Ernst Boris Chain

Hello! My name is Ernst Boris Chain. Even when I was a little boy, I loved figuring things out. I was a scientist, which is like being a detective for nature! I used microscopes to look at teeny-tiny things that you can't see with just your eyes. I thought it was so fun to discover the world's little secrets.

One day, my friend Howard Florey and I learned about a special, fuzzy green mold. Another smart scientist named Alexander Fleming had found it a long time ago. We thought this mold might have a secret power to fight the naughty germs that make people sick. We worked very hard in our lab to find that secret. It felt like we were on a great treasure hunt for something that could help everyone feel better!

Guess what? We found it! We discovered the mold’s secret power. We figured out how to turn it into a special medicine. We called it penicillin. This new medicine helped doctors make sick people better, especially soldiers who were hurt in a big war. It was one of the very first medicines of its kind, called an antibiotic, which means it can fight germs.

For our discovery, my friends and I were given a very special award called the Nobel Prize in 1945. I lived to be 73 years old, and I was so happy that I could help people all over the world. Today, doctors still use medicines like penicillin to help us stay healthy and strong.