Public history of science lecture by Professor Hugh Pennington CBE
Hugh Pennington CBE is Emeritus Professor of Bacteriology at the University of Aberdeen.
Thirty percent of us carry Staphylococcus aureus up our noses. Boils and infections after surgery bring it to our attention. Mutant clones are called MRStaphylococcus Aureus, or MRSA. All these things make it important today.
Attempts in the past to fight Staphylococcus aureus and understand it have led to major discoveries. Nearly 150 years ago it was effectively challenged for the first time by Joseph Lister and his carbolic. It was given its name by the Professor of Greek at Aberdeen University, and was one of the few bacterial species harmful to humans to be described in Britain rather than in Germany during the golden age of bacteriological discovery at the end of the nineteenth century. Aureus refers to its golden colour, and Alexander Fleming’s research to understand this better led to the discovery of penicillin. It evolves in real time, and so we have not finished with it as a significant adversary. This lecture will tell its story.