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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
informative
slow-paced
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Very interesting account of not so much the discovery of penicillin, but the monumental effort required by a somewhat overlooked group of scientists to scale-up production and test it during the shortages and frustrations of England during the second World War. Cheers to Florey, Chain, Heatley, the penicillin girls and others who brought us into the antibiotic era.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
While I am unlikely to reread this book, the author made this book both enjoyable and informative. The painstaking research is obvious and the author clearly put a great deal of effort into making this informative read a good one.
I am now a huge Florey fan as well ;-) what an interesting portrait of a little-known man of science.
I am now a huge Florey fan as well ;-) what an interesting portrait of a little-known man of science.
Read for my theory class. As in many cases of scientific discovery, it appears that credit has not been given where credit is due. This story was a great example of how persistence paid off in the end.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
This book is almost entirely biography and politics, and has almost no science. For example - the structure of Penicillin is never shown, and how it acts to actually kill bacteria is never discussed. But huge parts of the book are dedicated to politics around the Nobel prize, the challenges in getting funding, the life stories do the scientists involved. But not one sentence on why Penicillin actually works. It seems like the author set out to show that Florey and his team didn't get enough credit, but didn't really care much about Penicillin or science. He did a good job of that & the book was well written(so I can't give it a bad rating - if that is what you are interested in, pick it up), but The story of Penicillin is more interesting and you got very little of that.
Fascinating story, but somewhat too minute in details.