Alexander Fleming or Sir Alexander Fleming was born in 1881 in Scotland and died in 1955 from a heart attack at the age of 74 in England. Fleming was primarily a bacteriologist or one who studies bacteria. Although Fleming can be credited for many different things in the field of medicine and sciences, he is most often credited with the discovery of penicillin. Penicillin is an antibiotic that is produced from primarily a mold belonging to the fungal kingdom. This mold is penicillin, and can be grown in cultures of small and later large quantities. It is also an antibiotic, being that it is used to cure various illnesses in a wide spectrum from infections such as staff or tetanus to various types of STD’s such as syphilis of gonorrhea. Alexander Fleming discovery of penicillin, to one’s surprise, was an accident. Fleming was doing some research on various bacterial cultures, doing his research on bacteria killing/fighting substances. By mistake Fleming had left one of his bacteria cultures uncovered for several days. Over this time some mold spores had gotten into his culture that had come in from his window he had left open near his work, within his lab. When Fleming returned to this culture he noticed something interesting, being that around the mold that had begun growing in his culture, there was a ring-like area containing no bacteria from the culture. So interested, Fleming began growing more of the mold, and over the next few months had discovered that the mold produced and secreted a substance he later called penicillin. He also did various lab tests on small organisms and discovered the unique properties of the drug as well as used it on himself discovering it was not toxic. However, Fleming was having some difficulty with the newly discovered antibiotic, being that he could not produce the substance in large quantities, and not nearly enough for even a few people. He looked for help from a few other scientists and other colleagues he knew, however they could not help, for they were also puzzled on how to mass produce it. Shortly after a new drug came out have similar characteristics, properties, and functions of his penicillin. This new drug was hot, being that it received all the publicity, so Fleming’s penicillin went unheard of. Fleming continued his study of bacteria fighting agents but kept a sample of the mold growing in the corner of his lab. Later the hype had gone down of the new drug, realizing it was overrated, and had various toxic side effects, some vary dangerous often leading to death. Now was Fleming’s chance, but he still couldn’t produce the penicillin in large quantities. Howard Florey and Ernst Chain began working with Fleming’s penicillin and by 1941 had documented a couple hundred cases in which penicillin destroyed potentially fatal illnesses or infections. In 1943 factories were producing 400 million units of penicillin over a five month period, which amplified to 9 billion a month by the end of the year. At first the drug was for military use only but a year later in 1944 it had been presented to the public as well. Fleming’s penicillin was a major contribution to World War II, and saved many lives. It was known as the “Wonder Drug” of its time.In 1945 Fleming, Florey, and Chain were all presented with the Nobel Prize of medicine. Through their sales of penicillin they never earned all that much money, however, Fleming donated much of what he got to the St. Mary’s Medical and Research Center where Fleming had first begun his work. Fleming also continued with his research until he died in 1955.

—Cool Site to visit: http://www.lib.niu.edu/2001/iht810139.html (contains some of the original work of Fleming, the actual words he used). —