Top 10 Real People Who Actually SAVED the World

Having already discovered the enzyme lysozyme in 1922, by 1928, Scottish doctor Alexander Fleming went on vacation. When he returned to his laboratory, he examined the collection of Petri dishes he had left out containing the bacteria staphylococcus. However, one of the dishes had been contaminated with a fungus. Fleming noticed that it had stopped the bacteria from growing and was destroying it. He had stumbled into discovering the antibacterial penicillin. After years of research and refining production, by 1943, penicillin was mass-produced in the US to help their and their allies’ forces during World War II. Later, it was created for public use. Some estimates claim as many as 200 million lives have been saved thanks to this accidental discovery.

Maurice Hilleman isn’t a name that many would know. But if it wasn’t for him, many of us might not be around today. Known as one of the most vital vaccinologists in history, Hilleman is responsible for around 40 vaccines. Such as meningitis, various flu variants, measles, and more! It’s believed Hilleman’s work saves eight million lives each year! Another big name in the vaccine world is Edward Jenner. In 1796, he realized that those infected with cowpox were immune from smallpox, a disease slaying many people at the time. We can’t talk about vaccines without bringing up Jonas Salk. In 1955, after years of research and tests, his polio vaccine was deemed safe for public use, saving millions of lives.

Sometimes, it’s not doctors that save lives in the medical field. Sometimes, it takes an ordinary person born with a unique gift. Nicknamed the “Man with the Golden Arm,” Australia’s Harrison has a rare antibody within his blood plasma. Thanks to this, his transfusions led to an injection called Anti-D that’s helped babies with Rhesus disease. After being inspired after his own life was saved by transfusions when he was a teenager, Harison went on a donating spree since he turned 18. By the time he was forced to retire after reaching Australia’s maximum donation age of 81, he had had weekly contributions, resulting in 1,173 donations. It’s believed Harrison is responsible for saving 2.5 million Australian babies.

Before England's Joseph Lister changed the world, surgery was a rough choice for people. Surgeons rarely washed their clothes or instruments between patients. As such, many people perished from infections or lost limbs. After hearing French scientist Louis Pasteur’s Germ Theory of Disease, Lister decided to use chemicals to destroy germs, known as antiseptic. Using carbolic acid, he first covered bandages with the chemical, but many surgeons didn’t buy his theory, to begin with. Once people were saved from infection, Lister began using the chemical on clothes, hands, and instruments. Before his new methodology, Lister had a fatality rate of 46% from his surgeries. From his discovery in 1867, it was 15% and fell to 5% by 1877.

In 1939, the allied forces were struggling with World War II. To help, they turned their attention to cracking the Enigma Machine, a device used by Germany to send cryptic information. So, the British turned to Alan Turing, a rising star in math and science. Building on the success of Poland’s scientists, Turing’s team developed the Bombe, a large device that mimicked the Enigma Machine and allowed the allies to intercept Germany’s messages, causing their eventual fall. It’s estimated that without Turing’s work, the war could’ve lasted a lot longer, resulting in the end for millions. But instead of being celebrated, Turing was convicted of being gay and forced to take chemicals. He took his own life in 1954 at the age of 41.

In 1962, the world was gripped by the Cuban Missile Crisis. That October, the American Navy realized a Soviet Union B-59 submarine was in the water. By using non-lethal depth charges, they were hoping to spur the sub to the surface. Instead, panic set in as the Soviet crew believed the war had started, as they hadn’t heard from their superiors in a while. And, to make it worse, they were armed with a nuclear torpedo and considered using it. Needing the authority of three senior officers, the captain and the political officer agreed. However, flotilla commander Valentin Savitsky didn’t. He then talked down the captain, stopping a likely escalation into nuclear war and saving untold lives.

In 1951, Henrietta Lacks felt unwell after giving birth to her fifth child. Doctors discovered she had cervical cancer. Unfortunately, her cancer spread quickly, and she lost her life. Unknown to her, since consent for this wasn’t required at the time, one doctor harvested cells from Lacks’s tumor. They discovered that, unlike normal cells, Lacks’ could divide indefinitely under the right conditions. Nicknamed “HeLa,” the immortalized cells have been vital to medical research, saving many, many lives. Various vaccines such as Covid-19 and Polio, as well as cancer treatments and the understanding of HIV and AIDS and other diseases, have all benefited from Lacks’s astonishing cells.

After an accident caused an explosion at reactor four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in April 1986, there was a chance of untold destruction. During the initial disaster, firefighters put water below the reactor to cool it. However, in May, there was the possibility of the molten nuclear material melting through the floor, hitting the water, causing a massive steam explosion, and costing millions of lives. To prevent this, engineers Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bespalov, and Boris Baranov volunteered for what looked like a one-way mission. Wearing wet suits, they successfully went to the basement flooded with radioactive water to turn the values to drain the tank. While there were reports they didn’t survive the trip, each hero did.

Dubbed “the father of the Green Revolution” and “the man who saved a billion lives,” the name Norman Borlaug holds a lot of weight in agriculture and in many countries. The American agriculturist who grew up on a farm was responsible for developing high-yield, disease-resistant crops, like wheat, by the mid-1960s. Borlaug’s success allowed nations like Mexico, Pakistan, and India to avoid the expected famines that were set to ravage the countries. Mexico and India even became self-sufficient when it came to cereal grains from Borlaug’s work. The former had their wheat output had increased six times the amount yielded in the 1940s. This led to Borlaug getting a Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his incredible contributions.

In September 1983, lieutenant colonel Stanislav Petrov was the duty officer working at the Serpukhov-15 command center in the Soviet Union. Suddenly, the nuclear early-warning system began blaring. It had detected five missiles had been fired at them from the US. Since this was in the Cold War, tensions between the nations were high. It was expected that once Petrov informed his superiors about the alarm, they would fire off a retaliation nuclear strike, plunging the world into chaos. Instead, thanks to his training and the lack of response from the ground-based radar installations in spotting the apparent attack, Petrov declared it was a false alarm. An investigation found the warning system had apparently thought the sun’s reflections onto clouds were missiles, saving countless lives.