On March 11th 1955 Sir Alexander Fleming died.

The discovery of penicillin came in September 1928, when Fleming was forty-seven. His account of it has been questioned and he did not make a note about it at the time, but according to his recollection he returned from holiday to his cramped little lab to find a pile of petri dishes, on which he had been growing colonies of bacteria, still waiting to be cleaned. He noticed that on one of them a mould had grown which had inhibited the growth of a colony of staphylococcus germs. The mould was Penicillium notatum, commonly found on bread, and Fleming called the liquid from it penicillin.

The thing is Oor Alexander could not find any important practical use for penicillin. He wrote a paper about it in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology, but it attracted no attention. He later pointed out that there had been no trained chemist in the St Mary’s lab. Sir Henry Dale summed up in the Dictionary of National Biography that ‘neither the time when the discovery was made nor, perhaps, the scientific atmosphere of the laboratory in which he worked, was propitious to such further enterprise as its development would have needed.’

t was not for another ten years or so that penicillin’s astonishing properties were established at Oxford by the Australian professor of pathology, Howard Florey, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany named Ernst Chain and an Englishman called Norman Heatley. They followed up Fleming’s original paper and turned their Oxford department into a prototype penicillin factory.

The relationship between them and Fleming was distinctly prickly. Almroth Wright wrote to The Times in 1942 claiming the credit for penicillin for Fleming and St Mary’s, and Fleming, Florey and Chain shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945.The media made Fleming the hero of the saga, partly because the accidental discovery was a good story and partly because Florey had no time for the press while Fleming was pleasant and approachable, your archetypical genial Scot.

A national hero he duly became. So much so that after his death at his home in Chelsea in 1955, his ashes were interred close to Nelson and Wellington in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral. Flags flew at half- mast and the cathedral bulged with academic and medical grandees, ambassadors, representatives of societies, staff and students from the hospital, as well as personal friends. A memorial plaque was unveiled in the crypt the following year and Fleming’s original lab where penicillin was discovered is preserved in the museum to him at St Mary’s.

Boogie Man, Utionium and Bubbles!! ~@soft-spooks (good luck in class btw u got this!)

Thank you! I did okay for class when you send this Ask but I am now back in class and Im hoping it go well today ;w; thank u for the well wishes 💕💕💕

The Boogie Man 🎵 — Quick! Put your favorite playlist on shuffle and list the first five songs that come up!

My playlist basically went Mr.Worldwide 🧍‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️

Professor Utonium 🥼 — Are there any scientific inventions or discoveries that fascinate you?

You heard of girlies telling true crime like tea so let me talk about antibiotics like them too 💅

Radioactive is cool but the history of Penicillin (the first pure Antibiotic) is one of my fav. Im just gonna write a very simplified version of it after rereading it just now lol

There's reports of usage of mold to treat infection way way back before the 20th century especially in ancient greek and egypt but the creation of the first fully synthetic and commercialise antibiotic only started during the early 40s so like if you get any bacterial infection from uhhh lets say a cut on your pinky, you rubbed your eyes with a dirty hand, you look as someone at the wrong time, you had a hanky panky with Patty at the back alley or maybe you just exist, you can die. Existing antimicrobial meds like sulfanilamide even the strongest one sometimes doesnt work with diseases that in modern days we can simply heal with just 1 course of antibiotics.

Anyway how we discovered Penicillin was purely by accident when back in 1929, Alexander Fleming discovered one of the strep strain he was cultivating in his petri dish that he left for a few days for a holiday seemed off. Upon closer inspection he realized there's a strain of mold that grew on the dish and noticed that the bacteria didnt grow around the mold ring so he conducted a few experiments to comfirm his discovery and ended up publishing a paper about his findings. Despite this though no one wanted to do anything about it. They read the paper and just left him on seen and Fleming wasnt a chemist, he's a biologist, the lowest of the low for the nerds back in the 19th century because all the cool kids major in physics and studying radioactive and actively promoting radioactive quackery while their jaw is rotting off from the radium exposure so he couldn't do anything about it and he just let his research in the back burner until like 10 years later a group of nerds at Oxford found his paper and like "wait this man was actually cooking" and decided to take the challenge to purify this mold juice and see if they can turn it into an antibiotic.

