succeeded to the Joseph Hunter Chair of Pathology at
the University of Sheffield.
In1935 he became professor of pathology and a
fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. He was made an
honorary fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cam-
bridge, in 1946, and an honorary fellow of Magdalen
College, Oxford, in 1952. From 1945 to 1957 he was
involved in the planning of the John Curtin School of
Medical Research in the new Australian National Uni-
versity. In 1962 he was made provost of Queen’s Col-
lege, Oxford.
During World War II he was appointed honorary
consultant in pathology to the army, and in 1944 he
became Nuffield visiting professor to Australia and
New Zealand.
His collaboration with Ernst Boris CHAIN, which
began in 1938, led to the systematic investigation of
the properties of naturally occurring antibacterial sub-
stances. Lysozyme, an antibacterial substance found in
saliva and human tears, discovered by Sir Alexander
FLEMING, was their original interest, but they moved to
substances now known as antibiotics. The work on
penicillin was a result.
In 1939 Florey and Chain headed a team of
British scientists, financed by a grant from the Rocke-
feller Foundation, whose efforts led to the successful
small-scale manufacture of penicillin. They showed
that penicillin could protect against infection but that
the concentration of penicillin in the human body—
and the length of time of treatment—were important
factors for successful treatment. In 1940 a report was
issued describing how penicillin had been found to be
a chemotherapeutic agent capable of killing sensitive
germs in the living body. An effort was made to create
sufficient quantities for use in World War II to treat
war wounds, and it is estimated to have saved thou-
sands of lives. In 1945 Florey was awarded a Nobel
Prize in medicine with Alexander Fleming and Ernst
Chain.
Florey was a contributor to and editor of Antibi-
otics(1949). He was also coauthor of a book of lec-
tures on general pathology and has had many papers
published on physiology and pathology.
In 1944 he was created a knight bachelor. When a
life peerage was conferred on him in 1965, he chose to
be styled Lord Florey of Adelaide and Marston. He
was provost of Queen’s College, Oxford, from 1962
until he died on February 21, 1968.
flower The reproductive part of a plant. Can be both
male and female, producing both pollen and ovule.
Flowers are the most commonly used part in identify-
ing a plant and are often showy and colorful.fluid feeder An animal that lives by sucking nutrient-
rich fluids from another living organism. The two main
ways to fluid-feed are piercing and sucking, and cutting
and licking. Examples of insects that pierce and suck are
platyhelminths, nematodes, annelids, and arthropods,
which all have distinct mouth parts that bore into their
prey and then suck out the prey’s body fluids with a
pharynx. Secreted enzymes help aid in the digestion of
the fluids. Piercing by insects typically involves the use
of a proboscis formed by the maxillae and composed of
two canals. The first canal carries in the prey’s blood,
and the other delivers saliva and anticoagulants.
The cutting-and-licking technique is used by black
flies and vampire bats, who cut the prey’s body with
teeth or sharp mouthparts and then lick the fluids
while injecting anticoagulants to prevent clotting.fluid mosaic model The model proposes that a plas-
ma membrane surrounds all cells and is composed of
about half lipids, mostly phospholipids and cholesterol,
and half proteins, with the proteins and phospholipids
floating around the membrane in constant motion
unless they bind to something. By being fluid, the lipid
molecules can move to open up as a channel whereby
substances can enter or leave. The protein molecules in
the membrane act as carrier, channel, or active trans-
port mechanisms for larger molecules that must enter
or leave the cell.fluke An organism belonging to the phylum Platy-
helminthes, a flatworm of the class Trematoda. Flukes
areflat, unsegmented, and parasitic. Two orders exist,
the Mongenea (monogenetic flukes) and Digenea (dige-
netic flukes). Humans become hosts for Schistosoma
mansoni (human blood fluke) and Fasciola hepatica
(sheep liver fluke).
Also a single lobe of a whale’s tail.folate coenzymes A group of heterocyclic com-
pounds that are based on the 4-(2-amino-3,4-dihydro-132 flower