Introduction
Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) discovered the principle underlying antibiotics, a genuine medical revolution, and it all happened by accident. But whereas the excitable Archimedes cried ‘Eureka!’ on making his famous discovery, Scotsman Fleming muttered a more British ‘That’s funny’.
EARLY on Friday, September 28, 1928, Alexander Fleming walked into his laboratory in St Mary’s Hospital, London, and noticed an open Petri dish with a culture of staphylococcus lying in it. A nearby open window had let mould spores blow into the lab, and where these had settled in the dish the bacterial culture would not grow.
That mould battled infections had been known for centuries, and Sir John Burdon-Sanderson, a predecessor of Fleming’s, had encouraged Joseph Lister and others to study the matter in the 1870s. But Fleming identified, for the first time, the anti-bacterial substance at work, which he named ‘penicillin’.
Fleming did not have the skills required to mass-produce penicillin for medicinal use, and there things might have ended but for Howard Florey at Lincoln College, Oxford. By D-Day in 1944, his team had manufactured enough penicillin to treat all the wounded, and the following year Florey and his colleague Ernst Chain shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine with Alexander Fleming.*
Norman Heatley, who worked out how to extract penicillin efficiently, was not recognised for many years; but without him penicillin would never have been stable or capable of mass-production. Read more in the Guardian’s review of Eric Lax’s book The Mould in Dr Florey’s Coat: the Remarkable True Story of Penicillin.
Précis
After noticing that mould spores inhibited the growth of bacteria, Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming identified the active substance and named it ‘penicillin’. Turning that discovery into a usable medicine fell however to Australian chemist Howard Florey and his team, who together with Fleming received a Nobel Prize for their work in 1945. (52 / 60 words)
After noticing that mould spores inhibited the growth of bacteria, Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming identified the active substance and named it ‘penicillin’. Turning that discovery into a usable medicine fell however to Australian chemist Howard Florey and his team, who together with Fleming received a Nobel Prize for their work in 1945.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 45 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, besides, despite, if, must, not, otherwise, whether.
Archive
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 College. Manufacture. Would.
2 Century. Sir. Wound.
3 First. Grow. Mass.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
fr (12+1)
afar. fair. far. fare. fear. fir. fire. for. fore. four. free. fur.
afire.
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