Got a quick insight about how penicillin works: interferes with cell-wall building which is a destroy and recreate process by preventing the recreate part.
Got a quick view into the scientific process and communication: Fleming focused on the insight - penicillium kills staphylococcus - and left out the circuitous detail. This is important so that the big win here is very clear.
And got an insight into human nature and memory: Fleming didn’t tell the accidental contamination story until much later. It could possibly be even an idea someone else might have come up with which then took root in his mind (ironic haha!)
The communication aspect reminds me of Mendel’s far too perfect ratios for his pea plants. That kind of “repeat till difference clear” statistics would be decried today but perhaps that was to communicate rather than to determine.
And finally, I really enjoy reading about human process innovation because I think it’s a big factor in how Humanity grows. The lab notebook has to be some kind of star performer here - Fleming’s notes allow us to look back like this.
When I experiment with things, I naturally lean to keeping notes on my test protocol, observations, and results. But not because of some personal genius. It’s just the standard way I was taught as a child in our science labs.
I won’t claim to the rigor of a microbiology lab but even just the process notes help a lot, which is useful since I’m just testing molecules on myself.
"Remember, if you flip a coin 200 times and it comes heads up exactly 100 times, the chances are the coin is actually unfair. You should expect to see something like 93 or 107 instead".
tetris11•31m ago
jasonjmcghee•16m ago