All people with type 1 diabetes require insulin injections to live, and many type 2 patients end up needing insulin to control their disease. Before the discovery of insulin in the 1920s, the only way to treat type 1 diabetes was through a near-starvation diet, and patients consequently did not have a very long life span. Today, electronically programmed pumps can deliver precise doses of the life-saving hormone, and new noninvasive forms of delivering insulin are on the horizon.