In early stages of their research, there didnt use like a big steep container to 'procure' the mold but instead uses a narrow container with large surface area, think of casserole dish to get the juice because the mold only grows on the surface of the liquid instead of inside the liquid. Purifying isn't easy, at least 2000 litres of purified Penicillin juice were needed just to make antibiotics enough to treat 1 person so 2 of the big nerds, Howard Florey and Norman Heatley flew to the US and asked if anyone could mass produce it and then like jump to idk pages of wikipedia page later it was being mass produced in the early 40s during the peak of WW2 (there's too many conflict happens during this and the girls are fighting over who should be credited for it and I am not into some nerd drama rn)

Here's some interesting facts that I found out while reading:

- During the early stages of mass production, they still haven't produce enough Penicillin for the people they're treating and running clinical trials and they discovered that patients who received Penicillin shot also excreted those antibiotics back into their urine. At least 70% of the Penicillin they got is stored in the balls floating in the urine so they took the pee, crystallised them and extracted the Penicillin from the pee crystals so at least half of the people who gets the antibiotics shot got them from some guy's pee.

- When Florey and Heatley planned to fly to the US, they feared they couldn't bring the mold in a small glass tube without it being missing so they laced the pocket of their coat with the mold.

- Winston Churchill almost died from Pneumonia back in 1943 but fully cured by Sulfanilamide but the tabloid at time said Penicillin cured him simoly because they wanted to instill confidence to the public about antibiotic

- During Clinal Trials, they tested on animals for toxicity but they didn't tested it on guinea pigs. If they tested it on guinea pigs there's a possibility that antibiotics is not what we have now or didn't exist at all since Penicillin is toxic to guinea pigs

Anyway cut to decades later we abused the fuck out of antibiotics and there's rising cases of antibiotics resistant bacteria. It is estimated that we are 5 years away from creating antibiotics that works on the bacteria that resist antibiotics in the present. So the next time if you are prescribed with antibiotics, FINISH THEM ACCORDING TO DR'S ORDERS!!!

Bubbles 🫧 — List three things that bring you joy!

Answered here!

Alexander Fleming was born on August 6, 1881. A Scottish physician and microbiologist, best known for discovering the world's first broadly effective antibiotic substance, which he named penicillin. His discovery in 1928 of what was later named benzylpenicillin (or penicillin G) from the mold Penicillium rubens is described as the "single greatest victory ever achieved over disease". For this discovery, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain. Fleming was knighted for his scientific achievements in 1944. In 1999, he was named in Time magazine's list of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th century.

La experimentación animal: ¿necesaria u obsoleta?

Hace poco se hizo viral un video acerca de la experimentación animal llamado “Save Ralph” el cual se mostraba el supuesto maltrato que se llevaba a cabo en los laboratorios de investigación a los roedores, la cuestión es que hubo una polémica acerca de si se debería parar esta práctica o si es necesaria para el avance médico y tecnológico. Desde tiempo atrás se ha llevado a cabo la experimentación con animales dándonos grandes avances en la medicina humana como la vacuna contra el COVID-19, pero esto también conlleva el dolor y algunas veces el sacrificio de los animales para poder dar tratamiento a algunas enfermedades y a otras una cura. La experimentación en animales es un tema delicado e importante a la vez ya que gracias a este se ha logrado establecer el tratamiento a enfermedades y se ha podido conservar la salud humana. Estamos a favor del uso de la práctica para fines médicos científicos con la más mínima cantidad de sufrimiento al animal debido a que la existencia de este método sirvió en el ámbito médico, Por esto, el propósito de esta tesis es convencer a los lectores de que la práctica de esta investigación sigue siendo necesaria para la humanidad dando hechos y estudios y la vez respondiendo las siguientes preguntas: ¿Cómo beneficio la experimentación animal en la medicina?¿Es importante seguir realizando esta práctica? En este sentido, se presentan argumentos que demuestran la utilidad de la experimentación animal con los aportes a la medicina y a sus estudios tecnológicos en la sociedad humana.

