Choose the scientists associated with the antibiotic “Penicillin”:
(A) Alexander Fleming
(B) James Watson
(C) Ernest Chain
(D) Howard Florey
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → (A), (C) and (D) only
Penicillin was the first antibiotic discovered, by chance. Three scientists shared the Nobel Prize in 1945 for it.
(A) Alexander Fleming — Correct. Fleming found the mould and named the chemical Penicillin, after Penicillium notatum.
(B) James Watson — Incorrect. Watson, with Francis Crick, gave the double helix model of DNA.
(C) Ernest Chain — Correct. He and Florey established its full value as an antibiotic.
(D) Howard Florey — Correct. He worked with Chain to develop penicillin as a medicine.
NCERT Extract:
Antibiotics – “… You are familiar with the commonly used antibiotic Penicillin. … Alexander Fleming while working on Staphylococci bacteria, once observed a mould growing in one of his unwashed culture plates around which Staphylococci could not grow. He found out that it was due to a chemical produced by the mould and he named it Penicillin after the mould Penicillium notatum. However, its full potential as an effective antibiotic was established much later by Ernest Chain and Howard Florey.”