1. Penicillin and the Antibiotic Revolution
- Author:
- Daniel Rowe and Christopher McKenna
- Publication Date:
- 08-2020
- Content Type:
- Case Study
- Institution:
- Oxford Centre for Global History
- Abstract:
- In October 1945, Alexander Fleming, Howard Florey, and Ernest Chain each received an almost identical telegram from Stockholm, Sweden. The Nobel Prize Committee, these messages read, was pleased to inform the three British-based scientists that they had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine, for the ‘discovery of penicillin and its curative action in various diseases.’ This was not surprising news. In fact, a year earlier, two major newspapers had informed their readers that Fleming would receive the prestigious award in 1944. Although the reporters’ stories were a year ahead of their time, they were right that the global scientific community had generally agreed that the world’s first antibiotic was a landmark in medical history worthy of Nobel Prize recognition. It was simply a question of when, not if, the prize would be awarded.
- Topic:
- Economics, Health, History, and Medicine
- Political Geography:
- Sweden and Global Focus