El uso de esta práctica es vital para fines médicos científicos siempre y cuando tenga la más mínima cantidad de sufrimiento al animal, debido a que la existencia de este método sirvió en el ámbito médico y sigue siendo importante para el avance del desarrollo humano. Para empezar, uno de los aportes más grandes relacionados con el uso de la experimentación animal fue la penicilina. Es verdad que Fleming descubrió esta droga sin usar animales, sin embargo, cuando se empezó a probar en ratones descubrieron que podía usarse contra enfermedades dentro del cuerpo. Además, se descubrió por medio de los roedores que era un buen contrarresto para infecciones bacterianas. En un ensayo con estos animales, Howard Florey y Ernst Chain inyectaron a 8 ratones una suspensión de bacterias letal y a cuatro de ellos se le suministro penicilina. Los cuatro ratones que recibieron la penicilina sobrevivieron mientras que los ratones restantes murieron. “Es capaz de combatir efectivamente a muchas de las bacterias responsables de generar numerosas enfermedades como pueden ser los neumococos, los estreptococos, gonococos, meningococos, clostridium tetani y la espiroqueta. Los dos últimos responsables de causar tétano y sífilis, respectivamente" (Marín, 2011, p. 2). En segundo lugar, los aportes de esta práctica han llevado a poder desarrollar varias vacunas contra distintos tipos de enfermedades, pero la más reciente fue su gran ayuda para poder encontrar la vacuna contra el COVID-19. La experimentación animal fue una pieza clave para poder avanzar en el estudio y la distribución del fármaco, debido a que, si primero se daba el estudio preclínico en animales, podía permitirse llevar a cabo la primera fase de la vacunación en adultos mayores. Además, el uso de animales para la investigación de la vacuna se pudo encontrar una mejor protección ante el virus en poco tiempo, acelerando el proceso de producción del fármaco para poder distribuir al mundo. En definitiva, la experimentación sigue siendo un elemento importante e indispensable hasta el momento para poder hallar avances médicos ya no solo en la humanidad, sino también en los mismos animales.

La experimentación animal ha demostrado ser imprescindible en el ámbito científico médico debido a los grandes resultados que esta práctica brindó, sin embargo, este método de investigación no solo se enfoca en ese punto, sino que también ayuda en otros ámbitos de la ciencia y la medicina. Por ende, ocasiona que la experimentación animal sea capaz de conseguir mejores estudios científicos dentro de los laboratorios a través de las investigaciones que se llevan a cabo en estas instituciones. Entre ellas están los estudios neurológicos que se consiguen mayormente en los primates, mayormente enfermedades relacionadas a terminaciones nerviosas en el cerebro como el Alzheimer. Además, se consiguen estudios anatómicos para descubrir las maneras de restablecer la función de los músculos y miembros paralizados a través de la cirugía. Según Eduardo Rodríguez, dice que la investigación con caninos pudo brindar una significativa cantidad de información sobre el sistema cardiovascular, además que también pudo conseguir mejores esperanzas para el desarrollo de prevenciones, tratamientos y curas para varias enfermedades como el Alzheimer, SIDA y el cáncer. Por lo tanto, gracias a los mejores estudios científicos que se consiguen a través de esta práctica, también se consiguen mejores avances tecnológicos. Gracias a una investigación en cerdos que llevo a cabo la corporación Neuralink, se pudo desarrollar un prototipo de chip neuronal que enviaba señales a computadoras sobre ciertas acciones que llevaba a cabo el animal de prueba, por ejemplo, si el cerdo, nombrado Gertrude, hacia contacto con su hocico, enviaba picos neuronales que eran detectados en el implante por más de 1000 electrodos. El director y fundador de la compañía, Elon Musk, dijo que el implante cerebral ayudaría a la gente tetrapléjica a volver a recuperar varias o todas las funciones remotas de su cuerpo, e incluso poder manejar teléfonos inteligentes por medio de la mente. De la misma manera en la que ya existen las interfaces cerebro-máquina actuales, esta recopilaría señales eléctricas enviadas por el cerebro para que puedan ser interpretadas como acciones. En otras palabras, la experimentación en animales brinda resultados que favorecen al enriquecimiento de información biomédica acerca de posibles tratamientos y curas ante varias enfermedades físicas y neuronales del ser humano.

En conclusión, el uso de los animales para fines científicos es un método que sirvió en el ámbito médico y sigue siendo importante para poder ayudar al avance del desarrollo humano. Uno de los logros más grandes relacionados con el uso de la experimentación animal fue la penicilina. En segundo lugar, los aportes de esta práctica han llevado a poder desarrollar varias vacunas contra distintos tipos de enfermedades, entre la más reciente fue la vacuna contra el COVID-19. Y por último, su gran aporte para encontrar mejores estudios y mejores tecnologías para la neurología y la anatomía. Quizá sea momento de dejar de voltear al pasado para buscar argumentos en contra del uso de animales para detener el avance médico y comenzar a hacer uso del conocimiento acumulado hasta ahora para sumarlo a los adelantos tecnológicos y computacionales que nos ha brindado este tipo de investigaciones. En otras palabras, debemos reconocer los logros que nos brinda esta práctica y los futuros avances que nos brindará siempre y cuando el daño hacia estos seres sea el más mínimo y que el uso de sus vidas sea el más aprovechado

