Penicillin - the true story?
| National Curriculum links
(Key Stage 3) |
Sc1
1b |
... how scientific controversies
can arise from different ways of interpreting empirical evidence |
Sc1
1c |
... ways in which scientific
work may be affected by the contexts in which it takes place |
Sc2
2n |
... how the growth and reproduction
of bacteria and the replication of viruses can affect health, and
how the body's natural defences may be enhanced by ….medicines |
Resources
The resources are divided up in such a way that they can be used individually,
or as part of a larger exercise (see Activities below).
The germ theory of
disease provides a summary of some of the main stages in the development
of the germ theory of disease, including the work of Semmelweiss, Pasteur,
Lister and Koch. An understanding of germ theory was necessary before
realistic attempts to find cures such as antibiotics could be made.
Finding out about
Fleming is a potted biography about Fleming - how he came
to be a doctor and how his work on penicillin developed. This provides
pupils with an opportunity to find out more about the man behind the
story; for example, his reasons for going to work at St Mary's Hospital
in London were sporting rather than academic or profesisonal. Fleming
was a messy individual, whose working methods meant that was very prone
to getting mould on his plates - - Penicillium certainly
wasn't a one off! There is a link
from this page to the Nobel Prizes Web site, containing a relatively
straight forward lecture by Fleming himself, with lots of pictures of
Fleming's original plates etc.
Florey, Chain and
large scale production takes the story onwards, to show how the
discovery of penicillin alone was not enough - it had to be purified,
trialled and tested, developed and manufactured on a large scale before
it could really do any good. There was tension between Chain and Florey,
with Chain initially far keener to work on the penicillin than Florey.
There is also the suggestion that Florey knew that penicillin destroys
bacteria, from the work of Paine (see The
Unsung Heroes) who had told him about the experiments he had carried
out.
Accident or design?
considers whether the popular myth that Fleming came across penicillin
completely by accident really stands up to examination. There are a
number of different points here, including the fact that a paper had
already been published about penicillium mould affecting bacterial growth,
and that Fleming was actively searching for an antibacterial agent.
This doesn't detract from his discovery, but simply suggests that possibly
he found what he was looking for rather than reaching his amazing conclusions
by pure serendipity- - the way it can appear from the popular
telling!
The Unsung Heroes
takes a look at some of the other people involved in the discovery and
development of penicillin. It could be argued that some of these had
at least as much right as Fleming, Florey and Chain to the Nobel prize.
Activities
| Activity
1 |
|
- This contains questions to encourage pupils to think about
why it took so long for the germ theory to develop, how the
germ theory of disease influences all our lives and why it needed
to be in place before the work of people like Fleming was possible.
Another possible activity based around this resource would be
to use it, along with the main timeline, as the basis for pupils
developing their own timeline on the development of the germ
theory of disease. Other resources could be consulted depending
on the detail wanted and the time available.
|
| Activity
2 |
|
-
Questions about the conduct and ethics of scientisifc research
here are concerned with the importance of blue sky research,
the use of animals in experimentation, and the value and ethics
of the early experiments with penicillin involving human subjects.
|
| Activity
3 |
|
-
One of the big problems of early clinical trials of penicillin
was the availability of the drug in sufficient quantities.
This activity invotes students to think about these difficulties,
and to write a letter from Florey or Chain to another researcher
to ask them to use their own lab to grow and produce more
penicillin for the trials.
|
| Activity
4 |
|
- Penicillin and other antibiotics have had an effect on society
in the latter part of the twentieth century that the early workers
in this field can only have dreamt of. Students are asked to
write an e-mail "back in time" to Fleming, Florey
and Chain telling them how antibiotics like penicillin have
changed people's lives.
|
| Activity
5 |
|
- Who should win the Prize? presents students with a
situation where there is a single prize to be awarded for the
person who was most important in discovering or developing the
antibiotic penicillin. Students need to look through the information
about the different people involved in the penicillin story
and decide which single individual they feel had the most important
role. When they have decided, they must produce a 'citation'
- a brief piece of writing explaining and justifying their choice.
This can then be used in a number of ways. Data could be collected
and displayed on the numbers of pupils selecting each major
figure in the story. All the pupils who have chosen a particular
figure could then work together briefly to produce a citation
which covers all the important points about their candidate.
Each 'group' can then read out their citation and the class
vote for who they now support. If this data is also displayed,
it will demonstrate if the arguments put forward by any of the
groups have changed the minds of their peers. This exercise
is useful in a number of ways, not least in demonstrating how
much science is the work of a group of people and how difficult
it is to separate out the impact of individuals.
|
|
