
This week saw the sale of furry bit of history at auction: a glass disc containing a sample of Dr. Alexander Fleming’s original penicillin.The final sale was $14,600, which seems astonishing considering Fleming was a shameless self promoter. According to the AP:
The Scottish-born doctor likely made at least dozens of such mold mementos, derived from his original sample of the fungus.
and
[Matthew Haley, director of books and manuscripts at the auction house Bonham’s,] noted that other bits of mold were given to Pope Pius XII, Winston Churchill and Marlene Dietrich, perhaps in an effort to cement Fleming’s legacy as the discoverer of penicillin in 1928.
Sounds a bit like splinters of the one true cross for the modern age. Hats off to the hairy scientific discovery that ushered in a new age of medicine and all that.

I know you’re all disappointed that this link isn’t full of naked otters (work unfriendly) or something like that.

