Scientific Breakthroughs Literally Changed Everything

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Scientific Breakthroughs that Literally Changed Everything

By Joe Burgett - April 5, 2020

5. Antibiotics

Invented By: Alexander Fleming

While infections could be cured somewhat for centuries by various medications, this was never considered to be 100% effective. Most of these infections would tend to be open wounds, which can be treated with numerous herbal remedies. Yet infections within the body were hard to cure, at least that was until Alexander Fleming came along.

Already a notable Biologist & Physician, Fleming had been looking into staphylococci. This led him to work with the fungus known as “Penicillin sp.” He left his lab one night, having accidentally left an opening to the staph near the fungus. Upon returning, he discovered the fungus essentially killed the staph. Eventually, the Penicillin Drug came to be as an antibiotic that we still use today. Due to its invention, several other antibiotics have popped up ever since. In fact, we make many for specific infection types too.

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4. True Industrial Revolution

Includes The Inventions: Automobiles, Steam Engine, Ships, etc.

While we call this the Industrial Revolution, we’d like to make sure to note that this was mainly used to highlight the period of time in England. However, this industrial period was on full display all across Europe and the United States. Most tend to highlight the years it ran from 1760 to 1840. However, the true industrial revolution extends the end date to around 1900.

A major part of this was the Steam Engine, which had been invented in the early 1700s. Yet James Watt’s improvement on this in 1776 made it a crucial aid in travel. Robert Fulton’s invention of the first commercially successful steamship was crucial for travel and delivery. Yet he’d also invent the submarine to help in wartimes. Finally, Karl Benz invented the automobile in 1886, which became a massive asset to society

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3. Vaccines

Major Developers: Louis Pasteur, Jonas Salk, Albert Calmette, Camille Guerin, Edward Jenner, David Smith, Ian Frazier

Vaccines were first implemented by China in the 10th Century to help against smallpox. This expanded when Edward Jenner developed the smallpox vaccine in 1796, however. Louis Pasteur then developed the vaccines for Cholera in 1880, Anthrax in 1881, & Rabies in 1885. Albert Calmette & Camille Guerin together invented the vaccines for Tuberculosis with the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) Vaccine in 1922.

However, Albert alone invented the first antivenom for snakebites. Jonas Salk with Thomas Francis invented the first Influenza Vaccine in 1933 while Salk on his own invented the Polio Vaccine in 1952. David Smith made the vaccine for Haemophilus influenza, which often gave infants pneumonia and meningitis. Meanwhile, Ian Frazier invented the vaccine for cervical cancer, genital warts, and anogenital cancers in 2006.

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2. The Internet

Inventor: Tim Berners-Lee

The Internet is clearly one of the world’s biggest scientific breakthroughs. In fact, you’re all here reading this list as a result of it. The man responsible for its invention officially is Tim Berners-Lee on December 20, 1990. He did this while working with the European Organization for Nuclear Research. In fact, the first webpage is credited to them, known as info.cern.ch.

You can click on the website to see what it looks like today. Of course, this did not become a major thing until we were able to invent Wi-Fi which is thanks in part to Hedy Lamarr and Nikola Tesla for their work in Wireless technology decades ago. Yet their ideas are in the tech of today that gives us Wi-Fi, which only helps the internet reach more places worldwide.

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1. Gene Editing/CRISPR

CRISPR First Proposed By: Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier

The world changed in 2012 when Jennifer Doudna & Emmanuelle Charpentier proposed that the CRISPR-Cas9 was possible to program and thereby edit genomes. CRISPR-Cas9 are enzymes from bacteria that control microbial immunity, which can allow us to edit genomes/genes. This basically means that we can theoretically edit out sections of our DNA where diseases are.

This includes even enhancing the person in some ways. The biggest thing it will likely help us with is the treatment of blood disorders or diseases such as Leukemia and AIDS. The idea is that we can remove and then modify human cells to remove issues. Those edited and improved cells are then put back into the body in an effort to rid the person of the disease. There’s still a lot more we need to do in this area, but this is one of the scientific breakthroughs that could theoretically extend lives, and end horrific diseases for good.

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