WWII Science & Technology: The Race That Changed Everything - Part 3: Penicillin's Paradox: How Bureaucracy Almost Killed the Miracle Drug
Key Takeaways The 13-Year Gap: Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928; it didn't reach patients until 1941. More soldiers may have died from this delay than in many battles. The Funding Failure: British institutions refused to fund penicillin development. It took American industrial capacity to scale production. The Mold Hunt: The penicillin strain that saved millions came from a moldy cantaloupe in an Illinois grocery store. The Credit War: Fleming got the Nobel Prize and the fame; Florey and Chain did the actual life-saving work. The Uncomfortable Truth: War accelerates medical progress because peacetime bureaucracies are designed to prevent risk, not save lives. The Thirteen-Year Wait In 1928, Alexander Fleming returned from vacation to find mold growing on his petri dishes. Around the mold, bacteria had died. He had discovered antibiotics. ...