Science timeline

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1950s Watson and Crick discover the structure of DNA. But why is this pioneering event shrouded in misogyny? 

1960s the silicon chip. Many chemical breakthroughs were needed before the electrical engineers could take over to produce silicon-based integrated circuits used to make the first modern computers. But what were those breakthroughs?

1970s led to discovery of the statins. In 1971, Japanese pharmaceutical chemist Akira Endo set himself an ambitious challenge: to identify compounds that could lower cholesterol levels in the blood, a then-recently discovered risk factor linked to coronary heart disease. Would you consider Endo to be a mycologist?

1980s the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). At the time of PCR’s invention, much of the work involving DNA was rather a messy business, with researchers trying to pick out the small amount of DNA of interest from the mass of strands isolated from any biological sample. PCR changed that and is now an indispensable research tool in drug design, the PCR method is now used in diagnosis of viral and bacterial infections including HIV. The method is so sensitive that it is used in forensic medicine to analyse the DNA content of a drop of blood or a strand of hair. What are the ethical implications of PCR testing?

1990s antiretroviral drugs. The sudden emergence of HIV-Aids in the early 1980s, and its  subsequent global spread, is perhaps one of the greatest challenges ever to have faced medicinal and biological chemists. HIV drugs have been particularly successful as it is their emergence that led to the rise of drug combination therapies known as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). These cocktails allow doctors to hit HIV at multiple points in its lifecycle at once, and have dramatically extended the life expectancy of HIV-positive people. How did the media and government play into stereotypes during the HIV endemic? How far did this go to stigmatising people suffering with this illness? 

2000s The Human Genome Project was completed in 2003. What were the goals, challenges and achievements of this huge project?

2010s The Higgs boson, discovered at the CERN particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, in 2012, is the particle that gives all other fundamental particles mass, according to the standard model of particle physics. What does the Higgs boson tell us about the answers to the universe we previously didn’t know?

2020s The quick creation of the covid-19 vaccine Just how did humanity create a vaccine in double-quick time?

What do you think are the most exciting scientific and mathematical breakthroughs of the last 70 years? 

Using that moment, imagine you are the computer scientist, scientist or mathematician who has just made that breakthrough of the decade. Write the lab report/journal/diary account of what you discovered/achieved and what this will mean for future society.