The discovery and development of penicillin
In 1928, by chance, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, which was subsequently developed and saved millions from death by infectious disease. In this article in Microbiology Today, Kevin Brown recounts the story of this amazing antibiotic and tells something of the man who found it:
In many ways Fleming could have only discovered the original wonder drug in his musty, dusty, overcrowded, cluttered laboratory at St Mary’s Hospital. After all, if there was no possibility of contamination there could have been no penicillin. Some might argue that without Fleming, there would have been none either. Certainly, the chance contamination of culture plates was common, but Fleming’s genius was to notice something unusual and act upon it. As a scientist, he was very much in the tradition of the 19th-century lone researcher interested in unusual phenomena. This approach was to pay dividends when in September 1928 he returned from a 6-week holiday to find not only that a plate of staphylococci, he had been working on before his holiday had become contaminated by a fungus, but that there was the now classic zone of inhibition around the mould. Ever the master of understatement, Fleming’s response was typical of the man: “That’s funny!”
Related:
- Towards The Next 80 Years of Penicillin Production
- Penicillin: Triumph and Tragedy
- Antibiotics will not get rid of your cold
Tags: Antibiotics, Bacteria, Biology, Health, History, Medicine, Microbiology, Science
