Alexander Fleming

Alexander Fleming was born in 1881 at Lochfield, a farm outside Darvel, a small town in Ayrshire, Scotland. He was the third child, with seven other brothers and sisters. After completing his education at Regent Street Polytechnic, London in 1897, he took an office job for a few years. In 1901, he quit his job and went to St. Mary Hospital to study medicine. He then worked in Almroth Wright's research team as a research assistant with a strong interest in bacteriology. During the war between Britain and Germany in 1914, Fleming joined the British Royal Army Medical Corps to develop a cure to reduce the number of soldiers dying from infected wounds. He argued that antiseptics were not effective in preventing wounds from becoming infected. His argument was, however, rejected and little was done to relieve the suffering of many wounded soldiers.

When World War I was over, Fleming continued working at St. Mary's Hospital. One day in 1928, before tossing some old petri dishes of culture away, he made an accidental discovery of a blue mold growing on the culture of some harmful kind of bacteria. The mold seemed to be able to kill off the bacteria. A series of experiments later proved his findings and led to the discovery of penicillin. It was a strain of Penicillium which could kill off bacteria while not causing any damage to wounds. It worked against many kinds of bacteria and was mostly safe for the human body. Unfortunately, with insufficient support from the medical community, the research had to stop.

Finally in the late 1930s, other scientists found a way to mass-produce penicillin. British and American drug companies began to manufacture the drug in large quantities. It was then used to cure many infections during World War II. In 1945, Fleming was presented the Nobel Prize for Medicine. He humbly said, "Nature makes penicillin; I just found it." Fleming spent the rest of his career at St. Mary's Hospital until his death in 1955 of a sudden heart attack. Fleming was married twice and had one son.