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Alexander Fleming Facts & Worksheets

Alexander Fleming was a Scottish physician and microbiologist who is best known for his discovery of penicillin, the first antibiotic drug

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Sir Alexander Fleming FRS FRSE FRCS was a Scottish physician and microbiologist best recognized for developing penicillin, the world’s first widely effective antibiotic. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 for discovering penicillin.

See the fact file below for more information on Alexander Fleming, or you can download our 31-page Alexander Fleming worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE

  • Alexander Fleming was born in the Scottish hamlet of Darvel on August 6, 1881.
  • Hugh Fleming and Grace Stirling Morton, his parents, were both from farming backgrounds. His father’s health deteriorated, and he died when Alexander was seven.
  • Alexander attended a little moorland school where they educated 12 students of various ages in a single classroom between the ages of five and eight.
  • Alexander’s next school was Darvel School, which required an eight-mile round commute on foot every school day. 
  • His scholastic talent was spotted when he was 11 years old, and he was offered a scholarship at Kilmarnock Academy, where he boarded for roughly two years before departing for London.
  • Alexander came to London at the age of 13 in early 1895. It was the year that fellow Scot, Arthur Conan Doyle, released “The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes,” which revealed that their hero had perished after plunging over the Reichenbach Falls.
  • Alexander resided at his elder brother’s house, Tom, a physician. Most of the Fleming family ended up living with Tom, leaving the property to the eldest brother, Hugh.
  • He studied business and commerce at the Polytechnic School. He began in a class for his age, but his professors quickly determined he needed more rigorous work. 
  • He was placed in a class with boys two years his senior and graduated at sixteen.

WORK AND MEDICAL SCHOOL

  • Alexander’s business expertise helped him land a position at a shipping office, but he disliked his job.
  • He received money from his uncle, John Fleming, in 1901 when he was 20. He opted to put the money toward medical school since he aspired to be a doctor like his successful brother Tom.
  • First, he required the necessary prerequisites to enroll in medical school. He presented no significant challenges; he completed his tests with the most excellent grades of any student in the United Kingdom.
  • Alexander entered London‘s St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in 1903, at 22, and graduated with honors three years later with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery.
  • Rather than following in Tom’s footsteps, Alexander was persuaded by immunology expert Almroth Wright to join his bacteriology lab at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School. 
  • While researching, Fleming earned a degree in bacteriology and the Gold Medal for outstanding student in 1908. He was, after that, appointed to the position of bacteriology lecturer at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School.
  • Almroth Wright was fascinated by the inherent power of our bodies to combat illness. Fleming was particularly intrigued that, while individuals have bacterial infections from time to time, our natural defenses usually keep diseases at bay.

PERSONAL LIFE

  • Fleming married Sarah Marion McElroy in 1915 while serving as a captain in the Medical Corps. 
  • Robert, their only son, went on to become a general practitioner.
  • Fleming was titled in 1944 and became Sir Alexander Fleming.
  • His wife Sarah died in 1949.
  • Fleming married Dr. Amalia Koutsouri-Vourekas, a member of his research group at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School, in 1953.
  • Alexander Fleming died of a heart attack on March 11, 1955, at 73, in London. His remains were interred at St Paul’s Cathedral.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE

The Truth About Antiseptics

  • At 33, he joined the army in 1914, was promoted to captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and worked in field hospitals in France.
  • He discovered through a series of ingenious experiments that antiseptic medicines used to heal wounds and prevent infection were killing more troops than the diseases.
  • Antiseptics like carbolic acid, boric acid, and hydrogen peroxide failed to destroy germs deep in wounds; worse, they reduced the soldier’s natural resistance to infection by killing white blood cells.
  • Fleming established that antiseptic chemicals were only effective in healing surface wounds and were hazardous when used on deeper lesions.
  • Almroth Wright believed paramedics should use saline solution or salt water to clean serious wounds since it did not interfere with the body’s intrinsic defenses and attracted white cells. Fleming proved this discovery.
  • Wright and Fleming published their findings, but the majority of army physicians refused to adjust their practices, resulting in many avoidable fatalities.

Lysozyme Discovery

  • In 1919, Fleming returned to St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London to research. His military experience had firmly reinforced his belief that antibacterial agents should only be used if they worked with, rather than against, the body’s natural defenses; in particular, agents must not destroy white blood cells.
  • When he was 41 years old, he made his first discovery of such an agent.
  • Fleming extracted secretions from a patient’s nose suffering from a head cold. He cultured the fluids to cultivate any bacteria that were present. 
  • He identified a novel bacteria, Micrococcus lysodeikticus, now known as M. luteus, in the secretions.
  • Fleming was studying these bacteria a few days later. He was now suffering from a head cold, and mucus spilled from his nose onto the germs. 
  • The bacteria in the region where the drop landed were almost instantaneously eliminated. Fleming was always searching for natural germ killers, so this discovery piqued his interest.
  • He investigated the influence of various bodily fluids on these germs, such as blood serum, saliva, and tears. 
  • He discovered that bacteria would not grow if he introduced a drop of one of these fluids.
  • Fleming found an enzyme as the common component in the fluids. Lysozyme was the name he gave to his newly discovered enzyme. 
  • Lysozyme has the effect of destroying some types of microbes, rendering them safe for humans. 
  • The presence of lysozyme in our bodies protects us from potentially dangerous bacteria. It provides us with natural immunity against a variety of ailments. 
  • However, the use of lysozyme as a medication is restricted since it has little or no impact on many other bacteria that infect people.
  • Fleming had identified a naturally occurring antibiotic that did not destroy white blood cells. 
  • If he could only develop a more potent antibiotic, he could alter medicine.
  • Lysozyme is used to preserve food and wine. It is naturally found in high amounts in egg whites, protecting against infection in chicks. 
  • It is also used in medicine, mainly in Asia, to treat head colds, athlete’s foot, and throat infections.

