"C.C. Petersen" wrote in message ...
Off the top of my head (meaning I haven't gone searching for direct ties
between astronomy and specific cures/medical technologies), I'm thinking
there must be something in optics or detectors that has spinoffs to
medicine.

I do not know the specific answer to your question. But one obvious
connection is that the development of the telescope in response to
commercial shipping and European economic expansion needs in the
1600s, led to the later development of the microscope (turn the
telescope around - make configuration changes to the lens), and hence
to the correct attribution of the cause of many diseases to
microscopic organisms, and hence to the modern sciences of
microbiology and immunology (e.g. that red and white blood cells
exist) and the discipline of public health regulation(e.g. clean and
chorlinated water, toilets, sewer systems and health monitoring
prevent the banished killers like typhus and cholera), and hence to
modern antibiotics and vaccines, and so on, and so on, and so on.

Looking at James Burke's "Connections" books, television programs and
radio series might be an avenue to explore for a quick answer.

Regard - Kurt