Q 01/05

Fleming shared the 1945 Nobel Prize with Howard Florey and which biochemist?

A) Ernst Chain

B) Norman Heatley

C) Edward Abraham

D) Hans Krebs

Answer · why

A) Ernst Chain

Ernst Chain: the Berlin-trained chemist left for England in 1933 when the Nazis took power, and at Oxford he and Florey purified the drug that Fleming...

Q 02/05

Fleming's penicillin belongs to which family of medicines?

A) Antivirals

B) Antibiotics

C) Antihistamines

D) Anaesthetics

Answer · why

B) Antibiotics

Antibiotics: penicillin kills bacteria but has no effect on viruses, which is why a doctor won't prescribe it for a cold.

Q 03/05

Fleming first found the enzyme lysozyme at work in a sample of what?

A) A patient's blood sample

B) His own nasal mucus

C) A pinch of garden soil

D) Fresh onion juice

Answer · why

B) His own nasal mucus

His own nasal mucus: he had a cold, and germs dissolved around the blob he put on a culture plate, yet the enzyme proved too weak against the bacteria...

Q 04/05

Which group put up the monument to Fleming unveiled in 1964, in thanks for penicillin?

A) Coal miners

B) Jockeys

C) Army medics

D) Bullfighters

Answer · why

D) Bullfighters

Bullfighters: infected wounds had killed so many matadors that their benevolent society raised the money, and its bronze matador now doffs his hat to ...

Q 05/05

Which British monarch knighted Fleming?

A) George V

B) Edward VIII

C) George VI

D) Elizabeth II

Answer · why

C) George VI

George VI: the wartime king knighted Fleming in 1944 and gave the same honour that year to Howard Florey, the Oxford professor whose team had turned t...