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unit 4
4. Extension to Science Alexander Fleming
(August 6, 1881-March 11, 1955)
More than a century ago, in Scotland, Alexander Fleming was born. He was the seventh of eight children, all of whom worked and lived on a farm. He later said “we unconsciously learned a great deal about nature” living in a farm.
When he was about 13, he moved to London. One of his brothers, Tom, started a practice in medicine and it is thought that he encouraged his younger brother to do the same.
He was a brilliant young man; he passed his
qualifying exams with top scores. He studied
medicine in St. Mary´s Hospital Medical School in London. It is there where he began his research in vaccine therapy.
In 1914, World War I began. As you can imagine, he was faced with trying to cure soldiers that had terrible infections, many which were dying from them. Even though he was able to save many lives, he still felt there was more that could have been done, if there was only something that could help fight the infections. When the war was over, he returned to St. Mary and continued with his research.
It was known that bacteria caused disease; the problem was they did not know how to fight the bacteria without affecting the human body.
One day in 1928, Fleming accidentally made an incredible discovery. He was cleaning his lab and found some Petri dishes in which he had been growing bacteria; he realized mold had grown on the dish creating a circle that was
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