Autores: Alarcón Pérez Nayely ,Amado Daza Emy karolina

Grupo 1 "B"

Mary Ethel Florey - Lives of the Wives

Today we have a special edition of Lives of the Wives, because I am in Oxford, having just given a talk at the university that I didn’t completely screw up. Being in Oxford calls for an Oxford based story, and this is the one that made me most irrationally angry while researching it, so let’s get into it. If you haven’t heard of Lord Howard Florey, you definitely know his claim to fame –…

View On WordPress

✨Howard Florey: El Héroe Desconocido de la Medicina Moderna ✨🔬

¿Sabías que la penicilina, el primer antibiótico del mundo, no sólo fue descubierta sino también transformada en un tratamiento revolucionario por Howard Florey? 🌟 Junto con su equipo, Florey llevó la observación de Alexander Fleming a nuevas alturas, realizando las primeras pruebas clínicas demostraron la efectividad de la penicilina en salvar vidas.

#steamtalent #steam #somossteamtalent #talento #aprendizaje

Medicine is often considered a cornerstone of modern science, but its success in mitigating the effects of illness and injury is largely a matter of chance. How coincidental medicine is in this regard was underscored recently by researchers, when they traced the development of antibiotics back to chance discoveries by Alexander Fleming, Howard Florey, and Ernst Chain in 1928.

These researchers showed that the antibiotics revolution, which has saved countless lives since it began, was not even a goal of this small group of scientists at the time – it was simply a result of serendipity or luck. The three scientists were actually looking for a cure for typhus – a disease that still affects millions of people globally – but instead of finding a solution they stumbled upon something that would have an even greater impact: the discovery of penicillin.

The chance success of medical treatments happens more often than many might realize. From the discovery of aspirin as a fever remedy and the development of vaccines to the advent of CAT scans and MRIs – countless medical breakthroughs have come via luck or stumbled-upon observations.

In some respects, luck and unexpected circumstances still influence modern medicine. For example, when penicillin was rediscovered in 1941 as an effective treatment for infections it wasn’t because researchers set out to discover it – it was just a happy coincidence that made it useful.

This points to a larger truth about medicine: the breakthroughs that have made it such a powerful tool in fighting illness and injury are largely due to luck. Medicine is all too often a product of luck rather than intentional scientific planning.

Although medicine is sometimes attributed to brilliant insights and rational calculations of the human mind, the fact remains that much of the progress in medicine has been driven by accidental discoveries and coincidence. Through these coincidences, though, medicine has become one of the most important tools in modern humanity’s battle with disease and injury.

the connie willis fb updated and I.....

Oh my gob:

WEBSITE UPDATE: ENGLAND 2023--OXFORD, PART 1

Just got back from a research trip to England. It was great, even though Oxford was experiencing a terrible heat wave, so hot the tour guides were telling people NOT to take the walking tours but to instead go inside one of the museums (even though those weren’t air-conditioned either).

We spent a lot of time in the History of Science Museum, which is most famous for having Einstein’s blackboard, but also has Lawrence of Arabia’s camera, Lewis Carroll’s photographic equipment, and the actual penicillin specimen that Florey and his team worked with when developing the drug during World War II.

Alexander Fleming was the one who’d originally discovered penicillin, but he’d never been able to do anything with it, and it was Howard Florey, Ernst Chain, Margaret Jennings, and other Oxford scientists who developed it into a practical medicine and the "miracle drug" that saved millions of lives during the war, using bedpans and every other container they could find to grow the vast quantities of penicillin needed.

The other exhibits were fascinating, too. My husband was especially interested in their slide rule collection, and it was exciting to see the box of chemicals and photograph plates Charles L. Dodgson (his initials were on the box) used to take the pictures we’ve all seen of Alice in Wonderland. (His photography was what led to his meeting the Liddell children in the first place. He’d been hired by Mrs. Liddell to take photos of their son.)

The centerpiece of the museum (and the reason we went there) was the blackboard with Einstein’s equations from a lecture he gave at Oxford in 1931 on it. That blackboard figures in the time travel novel I’m working on, partly because it has such a fascinating history. Einstein gave three lectures on relativity in Oxford, and a professor managed to keep two of the blackboards Einstein used from being erased afterwards and later donated them to the museum, but despite his best efforts, one of them ended up being erased, so this is the only remaining relic of his historic lectures (and a testament to the zealousness of janitors, who always seem determined to erase any blackboards they find, no matter how many "SAVE!" signs they have on them.)

