• Question: What do you think is the most important scientific advancement in the last 100 years?

    Asked by mtrewern to Andrew, Emma, Marianne on 18 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Marianne Baker

      Marianne Baker answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      Well mtrewern, as a geneticist, I’d have to say the structure of DNA.

      Without understanding DNA, we wouldn’t have much of the medical knowledge we do now, or understand evolution as well.

      This massive breakthrough, even though genetics is only about 60 years old now, has led to such an explosion in our knowledge of biology. I can’t imagine life before it!

      When did you first learn about genes? I had a little book when I was younger but we didn’t hear about it in school til quite late I don’t think.

    • Photo: Andrew Maynard

      Andrew Maynard answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      Hi mtrewern,

      Tough one that – especially as each advancement builds on what has gone before. Science tends to progress in lots of little steps rather than big jumps. It also depends how you think of what’s important.

      Here are three advancements though that have made a huge difference to our lives today:

      1. Understanding the atom, and the relationship between energy and mass. We live in an atomic age (for good or bad) – and it’s all due to breakthroughs in the first half of the 20th century

      2. Decoding the structure of DNA, and learning how to manipulate it. We’ve made incredible leaps in not only understanding how living organisms work, but how to use that knowledge, since the structure of DNA was revealed by Crick and Watson (with help from Rosalind Franklin). However, we’re also finding that the more we discover, the more we realize we don’t know!

      3. Learning how to synthesize chemicals. Pretty much everything we use depends on breakthroughs in the 20th century in how to make new chemicals – plastics especially, but also lots of other chemicals.

      What do you think are some of the most important advances?

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      I am going to say antibiotics. The work of Ehrlich on the aniline dye antibiotics followed up by Fleming, Chain and Florey on penicillin have given us the ability to fight bacterial infection.

      I think it’s impossible to underestimate the magnitude of this discovery in terms of preventing human misery. Fleming didn’t even think it was his best discovery (or realise its significance) he was more keen on lysozyme ( a good discovery of his but not as important by a long shot). Fleming was poor interpersonally. If he’d been a better team-player antibiotics would have been available much earlier!

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