One sometimes finds what one is not looking for
Born in Darvel, Ayrshire, Scotland. Grew up on a sheep farm. My father died when I was seven. Served in World War I -- watched soldiers die from infected wounds, not the wounds themselves. September 1928, I went on holiday and left petri dishes of Staphylococcus on my bench. Came back and found a mould -- Penicillium notatum -- had killed the bacteria around it. That contamination saved more lives than any other discovery in history. Tip: My lab was famously messy. A cleaner lab would not have been contaminated. But a less observant scientist would not have noticed. Howard Florey and Ernst Chain turned my observation into a usable drug. The discovery was mine, but the medicine was theirs.
Microbiology
Science · 40y
Bacteriology
Science · 40y
Laboratory Safety
Science · 35y
Medical Research
Science · 40y
Research-grade compound microscope with 40x, 100x, 400x, and 1000x magnification. Oil immersion lens. See bacteria, blood cells, plant cells, crystals. Comes with prepared slides and blank slides for ...
€15 per_day
Hands-on session. Swab surfaces, streak petri dishes, incubate, and examine colonies. You will see what lives on your phone, your doorknob, your skin. The ability to see the invisible world is the fou...
€16 per_session
I warned about this in my 1945 Nobel lecture. Bacteria evolve resistance when we use antibiotics carelessly. The ignorant man who takes insufficient doses creates resistant strains. Seventy years late...
€12 per_session
Fifty sterile petri dishes with pre-poured nutrient agar. Ready for streaking, swabbing, or zone-of-inhibition experiments. Includes inoculation loops and a Bunsen burner. Proper aseptic technique req...
€10 per_day
Small group (max 4). I will train your eye to notice anomalies. We will examine slides, cultures, and experiments looking for the unexpected. The mould on my petri dish was an anomaly. A hundred scien...
€15 per_session
Exported from BorrowHood · 2026-03-10