Discovery of Penicillin

Hello there. My name is Alexander, and I am a scientist. I love to discover new things. My laboratory is my favorite place in the whole world. It is a very busy place, and sometimes, it gets a little bit messy. I have lots of bottles and tubes and special round dishes. In my dishes, I grow tiny, tiny things called germs. You can't even see them. I study the germs because I want to find ways to stop them from making people feel sick. It is my job to help everyone stay healthy and strong. I love looking through my microscope to see the tiny germs wiggle and grow. It's like a secret, tiny world.

One day, I went away on a holiday. It was so much fun. But oh dear, I had made a mistake. I left one of my germ dishes out by the window. When I came back to my lab on September 3, 1928, I saw something very strange. In the dish, there was a fuzzy, green spot of mold. It looked soft and fluffy, like a little green blanket. And all around the fuzzy green spot, the germs were gone. Poof. They had disappeared. It was like magic. I looked very close. Where did the germs go? I felt so excited. This was a wonderful surprise. I knew I had found something very, very special.

A Medicine for Everyone
I decided to give my fuzzy green surprise a special name. I called it penicillin. I learned that this special mold could help fight the naughty germs that make us cough and feel poorly. My discovery helped other smart scientists make a new kind of medicine. This medicine has helped so many people, like your moms and dads and even you, get better when they are sick. Sometimes, a little mistake, like leaving a dish out, can turn into a big, happy accident that helps the whole world.