London - There is more to Scotland than just whisky, bagpipes, kilts and deep-fried Mars bars. The North Atlantic nation has produced some world-changing scientists, writers, thinkers and artists:
Alexander Fleming (1881-1955): Born in Ayrshire, Fleming famously discovered penicillin when he observed that mould which had developed accidentally on a staphylococci culture plate had killed all the bacteria around it. He shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945 for the discovery, which has saved millions of lives around the world.
Adam Smith (1723-1790): A political economist and a key figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is best known for his tome The Wealth of Nations. He was the first to argue for a free-market economy as most beneficial to all people, and for countries’ wealth to be measured by productivity and commerce, rather than their stocks of gold, laying the ground for modern economics.
Sean Connery (1930 - ): The first actor to play James Bond, Connery has often been dubbed “the sexiest man alive”. It was for his performance in The Untouchables, however, that he won his Oscar. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000. Despite living abroad, Connery has been vocal in his support for Scottish independence.
Dolly the Sheep (1996 – 2003): Dolly, also code-named 6LL3, was the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell. She was born to a surrogate mother at the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh University, and when her birth was announced created a media storm. She died of an incurable lung disease at the age of 6.
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930): The creator of the world’s most famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, was born and studied medicine in Edinburgh. His work to repeal the conviction of George Edalji, a half-Indian, half-English lawyer falsely accused of mutilating horses and writing malicious letters, also helped lead to the establishment of the court of appeal in 1907.
Robert Burns (1759 - 1796): Scotland’s national poet is most famous for penning the words to the song Auld Lang Syne, traditionally sung around the world at New Year. One of the leaders of the Romantic movement, he gained admiration at a relatively young age for poems such as A Red, Red Rose and a Ae Fond Kiss. He was also a notorious womaniser.
James Watt (1736 - 1819): The engineer is credited with developing the improvements to the steam engine which contributed so greatly to Britain’s role at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution. The watt, a unit of electrical power, is named after him.
Alexander Graham Bell (1847 - 1922): Though there is some dispute about who invented the telephone, the Edinburgh-born, aptly named Bell was the first person to be granted a US patent for it in 1876. He was also a founding member of the National Geographic Society and took on US citizenship in 1882.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894): The author of Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is one of Scotland’s most famous authors. A keen traveller, it was on a canoe trip through France and Belgium that he met his future wife, Fanny Osbourne, an American divorcee 10 years his senior. He and his family eventually settled in Samoa, where he died young at the age of 44.
John Logie Baird (1888- 1946): In 1926, Baird became the first person to demonstrate a working television in London. Two years later, his Baird Television Development Company performed the first live transatlantic television broadcast between London and New York.
He co-operated with the BBC to send Britain’s first television programmes, before the broadcaster dropped his mechanical system in favour of the EMI electronic in 1937.
William Wallace (1270 -1305): Famously played by Mel Gibson in the film Braveheart, Wallace became a national hero when he led the Scots to victory against the English under Edward I in the 1297 Battle of Stirling Bridge. However, the English regrouped and he was forced to flee. He was captured in 1305, and hanged, drawn and quartered, with his head displayed on London Bridge.
Lulu Kennedy Cairns (1948 -): Known simply as Lulu, Kennedy-Cairns scored a hit in 1964 with the song Shout, the beginning of a career which has made her one of Britain’s pop legends. She also represented Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1969, winning joint first prize for Boom Bang-A-Bang. She is still a regular performer, most recently appearing in the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games.
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