There are lots of other things at the museum (over 18,000 objects), including astrolabes, sextants, those working models of the solar system called orreries, sundials, and historical instruments.

But one thing that’s not there is the dodo. It originally was, back when the building was the site of the Ashmolean Museum, and it nearly met its end there. In 1755, the museum decided to do a little spring cleaning, so they built a fire out front in the middle of Broad Street and proceeded to burn a bunch of old moldy animal and bird specimens that had deteriorated and were full of fleas. Their dodo specimen was nearly thrown on the fire and was only saved by the director’s quick thinking. He salvaged the beak and the foot and they’re now at the University Museum. And in my new novel.

So are the Radcliffe Camera and University College and the High Street and the University Church of St. Mary and Balliol and the shop where Alice used to buy barley sugar, and we went to all of them so I could take notes for my book. We went to a lot of other places in Oxford, too, which I’ll tell you about in coming posts.

Me:

Tal día como hoy, en 1898, nace Howard Florey, Nobel de Medicina en 1945, patólogo australiano que, junto con Ernst Boris Chain, investigó, aisló y purificó la penicilina para uso clínico general.

https://buff.ly/48rCinB

Throughout history, there have been individuals who seemed to possess an uncanny streak of luck, encountering circumstances or opportunities that propelled them to great heights. These fortunate few managed to harness their good fortune and transform it into remarkable achievements and contributions that shaped the course of history. From accidental discoveries to unexpected windfalls, their stories captivate our imagination and inspire us to believe in the power of serendipity. In this exploration, we delve into the lives of some of the most lucky men in history, examining the remarkable journeys that led them to success and acclaim. Join us as we unravel the threads of fate that wove their stories, showcasing the interplay between luck and human endeavor that can lead to extraordinary outcomes. Alexander Fleming Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) was a Scottish biologist, pharmacologist, and Nobel laureate who made one of the most significant medical discoveries in history. Born on August 6, 1881, in Lochfield, Scotland, Fleming's work revolutionized the field of medicine and saved countless lives. Fleming's most notable achievement was the discovery of penicillin, the world's first antibiotic. In 1928, while working at St. Mary's Hospital in London, Fleming accidentally stumbled upon this groundbreaking finding. He had been studying staphylococci bacteria when he noticed that a petri dish containing the bacteria had been contaminated with a mold called Penicillium notatum. To his surprise, he observed that the bacteria surrounding the mold had been killed off. This observation led him to realize that the mold was producing a substance with powerful antibacterial properties. Fleming named this substance "penicillin" and began to investigate its potential uses. He conducted further experiments to isolate and purify penicillin, demonstrating its ability to kill various disease-causing bacteria. However, Fleming faced challenges in producing the antibiotic on a large scale and initially struggled to garner widespread interest and support for his discovery. It wasn't until the 1940s, during World War II, that penicillin's potential was fully recognized. With the rise of infections among wounded soldiers, the need for an effective antibiotic became paramount. Scientists Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, along with others, built upon Fleming's work and successfully developed methods to mass-produce penicillin. Their efforts resulted in the widespread availability of this life-saving drug, which proved instrumental in treating bacterial infections and reducing mortality rates. In recognition of his extraordinary contribution, Alexander Fleming, along with Florey and Chain, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945. His discovery of penicillin marked a turning point in medicine, leading to the development of numerous other antibiotics and revolutionizing the treatment of bacterial infections. Beyond penicillin, Fleming made significant contributions to various fields of microbiology and immunology throughout his career. He also investigated the properties of lysozyme, an enzyme that destroys bacteria, and researched the prevention and treatment of diseases such as pneumonia and meningitis. Alexander Fleming's accidental discovery of penicillin and his subsequent dedication to advancing its potential transformed modern medicine and saved countless lives. His work serves as a testament to the power of scientific curiosity and the profound impact one individual can have on the course of human history. Louis Zamperini Louis Zamperini (1917-2014) was an American Olympic athlete, World War II veteran, and inspirational figure known for his incredible story of survival, resilience, and redemption. Born on January 26, 1917, in Olean, New York, Zamperini's life was marked by extraordinary challenges and remarkable triumphs. Zamperini's athletic journey began in his teenage years when he discovered a passion for running.

