It was on this day in 1928 that Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming peered into a petri dish at his basement laboratory in London and noticed a blue-green mold growing. The mold, he observed, was killing the staph bacteria he'd been cultivating in that petri dish. He called the mold "penicillin." (from The Writers Almanac)
As a person who is allergic to Penicillin, I shall not be wishing it happy birthday. It's mold, people! Mold!
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Hey Matt, I'm also allergic. Love that when I tell healthcare workers they all look at me like I had crows flying out of my ears. It's not like it isn't a common allergy.
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ReplyDeleteI, too, am allergic, but I'm happy to wish penicillin a happy birthday since it can be used to treat non-allergic people before they can infect me or gross me out!
ReplyDeleteAlso, cheese is made with mold, and I like cheese--so let's hear it for friendly mold!
Eric, many fine things are made of mold or some other biological process of decay. Alaskan politics for example.
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