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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   9469 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 19, 2025

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Thanks for this deep analysis, much of which I don't have the scientific background to understand. If I may ask, why would it take modern industrial chemistry to synthesize penicillin in useful quantities? I suppose that I have been wrong in thinking that it could be synthesized by pre-modern techniques?

Edit: I should also note that to me, a dabbler in mathematics, this survey of mathematical thought-trends and their impact on the history of mathematics is fascinating.

I'm not the relevant expert, but my understanding is that it is basically just scaling. You need a clean culture of penicillium mold (in optimal culture conditions other species of molds, most of them toxin-producing, outcompete it), and you need enough of it to produce enough penicillin to extract and use. Florey had a cottage industry set up in his lab with a low-double-figures number of labtechs making the stuff, and was not able to produce enough penicillin to run a clinical trial.

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