• Question: what is the best scientific discovery?

    Asked by to Edward, Ian, Mathew, Naomi, sakshisharda on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Edward Hughes

      Edward Hughes answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Wow that’s a big question. If I had to pick one, it would be Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. It’s actually really simple and beautiful. Basically it says that the laws of physics are the same for everyone, no matter how they are moving. It turns out that this means gravity warps the shape of space and time in a pretty way – look at this picture ()!

    • Photo: Naomi Osborne

      Naomi Osborne answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      For a microbiologist like myself, it has to be the discovery of penicillin. It was discovered by accident when Alexander Fleming left his window open in his laboratory over the weekend. When he went back into work, he noticed he had left his petri dish lid off, and the bacteria had been killed by a mould – which was penicillin.

      This discovery saved the lives of millions, including many lives during World War II.

    • Photo: Ian Stephenson

      Ian Stephenson answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      I’d agree with Naomi that antibiotics are probably pretty high up on the list. Most of us would probably be dead without them! There’s probably be no medicine as we know it today without them.

      What’s really scary is that we’re running out of antibiotics as the germs evolve immunity. Its possible that in a few years time most of the current antibiotics will be ineffective. That’s why doctors are increasingly trying to use as few antibiotics a possible, to keep the ones we have working for as long as possible

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