
An exhibition to commemorate 75 years since the first human trials of penicillin - Petiver
http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2017/01/the-stuff-that-almost-brings-people-back-from-the-dead/
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HarryHirsch
Note the 3d crystallographic model of penicillin. These were not meant to be
exhibition pieces, it was what people used before interactive computer
graphics for structure refinement. You had imperfect phases from somewhere and
would calculate a Fourier map (perhaps only a projection along the axes as
seen here), then you would construct your model and make it conform to the
calculated density and chemical knowledge as best as you could, you'd measure
atomic positions with calipers and from these derive new phases that you would
feed into another cycle.

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Theodores
My grandfather was a beneficiary of one of those early trials. After being
shot down somewhere over Africa during WW2 he as treated with penicillin, had
this have not happened then I would have never met him. I had to double-check
the '75 years' to see if that was time accurate or the 'family tale' was
wrong. Seems to add up.

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justinjlynn
It's hard to believe that less than one human lifetime has elapsed between
when a bad staph infection would almost certainly kill you, to a period when
you could destroy most any bacterial infection, and now we're worried about
being right back where we started. Evolution works fast, let's hope we can
stay ahead in the arms race.

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takingflac
Mold has been using penicillin to kill bacteria for a very long time.
Resistance to it has been developing right alongside it, but it is only in the
past 75 years that we have increased the pressure on bacteria to favor
resistance.

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bertil
I literally walk past this every day and I didn’t pay attention. Thank you for
sorting my weekend outing!

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fnj
Penicillin was discovered by accident in 1928 by Scottish scientist Alexander
Fleming. The first cure by penicillin was in 1930, but it wasn't until well
into 1942 that volume production and wide use began.

