Posted on August 6, 2019
One of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century
(according to Time magazine)
A Nobel Prize Winner
Third greatest Scot of all time
(according to a TV poll in Scotland)So...Alexander Fleming (born on this date in 1881) is really famous...
Ever heard of him?
Some scientists who make huge discoveries or come up with important inventions don't themselves get rich and famous - but accomplishing great things is a huge reward. And Fleming ended up saving a lot of lives when he discovered the antibacterial powers of Penicillin.
During World War I, Fleming saw a lot of wounded soldiers die from sepsis, or blood poisoning, caused by infections in their wounds. Antiseptics - substances like alcohol and hydrogen peroxide - were used to kill microbes but seemed, in many cases, to make things worse. Fleming wanted to find out why. He used his skills at glass blowing to do experiments with bacteria and antiseptics and discovered that the known antiseptics wiped out disease-causing bacteria on the surface or in shallow wounds but were not able to reach pockets of anaerobic bacteria (bacteria that don't need oxygen) in deep wounds.  |
| In this drawing, the bacteria in blood is colored green. |
That still didn't explain why the antiseptics made things worse - but Fleming's experiment showed that antiseptics not only eliminated harmful bacteria (remember, only those on the surface or in shallow wounds), they ALSO destroyed beneficial bacteria we all have.
Despite Fleming's findings, most army doctors continued to use antiseptics - even when they made patients worse.
In 1929 - and famously by accident - he discovered that a particular kind of mold (Penicillium) produced a substance that killed a lot of disease-causing bacteria. He published his findings and worked for a while to see if he could extract the bacteria-killing substance in enough quantity to be useful; he also did experiments designed to test its effectiveness as a surface antibiotic. Fleming eventually abandoned his work with penicillin, dissatisfied with its usefulness, but other scientists continued and by 1944 were producing enough penicillin to treat all the wounded in the WWII Allied forces.
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| In the original discovery of the antibiotic powers of penicillin, the mold (the large light-colored blob at the top of the dish) made all the bacteria near it break apart. |
It's been estimated that penicillin has saved the lives of at least 200 million people in the world - and it's still saving millions. However, you may know that people are now worried about overuse (and sometimes misuse) of penicillin that has caused strains of bacteria that are resistant to the antibiotic. Of course, these days we have developed lots of other antibiotics - but again, overuse and improper use is causing antibiotic-resistant bacteria to evolve.
I think we need another Alexander Fleming and another revolution in medicine!
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| The whole "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade" thing has been said a lot too many times and sounds tired, now. But what do you think of this fresh take: |
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