Invented: 1929

Inventor: Alexander Fleming

Penicillin is an amazing Australian invention that was discovered by Alexander Fleming. Antibiotics are chemicals, effective at low concentrations, created as part of the life process of one organism, which can kill or stop the growth of a disease-causing microbea germ. In 1929 Alexander Fleming a doctor and researcher at St Marys Hospital in London, England published a paper on a chemical he called Penicillin, which he had isolated from mold. Fleming wrote that Penicillin had prevented the growth of a neighbouring colony of germs in the same Petri dish. Fleming never developed penicillin further but became the first person ever to publish the news of the germ killing power. In 1938 Howard Florey, Ernst Chain and Norman Heatley expanded on Flemings work at Oxford University. They and their staff developed methods for growing, extracting purifying enough Penicillin to prove its value as a drug. World War II (1939-1945) had begun by the time their research was showing results and work began to find a way to grow mold efficiently to make Penicillin in the large quantities that would be needed to save the lives of thousands of soldiers. Today deaths from bacterial diseases are only one-twentieth of what they were in 1900, before any antibiotic chemicals had been discovered. Penicillin has saved countless lives across the world and is still used today; Penicillin is an Australian invention that has had a huge impact on society.