Penicillin Discovery

  • Fleming accomplished something monumental in August 1928. He had a long vacation with his wife and son.
  • He returned to his laboratory on Monday, September 3, and saw a mound of Petri dishes he had left on his bench. Staphylococcus colonies were found in the dishes. While he was out, one of his helpers left a window open, allowing various germs to contaminate the dishes.
  • Fleming was irritated when he glanced through the dishes and saw something odd had happened in one of them.
  • A fungus was flourishing, destroying the bacterial colonies in its vicinity. The bacteria seemed normal, further away from the fungus.
  • Fleming gave the dish to an assistant, who remarked on how similar it was to Fleming’s famous discovery of lysozyme.
  • Fleming committed to cultivating more fungus to discover a better natural antibiotic than lysozyme. 
  • He found it belonged to the Penicillium genus and made a bacteria-killing liquid. 
  • He publicly called the antibiotic penicillin on March 7, 1929. Fleming presented his findings, demonstrating that penicillin killed a wide range of germs.
  • It includes those that cause scarlet fever, pneumonia, meningitis, and diphtheria. Penicillin was also non-toxic and did not harm white blood cells.
  • Unfortunately, his finding was generally ignored by the scientific community, and he faced several challenges, including:
  • Penicillin proved challenging to separate from the fungus that produced it.
  • He was unable to develop a method of generating penicillin in large doses.
  • Penicillin appeared to have a slow onset of action.
  • Clinical trials of penicillin as a surface antiseptic revealed that it was ineffective.
  • Almroth Wright, Fleming’s employer, despised chemists and refused to let them work at his laboratory. In terms of isolating, purifying, and concentrating penicillin, the presence of a trained chemist would have been highly beneficial.
  • Despite these obstacles, Fleming continued to work on penicillin in the 1930s, but he never achieved the breakthrough required to create it in large, concentrated amounts. Others, nonetheless, did.
  • In the early 1940s, a team of scientists at the University of Oxford led by pathologist Howard Florey and biochemist Ernst Boris Chain developed penicillin into the medication we know today.
  • Alexander Fleming, Florey, and Chain shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1945. The following individuals received the award for the discovery of penicillin and its therapeutic impact on various infectious ailments.
  • In his Nobel Prize-winning speech in 1945, Fleming warned of a growing increasingly urgent threat:

It is not difficult to make microbes resistant to penicillin in the laboratory by exposing them to concentrations not sufficient to kill them, and the same thing has occasionally happened in the body. The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops. Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant.

Alexander Fleming
  • Fleming was usually effusive in his admiration for Florey, Chain, and their team while downplaying his contribution to the penicillin narrative. 
  • Despite his shyness, he rose to international fame. Millions of individuals were saved by the medicine he developed.
  • He traveled to America in 1945, and chemical industries presented him with a personal gift of $100,000 as a gesture of appreciation and thanks for his efforts. 
  • Fleming, as is his wont, did not take the present for himself, instead donating it to the research laboratories at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School.

Alexander Fleming Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about Alexander Fleming across 31 in-depth pages. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about Alexander Fleming, a Scottish physician, and microbiologist who is best known for his discovery of penicillin, the first antibiotic drug.

Alexander Fleming Worksheets
Alexander Fleming Worksheets
Alexander Fleming Worksheets

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  • Alexander Fleming Facts
  • Father of Penicillin
  • The Discovery
  • New Enzyme
  • Work History
  • Truth Uncovered
  • #Scientists
  • P-Class
  • Exceptional Scientist
  • Penicillin Anniversary
  • Poster Exhibit

Frequently Asked Questions About Alexander Fleming

Who was Alexander Fleming?

Alexander Fleming was a Scottish physician and microbiologist widely recognized as one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century. He is best known for his discovery of penicillin, the first antibiotic drug, which changed the face of modern medicine.

When was Alexander Fleming born, and when did he die?

Alexander Fleming was born on August 6, 1881, in Lochfield, Scotland. He died on March 11, 1955, in London, England.

What was Alexander Fleming’s educational background?

Fleming was educated at the Louden Moor School and later at the Kilmarnock Academy. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, earning his medical degree in 1906.

What was Alexander Fleming’s most famous discovery?

Alexander Fleming is most famous for his discovery of penicillin, which he made in 1928. He observed that mold growing on a petri dish of Staphylococcus bacteria prevented the bacteria from growing. He identified the mold as belonging to the genus Penicillium and realized that its extracts had antibacterial properties, leading to the discovery of penicillin.

What was Alexander Fleming’s impact on medicine?

Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin profoundly impacted medicine and changed how bacterial infections were treated. Before penicillin, there were no effective antibiotics for treating bacterial infections, and many people died from sepsis and other bacterial diseases. With the discovery of penicillin, a new class of antibiotics was opened up, and bacterial infections became treatable, saving countless lives and revolutionizing modern medicine.

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