Weird & wonderful discoveries

Happy British Science Week! March 8-17 celebrates science, technology and groundbreaking discoveries in every area of life – even those we maybe don’t think of as science. So here’s a round-up of eight exciting, unexpected breakthroughs that happened right here in the UK! Maybe you’ll be inspired to learn more about these people and their other achievements. Find out more about British Science Week at

www.britishscienceweek.org, and how to get involved with events such as The Great Plastic Count or the Nature’s Calendar survey.

Teenage Fossil Discovery

What began as a meander through the woods turned into a historical breakthrough when 15-year-old Roger Mason accidentally discovered the first evidence of Precambrian life. This is the geological time period where continents formed, the modern atmosphere took shape and early life began to evolve. The year was 1957 and scientists hadn’t yet found proof from the earliest part of Earth’s history. This would be what Roger stumbled across in Charnwood Quarry, Leicestershire – fossils that proved life on this planet existed far earlier than was realised. Roger had the fossils examined by experts at the University of Leicester who confirmed they were a groundbreaking discovery.

In Our DNA

We all now recognise DNA’s double helix molecular structure, thanks to British scientists including Rosalind Franklin. Photo 51 was an X-ray diffraction of DNA which Franklin took, and it propelled a team of UK scientists to develop a model for the structure of DNA. In 1962 Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize. Sadly, Franklin died in 1958 and did not receive this recognition, but her role was critical in the work on DNA.

Monumental Mould

Thanks to Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming, we have penicillin. In 1928, returning from holiday, Fleming noticed something off about one of his petri dishes of Staphylococcus that he’d left out. A section of mould had no colonies or growths near it. The only explanation was that the mould gave off something that shut down bacterial growth, which he then discovered could kill a variety of harmful bacteria. And so penicillin was