Scientific discoveries have changed our lives and our planet in innumerable ways and to varying degree. But some discoveries have changed our world in such profound ways that their impact is clear. Here we’ll discuss ten scientific discoveries that have altered the world, and our perception of it, forever.
1. The Sun is the Center of the Solar System
Nicolaus Copernicus was the first astronomer to suggest that the Earth was not the center of the solar system. Although no one knows for certain when Copernicus established this heliocentric theory, it is generally accepted that he did so sometime between 1508 and 1514. Prior to Copernicus, it was believed that the Earth, not the Sun, was the center of the solar system and Copernicus’ arguments to the contrary were widely controversial at the time. Still, Copernicus and his heliocentric theory were the start of the Scientific Revolution.
2. Vaccination
Although Small Pox has now been eradicated, it was a very serious disease in the 1700’s, killing 400,000 people annually in Europe alone. It was a long standing rumor that dairymaids did not get smallpox because of their exposure to cowpox. In May 1796, Edward Jenner inoculated a young boy using matter from the cowpox lesions of a dairymaid. Although the boy got sick, when Jenner later inoculated the boy with smallpox the boy did not get the disease. Jenner named his new procedure vaccination, based on the Latin word vacca, which means cow. Now a little over 200 years later, vaccinations are available for many diseases and save the lives of millions.
3. Antiseptic Surgical Techniques
Joseph Lister, born in 1827, was an English surgeon and professor at the University of Edinburgh. Based on Louis Pasteur’s research, he realized that many infections were the result of bacteria and unsanitary surgical conditions. In order to combat this, he developed Antiseptic Surgical Techniques in 1867. Before Lister’s new techniques it was common for 50% of surgical patients to die and Lister’s new ideas were met with great skepticism. But the results of his new techniques, which included washing your hands and sterilizing surgical instruments and dressings, spoke for themselves. Thanks to Lister, these sanitary practices are still in place today and death from an infection caused by surgery is much less common.
Gregor Mendel, a Central European monk, was the first to correctly identify how different traits are inherited. Based on his research, Mendel developed two laws of heredity. The first, the principle of segregation, states that for any given trait, only one allele from each parent is passed to the offspring. The second, the principle of independent assortment, means that pairs of alleles are passed to offspring independent of one another. Mendel’s ideas were published in 1866 but were not well recognized until after his death. Although there are exceptions to Mendel’s two principles, their discovery marks the beginning of the modern science of genetics.
5. Theory of Natural Selection
Charles Darwin’s 1859 tome On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection sparked a firestorm that still rages today between the scientific and religious communities. According to Darwin, there are four necessary parts of natural selection. First, there must be variation among the individuals of the population in question. The second component assumes that some traits are highly heritable. Third, the population has a high rate of growth and substantial mortality. Based on the first three principles, the fourth component states that individuals best suited for that specific environment will contribute more offspring to the next generation. Thus whatever heritable trait made those individuals better suited for the environment becomes more and more common within the population as a whole.
6. The Invention of Plastics
The invention of plastics, from 1869 into the 1900s, has undeniably changed our world, for better and worse. Now days, plastic is everywhere from bottles and bags to wraps and toys. Plastic has served us well and we use it for many things. But it is important as we continue to use plastics be aware of their impact on the environment around us.
Based on the early discoveries of Antoine Henri Becquerel, Pierre and Marie Curie experimented with uranium-containing ore and named the spontaneous emissions of some elements “radioactivity. The Curies, along with Becquerel, received a Nobel Prize in 1903 for the discovery of radioactivity. Today, we use radioactivity for many medical applications and in nuclear reactors, among other uses.
8. Radiometric Dating
In 1905, Bertram Boltwood discovered that the age of a rock could be determined based on the amount of uranium-238 and lead-206 in the rock. Because uranium-238 has a fixed half-life, over which time it decays into lead-206, the amount of each of these elements can tell you the age of the rock. With this development in science humans could for the first time appreciate how old the world around them really is.
9. Penicillin
In 1921, while studying the influenza virus, Alexander Fleming noticed mold growing on a staphylococcus culture plate. The mold had created an area around itself that was free of the staphylococcus bacteria. After further experimentation he was able to determine that it prevented the growth of staphylococcus even when heavily diluted. He named the mold penicillin and it was the first antibiotic. It is still in use today and, together with the development of other antibiotics, has had a profound impact on the health and lifespan of people.
10. Sequencing of the Human Genome
The 2003 sequencing of the human genome led to the discovery that humans have only 20,000 to 25,000 genes, much fewer than scientists originally thought. Through further research and understanding of the human genome, it is hoped that there will be significant advances in medicine and biotechnology.
