Page 290 - (DK) I Can’t Believe It! 2

288
Penicillin was
TRUE or
FALSE?
found by accident

Accidents happen, and one took

place in Scottish doctor Alexander
Fleming’s London laboratory on

September 28, 1928. Mold that
had landed accidentally on
Fleming’s petri dish was

producing a substance
that killed the bacteria

he was culturing. This
was penicillin, the
world’s first antibiotic.

MICROWAVE MELTDOWN
When American engineer
Percy Spencer (1894–1970)
brought chocolate to work, it
led to a modern-day marvel.
As he inspected a magnetron
(a device that produces
microwave radiation for
radar), the heat accidentally
melted the chocolate in his Blue-green mold
pocket. He developed the had grown in the petri
microwave oven as a result. dish because it was
mistakenly left open.

US_288_289_309600_Inventions.indd 288 19/12/17 3:49 pm