3 People Who Probably Saved Your Life 

My parents were anti-vax when I was a toddler, so I didn't end up getting my MMR until I was 16 and "old enough" to make my own decision. Thankfully I managed to dodge the measles outbreaks when I was younger so I consider myself lucky to have not been affected before then. Getting the MMR was one of the first things I did when I gained legal autonomy.

I was expecting Ignaz Semmelweis when you said he finally got doctors to wash their hands... After all, Semmelweis had been nagging about this until his death and Lister kind of followed up on Semmelweis' theory (2 years after Semmelweis death).. I feel sorry for Semmelweis, he was not taken seriously during his lifetime, and died in an insane asylum before his procedures were accepted as good practice. So let us at least credit him posthumous for his pioneering work.

My husband saved my life when insisted I go to the hospital when I thought I had a pulled abdominal muscle. Turned out to be my appendix and it was long overdue for rupturing. I had emergency surgery and survived. Thanks, honey!

It's mind blowing to think that doctors didn't even operate with clean clothes and equipment until late 19th century because they didn't know germs existed.

These men are heroes. In a society that values brain dead celebrity crap more than progress in science and technology, we need these kind of people to keep the world going.

Maurice Hilleman! He's the reason I want to be a virologist. I'm so glad you guys finally talked about him. He's so unknown and it's honestly disheartening

Jokes on you! I don't have a life

It is people like this that actually make me proud that I am a human. We still have lots of problems, but it is through people like these men who will find the solutions. You should do a follow up to this, with Norman Borlaug, Robert Koch, Paul Ehrlich, and probably a whole bunch of other people that deserve this sort of recognition.

I'm in awe of how fast he can talk without taking a breath.

ok so they disinfect sewers back then but not their wounds, wtf history

Virginia Apgar is a good one to include. She developed the APGAR score, basically a way of evaluating babies right after they're born to see if they're having any health issues (line trouble breathing, issues with circulation, body temperature, etc.)

Fascinating video! Very thought provoking. Though I must add that Dr. Ignas Semmelweis truly deserves the first credit of who pioneered or coined the idea of hand washing. Even though no one believed his theory at the time the man still deserves some form of recognition. R.I.P: Semmelweis 💜

Whenever I watch these videos, I get inspired and get a desire to try and make the world better myself! Thank you SciShow!

It's brilliant to hear about people who worked so hard to help mankind. From being a kid on a chicken farm to a world renowned scientist. These were real heroes.

One of the things that has fascinated me since I was a child when finding out what people used to believe was why they believed the wrong thing, and why they resisted the truth when it was discovered. With spontaneous generation and germ theory, the biggest reason people refused to believe in microscopic organisms that could cause disease is because they believed that God created the world specifically for mankind. And in a world created specifically for mankind, it would not make sense for there to be organisms which man could not even see which could kill them. Lister's findings were fought against very vocally. Doctors, and people who supported doctors, found his ideas as tremendously insulting. The suggestion that doctors could be introducing infection to their patients while trying to heal them was seen as the most malicious smear on their character possible. When reading about Lister, it is usually explained (and I was surprised to not see it featured in this video) that he worked at a hospital in which many doctors would deliver babies immediately after performing autopsies, without washing their hands between tasks. Infant mortality in that hospital was astronomically high. Lister was seen as accusing the doctors of being babykillers. At the time, the public perception of doctors was seen as a crucial thing to preserve. Much of medical practice was as much superstition and guesswork as it was science, and doctors were seen as virtuous and doing their best to 'do no harm.' To face that people with the best intentions are actually causing tremendous damage and death is always difficult, especially for the people themselves. You see this a lot whenever parenting is discussed too. Parents are doing an important job, they have the best intentions, so no one, especially not most parents, is willing to consider that they might be doing far more harm than good.

No scientist is an island? Then how do you explain Darwin island in the Galápagos?

I don't like how Semmelweis was completely ignored when discussing Lister. I mean, he was following in his footsteps. Otherwise, nice summary on interesting people :)

i am glad I am born in this era where anaesthesia is available. it must be so painful back them. damnnn

You can't really mention Lister and Pasteur without talking about Semmelweis. He beat Lister to it by about 50 years :)

You know.. the world might be a bit fucked what with all the terrorist attacks and all, but boy am i glad i was born in this era.

+SciShow -- Joseph Lister based his work on the groundbreaking work of Ignaz Semmelweis, who had long died at the time Lister published his proposals. from the english Wikipedia: "Semmelweis *proposed the practice of washing hands with chlorinated lime solutions in 1847* while working in Vienna General Hospital's First Obstetrical Clinic, where doctors' wards had three times the mortality of midwives' wards."

Maybe he would be saving more lives with the measles vaccine if more people actually used it.

