PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Alexander Fleming was looking for ways to destroy bacteria. In 1928, he was growing lots of bacteria known as staphylococci on plates. Alexander Fleming could be a bit untidy and he sometimes left the lids off his plates for a long time letting the air in. Before going on holiday in 1928 Alexander made a mistake. He didn't put all of his plates in bleach to sterilise them and he left the lab windows open. When he came back from a holiday, Alexander noticed that lots of his plates were mouldy.
Just before Alexander put all the plates in the washing Alexander noticed something, even though lots of bacteria were growing on his plates, there was a clear ring around some of the spots of mold were no bacteria was growing. Something had killed the bacteria that was covering the jelly. Straight away he saw that this might be important. He labelled and saved the plates.
By 1934 Alexander gave up on penicillin.
In 1938 Howard Florey and Ernst Chain at Oxford University decided to do some work on penicillin. They infected eight mice with bacteria which would normally kill them. Four were given penicillin. The four treated mice stayed healthy but the other four died.They collected more penicillin and used it on a 15 year old boy who had an infection after an operation. He was completely cured.
The physiology and medicine Nobel prize was awarded jointly to Alexander Fleming ,Ernst Chain and Howard Florey.
