The messy revolutionary who turned mould into medical gold
AsSir Alexander Fleming modestly put it, one sometimes finds what one is not looking for. That is how he described his historic discovery of September 28, 1928.
He would later say that, when he woke up on that date, he didn’t expect to revolutionise all medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic, or bacteria killer.
We can all be grateful that this amazing scientist did just that.
Born in Darvel, Ayrshire, on August 6, 1881, Fleming would witness many soldiers die of sepsis during the First World War.
With his glassblowing skills, he came up with an amazing experiment which showed how more men had died from antiseptic treatment than from the actual infections.
Clearly, this man was going to make his mark in the medical world, and was able to think outside the box.
Fleming had a reputation, by 1927, for brilliant work but also for keeping a rather untidy laboratory.
The following year, he returned to his lab after a family holiday to find a strange mould growing in one culture.
Menwhile, the bacteria staphylococci around the fungus had been destroyed. “That’s funny,” was his first thought, before he showed it to a former assistant, who reminded him that he had made previous discoveries in a similar, almost accidental manner. Fleming tried growing more of the stuff, finding that it did indeed kill the bacteria that caused disease.
If he was still wondering how big a breakthrough this was, you can move forward to D-day, 1944, to find out – by then, enough penicillin had been produced to treat all wounded Allied soldiers.
It was nothing less than the birth of modern antibiotics.
Fleming would also discover that bacteria could develop a strong resistance to antibiotics if too little penicillin was used, or if it wasn’t used for long enough.
He worried about misuse of the stuff, and gave speeches around the globe expressing his concerns.
Penicillin continues to save millions of people worldwide.
A statue of Fleming was even erected in Madrid on behalf of matadors grateful that his discovery had seriously reduced the number of deaths in the bullring.
He was also, of course, knighted, and has often appeared high in lists of the 20th Century’s most influential people. Many sources have suggested his discovery was also the most significant medical breakthrough of the century, and there are many people out there who would not be alive without his magnificent work.