How can anyone dislike this?! These people just come to these videos to dislike and leave. What has humanity come to where we dislike people who saved MILLIONS of lives and adore people like Kim Kardashian who have done NOTHING for society. We need more science-literate people in the world!

so this pile of hay i just bought will not give me any baby mice. 😢 what is life.

How does a show as intelligent as SciShow have such a horrific comment section? I think looking through these gave me legit nausea.

This pisses me off they mention Lister but no mention at all of Semmelweis who basically gave up his life when he advanced the idea of hand washing. Lister influenced by Pastuer? Pastuer influenced and communicated with Semmelweis and in fact Lister followed on both of these great coat tails. How about some credit for a man much maligned?

"Your immune system will be like 'Hey I know you...'" the best quotes come from scishow and crash course :P

These scientists, and others like them, and their helpers, have done so much for this world we live in today. Thank you ❤️

"Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we generals." -Napoleon Bonaparte

Great video! Thanks for teaching me about a significant scientist I never knew about, Maurice Hilleman!

It should be noted Nicolas Appert perfected preserving food by canning years before Louis Pasteur. Pasteur's contribution was proving it was indeed bacteria that caused spoilage and the invention of a pasteurization that required less aggressive heating and would preserved the flavors of food that normally would be altered by conventional canning such as wine and milk.

Pasteur! Recently I studied all of his works for an entire month just for fun. Great guy.

After watching, I have the urge to stand up and salute these heroes.

Catgut sutures came from the Arab doctors. Specifically a man named Al- Zahrawi. Who, I might add, washed his hands religiously.

Dang SciShow, I can't but help feel like Ignaz Semmelweis merited an honorable mention somewhere between Louie and Joseph.

But heeeey, that's just a theory, a GERM theory.

Jesus the guy who killed Smallpox died in 2005. That shows me just how recently we really started to understand disease

Finally an episode with more than 4 minutes! I love you guys! =P

I wait patiently for the anti-vaxxers to descend upon the comments section.

I think as an addition to this list, Alan Turing should also be mentioned. He made the first 'Turing machine' which was the first basic computer. With the Turing machine he broke the enigma machine, the machine that the germans were using for al their communications. Historians have estimated that if Alan would not have cracked the enigma the war would continue for at least 2 years and he saved at least 14 million lives. But that estimation is only if Germany would not have won the war, because Germany was actually very close of winning. So therefor you might even say that Alan Turing saved countless of lives in Europe and also the way we think in Europe.

I love this host just as much as I love Hank, this channel is just great, keep it up guys :)

can this be a series? like 3 scientists who did something great

My great grandma took her kids out to get vaccines right when they were retely available and got some for herself and know she is 100 almost 101 and only when she was 99 did she stop driving and planning parties. She stopped driving because she lives off of a really tricky intersection that most adults can do!

This was really smooth, nice viewing - also great content - thanks guys!

That SHIRT tho! Fort Minor

This has been one of my favourite SciShow episodes by far. Extremely educational and interesting! Thank you!

How could you leave out Jonas Salk and Sabine? I was born in 1952 and polio was the killer and maimer of both children and adults. Polio was merciless and nobody knew how it spread. Parents were afraid to let their kids go out and play or go swimming in the summer because of it. My parents were highly educated and were not fearful of vaccines, thankfully, so I was among the earliest batch of kids who were vaccinated and finally protected from this horrible disease. Most kids lived through and made a full recovery from the "normal" childhood diseases of measels, German measels, mumps, and chicken pox as I did and every kid I knew did. All kids whose ancestors were of European and Mediterranean descent had some measure of restance to these diseases; not enough to prevent getting sick, but to prevent them from being serious or fatal. - JF

you should 100% do more of these... 10/10

Fritz Haber probably saved my life and I don't know how to feel about that.

This is such a great video. I love scishow, there is so much effort put into making the content :)

not even a nod to Ignaz Semmelweis?? A small mention in the Lister section would of been nice- poor bastard got screwed...

It's very nice to think that these people have saved so many lives and made our modern world so much safer. Thanks for informing us so we can raise our glasses every now and then to those great minds!

It's actually sad how more people know who Kim Kardashian is, rather than these men who are essentially pioneering this field of Science.

Guys, you actually just saved my skin! My mock exams are in 2 weeks and this is exactly what we've been studying! Thank you so much - this is a brilliant revision tool as well as totally fascinating and fun :3 x

2:50 "Pasteur hit the bottles" >.>

what a great vidio man, You have made me realize how much I must appreciate scientists

And even if what these men started didn't directly save my life, it almost certainly saved the life of some distant ancestor of mine in the 1700s or something

Fun Fact: Listerine Mouthwash used to be floorcleaner before people realized you could use it as, well mouthwash, and the company began a marketing campaign selling it as such.

