How Did Fleming Discovered Penicillin

The development of penicillin provided a major stepping stone for the practice of medicine, and has saved the lives of countless individuals since its synthesis.

In this reading there was many very interesting facts about penicillin. Penicillin was a breakthrough in the medical field in the 20th century. The scientist Alexander Fleming had accidentally spilled a vile of bacteria on to a plate of bacteria to his benefit he found that is had stopped the growth of bacteria. This accidental discover has benefited everyone in the world because we have to get these shots if we are infected, plus it saved many life’s in world war II. However, Penicillin is considered an antibiotic chemical that is created by living organism to stop the growth of bacteria and prevent an illness if people were to come into contact with this problem. Since the discovery and massive stock piling of this cure it has become less

Fleming in 1928. Penicillin helped to treat some common infections: step throat, boils, it would heal wounds quicker, as well as treat more serious infections such as meningitis and pneumonia. Antibiotics usually kill only weak bacteria and after some years of antibiotic usage stronger bacteria have not only survived but also became resistant to the old cure. “Doctors have started to prescribe antibiotics to cure conditions such as ear infections, sinusitis, bronchitis, non-specific upper respiratory tract infections and even common colds and flu… According to the Director of Antimicrobial Resistance, Dr. Richard Besser, each year US physicians write $50 million worth of prescriptions that are ineffectual and unnecessary.” (Elisa Bussey). The more doctors were prescribing antibiotics, the bigger the number of people who become resistant to them. Most of the European countries prescribe antibiotics to kill bacteria only in cases of life threatening conditions. Patients in the US have become accustomed to receiving antibiotics for almost any health concerns and with time, patients have started to expect such prescriptions as a norm.

     Penicillin has helped save many lives throughout the years. It has cured things like strep throat, which many people have had in their lives, syphilis, and gonorrhea. It also sparked a new wave of

Fleming began to sort through petri dishes containing colonies of Staphylococcus, bacteria that cause boils, sore throats and abscesses. He noticed something unusual on one dish. It was dotted with colonies, except for one area where a blob of mold was growing. The zone immediately around the mold—later identified as a rare strain of Penicillium notatum—was clear, as if the mold had secreted something that inhibited bacterial growth (American Chemical Society). The first introduction of penicillin began in the 1940’s, it was recognized as one of the greatest advances in therapeutic medicine. The discovery was made in the United Kingdom but because of World War II, the United States developed a large production of the drug. By 1937, an important pain killer known as methadone was introduced. Morphine, the most active substance in opium, is a very powerful painkiller that hooked many US Civil War soldiers (Drug Free World). They were wanting to find a painkiller that was less addictive to use for surgery and that’s why they invented

In September of 1928, a rushed bacteriologist Dr. Alexander Fleming let his lab at St. Mary’s Hospital, as usual, a mess on his way to a month vacation. Little did he know he had just spawned one of the most crucial inventions of all time. Upon his return to his laboratory he found mold had grown in the petri dishes he had left out. One of whom contained the rare spore Penicillium notatum that had probably wafted up into his lab through the air currents from the down-stairs mycology lab. Dr. Fleming noticed a ring around the mold, and it was 100% bacteria free! Curiosity urged him onward, as he grew a pure culture of the mold and discover that it killed a great deal of disease-causing bacteria. He would go on to name the substance penicillin.

Jesse Lane says in Not-So-Dumb Luck, When he came back, he noticed that every dish he had left out in the open was covered in mold.” She later says, “The dish that had caught Fleming’s eye contained a staphylococci culture- in other words, it was chock full of bacteria- and while Fleming had been away, the culture had also grown a tuft of yellow-green mold.” And that was the beginning revolutionary history of penicillin. Later in the paragraph the author says, “After some experimentation, he found that the ring was bacteria free, and that the mold was a rare spore called Penicillium notatum,” Where the name penicillin comes from ”which had wafted on air currents into his lab from another floor.” If he hadn’t gone on vacation and left his lab a mess then penicillin wouldn’t be with us today saving lives.Thirdly, penicillin is a widely used medicine that kills bacteria and treats

Fleming’s work was later expanded by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain and their team at Oxford University beginning in 1938, about ten years after Fleming’s first findings. They were able to transform penicillin as a curiosity in the lab and antiseptic to the life-saving antibiotic we know it as today. Howard Florey was deemed at an early age by his older sister who was a medical student at the time to be the next “Pasteur” due to his interest in pursuing medical research. Florey then achieved much as a student at the University of Adelaide, which at that time didn’t specialize in researchers, but in preparing general practitioners. Howard then went on to receive the Rhodes Scholarship to study in England at Oxford University. He used this opportunity as a springboard to going on to study in America and return back to England to Oxford University achieve much greatness. In 1938, he became the director of the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology. After a few years of taking on a variety of experiments and gathering a team of trusted professionals, he spearheaded work on the self-proclaimed “Penicillin Project” after coming across and sifting

