Penicillin - the true story?
Imagine - if you had been born more than about sixty five years ago
and got a throat infection or a scratch that went septic, you would
quite possibly have died. The discovery of penicillin, and the production
of the drug on a large scale which meant that bacterial diseases could
easily be cured, seemed like a miracle. We still reap the benefits of
this amazing drug today.
Victims of bubonic plague in the Middle Ages. Without modern antibiotics,
plague is fatal in up to 75% of cases. |
The popular story of how penicillin was discovered is well known.
The Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming was working on bacteria
in the labs of St Mary's Hospital, London. He went away on holiday
leaving some agar plates exposed on a lab bench near a windowsill.
When he came back he noticed that there were small colonies of
mould growing on his plates - and that around the colonies of
mould were clear areas where the bacteria which covered the rest
of the plate were not growing. Fleming realised that the mould
must be making a chemical which killed the bacteria, and so penicillin
was discovered.
- Just how accurate is this story?
- Was it really just sheer chance that Fleming made his discovery?
- What scientific ideas needed to be in place before penicillin
could be discovered?
- When Fleming was awarded the Nobel prize for the discovery
of penicillin, two other scientists shared the prize for their
work on penicillin. Who were they are and what did they do?
- Did anyone else play a part in the penicillin story?
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To find these answers to these and other questions click on the links
below :
The germ theory of disease
Finding out about Fleming
Florey, Chain and large-scale production
Accident or design?
The unsung heroes
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