Also Flemming, who invented anti-biotics.

Aww man this takes me back to GSCE History, i loved it back then. Cheers +SciShow

It isn't hard to heat up human flesh, oh you mean and keep them alive. okay.

I loved this! Thank you for making interesting and exciting content!

when are you guys providing subtitles in other languages? i want to show this to my family but they only speak spanish.

Love you all at SciShow

Yo Michael, minor mispronunciation, but it's said more like Glaz-go, than Glass-go. Just a heads up.

The U.S. President William McKinley is a good example of Lister's technique. When McKinley was shot, most American doctors were still doubtful of Lister's techniques, which meant their probing and prodding ended up introducing more infections into McKinley's wounds. He survived the gunshot, and probably would have survived the initial infection, but he eventually became septic and died. I read a book about it last year, "Destiny of the Republic" by Candice Millard - a very interesting read. Millard has a few narrative non-fiction books that are pretty well done. My favorite so far is "River of Doubt," about Teddy Roosevelt. One of my favorite books. =)

I saved my sister once! When her horse went down and landed on her leg when it was getting up it slipped, and before it fell again I quickly jumped off of my horse and ran and dragged her out if it had fallen on her the second time the angle and the were the horse fell it would have killed her. Thankfully she's was fine despite a bruised leg and a minor sprained neck. So that's the story of how I saved my sister from a falling horse

I for one can prove at least one of these gentlemen saved my life. My great grandfather and his friend were bitten as young children by a rabid dog. My great grandfather was brought to Paris and treated by Pasteur himself with his pioneering new rabies treatment. He survived, his friend who stayed home did not...

But that's just a theory...a Germ Theory! And as always, thanks for washing.

Hi, the presentation is simply superb! Hats off

surprise not to find Fleming the list

Kept me watching all the way through, interesting stuff great video!

I personally would've also included Ignaz Semmelwis.

Very good episode. This should become a new recurring theme : the history of great scientists that changed humanity!

Is it bad I saw the thumbnail and instantly knew it was Louis Pasteur yes I'm a microbiology nerd

I really liked the point at the beginning about how science is collaborative and cooperative. There's a public perception that scientists, especially ones in history, are solo heroes, but that's not true! From lab assistants who wash dishes to the principal investigator of the lab, discoveries have many people to thank! :-)

Am I the only one that has a teacher who shows me Scishows videos everyday?

I'm genuinely surprised that Alexander Fleming wasn't on this list, considering he "invented" penicillin

Not all scientists are pansy little nerds, some where badass way more badass than what we have now

This was great revision for my medicine unit, thanks! :D

I swear Semmelweis got doctors to wash there hands??

I feel like Ignaz Semmelweis got shafted here by your choice of Joseph Lister.

Not "glassgow", it's pronounced "Glazzgo"

Ive recently finished the book "the horror of early medicine" by mrs. Fitzharris, it is about Joseph Lister who basically made desinfecting bandages and Hygiene common in hospitals, he should be a saint he deserved way more fame!

forever crying because Glasgow is pronounced with IPA z not s ;_;

Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov managed to, almost single handedly, stop nuclear annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis by preventing his submarine captain from using a nuclear torpedo against US ships.

This comment gives you immunity from all like comments

My ears perked up when I heard the name Merck. My husband's grandfather use to work for them by building computer programs that could break down all the chemical components in drugs (or something like that, my husband knows more about it than I do). The story goes that when Merck wanted to move their headquarters he refused to move, so they moved the company to his home town. I'm not sure exactly how true that is, but it's nice to imagine it is. He is now 94 years old living in the same house in Central New Jersey.

Nikola Tesla would of been here only if....

An interesting case study I found was a friend of mine whose family was prone to autism. His parents decided to just delay his vaccinations for a few years. But one day, he caught a strain of the flu. It was to bad, just standard fly symptoms, but after that, he began to socially regress, and Autism manifested itself. That case has led me to wonder if a strong immune response, or even certain antibodies could be one of the triggers of autism

Spontaneous generation = If god can make human from dirt then god can make rat from garbage.

Interesting that Hillemen started his life at the same time as 2 deaths, and then went on to save millions.

notification gang

Love love love this episode! So informative yet entertaining. I'm really disappointed that school didn't teach me this subject in the way you did. At least I knew the first scientific you talked about...-.-

Y'all didn't mention Jesus.

lol. It's like the entire Pasteur thing was lifted from my script for Crashcourse Big History. :P

well thanks obama..

I just want to say it was really interesting and just to keep good work with SciShow.I want to know more. :D

too many white cis men

This is literally so interesting. Great work, guys. :)