Tea Bags, Duct Tape and 18 Other Inventions Born in Times of Crisis
By Kristen Mulrooney
April 3, 2020
CaptionIn the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic spreading through Europe and North America, scientists and designers started working to make hospitals safer for the influx of patients and at-risk staff. The first protective innovations included a hands-free door handle you can open with your forearm and a snood-type mask said to kill 95% of viruses. As the old English proverb says, “necessity is the mother of invention,” and times of crisis have led to some of history’s most important inventions.Getty ImagesIn 1928, lab technician Alexander Fleming returned from vacation to find mold growing on a staphylococcus culture plate he’d left out. He noticed that the mold hindered the growth of the bacteria and began experimenting. He published an article about his discovery, which led to… nothing. The article went largely ignored, so Fleming shrugged the whole thing off. But researchers at Oxford University continued his research and developed penicillin as a medicine. In WWII the antibiotic was mass produced to save the lives of thousands of soldiers suffering from infections from wounds, amputations, and even venereal diseases, changing the world of medicine.
