Anti - Biotics
1 Minute
Antibiotics for students: discover what antibiotics are, how Alexander Fleming found penicillin, and streptomycin uses. A short science lesson in English.
- What antibiotics are and how they protect us from diseases
- How Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin to cure infections
- How streptomycin from Streptomyces helped cure diseases like plague
What this lesson teaches
Antibiotics are substances obtained from one microorganism that help protect the body from diseases caused by another microorganism. They work by using materials produced by microbes, such as fungi, to tackle, kill, and drive out disease-causing bacteria.
What antibiotics are
Antibiotics are natural substances harvested from living microorganisms to fight infections. Just as humans collect flowers and fruits from plants or milk from cows, useful materials can also be gathered from microscopic life. When these substances are taken from organisms like fungi, they can destroy harmful bacteria inside the body. This allows them to cure illnesses that would otherwise cause serious harm.
The discovery of penicillin
Before modern treatments existed, people suffered from many severe bacterial infections, including bacterial fever, bacterial throat infections, and pneumonia. In 1928, Alexander Fleming noticed that substances obtained from a fungus could cure these disease-causing bacteria. His discovery was named penicillin, which was used to cure people facing these bacterial infections. During World War II, penicillin antibiotics became especially helpful because huge numbers of people were suffering from bacterial infections at that time.
Streptomycin and plague
Scientists also found that bacteria themselves could provide medicines against other diseases. By extracting substances from a bacterium called Streptomyces, they produced the antibiotic known as streptomycin. This medicine was used to cure dangerous illnesses such as plague. Like penicillin, streptomycin demonstrated how substances taken from one microbe can successfully protect people by overcoming disease-causing microorganisms.
Sources and uses from the lesson
- Penicillin is an antibiotic obtained from a fungus to cure bacterial infections such as pneumonia, throat infections, and fever.
- Streptomycin is an antibiotic extracted from a bacterium named Streptomyces to cure diseases such as plague.
- Microorganisms can cause severe diseases, but substances taken from other microbes can be used to kill those disease-causing bacteria.
- Antibiotics work to tackle and drive out harmful microorganisms from the body.