Jennifer Lopez's latest single, "Booty," illustrates how far we've come. Now, we can hold the virtue of the female bottom high, admiring it as the apex of human dignity and artistic expression. Just kidding-the blood vessels in my forehead are pulsating. We've reached a new low. The heroes of our past have been relegated to obscurity in place of twerkin'. What happened to our real idols? What happened to celebrating real human achievement? Very few regularly think about-or even know-these awesome men. Here's a reminder of those we've forgotten who deserve to be remembered.
![Norman Borlaug]()
1. Norman Borlaug
In a world where Bieber, Iggy Azalea, and Nikki Minaj reign supreme in the media, it's easy to lose sight of what really matters. When he died in 2009, I can honestly say I don't remember seeing anything on the news about Norman Borlaug.
He was the father of the Green Revolution, and he is only one of seven to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. He saved the Third World, and most of the collective universe (or at least Twitter) turned a blind eye.
The story begins on fledgling Iowa farm during the Great Depression. While Borlaug was growing up, something in the desperate lifestyle his family led cultivated a sense of longing to save the world. He worked for sixteen years developing a wheat strand resistant to rust and other botanical pathologies.
In Mexico, Borlaug crossbred a type of wheat that could flourish in the tropics and withstand disease. He brought the plant variety to Mexico, Pakistan and India, feeding untold numbers of hungry people. Almost immediately, 95 percent of Mexico's wheat utilized Borlaug's model, and Pakistan and India doubled wheat production and vastly improved food security. Amazingly, India's economy grew nine-fold, and since the 1960s its population has doubled. He later brought his methods to Africa and other starving areas of the world.
One humble American biologist saved a billion lives.
![Ignaz Semmelweis]()
2. Ignaz Semmelweis
Ever wondered where the notion of washing your hands came from?
Ignaz Semmelweis was a Hungarian physician who came up with the idea of hospitals using chlorinated lime in between handling cadavers and caring for patients. Once the hospital implemented the procedure, the mortality rate dropped 90 percent.
His contemporaries thought he was insane and his wife thought he was insane. They put him in an insane asylum where he died without recognition for this groundbreaking theory. Two years after his death, Louis Pasteur took his findings and developed the germ theory of disease which would pave the way for a clean new world.
Ironically, Semmelweis died of septicemia, a diseased caused by infection, which could've been thwarted with a simple scrubbing of Dove.
London researchers claim that a million deaths would be prevented every year if everyone washed their hands. More than 247 Americans die each day from doctors spreading germs. You can thank Mr. Semmelweis for noticing cleanliness is next to godliness, because without it, you'd likely push daisies.
![James Harrison]()
3. James Harrison
If you've ever wondered whether real-life superheroes walk in our midst, you can put those thoughts to rest, because they do. Australian James Harrison is someone out of a comic book. Over the course of his lifetime, he has saved approximately two million babies.
His blood contains a rare antibody that cures unborn babies of Rhesus disease, a deadly form of anemia which destroys blood cells. Since he was 18, Harrison has donated plasma more than a thousand times. Now 77, he can look back and know he's prevented approximately two million miscarriages and premature deaths.
The unique composition of his blood rendered Harrison a living angel.
![Alexander Fleming]()
4. Alexander Fleming
Back in the early 20th century, if you caught gonorrhea from a filthy harlot, you most likely faced a swift and sudden death. In 1928, Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin, and it is saving millions of people as I write these words.
Fleming noticed soldiers dying of sepsis caused by infected wounds during World War I. One day in his laboratory, he noticed bacteria avoiding an odd piece of mold, which he later found to be part of the penicillium family. He isolated it, and revolutionized modern antibiotics forever.
By World War II, Fleming and his cohorts created enough penicillin to treat every soldier in the Allied Forces. (It's one of the reasons we beat the Germans.) Everything from gangrene to syphilis to tuberculosis was eliminated with a dose of this potently magical antidote.
The next time you get The Clap, you have Alexander Fleming to thank on behalf of your genitals.
![Robert Thom]()
5. Robert Thom
Think about water. Think about how it's used for consumption and medicine and industry. Think about how utterly dependent you are on its availability. When you think of this, think of Robert Thom.
Water-borne diseases cause 1.8 million deaths a year-the result of not having access to clean, pathogen-free water.
In 1804, Thom created the world's first municipal water treatment plant in Paisley, Scotland. Today, water treatment centers can be found in every modernized city across the globe. Although Sir Francis Bacon dabbled in desalination as early as 1627, Thom perfected the art of engineering high-quality H20.