He excelled as a track and field athlete, setting records and earning a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. In the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Zamperini competed in the 5,000-meter race and caught the attention of Adolf Hitler himself, who requested a personal meeting with him. Although he didn't win a medal, Zamperini's impressive performance foreshadowed the resilience he would demonstrate in the face of adversity. However, the outbreak of World War II interrupted Zamperini's athletic career. He joined the U.S. Army Air Forces and became a bombardier in the Pacific theater. In 1943, his plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean during a rescue mission, leaving Zamperini and two other crew members stranded at sea for 47 harrowing days. Enduring starvation, shark attacks, and treacherous weather conditions, Zamperini and his companions faced unimaginable hardships. They managed to survive by catching rainwater and catching fish, clinging to hope despite the desperate circumstances. Eventually, Zamperini and one of his crewmates were rescued by a Japanese patrol boat and taken as prisoners of war. For the next two years, Zamperini endured severe mistreatment, brutality, and torture at the hands of his captors in various Japanese prison camps. He faced relentless physical and psychological abuse, yet managed to maintain his spirit and resilience, refusing to break under the pressure. Zamperini's story took an unexpected turn when World War II came to an end. He was liberated in 1945 and returned to the United States as a hero. However, the traumas he endured during the war took a toll on his mental and emotional well-being, leading him down a path of anger, alcoholism, and despair. It was during this dark period that Zamperini found redemption through his Christian faith. Attending a religious revival meeting led by Billy Graham, he experienced a profound spiritual awakening that transformed his life. Zamperini forgave his former captors and dedicated himself to spreading a message of forgiveness, hope, and resilience. Zamperini's remarkable story gained widespread recognition when it was chronicled in Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling book "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" and its subsequent film adaptation directed by Angelina Jolie. Throughout his life, Zamperini became an inspirational speaker, sharing his experiences and the lessons he learned about the power of forgiveness, perseverance, and the indomitable human spirit. He continued to inspire others through his charitable work and involvement in various organizations. Louis Zamperini's life exemplifies the strength of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable adversity. His story serves as a reminder of the resilience and courage that can be found within us, even in the darkest of times. Zamperini's legacy continues to inspire and uplift people around the world, leaving an enduring impact on the hearts and minds of those who hear his incredible tale of survival and redemption. Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was an Italian explorer and navigator who is widely credited with leading the first European expedition to discover the Americas. Columbus's voyages across the Atlantic Ocean had a profound impact on world history, shaping the Age of Exploration and leading to significant historical consequences. Born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451, Columbus developed a passion for exploration and navigation from a young age. He embarked on numerous maritime journeys, gaining valuable experience and knowledge of navigation techniques and trade routes. Inspired by his studies and the prevailing belief in the possibility of reaching Asia by sailing west, Columbus sought support for his ambitious plan to find a western route to the lucrative spice trade. After facing rejection from several European rulers, Columbus finally gained the sponsorship of King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I of Spain in 1492. On August

3 of that year, he set sail with three ships—the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Niña—embarking on what would become his most famous voyage. On October 12, 1492, after weeks of sailing across the Atlantic, Columbus and his crew sighted land in the present-day Bahamas, believing they had reached the Indies (Asia). This encounter marked the beginning of European exploration and colonization in the Americas. Columbus subsequently made additional voyages to the Caribbean, exploring various islands, including Cuba and Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Columbus's voyages, often referred to as the "Columbian Exchange," had far-reaching consequences. They initiated widespread contact between Europe and the Americas, leading to the exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and cultures. This contact significantly impacted the world's ecosystems, economies, and demographics. However, it's crucial to acknowledge that Columbus's arrival also had devastating effects on the indigenous populations of the Americas, including forced labor, enslavement, and the introduction of diseases to which they had no immunity. Despite his historical significance, Columbus did not fully comprehend the true nature of his discoveries. He maintained the belief that he had reached the outskirts of Asia until his death. Nonetheless, his expeditions opened up new trade routes and spurred further European exploration and colonization in the New World. The legacy of Christopher Columbus is a topic of ongoing debate and reevaluation. While he is traditionally celebrated for his role in bridging the Old World and the New World, the impact of his actions on indigenous populations and the complex consequences of colonization are also important aspects to consider. Christopher Columbus's voyages remain significant milestones in world history, representing a turning point in global exploration and forever altering the course of human civilization. They sparked a wave of exploration, colonization, and cultural exchange that shaped the modern world and laid the foundation for the interconnectedness of nations and peoples across continents.

On 28th September 1928 Alexander Fleming, a Scottish researcher discovered penicillin.

I know we all like to blow our own trumpets and us, as Scots gave the world a lot, certainly punching above our weights, per head of population, but let’s be honest, Fleming never had much of a clue what to do with his discovery at first.

