The Penicillin Man

The history of penicillin.

Penicillin revolutionized healthcare and turned the modest, self-effacing Alexander Fleming into a world hero. This book tells the story of the man and his discovery set against a background of the transformation of medical research from 19th-century individualism through to teamwork and modern-day international big business.

Alexander Fleming's life from boyhood to his death in 1955, including information on his discovery of penicillin and his other scientific contributions.

A biography of Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin.

The untold story of the discovery of the first wonder drug, the men who led the way, and how it changed the modern world The discovery of penicillin in 1928 ushered in a new age in medicine. But it took a team of Oxford scientists headed by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain four more years to develop it as the first antibiotic, and the most important family of drugs in the twentieth century. At once the world was transformed-major bacterial scourges such as blood poisoning and pneumonia, scarlet fever and diphtheria, gonorrhea and syphilis were defeated as penicillin helped to foster not only a medical revolution but a sexual one as well. In his wonderfully engaging book, acclaimed author Eric Lax tells the real story behind the discovery and why it took so long to develop the drug. He reveals the reasons why credit for penicillin was misplaced, and why this astonishing achievement garnered a Nobel Prize but no financial rewards for Alexander Fleming, Florey, and his team. The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat is the compelling story of the passage of medicine from one era to the next and of the eccentric individuals whose participation in this extraordinary accomplishment has, until now, remained largely unknown.

A biography of the British bacteriologist, born in Scotland, who was knighted and awarded the 1945 Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering penicillin.