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SYDNEY: All molecules are not created equal. Some have saved billions of lives, wreaked environmental havoc or made the world a more colorful place. Here's our selection of those that have changed the course of human history. 发自悉尼：分子并非同时被创造。它们当中有的已经存在亿万年，或者造成环境的大破坏，或者让世界变得更加丰富多彩。在这里，我们将选出十七种改变人类历史进程的物质分子。 PENICILLIN — R-C9H11N2O4S When British microbiologist Alexander Fleming stumbled upon penicillin in 1928, he couldn't have imagined the impact it would have on modern medicine. Fleming noticed that Petri dishes with mould on them grew no bacteria, and in doing so discovered the first antibiotic. Before penicillin came into widespread use in the 1940s, wounds and diseases like syphilis were killers; antibiotics have since saved an estimated 200 million lives. 青霉素R-C9H11N2O4S 1928年，当英国微生物学家亚历山大·弗莱明首次发现青霉素时，他并没有料到这种物质对现代医学造成怎样的影响。弗莱明注意到，在发霉的培养皿中没有生长任何细菌，由此，他发现了第一种抗生素。到1940年代青霉素被广泛使用之前，像梅毒这样的创伤病害便足以杀死人类；自从抗生素被发现之后，据估计它们至少拯救了两亿生命。 SODIUM CHLORIDE — NaCl | 
