Science. Without us noticing science plays a very important role in our lives. Throughout our lives, we will enjoy the benefits of the discoveries made from the study of the sciences, and probably, at some point, question how did some very intelligent person figured it out. But sometimes, science can come as a surprise, a little bit of luck cango a long way, and that is what happened to these scientists when discovering these 3 things.
The discovery of penicillin is forever going to be one of the most important discoveries in scientific history Discovered by Alexander Fleming a Scottish biologist, Penicillin is a group of antibiotics used to fight a lot of bacterial infections caused by Staphylococcus (type of bacteria). Fleming was investigating staphylococcus in his lab but decided to take a vacation from work in August. When he returned on Sept. 3, 1928, Fleming was searching through his Petri dishes and saw an unusual type of fungus that was not there before. The fungus (Penicillium notatum) had killed off all the bacteria surrounding it, which he later discovered could kill a bunch of other harmful bacteria like streptococcus, meningococcus and many more. This discovery changed the world of medicine forever and has saved many lives since.
Radioactivity was first discovered in 1896 by Henri Becquerel. Radioactivity occurs when an atom does not have enough energy to hold itself together, so it gets very unstable. Becquerel was doing an experiment in which he exposed a potassium and uranium compound to sunlight thinking that it would absorb the energy from the sunlight and then mark the paper he put it on. As he expected the compound marked the paper but not because of the reason he thought it was. Soon after, clouds started appearing in the sky and he couldn’t conduct his experiments, so he packed up and went inside. Becquerel put the compound in a drawer, and later in the day he then took it out, noticing that the paperhad darkened without the help of sunlight. At that moment, he discovered that uranium emits radiation on its own.
Some years after, Marie Curie and her husband further investigated the effects and elements of radiation. Nowadays, radiation is usually used as cancer treatment for killing the tumors and harmful cancer cells.
In 1867, this dangerous explosive was discovered by Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel in Germany. First, Nobel discovered nitroglycerine in his family lab located in Sweden, which is a highly explosive and dangerous liquid. Many governments were aware of the destructive power of the liquid so that is why in some places it was illegal to transport the material because it could easily explode at any time. That is why Alfred Nobel tried mixing nitroglycerin with kieselguhr (a soft sedimentary earth rock). When he mixed these, it left a dry powder material, he had discovered a material that was shock resistant but could be easily exploded using heat. This made the explosive material much safer to transport.
But, there was one problem.
Alfred Nobel was a big pacifist and the dynamite he created was being used for major destruction in countries all around the world. Nobel couldn’t take the guilt of knowing that his discovery was causing destruction, so he created an incredible prize that we all know today, and it is the Nobel peace prize.