Question

2. Fleming was sometimes dismissed as 'an absent-minded scientist'. He later received the
highest prize possible in his field-the Nobel Prize and was knighted as well. What does
this tale impart to you?​

Answer 1

Answer:

Today, the use of penicillin and other antibiotics are common place. The various antibiotics are used to treat a number of what are now common diseases and to prevent the onset of infections when our skin, our first barrier to fight off disease, is somehow broken through a simple cut or a more serious wound. It is something that we all take for granted, today. However, many diseases and simple wounds that are so easily treated today because of the availability of antibiotics has not always been available. Antibiotics are a relatively recent discovery and the first practical one, penicillin, was not available until the early 1940s. Even the concept of using fungal products, such as penicillin, to produce medicine is a relatively new one. However, many folk remedies that have included fungi have long been utilized, but the incorporation of fungi into the remedy was inadvertent and not known. For example, over three thousand years ago, the Chinese had put moldy soybean curd on boils and other types of skin infections. Other cultures have placed warm earth, which contains molds and other fungi, as first aid in injuries. There was undoubtedly antibiotics in the soybean curd and earth that were placed on injuries. So, although the concept of antibodies is relatively recent, its use has been around for some time.

The discovery of penicillin has often been described as a miracle drug, and that is exactly what it was. Prior to the discovery of penicillin, death could occur in what would seem, today, to be very trivial injuries and diseases. It could occur from minor wounds that became infected or from diseases such as Strep Throat, and venereal diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea were a much more serious issue.