Alexander Fleming, a Scottish biologist, pharmacologist and botanist, made history with the discovery of penicillin, the world’s first antibiotic substance, in 1928.
Fleming was studying deadly bacteria when he made his awesome discovery, quite by accident. He had unintentionally left open the cover of the bacteria culture plate with which he was working when he was working when he went away on a holiday. When he returned, he noticed that a mould had formed on the exposed culture.
What interested him was the fact that in the area surrounding the mould, the bacteria had disappeared. He kept a strain of the mould alive, and began testing it on laboratory animals. With further experimentation, Fleming established that this mould, that he named penicillin, could destroy many types of bacteria, such as the ones responsible for scarlet fever, meningitis, and diphtheria.
Fleming published his research on penicillin, and two other scientists, Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain, discovered how to isolate the penicillin and increase its potential. These findings were used to mass produce penicillin in order to treat wounded soldiers during World War II, thus saving millions of lives.
