Do you know what penicillin is? Chances are that someone in your family or even your pet has taken this drug. Penicillin is an antibiotic that’s used to treat a variety of bacterial infections, from strep throat and skin and ear infections, to more serious illnesses like pneumonia and sepsis; its use has saved millions of lives worldwide. What would you say if I told you that the discovery of this life-saving drug was completely accidental? Waaaaatttt!!! Yep that’s right Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 when he wasn’t even looking for it. In this episode, we explore the accidental discovery of penicillin and the decade-long struggle to purify it and develop it into a drug that has had a significant public health impact. This story highlights the power of curiosity in scientific discoveries. Are you curious?
Do you know what penicillin is? Chances are that someone in your family or even your pet has taken this drug. Penicillin is an antibiotic that’s used to treat a variety of bacterial infections, from strep throat and skin and ear infections, to more serious illnesses like pneumonia and sepsis; its use has saved millions of lives worldwide. What would you say if I told you that the discovery of this life-saving drug was completely accidental? Waaaaatttt!!! Yep that’s right Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 when he wasn’t even looking for it. In this episode, we explore the accidental discovery of penicillin and the decade-long struggle to purify it and develop it into a drug that has had a significant public health impact. This story highlights the power of curiosity in scientific discoveries. Are you curious?
Intro Music Hi, everyone, welcome back to the show - We Love Science, where we discuss all the things that you could do with your love of science. We are your hosts. I'm Shekerah
Fatu Badiane-Markey:
And I'm Fatu. And today's show is a new series that we're starting called Accidental Discoveries. Now many people might think that all scientific discoveries are made by carefully designed hypothesis driven, well thought out, almost perfect experiments. And while the scientific process plays a major role in all discoveries, especially in validating discoveries, but some of those initial discoveries were made purely by accident, right, Shekerah?
Shekerah Primus:
Yep, exactly. And some of the most significant discoveries in human history were made either purely by accident, or because the scientists made an unexpected observation during their research, and then they were curious enough to follow up on that observation. And some of those discoveries have led to inventions that we still use in our everyday lives. So these are incredibly important discoveries that have made a huge impact. So things like post it notes, right, believe it or not, those were developed based on a failed experiment. Can you believe that a failed experiment and I love post it notes they have saved my life, well not my life, but they saved my butt so many times from forgetting something important, right, I like to put a note right next to the door handle saying remember to take this or don't forget to do that. so right when I'm about to leave the apartment, I cannot leave without getting that reminder. Right. So that's so cool. I love em.
Fatu Badiane-Markey:
Yeah, come through post-it notes. Another one I think it's the microwave. Right. And I think that was based on some kind of like unexpected observation. And, you know, nowadays everyone has a microwave in their house, certainly in the US and Europe.
Shekerah Primus:
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah. And another one is Viagra, right? So most adults and even teenagers, let's be honest, have heard of Viagra. But you might be surprised to find that what the little blue pill is used for these days is not what it was originally developed for.
Fatu Badiane-Markey:
Okay, so we have a lot of accidental discoveries. To explore. So what are we talking about today?
Shekerah Primus:
Yes. Today we're going to talk about the accidental discovery of penicillin, which is an antibiotic that is used to treat certain types of bacterial infections, including throat infections like strep throat, ear infections, skin infections, and even some types of pneumonia. And before its discovery in the early 1900s, people died from simple infections like just getting a cut infected for example, right which can cause bacteremia. So that means that the bacteria from your cut spreads into your bloodstream, leading to sepsis and potential death. So that's why we all know is important that when you get a cut to clean it out and disinfect the wound, to kill the bacteria in the cut, right so that way, it can't spread into your bloodstream. So the discovery of penicillin really revolutionized medicine and the treatment of bacterial infections.
Fatu Badiane-Markey:
That's so powerful. So since it was discovered in the early 1900s, you know, who discovered it? What kind of made it an accidental discovery?
Shekerah Primus:
Yes. So the story goes. So it was discovered back in 1928. So yeah, the early 1900s. So that's almost 100 years ago now, right? By a scientist called Alexander Fleming. And so he was a bacteriologist working at St. Mary's Hospital in London. And he was studying a type of bacteria called staphylococcus. And those bacteria can cause a variety of infections from skin infections to more serious illnesses, like endocarditis, which is an infection of the heart. Okay, so as the story goes, Alexander Fleming while he was doing his research, left a Petri dish where he was growing bacteria. He left it out, uncovered on his benchtop and just went away on vacation.
Fatu Badiane-Markey:
Hmmmm Interesting. A little messy, a little messy. but Okay, okay.
