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Inventions that combat illness directly are relatively recent breakthroughs in humanity’s fight against life-shortening disease. In this episode, Steven Johnson and David Olusoga explore the remarkable and often unsung work that has led to major medical advances.

Alexander Fleming's famous discovery of antibiotics was followed – in the midst of World War II – by the rollout of the manufacture of penicillin at scale, so that lives might be saved at a global level. Pioneering rational drug design in the 1980s led to the development of antiviral drugs for HIV and other previously untreatable diseases.

This knowledge – how to produce safe, effective drugs – now underpins efforts to find treatments for new diseases, such as Covid-19, today.