chiaraviglio@husc2.UUCP (lucius) (01/06/87)
In article <884@moscom.UUCP>, de@moscom.UUCP (Dave Esan) writes: > . . .Penicillin was discovered by accident by > Dr. Fleming, an Englishman, in 1940. It wasn't 1940, but some time around 1925. But Fleming couldn't get it to work well for what he was interested in (using it to screen bacteria) because his preparations of it were too unstable, and he did not realize the potential of it until other people dug up his article over a decade later while desperately searching for an antibiotic on account of World War II. Fleming caught on to this and proceeded to claim the Nobel Prize. My reference for this information is a Nova program on the discovery of penicillin aired in September 1986 (I don't remember the exact name (I think it's "The Discovery of Penicillin"), but it immediately preceded "When Wonder Drugs Don't Work"). This discussion should probably move to sci.bio and/or sci.med. -- -- Lucius Chiaraviglio lucius@tardis.harvard.edu seismo!tardis!lucius Please do not mail replies to me on husc2 (disk quota problems, and mail out of this system is unreliable). Please send only to the address given above.