Penicillin Quotes

“I had fallen in love with a young man..., and we were planning to get married. And then he died of subacute bacterial endocarditis... Two years later with the advent of penicillin, he would have been saved. It reinforced in my mind the importance of scientific discovery...”
― Gertrude B. Elion

“It has been demonstrated that a species of penicillium produces in culture a very powerful antibacterial substance which affects different bacteria in different degrees. Generally speaking it may be said that the least sensitive bacteria are the Gram-negative bacilli, and the most susceptible are the pyogenic cocci ... In addition to its possible use in the treatment of bacterial infections penicillin is certainly useful... for its power of inhibiting unwanted microbes in bacterial cultures so that penicillin insensitive bacteria can readily be isolated.”
― Alexander Fleming

“I doubt that Fleming could have obtained a grant for the discovery of penicillin on that basis [a requirement for highly detailed research plans] because he could not have said, 'I propose to have an accident in a culture so that it will be spoiled by a mould falling on it, and I propose to recognize the possibility of extracting an antibiotic from this mould.”
― Hans Selye, From Dream to Discovery: On Being a Scientist

“Penicillin was as liberating for gay sex as the pill had been for straight sex.”
― Christopher Bram, Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America

“Bacteriologist Mary Hunt found one [a mold] on a cantaloupe in a Peoria, IL grocery store. That strain became even more productive after being exposed to X-rays and ultraviolet radiation, essentially all the penicillin in the world descends from the mold from that one cantaloupe in Peoria.”
― John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet

“Флемінг ніколи не розглядав пеніцилін як антибіотик. Через десять років це зробили Говард Флорі та Ернст Чейн, яких фінансував Фонд Рокфеллера, і вони втілили спостереження Флемінга в перший диво-препарат. Цей засіб був такий дефіцитний і потужний, що під час Другої світової війни лікарі армії США відновлювали його з сечі людей, яких ним лікували, щоб потім використовувати повторно. У 1945 році Флорі, Чейн та Флемінг розділили між собою Нобелівську премію.”
― Джон М. Баррі, Пандемія: Моторошна історія іспанського грипу