By Katja Grace, 2 February 2015 Penicillin was a hugely important discovery. But was it a discontinuity in the normal progression of research, or just an excellent discovery which followed a slightly less excellent discovery, and so on? There are several senses in which penicillin might have represented a discontinuity. Perhaps its discovery was a huge leap in effectiveness, saving lives at a rate nobody thought possible. Or it might have been dramatically cheaper than expected. Or it could have heralded a step up in life expectancy, or a step down in disease prevalence.
Penicillin and syphilis
Penicillin and syphilis
Penicillin and syphilis
By Katja Grace, 2 February 2015 Penicillin was a hugely important discovery. But was it a discontinuity in the normal progression of research, or just an excellent discovery which followed a slightly less excellent discovery, and so on? There are several senses in which penicillin might have represented a discontinuity. Perhaps its discovery was a huge leap in effectiveness, saving lives at a rate nobody thought possible. Or it might have been dramatically cheaper than expected. Or it could have heralded a step up in life expectancy, or a step down in disease prevalence.