In the nineteenth century, operating theatres were known as ‘gateways of death’, since half of those who underwent surgery didn't survive. At a time when surgery couldn't have been more dangerous, an unlikely figure stepped forward: Joseph Lister, a melancholy young Quaker surgeon. By making the then-audacious claim that germs were the source of all infection – and could be treated with antiseptics – he solved the riddle of post-operative death and changed the history of medicine for ever.