discovered penicillin but was unable to purify it. The scientists Ernst Chain and Howard Florey developed the techniques to extract and purify penicillin. This eventually led to the production of the antibiotics we use today. Fleming, Chain and Florey received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in1945.
Impact on society The discovery of penicillin has had a huge impact on society. It has saved countless lives.
Fig. 2 Alexander Fleming (1881–1955)
Fig. 3 Ernst Chain (1906–1979)
Fig. 4 Howard Florey (1898–1968)
Science in Society Research the story of the discovery of penicillin. Pay particular attention to the combined efforts of the three scientists Fleming, Chain and Florey. Present your findings.
6.2 Invention
The invention of the World Wide Web The World Wide Web allows people all over the world to communicate and share information. It was invented by Tim Berners-Lee. Tim Berners-Lee worked at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, as a software engineer in the 1980s. He was frustrated by the difficulty he had in organising files on his computer and sharing information. At that time a person could only view information stored on the computer they were logged on to. He developed a special computer software program that allowed him to make links between files on his computer. This made organising files on his own computer much easier but he still could not access files stored on other computers. At the same time that he was developing this, the internet was being created. The internet connects different computers by cables and phone lines. Tim Berners-Lee saw the potential of the internet to allow people to access information stored on other computers. He went on to invent the language, Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML). All web pages are written in this language. He also developed an address system for every page of information – Universal Resource Locator (URL). This system ensures that every document on every computer linked
