Page 291 - (DK) I Can’t Believe It! 2

TRUE OR FALSE? 289

While studying influenza, Fleming saw that a dish being
used to grow staphylococcus germs had accidentally FAST FACTS
developed mold, which had made a bacteria-free ring
around itself. Australian scientist Howard Florey WE CAN THANK A DOG
and German scientist Ernst Chain worked to produce
penicillin as a pharmaceutical drug in the 1940s, and in FOR VELCRO
1945 Florey and Chain won the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Microscopic view
of hooks and loops
The discovery of penicillin led to
the development of antibiotics—
a range of medicines used to treat
bacterial infections. Antibiotics
have since saved millions of lives.

George de Mestral invented Velcro after taking
his dog out for a walk. He noticed that the burrs
(seeds) of burdock stuck to the dog’s fur. Velcro
works in the same way—tiny hooks on one strip
of material cling to thin loops on another piece.

THE CAN OPENER
WAS INVENTED

50 YEARS AFTER
THE TIN CAN
WAS FIRST
PRODUCED
Early cans had to be opened using implements
such as sharp knives, which was tricky because
How did a cans were made of much thicker metal sheets
moldy melon than they are today. The can opener made
get antibiotics opening cans a lot less hazardous.
into the mass
market? PLAY-DOH WAS
INVENTED

TO CLEAN WALLS

In the 1930s, coal was often used to heat
homes, so Kutol Products invented a substance
The mold was releasing to remove soot stains from walls. But when
a substance that stopped schoolchildren began using the cleaner to
the bacteria’s growth and make models in the 1950s, the product was
created a bacteria-free repackaged and marketed as Play-Doh.
barrier around itself.

US_288_289_309600_Inventions.indd 289 19/12/17 3:49 pm