Sir Alexander Fleming - HERO - Short Question Answers

Lesson 13

Sir Alexander Fleming

Patrick Pringle

Q.1: What are antiseptics and what is the antiseptic method?

Ans: The use of chemical to kill the germs is called antiseptic method. These chemicals are known as antiseptics.

Q.2: What was the chief defect of antiseptic method?

Ans: They had toxic effect on leucocytes.

Q.3: What part is played by the white cells in the blood of a human body?

Ans: White blood cells are natural defense system which fights against germs.

Q.4: Give an account of the early life of Fleming.

Ans: Fleming was born on a farm in a poor family. He went to local school at the age of ten.

Q.5: Describe how Fleming discovered penicillin.

Ans: He discovered penicillin by chance when he was growing germs on plates.

Q.6 In what respect is penicillin better than the chemical antiseptics?

Ans: Unlike chemical antiseptics, it has toxic effect on germs and not in leucocytes.

Q.7 What do you know of the Oxford team?

Ans: The Oxford team with the help of chemists and bacteriologists concentrated penicillin.

Q.8  How did the Oxford team make penicillin more effective?

Ans: They made penicillin more effective by concentrating it.

Q.9: Write a note on penicillin as a wonder drug.

Ans: Penicillin saved countless lives, especially healed war wounds.

Q.10: Was Fleming proud of his discovery?

Ans: No, he says that it is nature, not I, which makes penicillin.

Q.11: Why couldn’t penicillin have been discovered in the research laboratories of America?

Ans: Because they were so clean and dustless that no spore could get in.

Q.12: Fleming’s achievement paved the way for other discoveries in the medical field. What are they?

Ans:     After penicillin, antibiotics and streptomycin came forward as new discoveries.