Contributions to human civilization.

1.2.1. In the early 20th century, a quarter of the world’s people and a quarter of the world’s land surface were controlled in some way by Britain. In fact, it was British travelers and explorers who contributed a lot to our knowledge of the world. One can remember the navigator and explorer Sir Francis Drake. His famous contemporary was Sir Walter Raleigh, also a traveler. Two hundred years later Captain James Cook, British explorer and navigator, made his three voyages of exploration in the South Pacific Ocean and the coastal waters of North America. He is best known as the discoverer of the Hawaiian Islands and Australia. Other travelers of note include David Livingstone, Ernest Henry Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott who reached the South Pole in 1912.

1.2.2. Britain was a pioneer in economic matters. The first industrial revolution occurred in Britain and led to the development of the world’s first society dominated by a middle class. Rapid economic development and worldwide trade made Britain the richest nation in the world during the reign of Queen Victoria. The technology of the Industrial Revolution was developed by practical craftsmen who pioneered innovations on the earliest machines. A key invention was a practical steam engine, which Scottish inventor James Watt was pivotal in developing in the late 18th century. Engineer George Stephenson built the first railway, steamboats and tunnels were built by Isambard Brunel. All of these early inventions were first used in the textile industry.

1.2.3. Britain has been a world leader in science. Modern science owes much Francis Bacon, whose theories laid the foundation of the scientific method. Sir Isaac Newton, a scientific genius in physics and mathematics. At the end of the XIX century the British physician Edward Jenner discovered the vaccine that is used against smallpox and laid the groundwork for the science of immunology. During the Victorian age, Michael Faraday's and James Maxwell's work led to the practical application of the electric power. Biologist Charles Darwin developed the theory of evolution through natural selection, which radically influenced modern science and thought. Surgeon Joseph Lister introduced antiseptic surgery.

1.2.4. Over the last century, more than 70 British citizens have been awarded the Nobel Prize in science, second only to the United States. One of them is Alexander Fleming who discovered penicillin, the first of the antibiotic medicines. In physics, several British scientists carried on atomic research, most notably Ernest Rutherford. British technology pioneered in the development of radar and jet engines. British scientists contributed to the 1953 discovery of the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as well as subsequent breakthroughs in medicine and genetics, including DNA fingerprinting, gene therapy, and in vitro fertilization. In the late 1990s a team of researchers led by Ian Wilmut performed the first successful cloning of an animal.

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