With these 8 little-known people, we still walk, breathe and talk

From time to time, the world seems dark and treacherous place, but he could definitely be more dangerous and darker, if not for people who have spent their lives on something to improve our. What a pity that many of us had them and did not hear. Let us restore justice!

We offer to find out about these forgotten heroes to mentally thank them for their work.

Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, saved the world in 1983 by nuclear war

September 26, 1983, the year the Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov was on duty at the command post Serpukhov-15, 100 km from Moscow. The Cold War was in full swing. Petrova task was to observe the sensor space early warning system for nuclear missile launch. If sensors are notified of a nuclear attack, it would be the responsibility of Petrov immediately notify the leadership of the country, which decides whether to retaliate.

So, on 26 September computer Petrova notified about the launch of missiles from a US base. Despite the terrible threat, Colonel retained complete composure. He analyzed the sensor readings, and he was troubled by the fact that the missile launch was made of a single point, and the missiles themselves were only a few. Petrov came to the conclusion that a case of system failure, and did not inform the high command. As it turned out, lit sensors reflected from clouds sunlight. This problem has been corrected.

Petrova iron self-control may have saved the life of all of us, after all, start from this error a nuclear war, the consequences would be devastating.

January 19, 2006 in New York at the UN headquarters Stanislav Petrov, a special award of the international public organization "Association of World Citizens" was presented. It is a crystal statuette "The hand holding the globe" with the inscription engraved on it "To the person who prevented a nuclear war."

John Leal purified water

For the first time chlorine used to purify the water supply system of the English town of Maidstone, after there was an outbreak of typhoid. Also, chlorine used physician-bacteriologist John Leal to disinfect homes from water detected infections. Despite these first attempts to touch the sanitation, the world is still playing with the water supply to the game "who now die from diarrhea"?

The idea of ​​continuous chlorination of tap water Leal was announced in 1908. it was first described them in an incredibly boring book on plumbing.

It has been estimated that contaminated water has claimed more lives than all the world wars put together. Therefore, clean tap water in millions of cranes in the world - nothing short of a miracle. It is possible, of course, that the government adds chemicals to the water to control our thoughts, but we all zdravstvuem today thanks to the contribution of John Leal.

Nils Bohlin made cars safer

According to experts, Nils Bohlin, a Swedish inventor and a wonderful person, has saved over a million lives in the 50 years that have passed since the invention of their three-point belt.

Before 1959, seat belts, if they are present in the vehicle, were simple lap belts, which in case of an accident allowed little more than to enjoy their own internal bleeding. Passengers were secured rarely, only for racers it was commonplace. They used a four-point belt to keep body parts and organs in place. But despite the fact that these belts were deemed much safer explained drivers flatly refused to use them.

Bolin then realized that a difficult task in front of him - to make the process of self-preservation is so simple and easy as possible. He had to overcome human laziness, inventing a handy strap which can be fastened with one hand. Which he achieved in 1959 after lengthy trials. Thanks to the perfect comfort and safety proportions carmaker Volvo (which worked Bolin) made the invention available to other manufacturers. This was to freshen consumers look to self-preservation and to prevent the transformation of children in "shells" during hard braking.

Gertrude B. Elion opened our medicines

In the first half of the XX century the prospect of being a woman and a scientist at the same time was not particularly rosy, but, thank God, Gertrude B. Elion steadfastly issued during this period. Despite graduating from college with honors, she was deprived of scholarships, since it was only guys available. When Gertrude still earned a master's degree in chemistry, she was waiting in the wings in the laboratory (including because of its "too attractive appearance"), until finally he settled in office checking frozen fruit for the presence of mold.

But after World War II men's scientific world suddenly felt a shortage of staff and the young pharmacologist finally made a breakthrough. She applied for a job as a biochemist, led by Dr. George Hitchings and soon became an assistant in his research.

