The birth of antibiotic medicine

1928, London, England

Scottish physician and scientist Alexander Fleming returned from holiday to find that his petri dishes of staphylococcus bacteria were contaminated with mould. He realised that the mould – penicillin – had killed the bacteria, an accidental discovery that led to the development of the world’s first antibiotic. Penicillin was first used to treat patients with bacterial infections in 1942, and three years later Fleming was awarded the Nobel Prize.