the show that comes out next tuesday the classic story that a lot of people know is alexander fleming accidentallyer discovers there s a mold that is causing the staff bacteria. bacteria killer in the name of penicillin and 15 years later gets a nobel prize. we will come across the things like that so people that love the story, i like that story. but it turns out it is just a tiny part of the story because the real problem with penicillin is making enough of the stuff, first proving that it could cure a bacterial infection which wasn't just given from what fleming's was looking at but then it was hard to make enough of it and that was an extraordinary venture that didn't start for another 12 years later or involved fleming at all and it involved this amazing global collaboration in the middle of world war ii as the extraordinary scientists in england and in the united states were racing the clock to scale up the production because they knew so many soldiers were dying of infection in hospitals and so if you could get a drug that could cure those infections, you would have a an advantage in the war.