This GCSE Biology quiz takes a look at one of our most helpful of medicines - the antibiotics. They have helped us to defeat several infections which once claimed many thousands of lives.
Antibiotics are medicines that have helped to control infections since the middle of the twentieth century. The first of the antibiotics discovered and produced was penicillin. This was discovered accidentally in 1928 by Alexander Fleming but he did not have the equipment or skills to produce it in useful amounts. It was not until the mid 20th Century that penicillin took its place amongst other medicines. A method for producing penicillin was perfected in the early 1940s and before the end of the Second World War, millions of doses were being shipped out to stop injured soldiers dying from infected wounds.