The Mold That Shouldn't Have Been There

In 1928, Alexander Fleming returned from vacation to find a contaminated petri dish he probably should have thrown away — and almost did. What followed wasn't a moment of genius so much as a decade of near-misses, ignored papers, and stubborn biology that the scientific community kept refusing to believe. This is the real story of penicillin: messier, stranger, and more contingent than any textbook will tell you. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.