Lucky Doctor Who Saved the World, Dead

By Mohamed Alzahmi
London, United Kingdom 12 March 1955, Sir Alexander Fleming, doctor,
scientist, discoverer of penicillin, winner of The Nobel Prize in Physiology and
Medicine. He died 1945 in a heart attack in his home at age of 73. He was
cremated and his ashes were buried at St Paul's Cathedral. Alexander Fleming
was the man who discovered penicillin, which has helped many people by
enabling doctors to cure life-threatening illnesses. ( Place this info in the intro
instead)

Life and Career

He was born in Ayrshire, Scotland on 16 August 1881. He went to Kilmarnock
Academy in London .He was working as a shipping clerk, when a relative left him
some money, so he went to study medicine at St Mary's Medical School at the
University of London. When he qualified, Alexander Fleming became an assistant
bacteriologist.
Everything began with a staphylococcus culture plate and mold that developed
on it. This is how penicillin was discovered, on a plate that was uncovered such
as the other plate. He forget to cover this plate, that it keep him a legend for the
world. In 1928 while Fleming was doing research into influenza, he was growing
a culture of staphylococcus germs on a plate (Break into two sentences for
clarity.)By accident, mold started growing on the plate and Fleming noticed that
the germs around the mold were killed. Thats means the bacteria were killed
because they had reach to the maximum depth in the mold. Then Alexander
Fleming was searching and he want to know what keeps the germ grow in the
mold and why? That tells him that he must find a way to take it off or clean it.
(What did this tell him?) He made a liquid mold culture, which he called
penicillin and in 1929 he published his findings in the Journal of Experimental
Pathology. This was how penicillin, the medicine that helped save so many
people from illnesses such as bacterial endocarditis, meningitis, pneumococcal
pneumonia, gonorrhea and syphilis was discovered. Fleming was always trying
to find a way to turn the mold into a pure drug, until in 1940 Ernst Chain and
Howard Florey succeeded in doing this. Mass production began in 1943.
In 1943 Alexander Fleming was made a fellow of the Royal Society and in 1944
he was knighted. In 1945 he was given the Nobel Prize for medicine along with

Howard Walter Florey and Ernst Boris Chain.

Chance vs. Science?

In 1928 British soldiers were coming from the war, and they were seriously
injured because the bad antibiotics (Syntax). A young doctor called Alexander
Fleming had just left on holiday, carelessly leaving a plate of bacteria by his lab
window. Little did he know of what he was going to find! Actually, when he came
from his holiday, he found his plate of bacteria was covered by mold. He
observed a zone of dead bacteria around the mold and he decided to carry some
research on this mold. This was the beginning of a grand discovery, which would
change the future of medicine.( This paragraph repeats information found
in paragraph 3. Review and restructure.)
Alexander Fleming was observant and lucky that he discovered penicillin, but if
he had covered the plates with antiseptic liquid he would not have observed the
mold that he found. Many people said that Alexander Fleming was a careless lab
technician, rather than a scholarly doctor. This may be true. Yet, he was the
scientist who discovered a life-saving medicine, even with the help of chance.
As he said One sometimes finds what one is not looking for. He was not looking
for something in particular, but he was surprised with his finding: a plot with a
zone of dead bacteria. He was not looking for the penicillin, but he found it by
chance. This shows that Chance plays on important role in life, because chance
comes by coincidence not by working hard to discover something that you want
to figure out.
Flemings breakthrough shows that its the combination of hard work and chance,
which can lead us to success. So, he had been carrying out an experiment while
coming across an unexpected discovery. So, work played an equally important
role to chance in his discovery.( What you say here contradicts what you
say in the previous paragraph.

Bibilography
1. http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/mar/12/penicillin-flemingalexander-bacteriology
2. http://www.healio.com/endocrinology/news/print/endocrine-today/