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Rank 104Down 4
#10 in Scientific Discoveries
of 20 ranked entries
Penicillin
Alexander Fleming · 1928
Fleming noticed a stray mould had killed the bacteria around it on a contaminated petri dish he had nearly discarded — the discovery sat largely unexploited for over a decade until Florey and Chain’s wartime team worked out how to mass-produce it. It reached soldiers in time for D-Day. Recorded specifics: year 1928, discipline Medicine, country Scotland. Panel highlighted opened the entire antibiotic era, turning once-fatal infections into treatable ones, florey and Chain’s mass-production breakthrough is as consequential as the original discovery and saved an estimated hundreds of millions of lives across the twentieth century. The reservation on record is widespread agricultural and medical overuse since has driven the antibiotic resistance now threatening its effectiveness.
Biology & medicine
Score breakdown
How Penicillin earned 84.9
Each criterion is scored independently, then combined using the weights published on Scientific Discoveries.
- Explanatory powerweight 30%
- 85.5
- Reproducibility & evidenceweight 25%
- 87.0
- Downstream impactweight 25%
- 82.7
- Paradigm-shifting influenceweight 20%
- 84.1
On the record
Recorded detail
| Year | 1928 |
|---|---|
| Discipline | Medicine |
| Country | Scotland |
| Rating | 9.3 |
Panel verdict
Strengths and reservations
What it gets right
- Opened the entire antibiotic era, turning once-fatal infections into treatable ones
- Florey and Chain’s mass-production breakthrough is as consequential as the original discovery
- Saved an estimated hundreds of millions of lives across the twentieth century
Where it gives ground
- Widespread agricultural and medical overuse since has driven the antibiotic resistance now threatening its effectiveness
1 appearance
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