CitizenReady
Home › Topics › Science & Invention

Topic: Science & Invention

INTERACTIVE TOPIC · CHAPTER 4 — LEISURE

Science & Invention

Gravity, evolution, antibiotics, DNA, the Web and a cloned sheep — a relay of British breakthroughs. Order the discoveries, match the inventors, and flip the pioneers.

⏱ About 8 minutesPASS PACK TOPIC6 learning blocksMastery check: 6 real questions
0 of 6 learning blocks done
STEP 1 · PRIME YOUR BRAIN

Before we start — have a guess

Two warm-up questions on British breakthroughs.

Penicillin was discovered by which scientist?

The structure of DNA — the double helix — was established in…

STEP 2 · THE PICTURE

A relay of breakthroughs

🍎 1687 · Newton — gravity and motion 🐢 1859 · Darwin — evolution 🧫 1928 · Fleming — penicillin 🧬 1953 · DNA’s double helix 🌐 1989 · Berners-Lee — the Web 🐑 1996 · Dolly the sheep

Three centuries, one habit: asking how things work, then showing the world. Ordering the relay is the whole game.

STEP 3 · LEARN BY DOING — 1 OF 2

Order the breakthroughs

Tap the discoveries in order. Each correct tap reveals its year.

LEARN BY DOING — 2 OF 2

Match the inventors

Tap an inventor, then tap their invention.

PIONEERS

Flip the details

Answer in your head first, then tap to check.

TAP TO REVEAL

What did Alan Turing leave us?

Wartime codebreaking at Bletchley Park — and the founding ideas of modern computing itself.

TAP TO REVEAL

Whose book brought the universe to everyone?

Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time — cosmology for the general reader, a worldwide bestseller.

TAP TO REVEAL

Who split the atom?

Ernest Rutherford, working in Britain — his experiments opened the atomic age.

TAP TO REVEAL

Why does Dolly still matter?

Born in 1996, Dolly was the first mammal cloned from an adult cell — proof that a whole animal could be copied from one of its cells.

STEP 4 · QUICKFIRE RECALL

True or false — no thinking time allowed

STEP 5 · MASTERY CHECK

Six real questions on this topic

Score 5 or 6 and this topic is marked mastered on your path. Anything less: revisit the block you missed and retake.

Question 1 of 60 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 · Chapter 4: Modern Society
Penicillin, the first widely used antibiotic, was discovered by which Scottish scientist?
Alexander Fleming noticed in 1928 that a mould had killed bacteria in his laboratory — the chance observation behind penicillin.
Question 2 · Chapter 4: Modern Society
The jet engine, which transformed air travel in the twentieth century, was developed by which British engineer?
Sir Frank Whittle patented his turbojet design in 1930, and an engine to his design powered the first British jet aircraft flight in 1941.
Question 3 · Chapter 3: History
In his great work the Principia, published in 1687, Isaac Newton set out which of his famous laws?
Newton's Principia (1687) set out his three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation, transforming the scientific understanding of the universe.
Question 4 · Chapter 4: Modern Society
Concorde, the famous supersonic airliner, was built by Britain working together with Germany.
Concorde was designed and built jointly by Britain and France, and carried passengers at more than twice the speed of sound.
Question 5 · Chapter 4: Modern Society
In 1953, scientists working in Britain helped to establish the structure of DNA. What shape did they show it has?
Working in Cambridge, James Watson and Francis Crick established in 1953 that DNA forms a double helix, drawing on research data produced in London by Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins' team.
Question 6 · Chapter 4: Modern Society
Dolly the sheep was created at which research institute near Edinburgh?
Dolly the sheep was created at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh. In 1996 she became the first mammal ever cloned from an adult cell, a breakthrough that made headlines around the world when her birth was announced the following year.

Green = correct · red = wrong · red ring = marked for review · gold outline = current question

✕ Exit to Topics
STEP 6 · TEACH IT BACK

Say it in your own words

Run the relay of British science: name four breakthroughs in order, with their makers. Say it out loud or write it down — then compare.

Reveal a model answer

Newton’s Principia of 1687 set out the laws of motion and gravity; Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859; Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928; and in 1953 the structure of DNA was revealed. Later came Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web and, in 1996, Dolly the sheep — the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.

Where next?

Drill all of Chapter 4 in the Chapter 4 practice sets, or pick your next topic on the Topics path.