They were working on it around World War II, they believe that the medicine had potential. They wanted to find a way to use the medicine on humans to help reduce the bacteria infections in a wound. When they did find a way, it mass-produced and used in the war. The medicine saved many lives. The scientist Florey, Chain, and Fleming were awarded the Nobel Prize. Fleming was alone credited with the penicillin discovery. Even though the discovery of penicillin was a simple accident, but all the series of events that led up to being a very useful medicine.

Before 1928, infections such as pneumonia and gonorrhea were untreatable, and many died of blood poisoning due to lesions that are considered minor in modern times. There were no known antibiotics that could kill the bacteria that caused such infections, so people would die of minor illnesses, such as strep throat. However, Alexander Fleming noticed something odd in one of the petri dishes at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, and this seemingly insignificant observation would revolutionize the field of medicine. He was cultivating strains of the Staphylococcus bacteria, and he found that there were not any bacteria colonies growing near a patch of mold in the dish. After looking more into this finding, Alexander Fleming learned that the mold was actually a strain of Penicillium notatum, and it had the capacity to kill malign bacteria like streptococcus, meningococcus

In 1928, after the careless mistake of forgetting to clean his dishes, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. The scientific community still celebrates his discovery since it was a major breakthrough in science, especially in the antibiotics and fermentation field. Although his discovery changed various scientific fields and it opened the doors for research in areas not studied or considered relevant before, the actual usefulness of penicillin was truly reached until the large scale production of penicillin was achieved. Before its manufacturing penicillin was considered for researching purposes, but after its manufacturing during World War II, it truly became helpful for humanity because it could finally start performing within its antibiotic spectrum.

To begin with, penicillin had two accidental discoveries. “Originally noticed by a French medical student, Ernest Duchesne, in 1896” (Bellis 123). This means penicillin was noticed years before it was actually discovered. Alexander Fleming re-discovered penicillin when “he observed that a plate culture of Staphylococcus had been contaminated by a blue-green mold and that colonies of bacteria adjacent to the mold were being dissolved” (Bellis 123). This is important because penicillin was re-discovered and this time its medical potential was noticed. All in all, the accidental discoveries by Duchesne and Fleming were monumental events that lead to penicillin becoming widely used.

A group of Oxford scientists built upon the discovery by Alexander Flemming in order to mass produce penicillin. In the course of his research, Sir Flemming noticed that the secretions of a certain strain of mold, Penicillium notatum, killed surrounding bacteria. The purification of penicillin from the secretions, however, proved difficult. In the late 1930s, Howard Florey, Ernst Chain and others at Oxford University, “turned penicillin from a laboratory curiosity into a life-saving drug” (American Chemical). For their work on penicillin, Flemming, Florey and Chain were awarded the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The first penicillin samples were unrefined and produced in milk jugs (Quinn, 427), but within five years, its distillation occurred at the industrial level. This was accomplished as a result of the implementation of an open network of information exchange. Roswell Quinn writes, “Mold samples, top-secret reports, and scientists began flying all over the country and, in some cases, the world” (Quinn, 427). Additionally, the cost of the drug’s development raised no concerns

“Over 50,000,000 peoples lives have been saved by the drug penicillin” (Sim). Today Penicillin and other antibiotics are crucial in the lives of people. One bad thing about penicillin is approximately 11.5% of the population is allergic to it so the diseases they receive that have to be healed by penicillin or other antibiotics might not heal as fast or maybe even kill them. Another negative aspect to Penicillin is it weakens the immune system(Cooper). Most of the body survives off of friendly bacteria and if antibiotics kill bacteria in large numbers, then it kind of defeats the purpose. Penicillin is used to treat many diseases and viruses that can be deadly if medicine was not applied, and they are easily accessible. After the discovery and processing of Penicillin, it was often described as the “Miracle Drug” and that is exactly what it was. Prior to the foundation of Penicillin, death was very common due to diseases that we think are no

Who penicillin was discovered. Penicillin was first discovered by a Medical Student named Ernest Duchesne in 1896. Penicillin then was re-discovered by a Bacteriologist named Alexander Fleming in 1928. “One day Alexander Fleming left for vacation in September 1928, and left a mess when he came back he noticed that the dishes were covered in mold. One of those dishes caught his eye, he noticed that there was an odd ring around the bacteria. After some experimenting Alexander found out that