This chapter argues that three breakthroughs draw close scrutiny: antibiotics, the Green Revolution, and nuclear energy. Many breakthroughs might be discussed, among them flight, rocketry, computers, the transistor, and genetic engineering. These three demonstrate well the fact that solutions, even when lasting and beneficial, received less attention than either the new problems that had appeared in the meantime or the problems created by the solutions themselves. The miracle drugs seemed to promise a quick resolution to the problem of human and not just bacterial disease. Fleming had used the dish to grow cultures of a staphylococcal strain of bacteria. The chapter shows the role that international collaboration played in scientific discoveries in the twentieth century. At the twentieth century's opening many scientists and laypeople believed that the material problems humankind faced, and perhaps some of its spiritual problems as well, could be solved by science. On balance, biomedicine reassured people about science's potential far more than it undermined confidence.