Often described as a careless lab technician, oor Alex returned from a two-week holiday to find that a mould had developed on an accidentally contaminated staphylococcus culture plate. Upon examination of the mould, he noticed that the culture prevented the growth of staphylococci. Staphylococcus is a bacteria that can be found normally in the nose and on the skin.

That’s not to  say he wasn’t clever, he knew this was something special and in an article he had published in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology in 1929 he wrote;

 “The staphylococcus colonies became transparent and were obviously undergoing lysis … the broth in which the mould had been grown at room temperature for one to two weeks had acquired marked inhibitory, bactericidal and bacteriolytic properties to many of the more common pathogenic bacteria.”

At the time Fleming was actually working on the flu virus, penicillin was a bi-product of what most of us men are guilty of, - not doing the washing up! 

Fleming’s laboratory notebooks are sketchy, and his subsequent accounts of the discovery are contradictory. The evidence of the first culture, which he photographed, indicated that he observed lysis, the weakening and destruction of bacteria—as in his lysozyme studies. But sometimes he described the key observation as an instance of inhibition or prevention of bacterial growth in areas affected by the mould “juice,” evidenced by a clear zone surrounding the mould.

Although these two effects occur under quite different conditions, Fleming probably forgot which observation came first, for in the months subsequent to the original observation he conducted many experiments while varying conditions systematically.

He discovered that the antibacterial substance was not produced by all moulds, only by certain strains of Penicillium, namely, Penicillium notatum. Although he could not isolate it, he named the active substance “penicillin.” He studied methods of producing the impure product and determined its stability at different temperatures and over various lengths of time. He investigated its effect on many microbes, curiously omitting the familiar spirochete that causes syphilis (which Salvarsan controlled but did not eliminate). He tested its toxicity on a laboratory mouse and a rabbit. Forever after, it has been a puzzle why he did not inject these or other laboratory animals with staphylococcus or other disease-causing bacteria before injecting them with the fluid containing penicillin. Perhaps the explanation lay in his belief that cures come from within the body itself, rather than from an external agent. So he was not looking for a curative agent but rather focused on his new find as a topical antiseptic. In later years he claimed that the difficulties he had experienced in isolating and stabilizing penicillin, let alone the problems of producing sufficient quantities for clinical trials, had prevented him from realising the full fruits of his research.

So the main point of me saying this is it looks like he ran out of ideas because come 1931 he had stopped working with penicillin. In fact apart from his own work, little notice was taken by the scientific community of  the paper he published.

However his research was continued and finished by Howard Flory and Ernst Chain, researchers at University of Oxford who are credited with the development of penicillin for use as a medicine in mice.  It wasn’t  until 1939 that  Florey and Chain, led a team of British scientists who successfully manufactured the drug from the liquid broth in which penicillin grows. 

They, along with Fleming, were given the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their roles in the discovery and development of this agent, and the pair deserve as much credit for carrying on with the development of penicillin, so yes well done Alexander Fleming, but let’s not forget the others. 

Discovery Of Penicillin

penicillin, perhaps the earliest despite everything quite possibly of the most generally utilized anti-toxin specialist, got from the Penicillium form. In 1928 Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming originally saw that states of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus neglected to fill in those region of a culture that had been coincidentally tainted by the green form Penicillium notatum. He secluded the form, developed it in a liquid medium, and found that it created a substance fit for killing a large number of the normal microbes that taint people. Australian pathologist Howard Florey and English natural chemist Ernst Boris Chain separated and cleansed penicillin in the last part of the 1930s, and by 1941 an injectable type of the medication was accessible for helpful use.

Discovery Of Penicillin

Have some familiarity with penicillin's revelation by Alexander Fleming and advancement by Ernst Chain and Howard Florey and its outcome in treating the injured in The Second Great War Have some familiarity with penicillin's revelation by Alexander Fleming and advancement by Ernst Chain and Howard Florey and its outcome in treating the injured in Universal Conflict IISee all recordings for this article The few sorts of penicillin blended by different types of the shape Penicillium might be separated into two classes: the normally happening penicillins (those framed during the course of form maturation) and the semisynthetic penicillins (those wherein the construction of a compound substance — 6-aminopenicillanic corrosive — found in all penicillins is changed in different ways). Since it is feasible to change the qualities of the anti-microbial, various kinds of penicillin are delivered for various helpful purposes.

