• Question: What theory supported Alexander Fleming’s theory on the penicillin?

    Asked by thivyansuthan to Jack, Tom, Yalda on 20 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Tom Branson

      Tom Branson answered on 20 Mar 2013:

      Penicillin was the first antibiotic that was found. It’s discovery is a really funny story. Fleming was growing some bacteria and then went away on holiday, when he returned he found that some mould had floated in and was growing on his bacteria plates.

      Where the mould was growing, the bacteria had been killed. He then found out that it was a certain molecule produced my the mould that was harmful to the bacteria. The mould was called Penicillium and so he named the molecule after this: Penicillin.

      Some bacteria diseases have become resistent to antibiotics like penicllin, you might have heard of MRSA. This is a real probalem because now we have to do a lot of research and work to come up with some new antibiotics to fight these bacteria.

    • Photo: Yalda Javadi

      Yalda Javadi answered on 20 Mar 2013:

      Exactly what Tom said!

      Possibly the best accidental discovery ever made! And since then the penicillin family has grown to include all its brothers and sisters: Penicillin G, nafcillin, oxacillin, cloxacillin and dicloxacillin, ampicillin, amoxicillin, carbenicillin, ticarcillin, and piperacillin

      That’s a lot of cillins!

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 20 Mar 2013:

      So, Tom & Yalda have penicillin mould covered but there are other useful moulds in the world too. Cheeses like Brie, Camembert and stilton all taste the way they do because of mould. Personally, I think they smell like old feet but some folk like that taste… Moulds also break down dead stuff – without them we’d be surrounded by all sorts of nasty stuff. Yay for mould!

    • Photo: Jack Heal

      Jack Heal answered on 21 Mar 2013:

      The penicillin story is a great one. His theory has been shown to be true because it has been used with lots of different bacteria and it killed them. Penicillin works by helping to break down the bacteria cell wall. Without the protection of their cell wall the bacteria are soon killed off!

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