Training the Heavens

Chapter 358 Taking a seat first

Zhang Xingjiu took him to another lab and pointed at a petri dish. "A few days ago, I asked several students to culture Staphylococcus aureus. One student was called out to play basketball before he could even finish cleaning the lab equipment. This is what happened now."

Staphylococcus aureus is relatively dangerous to humans. Once it enters the body, it can cause boils, carbuncles, osteomyelitis, food poisoning and other diseases. Therefore, scientists have been looking for ways to eliminate this pathogen. Zhang Xingjiu also opened a similar experiment at Aurora University.

Tang Feifan looked in the direction of Zhang Xingjiu's finger and saw an unknown mold spot in the middle of the culture dish, with a circle of blank space around the mold spot. It seemed that the Staphylococcus aureus in these areas had been eliminated.

He immediately realized the significance of this discovery, and hurried to the microscope to observe carefully, and then clearly saw that there was indeed no Staphylococcus aureus living around the mold spots.

"Mr. Zhang, this green mold seems to be effective in eliminating Staphylococcus aureus." Tang Feifan looked up excitedly.

"This is also the result of my observation just now. If we can find out the reason why this green mold eliminates Staphylococcus, maybe we can invent a new drug." Zhang Xingjiu replied with a smile.

He planned this experiment himself, and he also deliberately arranged the student. He specially found a student who liked playing ball and was a little careless to be responsible for cleaning the culture dishes. Finally, he created the effect he wanted, and Penicillium was discovered by the scientific community several months earlier.

"The first thing we need to determine now is whether this cyan mold is only effective against Staphylococcus aureus, or is it also effective against other pathogens," Tang Feifan said excitedly. "If it's a mold that can eliminate a wide range of pathogens, then this discovery would be incredible and could definitely change the lives of countless people."

His vision was indeed good. According to the original history, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin a few months later. Later, British pathologist Florey and German biochemist Chain further studied and improved it, and successfully used it to treat human diseases. The three of them won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

The discovery of penicillin enabled mankind to find a drug with powerful bactericidal effects, ending the era when infectious diseases were almost untreatable; from then on, there was a climax in the search for new antibiotics, and mankind entered a new era of synthesizing new drugs.

This invention has indeed saved countless lives. In the "Top 100 People Who Influenced the Course of Human History" written by American scholar Michael Hart, Fleming ranked 45th.

"I can temporarily put aside my current work and shift my focus to researching this mold. We can first try to cultivate it and see if we can grow more of it!" Tang Feifan walked around the laboratory, discussing his research plan as he walked. "Once we have enough experimental materials, we can move on to the next step and test whether this mold can kill more pathogens."

"You write the plan and submit it to me. I will allocate funds and manpower to help you complete the experiment as soon as possible. Once the results are out, they will be published in journals." This is what Zhang Xingjiu was waiting for.

In fact, it took several years from the discovery of penicillin to its application. The main purpose of publishing the article now is to reserve a place and confirm the identity of the discoverer of penicillin. In this way, even if other scientists have similar discoveries in the future, they can only be ranked behind them.

"Okay, I'll start writing now!" Tang Feifan felt he had found a good project. "I have a feeling this cyan mold might help you accomplish something great. If you can achieve satisfactory results, perhaps you'll win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, just like Dean Wu!" Zhang Xingjiu encouraged him.

He does not intend to monopolize this achievement. He has already won three Nobel Prizes, and the marginal effect of continuing to win awards will only become lower and lower. If there is another Chinese winner, it will be different. It will definitely greatly enhance national self-confidence.

"I dare not even think about it!" Tang Feifan said this, but his heartbeat began to accelerate. As a scientist, how many people don't want to win the world's highest award?

"As long as the results are important enough, I will help you arrange the nomination. The commercial prospects of this achievement are very broad. With the help of those big conglomerates, winning the award will be almost a sure thing!" Like wireless telegraphy, Zhang Xingjiu did not expect to monopolize such a huge profit, but he could still rely on this invention to gain some benefits for his own people.

With full expectations, Tang Feifan quickly plunged into the new experiment. He repeated the previous experiment according to Zhang Xingjiu's explanation and successfully obtained the same blue mold from the culture dish, which also had a strong inhibitory effect on Staphylococcus aureus.

When the number of blue mold accumulated to a certain level, Tang Feifan's experiment immediately moved on to the next stage. He conducted experiments on pathogens that have a greater impact on humans, such as Streptococcus and Pneumococcus, and found that this blue-green mold also has a very good killing effect on these pathogens.

After the experiment reached this stage, the article could be published. Tang Feifan quickly wrote the paper and gave it to Zhang Xingjiu for revision. After completion, the paper with the names of Zhang Xingjiu and Tang Feifan was sent on a ship, sailed across the ocean to the UK, and fell into the hands of the review editors of the editorial department of the "British Journal of Experimental Pathology".

The editors were not too surprised to see Zhang Xingjiu's name. His achievements over the years are not limited to physics and mathematics, he has also made outstanding performances in chemistry, biology and other fields.

Looking at the title of the article, "On the bactericidal effect of mold culture", it is consistent with the publication scope of the British Journal of Experimental Pathology. They quickly completed the initial review and then handed it to other review editors for cross-review.

Tang Feifan's experiment took some time, and writing the paper also took some time. Zhang Xingjiu deliberately delayed for some time after getting the first draft, and combined with the review and publication, it was already September when the article was officially published.

This article did not cause as much of a response as Zhang Xingjiu's physics paper. The reason was very simple. After all, many antibiotics discovered early in the world were eventually found to have no therapeutic value, and many scholars thought that penicillin was the same.

They even felt that Zhang Xingjiu thought the same, otherwise this article would not have been published in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology, but should have been published in The Lancet, and it would have been the cover article. With Zhang Xingjiu's status in the academic community, he could definitely do this.

Zhang Xingjiu was not in a hurry. His goal had been achieved and he just needed to continue his research.

(End of this chapter)