JIGSAW READINGMicoorganisms

Brainstorming

Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1995)

Alexander Fleming was a British bacteriologist and Nobel laureate. He is known for his discovery of the antibiotic, penicillin. He was born near Darvel, Scotland, and educated at Saint Mary's Hospital Medical School of the University of London. He served as professor of bacteriology at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School from 1928 to 1948.

His discovery of penicillin came about accidentally. He observed that the mold in one of his culture plates had destroyed the bacteria.

It was a warm September day in 1928. Alexander Fleming was working with bacterial cultures in a London hospital. He left the windows of the lab open. After studying some laboratory plates of staphylococci bacteria, he accidentally left a plate by the open window and forgot about it. A few days went by. He returned and found that the plate by the window was contaminated.

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Was his experiment ruined?

Fleming didn’t throw the plate away. He re-examined it under a microscope and found mold growing on the staphylococci. He noticed a clear zone that existed all around the mold. The mold was killing the deadly bacteria. Penicillin was the mold that killed bacteria. It was Alexander Flemingʼs mistake that gave the world penicillin. This is now considered one of the greatest discoveries of the 20th century. Fleming received the Nobel Prize in 1945, and millions of people worldwide have survived disease because of his discovery.

This observation helped him develop penicillin therapy. Penicillin is an antibiotic derived from the fungus Penicillium. It can also be created by using artificial processes.

Typhoid Mary

Mary Mallon emigrated from Ireland to America at the age of 15. When she arrived she became a servant, and soon discovered a talent for cooking. Since the cook in households earned a higher salary, she was happy to change from a simple servant to this role. She worked in 8 households from 1900-1907 as the cook, leaving a trail of 51 people seriously ill with typhoid, one of whom, a small girl, died of the disease.

When she was eventually identified as the cause of the many illnesses, authorities at first tried to persuade her to volunteer samples of her faeces, blood and urine to be tested. She refused, although she did admit that she seldom washed her hands when working with food. She didn't think it was necessary. Eventually, after putting up a tremendous fight, she was taken with the help of 5 policemen, to the nearby hospital where the samples were removed. These proved that she was in fact infected with typhoid although she was not sick at all. The authorities sent her to a small island near the city where she was kept away from others for fear of infecting them too. Apart from a short 'parole period', she remained on this island, in full health, until her death.

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