This lone Scotsman would end up preventing infinite deaths, now and in the future, and his Wikipedia page is only 85 words.
1. Norman Borlaug
In a world where Bieber, Iggy Azalea, and Nikki Minaj reign supreme in the media, it's easy to lose sight of what really matters. When he died in 2009, I can honestly say I don't remember seeing anything on the news about Norman Borlaug.
He was the father of the Green Revolution, and he is only one of seven to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. He saved the Third World, and most of the collective universe (or at least Twitter) turned a blind eye.
The story begins on fledgling Iowa farm during the Great Depression. While Borlaug was growing up, something in the desperate lifestyle his family led cultivated a sense of longing to save the world. He worked for sixteen years developing a wheat strand resistant to rust and other botanical pathologies.
In Mexico, Borlaug crossbred a type of wheat that could flourish in the tropics and withstand disease. He brought the plant variety to Mexico, Pakistan and India, feeding untold numbers of hungry people. Almost immediately, 95 percent of Mexico's wheat utilized Borlaug's model, and Pakistan and India doubled wheat production and vastly improved food security. Amazingly, India's economy grew nine-fold, and since the 1960s its population has doubled. He later brought his methods to Africa and other starving areas of the world.
One humble American biologist saved a billion lives.
2. Ignaz Semmelweis
Ever wondered where the notion of washing your hands came from?
Ignaz Semmelweis was a Hungarian physician who came up with the idea of hospitals using chlorinated lime in between handling cadavers and caring for patients. Once the hospital implemented the procedure, the mortality rate dropped 90 percent.
His contemporaries thought he was insane and his wife thought he was insane. They put him in an insane asylum where he died without recognition for this groundbreaking theory. Two years after his death, Louis Pasteur took his findings and developed the germ theory of disease which would pave the way for a clean new world.
Ironically, Semmelweis died of septicemia, a diseased caused by infection, which could've been thwarted with a simple scrubbing of Dove.
London researchers claim that a million deaths would be prevented every year if everyone washed their hands. More than 247 Americans die each day from doctors spreading germs. You can thank Mr. Semmelweis for noticing cleanliness is next to godliness, because without it, you'd likely push daisies.
3. James Harrison
If you've ever wondered whether real-life superheroes walk in our midst, you can put those thoughts to rest, because they do. Australian James Harrison is someone out of a comic book. Over the course of his lifetime, he has saved approximately two million babies.
His blood contains a rare antibody that cures unborn babies of Rhesus disease, a deadly form of anemia which destroys blood cells. Since he was 18, Harrison has donated plasma more than a thousand times. Now 77, he can look back and know he's prevented approximately two million miscarriages and premature deaths.
The unique composition of his blood rendered Harrison a living angel.
4. Alexander Fleming
Back in the early 20th century, if you caught gonorrhea from a filthy harlot, you most likely faced a swift and sudden death. In 1928, Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin, and it is saving millions of people as I write these words.
Fleming noticed soldiers dying of sepsis caused by infected wounds during World War I. One day in his laboratory, he noticed bacteria avoiding an odd piece of mold, which he later found to be part of the penicillium family. He isolated it, and revolutionized modern antibiotics forever.
By World War II, Fleming and his cohorts created enough penicillin to treat every soldier in the Allied Forces. (It's one of the reasons we beat the Germans.) Everything from gangrene to syphilis to tuberculosis was eliminated with a dose of this potently magical antidote.
The next time you get The Clap, you have Alexander Fleming to thank on behalf of your genitals.
5. Robert Thom
Think about water. Think about how it's used for consumption and medicine and industry. Think about how utterly dependent you are on its availability. When you think of this, think of Robert Thom.
Water-borne diseases cause 1.8 million deaths a year-the result of not having access to clean, pathogen-free water.
In 1804, Thom created the world's first municipal water treatment plant in Paisley, Scotland. Today, water treatment centers can be found in every modernized city across the globe. Although Sir Francis Bacon dabbled in desalination as early as 1627, Thom perfected the art of engineering high-quality H20.
This lone Scotsman would end up preventing infinite deaths, now and in the future, and his Wikipedia page is only 85 words.
In addition, the apps for weather updates, calendar reminders, alarm and music that you enjoy on your iPhone are now attached to you quite physically. A fitness feature for heart rate and distances traveled allows health junkies to track their workout by calories burned or by timer, all of which can be linked to the new Health app in the recently 
