logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2022
44m 31s

Penicillin: More than a Moldy Petri Dish

iHeartPodcasts
About this episode

The development of penicillin started – but definitely did not end – with the chance discovery of some mold in a petri dish. There is so much more to the story.

Research:

  • Bernard, Diane. “How a miracle drug changed the fight against infection during World War II.” Washington Post. 7/11/2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/07/11/penicillin-coronavirus-florey-wwii-infection/
  • British Library. “Inventor(s) of the month, Alexander Fleming and the story of Penicillin.” 7/28/2021. https://blogs.bl.uk/business/2021/07/inventors-of-the-month-alexander-fleming.html
  • Chain, E. et al. “Penicillin as a Chemotherapeutic Agent.” The Lancet. Vol. 236, Issue 6104. 8/24/1940. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(01)08728-1
  • Fleming A. On the Antibacterial Action of Cultures of a Penicillium, with Special Reference to their Use in the Isolation of B. influenzæ. Br J Exp Pathol. 1929 Jun;10(3):226–36. PMCID: PMC2048009.
  • Gaynes, Robert. “The Discovery of Penicillin—New Insights After More Than 75 Years of Clinical Use.” Emerg Infect Dis. 2017 May; 23(5): 849–853.. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5403050/
  • Lee, Victoria. “Microbial Transformations.” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, SEPTEMBER 2018, Vol. 48, No. 4. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26507225
  • National Museums of Scotland. “Culture Vessel.” https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/science-and-technology/culture-vessel/
  • Quinn, Roswell. “Rethinking Antibiotic Research and Development: World War II and the Penicillin Collaborative.” American Journal of Public Health | March 2013, Vol 103, No. 3.
  • Scibilia, Anthony Julius. “Being Prometheus in 1943:: Bringing Penicillin to the Working Man.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies , Vol. 80, No. 3 (Summer 2013). https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/pennhistory.80.3.0442
  • Science History. “Alexander Fleming.” 12/5/2017. https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/alexander-fleming
  • Science Museum. “How Was Penicillin Developed?” 2/23/2021. https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/how-was-penicillin-developed
  • Shama, Gilbert. “’Déjà Vu’ – The Recycling of Penicillin in Post-liberation Paris.” Pharmacy in History , 2013, Vol. 55, No. 1 (2013). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23645718
  • The Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum, London, UK. “The Discovery and Development of Penicillin 1928-1945.” 11/19/1999. https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/flemingpenicillin/the-discovery-and-development-of-penicillin-commemorative-booklet.pdf
  • Wainwright, Milton. “Moulds in Folk Medicine.” Folklore , 1989, Vol. 100, No. 2 (1989). https://www.jstor.org/stable/1260294
  • Wainwright, Milton. “The History of the Therapeutic Use of Crude Penicillin.” Medical History, 1987, 31: 41-50.
  • Williams KJ. The introduction of 'chemotherapy' using arsphenamine - the first magic bullet. J R Soc Med. 2009 Aug;102(8):343-8. doi: 10.1258/jrsm.2009.09k036. PMID: 19679737; PMCID: PMC2726818.
  • Wood, Jonathan. “Penicillin: The Oxford Story.” Oxford News Blog. 7/16/2010. https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/science-blog/penicillin-oxford-story
  • Zaffiri, Lorenzo et al. “History of Antibiotics. From Salvarsan to Cephalosporins.” Journal of Investigative Surgery, 25, 67–77, 2012.

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Yesterday
Behind the Scenes Minis: Pens and Dog Radios
Tracy and Holly talk about their favorite pens, and Tracy describes a unique radio she had as a child.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 
20m 27s
Jul 9
Edwin Howard Armstrong
Edwin Howard Armstrong isn’t exactly a well-known inventor, but his work in radio literally changed communications around the globe. But his most famous invention – FM radio – became a source of constant frustration after he developed it. Research: Armstrong, Edwin H. “Frequency ... Show More
33m 22s
Jul 7
The Humble Ballpoint Pen
Before the ballpoint pen, people used their hands, reeds, bamboo, brushes, quills, and eventually nibs to write or draw. But how did things evolve from there to get to things like the fountain pen, and eventually, a ballpoint? Research: "pen." Britannica Library, Encyclopædia Bri ... Show More
35m 35s
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2017
Antibiotics
In 1928 a young bacteriologist named Alexander Fleming failed to tidy up his petri dishes before going home to Scotland on holiday. On his return, he famously noticed that one dish had become mouldy in his absence, and the mould was killing the bacteria he’d used the dish to cult ... Show More
8m 59s
Nov 2018
40 - Phage
Bacteriophages -- viruses that target and kill bacteria -- were one of the most promising medical treatments of the early 20th century, and were used to treat all sorts of infections, from cholera to staph, and everything in between. But by the 1950s, they had all but died out in ... Show More
52m 59s
Sep 2020
Fungus Amungus
Six years ago, a new infection began popping up in four different hospitals on three different continents, all around the same time. It wasn’t a bacteria, or a virus. It was ... a killer fungus. No one knew where it came from, or why. Today, the story of an ancient showdown betwe ... Show More
31m 48s
Aug 2017
25 - Salt Water
Intravenous or IV fluids are a ubiquitous treatment in medicine, and one of the most cost-effective treatments that we have, costing less than a cup of coffee in the developing world. But it wasn’t always this way. In this episode, called Salt Water, we go back to the second grea ... Show More
21m 7s
May 2020
Ep 50 Antibiotics: We owe it all to chemistry!
Fifty episodes. That’s fifty (sometimes) deadly viruses, bacteria, protozoa, parasites, and poisons. And don’t forget the fifty quarantinis to accompany each! What better way to celebrate this momentous occasion than talking about something that may actually save you: antibiotics ... Show More
1h 59m
Jan 2021
The Plague of Justinian
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the plague that broke out in Constantinople 541AD, in the reign of Emperor Justinian. According to the historian Procopius, writing in Byzantium at the time, this was a plague by which the whole human race came near to being destroyed, embracing th ... Show More
48m 31s
Jan 2021
The Plague of Justinian
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the plague that broke out in Constantinople 541AD, in the reign of Emperor Justinian. According to the historian Procopius, writing in Byzantium at the time, this was a plague by which the whole human race came near to being destroyed, embracing th ... Show More
48m 31s
Aug 2021
Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim, "ReOrienting Histories of Medicine: Encounters Along the Silk Roads" (Bloomsbury, 2021)
There's been a lot of resurgent interest in the Silk Routes lately, particularly looking at the cultural, political, and economic connections between "East" and "West" that challenge long held narratives of a world that only became interconnected in the last half millennium. Even ... Show More
59m 43s
Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami