Penicillin: the accident that saved many lives

Alexander Fleming in his laboratory, 1881 – 1955   There have been many happy accidents in science. Several of these were of great benefit to medicine. For example, in 1895, a German physicist working with a cathode ray tube happened to place his hand in front of the rays and found that he could see his bones in the image projected onto the screen. Soon after that, the first X-ray images were produced. There have been other instances where serendipity played a role in unearthing effective treatments against diseases.    THE FIND OF THE 20TH CENTURY The most famous of these happy accidents is the discovery of Penicillin as an antibiotic remedy.  Alexander Fleming, a Scottish bacteriologist, worked at the inoculations department at St Mary’s Hospital in the early 1900s.  In September 1928, Fleming had left a pile of bacteria cultures in his laboratory before going on holiday with his family. The cultures he was studying were known to cause septic infections. By accident, he left one of the Petri dishes uncovered. Fleming returned to find that a bluish-green mold, similar to the mold found on bread, had contaminated the specimen. The area around the mold in the Petri dish was clear of bacteria.  Fleming observed that the mold seemed to have killed the germs. This mold was identified as a strain of Penicillium. He saw this as a potential treatment for bacterial infections.  Penicillin culture, 1929   IMPORTANCE OF SHARED SCIENCE Fleming was able to fur...
Source: GIDEON blog - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Microbiology News Source Type: blogs