Wikinventia — Atlas of discoveries and inventions · Industrial Age

Penicillin — Fleming

1928 AD · Transmission: Global
MedicineInventionBritish

Fleming observes that the mold Penicillium notatum destroys staphylococcus colonies in his Petri dish. Florey and Chain develop clinical use during WWII. Antibiotics raise global life expectancy by ~20 years. Without Florey and Chain's work, Fleming's discovery would have remained a curiosity.

InstitutionSt Mary's Hospital, London / University of Oxford
Historical regionGreat Britain
Primary sourceFleming, A. — "On the Antibacterial Action of Cultures of a Penicillium" (British Journal of Experimental Pathology, 1929)
Secondary sourceNobel Prize — Physiology or Medicine 1945
Original languageEnglish
View this entry in the interactive atlas → View in graph →