It is also heartening to learn that Florey and Chain too struggled to find sufficient grant funding - if the real brains behind one of the greatest medical innovations in history were at times strapped for cash then there is hope for us all!Ī theme that Rosen returns to throughout the book is the impact (both positive and negative) of World War II on the development of antibiotics.
For example, Fleming, Florey and Chain, who eventually shared the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for the discovery and isolation of penicillin, had a decidedly rocky relationship, the details of which are well-documented in the book for us to enjoy. Of course, he discusses their scientific brilliance and how they revolutionized how we think about infectious diseases, but he also tells us the gossip - the difficult scientific relationships. Rosen describes this journey by telling the stories of the godfathers of microbiology (including the likes of Pasteur, Koch, Lister, Ehrlich) but discusses them not just as scientific trailblazers, but also as eccentric characters. So, to say that medicine has come a long way since those days is something of an understatement.
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