Where does this come from, and can I check it?

A contaminated dish in 1928 showed a clear ring around the fungus. The figure is taken from Nobel Prize, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

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Yes. It sits on the Science shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Fleming noticed mould killing bacteria

A contaminated dish in 1928 showed a clear ring around the fungus Alexander Fleming returned from holiday to find that a Penicillium mould had grown on a plate of staphylococci. Around it, the bacteria had dissolved. Purifying the substance took another decade of work by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, and penicillin reached patients during the 1940s. It sits in Mondo's science collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Nobel Prize

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Tags: medicine, experiment, bacteria

Fleming noticed mould killing bacteria: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: A contaminated dish in 1928 showed a clear ring around the fungus. The figure is taken from Nobel Prize, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a science fact?: Yes. It sits on the Science shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.