Penicillin: More than a Moldy Petri Dish

Pulaski is often built up into an almost mythic figure who represents patriotism, bravery, freedom, independence, and the U.S. as a melting pot. a nation of immigrants. But there’s also a very different version of his story. Research: “Benjamin Franklin to George Washington, 29 M ...  Show more

This 2022 episode covers the 1901 discovery of Ada Maria Redpath and her son Jocelyn Clifford dead in their home. What exactly happened between the two of them is something we will likely never understand.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

In 1928 a young bacteriologist named Alexander Fleming failed to tidy up his petri dishes before going home to Scotland on holiday. On his return, he famously noticed that one dish had become mouldy in his absence, and the mould was killing the bacteria he’d used the dish to cult ...  Show more

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Bacteriophages -- viruses that target and kill bacteria -- were one of the most promising medical treatments of the early 20th century, and were used to treat all sorts of infections, from cholera to staph, and everything in between. But by the ...

Six years ago, a new infection began popping up in four different hospitals on three different continents, all around the same time. It wasn’t a bacteria, or a virus. It was ... a killer fungus. No one knew where it came from, or why. Today, the story of an ancient showdown be ...

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Intravenous or IV fluids are a ubiquitous treatment in medicine, and one of the most cost-effective treatments that we have, costing less than a cup of coffee in the developing world. But it wasn't always this way. In this episode, called Salt W ...