1. Alexander Fleming Born in 1881 in Darvel, Sir Alexander Fleming is the man who discovered penicillin – the world’s first effective antibiotic - and in the process saved millions of lives across the world. Already known as a brilliant researcher, he found cultures of bacteria left in his lab to have been contaminated by a fungus…. which was destroying them. That was penicillin. He shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945 and was recently voted the Third Greatest Scot, behind Robert The Bruce and William Wallace.
2. John Dunlop John Boyd Dunlop, born in Dreghorn in 1840, invented the pneumatic tyre. An inventor and vet, he came up with the first inflatable tyre for his son’s bicycle in Ireland in 1997 and revolutionised transport in the process. It was soon used for cycle racing and within years, Dunlop tyres made their name around the world.