This is why Penicillin didn't save its first patient
The discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928 is often portrayed as a stroke of serendipity falling upon a sloppy worker who had left a bacterial culture plate open on his benc...
Mike Barrett is Professor of Biochemical Parasitology at the Wellcome Centre for Molecular Parasitology at the University of Glasgow. His research focuses on understanding how drugs kill parasites and how parasites become resistant to those drugs. He has a long-standing interest in the history of science and medicine and writes frequently for magazines, including the New Statesman.