FACT: Earliest recorded findings of beer- and wine-making.

SCIENCE: Humans discovered fermentation principles applied to grains and grapes.

FACT: Earliest recorded findings of bread baking.

SCIENCE: Humans discovered that yeast-containing flour combined with water or milk in a thick, pliable mass expanded under warm conditions.

FACT: Robert Hooke, an English microscopist, published his observations on such far-ranging subjects as fleas, feathers and cork.

SCIENCE: The tiny compartments Hooke observed while viewing thin slices of cork reminded him of the cells that housed monks living in a monastery, then, he coined the term "cell." The invention of the microscope revolutionized the scientific world.

FACT: Anton van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch naturalist, was the first to examine a drop of pond water under the microscope and observed several microorganisms that he called "beasties."

SCIENCE: Van Leeuwenhoek was the first to describe various forms of bacteria.

FACT: Louis Pasteur, a French scientist, showed that yeasts were responsible for changing sugar to alcohol in the absence of air.

SCIENCE: This process, called fermentation, is widely used in industry. Pasteurization--a process by which a food, such as milk, cheese, yogurt, beer, or wine is exposed to an elevated temperature for a period of time sufficient to destroy harmful or undesirable microorganisms without radically altering taste or quality--is also developed from Pasteur's observations.

FACT: Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk, performed a series of experiments with sweet pea plants.

SCIENCE: Mendel developed the basic principles of genetics, such as dominance, segregation and independent assortment.

FACT: Microorganisms were used for the first time to purify sewage.

SCIENCE: Man discovered that microorganisms help to decompose sewage's organic substances, therefore, preventing plant and animal waste accumulation.

FACT: Alexander Fleming, an English scientist, while working in a tiny hospital in London noticed a green mold growing on top of one agar plate. When observing closely, he found that colonies of bacteria growing near the mold were destroyed.

SCIENCE: The wonder-working penicillin was discovered.

FACT: James Watson, a U.S. biologist, and Francis Crick, an English biophysicist, discovered the structure of DNA.

SCIENCE: DNA's double helix opens up multiple possibilities for its manipulation.

FACT: Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen first accomplished a successful recombinant DNA experiment.

SCIENCE: A segment of foreign DNA is inserted into a bacterium and is eventually expressed.

FACT: Brazil begins its program for using alcohol as a fuel.

SCIENCE: Alternative sources of energy are found.

FACT: National Institutes of Health published guidelines to regulate genetic engineering experiments.

SCIENCE: Regulations pretend to avoid genetic manipulation that produces harmful life forms.

FACT: It is approved for human use an insulin produced by recombinant DNA methods.

SCIENCE: Diabetics have access to increased amount of insulin.

FACT: Release of genetically engineered organisms to the environment is approved.

SCIENCE: Production is increased by making species more resistant to pests or more productive.

FACT: It is approved for human use a human growth hormone produced by recombinant DNA.

SCIENCE: A cure for children suffering from pituitary dwarfism is found.

FACT: By using genetic engineering techniques, researchers made available for testing large quantities of malaria antigen.

SCIENCE: Manuel E. Patarroyo, a Colombian physician and chemist, discovered a vaccine against malaria, the first chemically synthesized vaccine ever made.