Virtual Whistler

Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) the famous Bacteriologist discovered penicillin and shared the noble prize for medicine in 1945 with two other British scientists Howard Florey and Ernst Chain.

Penicillin is an antibiotic drug useful in the prevention and treatment of infections. Antibiotics are themselves made from bacteria, molds or larger plants. Fleming discovered Penicillin while he was doing research on another subject.

He successfully isolated and described an antibacterial agent, which he called Iysozyme and which is an enzyme found in tears and mucus secretions. He continued furthering his work and in 1928 discovered Penicillin. It was discovered accidentally all because the scientist has neglected to clean his culture dish.

It seemed to inhibit the growth of bacteria. Fleming isolated that particular culture dish and grew it into a pure culture. The green mould that grows on bread is Pencillium glancum. A like of it is found in the soil called Pencillium notatum from which we get Penicillin.

Fleming's discovery helped other scientists to search for other antibiotics. Today we have several antibiotics like streptomycin, aureomycin etc. These antibiotics are saving the lives of millions of people all over the world.