ACCURATE THINKING 677Clearly, what you believe to be fact or truth today would still depend greatly
on how and where you get your information. As to the enormous amount of facts
and information made easily accessible to anyone now, in researching material
for this section (in an Internet search) the editors found many "facts" about the
discovery of penicillin.
One version of the facts said that in 1928 Scottish researcher Alexander
Fleming went on vacation leaving a lab dish growing bacteria. During his absence
it became contaminated with a penicillium mold spore. On his return he noticed
that the mold had stopped the growth of the germs. This version also says that
Fleming did nothing further to develop penicillin, but others did.
Another version is that Fleming was such a hardworking bacteriologist that
he wouldn't even go out for lunch. One day, at a time when he was suffering from
boils, he ate a forgotten sandwich that had turned green with mold. When it
seemed that his boils had been cured, he proceeded to research the mold.
Still another version is that amidst the disorderly mess in Fleming's lab were
several petri dishes in which he had (intentionally) been growing bacteria. As he
was cleaning up and about to throw these out, he noticed in one that all around
the mold the staph bacteria had been killed. He researched it further and the
following year published a report on the potential uses of penicillin. His work was
eventually taken over by a team of chemists and mold specialists, several of
whom moved or died. Then in 1935 a professor and researchers at Oxford
became interested, took the study further, and in 1945 Alexander Fleming,
Howard Florey (professor), and Ernst Chain (researcher) shared the Nobel Prize
for the discovery of penicillin.
It is stunning that there can be such inconsistency in the "facts" about
something as significant as the discovery of penicillin. For an even more revealing
picture of how widespread the belief is in some "well-known facts" that may not be
facts at all, the editors suggest that you check out the many Web sites and books
available on the subject of urban legends, as well as the book Why People Believe
Weird Things by Michael Shermer, who is also publisher of Skeptic magazine and
director of the Skeptics Society. In doing so you may find challenges to some of your
own beliefs that you've based on what you assume to be well-known facts.