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) Almroth Wright

Answer · why

A) Ernst Chain

The Oxford pair turned his laboratory curiosity into a usable drug; Fleming always praised them for it.

Q 02/05

Fleming's penicillin came from a mould of which genus?

A) Aspergillus

B) Cladosporium

C) Penicillium

D) Trichoderma

Answer · why

C) Penicillium

He first thought it was P. chrysogenum; in 2011 the strain was finally identified as P. rubens.

Q 03/05

Fleming discovered the enzyme lysozyme in 1922 in what?

A) A patient's blood sample

B) His own nasal mucus

C) Raw egg white

D) Fresh onion juice

Answer · why

B) His own nasal mucus

A drop of it cleared a plate of bacteria; his notebook records 'Staphyloid coccus from A.F.'s nose'.

Q 04/05

The bacterium Fleming named Micrococcus lysodeikticus was reassigned in 1972 to which species name?

A) Aureus

B) Roseus

C) Flavus

D) Luteus

Answer · why

D) Luteus

The 'Fleming strain' of it is still a model organism in biology.

Q 05/05

In which year was Fleming knighted?

A) 1946

B) 1949

C) 1953

D) 1944

Answer · why

D) 1944

By D-Day that year there was enough penicillin to treat every wounded Allied soldier.