Sidequests

The Mold That Changed Medicine Forever

9:10

In September 1928, Alexander Fleming returned from vacation to find a contaminated culture plate — a mold had grown on it, and in a ring around the mold, all the bacteria were dead. Most scientists would have thrown it away. Fleming looked more closely, recognized what he was seeing, and named the substance penicillin. This episode of Sidequests covers the discovery, the decade-long stall before…