A Short, Simple and Concise Post on the Discovery of Penicillin for Curious Readers.

[Knajjd]

Unknown to Alexander Fleming an airborne fungi spore called peniccillium notatum lands on an empty petri dish on his lab bench.

A day later Fleming adds nutrient agar jelly to the petri dish with a bacterium called staphylococcus aureus. Staphylococcus aureus produces non lethal abscesses and boils in humans. Fleming expects the bacteria to feed on the agar jelly and covere the entire petri dish.

Four weeks later , on the 3rd Septhember 1928 in London, Fleming examines the petri dish with his magnifiying glass. He notes that a mould of peniccillium notatum has grown on the petri dish. Fleming also notices that there is no bacteria around the mold and the bacteria beyond this area is dissolving.

He surmisses there is a substance within the mould that is destorying the bacteria and calls it penicillin and publishes a paper in 1929 explaining all this along with the idea that penicillin could have medical applications.

Nothing happens until the 1940's when a research team in Oxford reproduces Flemings' experiment, extracts sufficient quantities of penicillin and runs successful medical trails.

Mass production of penicillin in the UK and USA ushers in the age of modern medicine.

 

[KING NOTHING]

I wrote about this for my chem project in senior year.

 

[Knajjd]

I wrote about this for my chem project in senior year.

It's an interesting topic.

What do you think about how bacteria defends itself agains antibiotics and viruses? It's as if molecules have a mind of their own. But how can that be when all they are made from are a few atoms? Makes me think there must be a God behind these molecules because they can't have a mind of their own can they?