[tangoblue (OP)]

since he discovered it by accident did he really deserve the credit he got.

[Chemistry4me]

Oh and by the way: IT WASN'T LOUIS PASTEUR THAT DISCOVERED PENICILLIN!!! []

IT WAS ALEXANDER FLEMING!

[Don_1]

Oh and by the way: IT WASN'T LOUIS PASTEUR THAT DISCOVERED PENICILLIN!!! []

IT WAS ALEXANDER FLEMING!

Are you sure? I've been buying Flemigised milk for years!!!

[tangoblue (OP)]

anyway, who ever discovered it do they really deserve the credit.

[Bored chemist]

Yes, not for discovering it , but for understanding what they discovered.

[rosalind dna]

It was Alexander Fleming who did discover Pencillin in the St. Mary's Hospital in London.
With his important DISCOVERY Fleming has saved loads of lives even though there is the MRSA bug around now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Fleming
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1945/fleming-bio.html

[Chemistry4me]

Oh and by the way: IT WASN'T LOUIS PASTEUR THAT DISCOVERED PENICILLIN!!! []

IT WAS ALEXANDER FLEMING!

Are you sure? I've been buying Flemigised milk for years!!!

More like phlemigised milk!

[tangoblue (OP)]

it was Alisander Flemming that discovered it.

[Chemistry4me]

You only just realised now? []

[Don_1]

it was Alisander Flemming that discovered it.

No, it was his brother Alexander.

[iko]

...Uhm, Alexander Fleming was not exactly alone...   []

In 1928 Alexander Fleming discovered accidentally that a mould (Penicillium notatum) contaminating left over cultures of bacteria was actually inhibiting bacterial growth. He got published his observation in a scientific journal and almost forgot about it.
Later on two pathologists in London, Florey and Chain, managed after months of hard work and no money (IIWorld War 1939)to grow a little amount of penicillium using large culture containers (fermentators).  Purified penicillin could cure lethal bacterial infection in mice/rats.
Those basic experiments led to further development of penicillin producing techniques and to extraordinary results in human bacterial infections.
After several years the scientist and the two pathologists got the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

http://www.molbio.princeton.edu/courses/mb427/2001/projects/02/antibiotics.htm

PostScriptum: but only A.Fleming will be remembered in History.
(When you find something, publish first...and forget about the rest of the hard work!)

[fontwell]

I remember hearing a chap on Radio 4 who's father was a peer of Fleming. When this chap was was a lad, Fleming took him into his lab and over several hours demonstrated/explained all the work that had gone into making penicillin. This chap said that at no point did Fleming mention Florey and Chain or explain it was them who did all the work.

[iko]

...
Penicillin had been discovered by Fleming in 1928 as a result of observations on a mould which developed on some germ culture plates but the active substance was not isolated. In 1939, Florey and Chain headed a team of British scientists, financed by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, whose efforts led to the successful small-scale manufacture of the drug from the liquid broth in which it grows. In 1940 a report was issued describing how penicillin had been found to be a chemotherapeutic agent capable of killing sensitive germs in the living body. Thereafter great efforts were made, with government assistance, to enable sufficient quantities of the drug to be made for use in World War II to treat war wounds.
...

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1945/florey-bio.html

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1945/fleming.jpg
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1945/chain.jpg
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1945/florey.jpg

[tangoblue (OP)]

Ok everybody was wrong, bob the builder discovered it... really... kind of... maybe a little bit... ok maybe he told me a lie *Cry*

[Variola]

And let us not forget to credit 'Mouldy Mary' for her discovery of a piece of rotting melon with Penicillium Notatum growing on it, a strain which proved to be much more productive can previous strain and allowed Florey et al to carry out clinical trials effectively. Most of the strains of P.Notatum we have today come from that one melon  []

[tangoblue (OP)]

Nope, that was bob the builder as well!

[tommya300]

Yes, not for discovering it , but for understanding what they discovered.

That did not get Past Your Eyes did it?

[Ophiolite]

Fleming was not the first to make this observation. In 1874, William Roberts observed that bacterial contamination was rare in cultures of Penicillium glaucum. In looking for confirmation of this online I found this wikipedia article that lists several observations that predate Fleming's discovery.

TangoBlue will be pleased to note that one of the names listed is that of Louis Pasteur.

[iko]

Ok tangoblue, the circle is closed!
Thanks for the wikilink Ophiolite.

[tangoblue (OP)]

Awh