A group of six women nicknamed the 'Penicillin Girls' cultivated weekly mold samples for early antibiotic experiments and clinical trials, enabling penicillin work that led to a Nobel prize.

Penicillin was discovered by accident after a bacteriologist left his lab bench materials out during a summer vacation and mold invaded his petri dishes.

A moldy cantaloupe from a fruit market in Illinois contained the strain of penicillin needed to supercharge production of the antibiotic.

Penicillin has saved an estimated 500 million lives since its creation—making it one of the most consequential medical breakthroughs in medical history.

Before antibiotics, the major killer in wars had typically been infection, not injuries from the battlefield.

Penicillin’s discoverer predicted antibiotic resistance

A massive stockpile of 2.3 million doses of penicillin was readied by a coalition of pharmaceutical and chemical companies ahead of D-Day to treat soldiers who might be wounded on the battlefield.

Penicillin is prescribed at the highest rate of any antibiotic due to its effectiveness against numerous common pathogens, low price, and long track record.

Women's wartime suit features silk dyed with CRISPR-modified bacteria

Penicillin works by blocking bacteria's ability to build cell walls, leaving microbes vulnerable to collapse.

Rosalind Franklin’s work led to Nobel Prize-winning discoveries in DNA and virology

Two-thirds of antibiotic classes were made between the 1940s and 1960s

Synthetic sulfa drugs preceded naturally occurring penicillin as antibiotics, and were still widely used during WWII to fight infectious diseases.

Read more about the backstory on the 2025 Nobel Prize for immune system work

The discovery of insulin led to a controversial Nobel Prize in 1923

Half of the 2018 Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded for a process that exploits bacterial evolution to engineer enzymes.

A mold closely related to penicillin flavors blue cheese—they're both part of the penicillium genus.

Nicknamed the 'dark lady of DNA,' Rosalind Franklin was the long-overlooked contributor to discovering the molecule's structure.

Less than 1% of Americans are allergic to penicillin, though about 10% of Americans believe they have this allergy.

Robert Koch won the Nobel for his tuberculosis work, but he also pioneered cholera research

The first Nobel Prize ceremony, which honored the discovery of X-rays and the cofounder of the Red Cross, occurred five years after Alfred Nobel's death.

The woman erased from the DNA breakthrough

The pharmaceutical industry evolved, in part, from the discovery of synthetic dyes

See the molecular story of how penicillin manages to outmaneuver bacteria—at least, when the pathogen hasn't developed resistance to the drug.

As of 2025, only five people have won two Nobel Prizes, with Marie Curie the only person to do so in two different sciences.

Marie Curie developed and trained women to operate mobile X-ray units in World War I

Marie Curie's research on radioactivity made her the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person to win awards in two sciences.

60 years after seeing Henrietta Lacks as a patient, her doctor still remembered the unique cervical tumor that gave rise to the 'immortal' cell line now commonly used in biomedical research—it was purple, shiny, and soft—an appearance he said is very different from a typical tumor.

Meet the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project.

Of the 736 Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and economics awarded through 2023, more than 95% went to the same academic family.

Scarlet fever was a leading cause of childhood mortality in the mid-1800s, but penicillin pushed its mortality rate below 1%.

The Nobel Prizes are among the highest science honors, though they have long been criticized for their limited scope and representation of disciplines and minorities.

In 1933, the influenza virus was first identified through 'ferret flu' experiments, which proved that the disease was viral—not bacterial.

Light therapy was widely used as a medical treatment for various maladies in the late 1800s before it was replaced by antibiotics.

Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier received the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry for showing how the CRISPR-Cas9 system enables precise gene editing in living cells.

Beyond DNA, Franklin's legacy extends into modern virology and steel production

Listen to how the 1902 'poison squad' experiments changed food safety in America

Some New England familieis lost multiple children to major diphtheria outbreaks in the 19th-century before modern antibiotics and vaccines were developed.

Nature simultaneously published three papers on DNA—only the first made history

A French Army surgeon discovered that malaria is a parasitic disease in 1880—but scientists were initially skeptical.

See how antidepressants—used by roughly 1 in 10 Americans—were discovered.

The cholera bacteria was first isolated in 1854—but the discovery was largely ignored

Watch an experiment that demonstrates how bacteria can develop resistance under drug pressure—an evolutionary problem that bolsters antibiotic resistance.

As of 2026, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which advises the pope on scientific matters, has included 90 Nobel laureates among its members.

Marie Curie pioneered radioactivity research, for which she won two Nobel Prizes

It can take 10 to 15 years and more than $1B to develop a new antibiotic.

With rules established when scientists worked in small labs or in isolation, the Nobel Prizes have struggled to reflect the collaborative nature of modern research.

How scientists earned themselves a Nobel Prize by discovering what destroyed ozone

The new antibiotic killing drug-resistant bacteria

Marie Curie's daughter Irene discovered artificial radioactivity

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.