The normally happening penicillins, penicillin G (benzylpenicillin) and penicillin V (phenoxymethylpenicillin), are as yet utilized clinically. In light of its unfortunate security in corrosive, quite a bit of penicillin G is separated as it goes through the stomach; because of this trademark, it should be given by intramuscular infusion, which restricts its value. Penicillin V, then again, commonly is given orally; it is more impervious to stomach related acids than penicillin G. A portion of the semisynthetic penicillins are likewise more corrosive stable and consequently might be given as oral prescription.

All penicillins work similarly — specifically, by restraining the bacterial catalysts answerable for cell wall amalgamation in recreating microorganisms and by enacting different proteins to separate the defensive mass of the microorganism. Thus, they are viable just against microorganisms that are effectively imitating and delivering cell walls; they likewise hence don't hurt human cells (which essentially need cell walls).

A few kinds of beforehand defenseless microbes, like Staphylococcus, have fostered a particular protection from the normally happening penicillins; these microorganisms either produce β-lactamase (penicillinase), a chemical that upsets the inner construction of penicillin and in this manner obliterates the antimicrobial activity of the medication, or they need cell wall receptors for penicillin, extraordinarily lessening the capacity of the medication to enter bacterial cells. This has prompted the development of the penicillinase-safe penicillins (second-age penicillins). While ready to oppose the action of β-lactamase, be that as it may, these specialists are not as successful against Staphylococcus as the regular penicillins, and they are related with an expanded gamble for liver harmfulness. Besides, a few types of Staphylococcus have become impervious to penicillinase-safe penicillins; a model is methicillin-safe Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

extreme touchiness to penicillin extreme touchiness to penicillin Penicillins are utilized in the treatment of throat contaminations, meningitis, syphilis, and different diseases. The central symptoms of penicillin are touchiness responses, including skin rash, hives, enlarging, and hypersensitivity, or unfavorably susceptible shock. The more serious responses are phenomenal. Milder side effects might be treated with corticosteroids yet typically are forestalled by changing to elective anti-toxins. Anaphylactic shock, which can happen in recently sharpened people inside the space of seconds or minutes, may require quick organization of epinephrine.

Australian scientists decisive in the outcome of World War II

There is a heart stopping moment in Brett Mason Wizards of oz. It’s August 29, 1940, and an ordinary black box is making its way through London, precariously attached to the roof of a cab. Inside is the first prototype of “Magnetic Cavity No. 12” – what will become the first microwave radar – and plans for the first nuclear bomb. The box is on the roof because it does not fit in the back seat of his handler, who is making a flight from London to the United States as part of a desperate quest by the embattled British for American scientific help to win. The war against Germany. A loose belt, an airstrike, or a traffic accident could have destroyed what became known as the “Bag That Changed the World”. Left: Sir Mark Oliphant at his home in Canberra in 1997. Right: Howard Florey was challenged to convince governments of the value of his work.attributed to him:Mike Powers This box and its contents are primarily due to Mark Oliphant, the Australian physicist whose research and design were the driving forces behind two of the three innovations that changed not only the course of World War II but human history. Nearly a year later, another bag is making its way across the Atlantic, and it will also have a profound impact on human history. This bag was carried by Australian scientist Howard Florey, and contained notebooks, several vials of brown powder, and samples of the Penicillium mold from which the antibiotic penicillin was isolated. Florey’s job was also to convince the wealthier United States to fund the expansion of penicillin manufacture. Wizards of oz It tells the story of these two friends, born in Adelaide three years apart, who transformed war, industry and medicine. Britt Mason treatments from Oz. It is impossible to overestimate its influence. “Oliphant and Florey led teams that developed over 100 days in the early 1940’s the device that was critical to winning the war, designed the powerful weapon that ended the war, and produced the miraculous cure that enabled countless victims to survive,” Mason writes. Both Oliphant and Florey were already distinguishing themselves in their chosen scientific fields – Oliphant’s physics, Florey’s pharmacology and pathology – long before the war. But the threat of fascism and Hitler’s march across Europe charged their quest for knowledge that might turn the tide in favor of the Allies. The book jumps back and forth between Oliphant and Florey as both struggle to overcome scientific and institutional barriers in obtaining, financing, and accrediting their discoveries. With the benefit of hindsight, it seems surprising that both have had to work so hard to convince governments—their own, and the American one—of their work potential, especially in Florey’s case. Both worlds crossed the Atlantic waters infested with U-boats, and the United States, trying to garner support and funding, while Britain and Europe were bombarded to near oblivion. Source link Originally published at Melbourne News Vine