Word: mold
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When he returned, he noticed a clear halo surrounding the yellow-green growth of a mold that had accidentally contaminated the plate. Unknown to him, a spore of a rare variant called Penicillium notatum had drifted in from a mycology lab one floor below. Luck would have it that Fleming had decided not to store his culture in a warm incubator, and that London was then hit by a cold spell, giving the mold a chance to grow. Later, as the temperature rose, the Staphylococcus bacteria grew like a lawn, covering the entire plate--except for the area surrounding...
...discovery that would change the course of history. The active ingredient in that mold, which Fleming named penicillin, turned out to be an infection-fighting agent of enormous potency. When it was finally recognized for what it was--the most efficacious life-saving drug in the world--penicillin would alter forever the treatment of bacterial infections. By the middle of the century, Fleming's discovery had spawned a huge pharmaceutical industry, churning out synthetic penicillins that would conquer some of mankind's most ancient scourges, including syphilis, gangrene and tuberculosis...
...Fleming had abandoned his work on penicillin. He would have no further role in the subsequent development of this or any other antibiotic, aside from happily providing other researchers with samples of his mold. It is said that he lacked both the chemical expertise to purify penicillin and the conviction that drugs could cure serious infections. However, he did safeguard his unusual strain of Penicillium notatum for posterity. The baton of antibiotic development was passed to others...
Mleczko has led the Crimson (31-1-0, 24-1-1 ECAC) on its rampage through its schedule and the finest season in school history. She brought her experience as a gold medallist on the 1998 U.S. Olympic Team and helped ECAC Coach of the Year Katey Stone mold a team chock-full of talent into possibly the greatest women's hockey team ever assembled...
...This is one of the things I would have missed most if I stayed at Harvard my junior year and interacted only with Harvard students, who seem to increasingly homogenize themselves into a sort of `Harvard student' mold as their college years go along," Hicks added...