Between experiments, the pair has published more than 200 works (named Gertrude B. Elion in the beginning, it was very unusual for that time). Also they have pioneered a new method for production of drugs called "rational development of drugs." Instead of using the previously used method of trial and error ( "shot in the dark with the hope of survival"), they studied the biochemical mechanisms of viruses and bacteria in order to adapt the drugs to treat them. Applying this technique, Gertrude B. Elion found a huge number of new drugs, including the first and antileukemic antimalarial drug, immunosuppressive first antibodies used in organ transplantation, antibiotics for the treatment of meningitis, sepsis and bacterial infections of the urinary and respiratory tract, and many others. She even opened Zovirax herpes, which you probably at times treat colds on the lips.

Alan Turing saved a lot of people during the war,

Name British mathematician and cryptographer Alan Turing has long been forgotten. Firstly, because the majority of his works subject to the Official Secrets Act, and secondly, in the 1950s it forcibly treated for homosexuality.

It is known that during the Second World War in the work of Turing was a four-year break. Taking into account that for each year of the war Europe has seen some seven million deaths, developments Turing could save 21 million lives. Alan Turing worked at the famous Bletchley Park, which features a master cryptographic unit of the UK. Awesome mathematician and logician deals with all kinds of projects, but most of all sweating over the creation Bombe - electro-mechanical machines, capable of decrypting messages Nazi Enigma. By 1942, the team that breaks open daily up to 1 thousand. Encodings, reduced the duration of the armed conflict in the years to come.

Imagine how many lives, both military and civilian, were saved thanks to this work, many people were able to have a family that could not be. It is quite possible that your ancestors have saved the brainchild of Turing.

Edward Jenner made the first inoculation

According to estimates, its developments vaccination Jenner saved the lives of 530 million people. The methods that were originally developed by them, had the greatest in the history of human impact on disease control.

History Jenner's discovery passed from mouth to mouth, dozens of generations, so something can be misleading, but the principles, one way or another, are unchanged. Jenner, working side by side with the dairy farmers of Gloucestershire, said that they are not sick during a smallpox epidemic. Then the doctor suggested that farmers are already ill with a milder form of the vaccinia virus, infected by cattle and thus received immunity from human disease. Jenner decided to experiment, eight-year-instilling healthy boy lymph from pustules milkmaids suffering from cowpox. Of course, the kid slog with the disease. Six weeks later Jenner continued to experiment even more reckless and repeated the procedure - this time he introduced child lymph smallpox patient. Fortunately, the boy was still alive, the doctor on the loose, and the world received the first vaccine.

If you ever get vaccinated, take a deep breath and thank Edward Jenner. And if you have not done due to medical contraindications or because "I read such a terrible article on the Internet," you lucky to avoid some fatal diseases due to such things as herd immunity.

Louis Pasteur discovered germs

Continuing the theme of germs and other nasty things, let us turn to Louis Pasteur. At his age was the predominant theory is "spontaneous generation", and scientists generally believed that bacteria allegedly appear out of thin air to spoil your milk and your day. However, Pasteur was not sure of it, and began to experiment. He took the flask of sterile nutrient medium, some uncorked on the busy and dirty streets of Paris, the other in the fresh alpine air. In all of these flasks, culture media actively developed, and sterile, no uncapped tubes - remained intact. His experiments Pasteur revolutionized the notion of germ theory, proving that the disease can be prevented and destroy in the bud.

Although the most famous scientists brought the invention of pasteurization process, named in his honor, Louis Pasteur study were much more extensive. Germ theory - is the foundation upon which we are to a large extent built on the idea of ​​health and safety everywhere - from restaurants to hospitals. Pasteur also continued its work in relation to vaccination Jenner, opening the door to the creation of many new life-saving vaccines.

Karl Landsteiner discovered blood groups

While we did not have any idea about the blood groups of people regularly died of blood loss due to accidents, childbirth, ulcers. In general, it is bad luck and the bad news was any event, from which a person loses more blood than his body was able to make up their own. And the consequences of the wrong blood transfusion group was not just "a feeling of impending doom", but also kidney damage, blood clots and death. Doctors tried to transfuse blood, and before the opening of the groups, but positive results have been a big success.

In 1901, Landsteiner discovered that blood is not all the same, and different people it has its own characteristics that make the types compatible with each other, and the mixing is fatal. It dispelled all previous concerns about blood transfusions and turned before a risky procedure and everyday routine, which saves lives every day.