• Question: how was penicillin first discovered ?

    Asked by Ahmed #21 to David, Eva, Kate, Nicholas, Rachel on 12 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Rachel McMullan

      Rachel McMullan answered on 12 Nov 2015:

      Hi
      Like many other things in science penicillin was discovered by mistake by Sir Alexander Fleming. He was growing a bacteria called staphylococcus aureus in a dish in his lab and the lid was left off by mistake. The dish got contaminated by some mould from the open window. The bacteria wouldn’t grow around the mould so Fleming concluded that the mould was able to make something that killed the bacteria. He named this substance penicillin.
      Wish I could discover something as cool as this by mistake!

    • Photo: David Nunan

      David Nunan answered on 13 Nov 2015:

      Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin by accident in some dirty dishes that had mould growing on them. But he almost never discovered it as he started to wash up the dirty dishes when he noticed that there were areas were the mould had not grown. Something had stopped the bacteria growing – it was the Penicillin.

      But interestingly although Fleming discovered it, he could not work out how to turn it into a medicine so he actually gave up on it. Two other scientists named Howard Florey and Ernst Chain at Oxford University actually worked out to use it as a medicine. But Fleming is always remembered as the one who discovered Penicillin.

    • Photo: Nicholas Pearce

      Nicholas Pearce answered on 18 Nov 2015:

      Hey,

      It’s one of those great stories in science – it was discovered by accident! Alexander Fleming piled up some petri dishes near the sink then went on holiday for a little while. When he came back some of the plates were mouldy.

      he noticed that near the mould there were no bacteria growing nearby. he figured that the mould must be making something that stops the bacteria growing and he was right – he had discovered penicillin!

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