This Day in History: Penicillin Is Discovered

This Day in History:, Penicillin Is Discovered .

September 28, 1928.

Penicillin was discovered by Scottish bacteriologist Sir Alexander Fleming.

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Returning to St.

Mary's Hospital in London after a vacation, Fleming noticed that a mold had contaminated Petri dishes of a common infectious bacteria.

Fleming was stunned to realize that the Penicillium notatum mold was preventing the growth of the bacteria.

Fleming concluded that the Penicillium "mold juice" could be manipulated to fight infectious diseases.

I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic, or bacteria killer.

But I guess that was exactly what I did, Sir Alexander Fleming, via 'PBS News Hour'.

After 14 years of trial and error, penicillin was perfected through the collaboration of Sir Fleming, Dr. Howard Florey and Dr. Ernst Chain