Heatley was an insightful biochemist, whose quiet nature served him well in his collaboration with his more assertive colleagues. But, though soft-spoken, Florey and his team came to rely on Heatley's genius to solve the most complex issues. The team discovered that adding ether helped isolate the penicillin. But, it was Heatley who figured out how to then extract the active penicillin from the ether solution, by changing the pH. Heatley also directed the effort to produce sufficient quantities of penicillin to begin trials. He set up a makeshift production facility, in the midst of World War II, with few supplies readily available. When a glass manufacturer couldn't produce the culture vessels he needed, he remembered reading about the production of ceramics as a boy, and was convinced he could make a fired ceramic vessel work. He designed the vessel's dimensions and contacted a ceramics company in an English region known as The Potteries to produce them. Heatley even picked up the first batch of 174 himself, in a borrowed van, just two days before Christmas, 1940. This simple production facility produced enough penicillin to conduct the first human trials. Following their early success, Heatley accompanied Florey to the United States, where they completed the necessary arrangements to make penicillin available on a wide-scale basis. By D-Day, in June of 1944, there was enough penicillin available to treat all 40,000 soldiers injured in the Normandy invasion.

Fleming, Florey, and Chain received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1945 for the discovery of penicillin - there was no mention of the critical contributions that Heatley had made. But, in 1991, almost 50 years later, Oxford University finally recognized the significance of Heatley's work. Oxford awarded Heatley an honorary doctorate of medicine - one of only two such doctorates awarded to non-medical people in the university's 900-year history.

Introduction by Tim Anderson

Table of Contents

Key Insight

Key Experiments or Research

Quotes by the Scientist

Quotes About the Scientist

Anecdotes

Fun Trivia About the Science

Personal Information

Scientific Discovery Timeline

Recommended Books About the Science

Books by the Scientist

Books About the Scientist

Awards

Major Academic Papers Written by the Scientist

Curriculum Vitae

Sources/References