Word: penicillin
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...mold had been destroyed. This observation set the scientist off on a series of experiments in which he demonstrated that the mysterious mold was able to kill off an entire range of disease-producing bacteria. Because this particular fungus was a member of the Penicillium group, he named it penicillin after its presumed active ingredient...
Fleming's further experimentation with penicillin--a few poorly planned attempts to treat patients--proved frustrating, and he turned his attention to other research. But in 1938 Oxford pathologist Howard Florey and his young assistant Ernst Chain took up the work again, using the progeny of Fleming's own molds. In a relatively short time, they demonstrated penicillin's efficacy in treating human infection, a feat that had eluded their predecessor. In 1945, Fleming, Florey and Chain were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine...
Still, FDR's optimism proved to be justified. Even before the War was over, the chemical synthesis of quinine improved treatment for malaria in the pacific theatre, and the manufacturing of Fleming's penicillin effectively controlled wound infections for the first time in the history of war-fare. Following the War, inspired by these successes, the Federal government made unprecedented investments in many fields of science, through the NIH and other agencies. These investments have been essential for the vitality of American science ever since...
...researchers were the first to chemically synthesize penicillin. Five MIT scientists have won Nobel prizes for basic discoveries that today are the basis for manipulating genes and DNA to treat the human race's worst maladies...
...Without financial help, we might never have heard from Fleming," Rudenstine said, referring to noted scientist and former Commencement speaker Sir Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin. "Higher education has become much more accessible...