Word: plate
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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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...
...penicillin in 1928 is the stuff of which scientific myths are made. Fleming, a young Scottish research scientist with a profitable side practice treating the syphilis infections of prominent London artists, was pursuing his pet theory--that his own nasal mucus had antibacterial effects--when he left a culture plate smeared with Staphylococcus bacteria on his lab bench while he went on a two-week holiday...
...years continental drift was held up to derision--until scientists in the 1960s found a plausible mechanism in the earth's internal motions under the ocean floor. Suddenly, Wegener's disreputable ideas became reputable. Renamed plate tectonics, they gave geology a single unifying theory, explaining everything from earthquakes and volcanoes to the formation of mountain ranges and ocean basins. Sadly, Wegener, who perished on the Greenland icecap in 1930 at age 50, didn't live...
...well as power. Forget that at DiMaggio's retirement, only four men had ever hit as many home runs. Focus instead on those three large numerals inscribed on the left-center-field wall in Yankee Stadium when DiMaggio played there--4 5 7--denoting the preposterous footage from home plate to the seats. For a right-handed power hitter, it marked the outer limits of a place where potential homers went to die. No right-handed Yankee hit nearly as many home runs as DiMaggio until the fences were moved in, years after he retired. Had he hit as many...
...male roommates were just outside of Tommy's House of Pizza at about 2:45 a.m. when the "suspicious-looking" assailants drove up in a large 1998 car with a Pennsylvania plate that had been stopped by police earlier in the night, according to Frank T. Pasquarello, Cambridge Police Department (CPD) spokesperson...