Shekerah Primus:
So I'm not sure where he went away on vacation. I'm imagining a nice peaceful, like beach in the Caribbean, you know, I don't know where he went. But that big nono led to discovery of penicillin, because when he came back from vacation, he found that there was now a mold or a fungus that was also growing on his bacterial plate. And that mold was inhibiting the growth of the bacteria. So there was what's called a zone of clearance, or an area basically surrounding the mold that had no bacterial growth at all. So it appeared that the mold was preventing the bacteria from growing. So that's what he observed and like any good scientist, he was curious and decided to follow up on that observation to figure out what the mold was, and how it was able to prevent the bacteria from growing. So now he's following the scientific process. Right? So he hypothesized that the mold is producing a substance that is preventing the bacteria from growing and he was able to identify the mold as belonging to the Penicillium strain of mold. So the Penicillium genus, and he named the substance that the mold was producing penicillin.
Fatu Badiane-Markey:
Clever, I see what he did there. That's really amazing. So he basically accidentally stumbled onto penicillin, because you know, if he hadn't left his thing out, right, and that little like mold spore hadn't dropped on his little petri dish. What I mean, how long would it have been until we discovered penicillin, right? It's really, really amazing. And it really shows the importance of careful observation and attention to detail. If Fleming wasn't paying attention to the petri dish. He might never have made the discovery or sometimes like with me when I have contamination when I'm working with things in the lab, I don't take a minute to look at it. I'm just frustrated at this little mold spore you know like throw it and I'm just like ugggh trash!
Shekerah Primus:
Yep, I am the same way, I'm with you so exactly. Right. He could have just came back and been like, Oh man, I messed up my experiment. I messed up and just thrown that petri dish away in the garbage. Right? He could have just been like, Oh, no big mistake. Boop, you're gone. Right. Can you imagine that? And then how long would it have taken us to discover penicillin if he hadn't paid attention to the results from that mistake? Basically, that mistake that he made, realize the significance and then just followed up on it. So that's what's really key about being a scientist and just paying attention to your results, paying attention to your data, right, even when you make mistakes.
Fatu Badiane-Markey:
Exactly. Right. Sometimes negative data or data that we're not expecting can be like the best data because it leads us down all these different avenues. So now I'm super curious what happened after he made the discovery like you know, was he starting to like produce the antibiotic, get rich, you know, just being like I'm done with the lab. And now I'm a millionaire like, what happened next?
Shekerah Primus:
oh, man, that would be nice. But no, it wasn't that easy for him, unfortunately. So he published his results, of course, like any good scientist, but he had a really difficult time purifying penicillin from the mold. So for the next like decade or so he would send his Penicillium mold, that strain of mold to researchers who requested it, but unfortunately, no more progress was made, until about 1939 when another group of scientists at Oxford University, including Howard Florey Ernst Chain, and others, were able to successfully purify penicillin. Then, they used it in a pretty classic experiment using mice. So all the mice were infected with bacteria. And they had one group of control mice, of course, and another group of treated mice, so treated with penicillin. And then they showed that penicillin was able to cure the bacterial infection in the treated mice allowing them to live. So that was the money experiment right there, right that was the one that really showed the power of this drug as a life saving tool.
Fatu Badiane-Markey:
Wow, that's when the dollar signs started showing up right. And so like is that the end, and now we have penicillin?
Shekerah Primus:
And now we have penicillin, right. However, there's of course much more that needed to be done. So, from there, the first person to be treated with penicillin was in Oxford policeman in 1941. And later on, so even the governments got involved because they realized how powerful and how important this discovery was. So the US and British governments collaborated to produce efficient amounts of it because it was quite difficult to purify and produce back then. Right. So they collaborated so that they could produce enough of it. And this was the 1940s Right, so of course, it was used to treat wounded soldiers during World War Two. And then Alexander Fleming together with Florey and Chain, they all won the Nobel Prize in 1945 for the discovery and development of penicillin. So yeah, that is the story of the accidental discovery of penicillin.
Fatu Badiane-Markey:
That's really amazing. And you know, today if we think about it, we have so many different antibiotics. And I think some of those are derivatives of penicillin, right? Like ampicillin and amoxicillin. And we may not have developed those so quickly if it wasn't for this first accidental discovery of penicillin.
Shekerah Primus:
Yep, every discovery could be very important. So that's the message for today's show. Just be curious. If you see something interesting, don't be afraid to look deeper and ask questions and even come up with your own hypotheses, and design experiments to test your ideas. Just let yourself be curious and you might discover something amazing so until next time, Bye, everybody.