Penicillium

The Great War was over. Alexander could finally return to his research laboratory. The war, awful though it had been, renewed his motivation to find an answer for bacterial infections. His experience on the battlefront helped him realize that bacteria were just as deadly as bullets.

“Where did I leave those notes?” he muttered, as he sorted through the jumble in the lab. “I know that one enzyme from tears has an antibacterial effect, but it’s just not strong enough. There must be a better solution. If I can only discover it.”

After rummaging around a bit more, he gave up and tried to organize his lab. Since the war, the lab seemed in a constant state of disorder; piles of notes and books lay everywhere, and empty test tubes showed where experiments had taken place. He decided to start cleaning the pile of petri dishes out of the sink. He had used them to grow staph bacteria, but now he was ready to start some new experiments. As was his habit, Alexander opened each one, examining it before placing it in a cleaning solution. “That’s funny,” he said, as he opened one containing the characteristic mold. Strangely, around this particular mold sample, the bacteria had died.

“Look at this.” Alexander handed the specimen to a lab assistant. “See if you can extract a sample of this mold, so we can identify it.”

A little while later, the assistant identified the mold as Penicillium notatum. Alexander grew more of the mold and then tested it, over and over again. Each time, the mold killed the deadly bacteria in the petri dish. “This is the antibacterial effect I was looking for! Think of how many lives can be saved!”