states. Within months of the strain's emergence, medical researchers in Tawatinsuyu discovered an effective antibiotic to use against it, one which they soon sold to other countries. Within three years of the initial "outbreak", the strain was no longer a threat to the public and measures were put in place by most governments to more quickly develop new antibiotics in the event more bacteria became immune to current brands.
Cancer Therapy
Cancer is the harmful growth of a mass of tissue by abnormal proliferation of cells. When tissue growth physically displaces normal biological structures, creating a lump, a tumor has formed. Metastasis of proliferating cells results from penetration of blood or lymphatic vessels during excessive tissue mitosis. By then the growth takes on a malignant character. The medical name for cancer in Latin is a neoplasma mala (Eng: malignant neoplasm) but most in the Roman world know it as cancer. Other countries follow the latter terminology. Whatever it's called, unmanaged cancer can quickly spell the end for a patient.
The process of unchecked cell growth is neoplasia. It's origin is typically genetic mutation of the dividing cell, of a sort that prevents apoptosis (controlled cell death) or shortens cellular life cycles, increasing the rate of mitosis. In essence, a body that fails to regulate the growth of its cells, suffers neoplasia and risks cancer.
Treatment of malignant neoplasms can happen at any phase of development.The earliest is in preventative measures like dietary restriction, judicious medication, or combating carcinogenic (cancer causing) infectious diseases like the papillarae family of viruses, e.g. HPV. Curative measures are run in numerous forms.
Oncological chemotherapy was the most widespread treatment modality since its first reported use by the Inca in 1863 after the effectiveness of certain compounds against white blood cells in enemy soldiers was discovered during the Roman bombings of Muscovy. Inca medics, working internationally, found that Muscovite troops who had been hit by nitrogen-based gas attacks suffered immunodeficiency and recognized the correlation of the latter illness with the susceptibility of white blood cells to chemical damage due to rapid cellular division. The principle of susceptibility was theorized to extend to cancer cells by researchers who heard of the studies on Muscovite soldiers. This prompted the first use of nitrogen-based compounds of cancer patients.
Radiation was theorized by Roman scientists in 1914 to have a similar effect on cancer cells, sparking the first treatment by radiotherapy. These two primary treatment modalities spread around the world in their own times.
A more perfect kind of chemotherapy developed in Alexandria in the 1920's involved attaching chemotherapeutic drugs to gold nanoparticles for stimulated-release by infrared radiation. While this significantly reduced side-effects of chemotherapy - such as immuno-suppression and hair loss - it lacked the expected effectiveness of an actual cure. The first major breakthrough was a set of cancer vaccines created by the Inca in 1943 that gave a patient's body the ability to produce antibodies against each specific kind of cancer. Age would render vaccination useless later in life but people who were vaccinated could expected no occurence of cancer until their 80s or 90s at least.
The discovery wasn't shared with the rest of the world so other countries put enormous funding into their own cures. In 1951, the Maya perfected photodynamic therapy that could be targeted to specific sections of the body. Their modality proved itself in a live trial where over 200 patients were treated without failure.
Parisian scientists invented their own cure two years later than the Maya. The modality involves an injection of microscopic machines, not much larger than a white blood cell, programmed to identify and latch onto cancer cells. Once implanted, the nanobots radiate heat onto tumors until destroyed. Unlike other curative techniques, nanobot medication is not limited by a patient's strength and is unique among treatments for having a 100% success rate, nearly an impossibility in medicine. Furthermore, the machines can be removed from the body after treatment and reused on other patients.
Today, 24% of people cannot get cancer due to corrective gene therapy and a further 59% are immune by vaccination. Those countries where curative modalities like nanotherapy are unavailable, still have recourse to effective chemical and radiation therapy. Cancer deaths are now regulated to 1.4% of global mortality.
Transhumanism
The goal of transhumanism is to redesign the human condition, improving the physical and intellectual quality of life for all human beings. It signals an overcoming of human limitations through technology and education. Modern transhumanism started in the writings of Emperor Magnus II. He proclaimed in Being Human that, "Ignorance is the foundation of imperfection. Such a plague must be cleansed from society so that real advancement for humanity is achievable." The rest of the work goes on to expound the benefits of taking the reigns of human development - cultural and biological - for progress in a desired direction. The area of interest for this section is the physiological enhancements of humans through biotechnology.
Biological Immortality
Senescence is the bane of many people's existence; the cause of most of our deaths. People have long searched for the waters of life to grant them a reprieve from aging. The first story of such a fountain was written into the Alexander Romance in the 3rd century. The myth was picked up by independent explorers who went deep into Africa and returned with stories of a lake that restored youth to bathers but killed those who drank it. Their tales popularized the myth in the 7th to 13th centuries. By then, scientists questioned the purported basis for the waters life restoring powers, namely as a repository of pure vital force.
Immortality was relegated to being merely the hope of Roman Christians until the 20th century. In 1878, an Inca scientist theorized that somatic cells had a limit to their number of divisions, the Hurayq Limit of mitosis. Once DNA's structure was confirmed in 1903 researchers felt certain that the limit stemmed from a deterioration of the polynucleotide chain that prevented another synthesis phase of the cell cycle. Experiments in the 1910's confirmed these suspicions, isolating a nucleotide sequence on the ends of chromosomes that shortened with each replication. Without these telomeros sequences, chromosomes destroy themselves; effectively killing the cell. Aging is mostly the result of the eventual deterioration of telomeros chains in different cells within the body. However, an enzyme was discovered along with the sequence that further experimentation confirmed as a restorant of the chain. The secret to reversing the aging process was at hand.
When injected with synthetic restriction endonucleases to cut DNA strands at the desired sites, the enzyme can regenerate telomeros chains to a level associated with fetal cells. Trials from May 1963 brought patients back to the physical condition of a twenty-year old. Hormone replacement therapy was, however, needed to supplement the naturally lower levels of testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone and reverse andropause or menopause. Protocols for balancing hormones and administering safe amounts of the enzyme were established within four years. A treatment for aging went public in 1968 wherein the buyer could reverse their biological clock 20-40% for the price of a midsize home. It could be taken as many times as desired to reach a minimum biological age around 21.
Cancer, multiple sclerosis, and inflammatory bowel disease are among the short-term side-effects but these are treatable by vaccination and forced suppression of the immune system during treatment. Over the course of the 70's, the failure rate was about one death for every five hundred patients. Improvements in fighting the side-effects have mitigated failure to one death for every four thousand patients.
However, aging is not limited to cell senescence and requires other measures to completely prevent. Without solutions to other defects, a person would appear as physically fit as a 20 year old with the cardiovascular and neurological problems of the elderly. Risks of Alzheimer's, artherosclerosis, and senile amyloidosis are not reduced by senescence treatment. Alzheimer's notwithstanding, cures for these ailments were easier to come by than cures for senescence and were found much earlier.
Combining these various therapies, a human being can now extend his life indefinitely from a medical standpoint. Cancer, artery obstruction, pulmonary deterioration, plaque, diabetes, bacterial infections, and parasitic infections are completely treatable in the most advanced parts of the world but anyone is still at risk of accidents, murder or random embolisms. True immortality will likely never be possible due to the limited capacities of the human body and the possibility of random physiological problems but someone in a position such as the Sapa Inca can effectively guarantee his continued existence for the foreseeable future.
Gene Therapy
Bioaugmentation
Self-Improvement
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