# 11 Discovered by Accident

What was discovered by accident? The answer is penicillin. It kills germs. By killing germs, it saves lives. Suppose you are sick. You go to a doctor. She examines you. She says you have a "staph" infection. She gives you some pills. You take them. The pills knock out the staph. Soon you are well. Before penicillin, this would not happen. Staph was almost sure death.

Everyone wanted a cure. Labs worked day and night. They grew the staph in small dishes. Then they tried to kill it. Nothing worked.

The lab dishes had covers on them. These kept things from falling into a dish. Molds were a big worry. They are always floating in the air. You can't see them. They're too small. There are thousands of different molds. Molds can ruin an experiment. That's why dishes are covered.

Dr. Alexander Fleming was working to kill the staph germ. He worked for years. One day he took a cover off a dish. He looked inside. There was a thick growth of staph germ. There was also some mold. Then he saw something strange. Where the mold was, there was no growth of staph. This is what Fleming probably thought. "By accident, I found a mold to kill the dreaded staph."

This is how penicillin was found. But here's the real miracle. There are thousands of types of molds. But only one type can kill staph. The mold must have fallen into the dish a few days before. The cover was probably off only a few seconds. In those few seconds the right mold fell into the right dish. Another man might have thrown the dish away. What a loss this would have been. The human race was lucky. Fleming was very smart. He understood what the mold did.

# 11 意外發現

什麼是被意外發現的？答案是青黴素。它能殺死細菌。通過殺死細菌，它拯救了生命。假設你生病了。你去看醫生。她為你檢查。她說你得了「葡萄球菌」感染。她給你一些藥丸。你服用了它們。藥丸消滅了葡萄球菌。很快你就康復了。在青黴素之前，這不會發生。葡萄球菌感染幾乎必死無疑。

每個人都想要一種治療方法。實驗室日夜工作。他們在小培養皿中培養葡萄球菌。然後他們試圖殺死它。什麼方法都無效。

實驗室培養皿上有蓋子。這些蓋子防止東西掉進培養皿。黴菌是一個大問題。它們總是漂浮在空氣中。你看不見它們。它們太小了。有數千種不同的黴菌。黴菌會毀掉實驗。這就是為什麼培養皿要加蓋。

亞歷山大·弗萊明博士正在努力殺死葡萄球菌。他工作了多年。一天他取下一個培養皿的蓋子。他看向裡面。有厚厚的葡萄球菌生長。還有一些黴菌。然後他看到了奇怪的現象。在有黴菌的地方，沒有葡萄球菌生長。弗萊明可能這樣想：「意外地，我發現了一種能殺死可怕葡萄球菌的黴菌。」

青黴素就是這樣被發現的。但真正的奇蹟在這裡。有數千種黴菌。但只有一種能殺死葡萄球菌。那黴菌一定是在幾天前掉進培養皿的。蓋子可能只打開了幾秒鐘。就在那幾秒鐘內，正確的黴菌掉進了正確的培養皿。換作另一個人可能就把培養皿扔掉了。那將是多大的損失啊。人類是幸運的。弗萊明非常聰明。他理解了黴菌的作用。