Profile of the Day: Alexander Fleming
On this day in 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. The accidental find would become one of the most important discoveries in the history of science.
Image: Alexander Fleming / Navy Medicine, Flickr Commons
Before leaving for a vacation with his family, Fleming left out a stack of unwashed petri dishes containing cultures of bacteria in the sink. On September 28, 1928, Fleming returned to his lab and noticed something unusual. Mold had grown in a petri dish and the staph bacteria around the mold had been killed. After further investigation, he realized he had discovered something truly groundbreaking, the world’s first antibiotic.
Fleming’s discovery of penicillin would earn him a Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine and help save countless lives.
Explore Alexander Fleming’s family tree and discover how you’re related!