Penicillin - A Dangerous Medical Breakthrough?

Penicillin, accidentally discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928, revolutionized the treatment of deadly diseases. But even Fleming suspected its danger. In the summer of 1928, Scottish physician Alexander Fleming returned from vacation to his laboratory at St. Mary's Hospital in London and accidentally discovered a mold in a Petri dish that could apparently kill even the most hardy germs. Fleming called the fungus "penicillin." He hoped it would help him achieve his vision of a drug that would only attack pathogens, not the body’s healthy cells. It would take two decades and a world war before Fleming and others succeeded in producing the antibiotic in such quantities that the epidemics of the time - typhus, syphilis, gangrene, tuberculosis - could be eradicated. But Fleming suspected the medical breakthrough might one day prove catastrophic. The problems began with the first use of penicillin as a mass drug in the Allied offensive against Hitler’s Germany in 1944. After the war, penicillin could even be purchased in US pharmacies as chewing gum for a sore throat. In occupied Germany and Austria, unscrupulous smuggler bands exploited a ban on penicillin by selling stolen and counterfeit products. Today, an estimated 70 percent of aggressive germs are now penicillin-resistant and hospitals have long been on red alert.

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The Hidden Power of Plants

Throughout the millennia, humans have turned to plants as a source of medicine and healing. Despite new synthesis technologies, our reliance on medicinal plants as a source of inspiration and genetic wealth is undiminished.

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Miracle Cure? A Decade of the Human Genome

In 2000, scientists announced that they had produced the first draft of the human genome, the 3.6 billion letters of our genetic code. It was seen as one of the greatest scientific achievements of our age, a breakthrough that would usher in a new age of medicine. Miracle Cure? A Decade of the Human Genome is a BBC Horizon documentary narrated by Kelly Hunter, which follows three people who hope the mapping of the human genome will transform their lives and reveals how the Human Genome Project is changing our relationship with ourselves forever.

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