Howard Florey – Miracle Maker
Howard Florey made history.
He discovered how to make and use penicillin, the first natural antibiotic, and so saved millions of lives.
The son of an Adelaide shoe manufacturer, Florey was outstanding as a scholar and sportsman. He won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford university, where he quickly proved to be a brilliant researcher. In those days, people died from minor diseases, or from infected cuts of wounds. Working against tremendous odds, Florey and his team made penicillin available in time to save huge numbers of soldiers injured in World War II. Florey was knighted and awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to medicine.
Kirsty Murray’s spirited biography of ‘the bushranger of research’ reveals Florey the man and Florey the medico, and captures the excitement and adventure of science.
The How and Why of Howard Florey
I was commissioned to write this book to coincide with the centenary of Howard Florey’s birth. At first, I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to do him justice. He was an amazing man and one of Australia’s great men of the 20th Century. The work he did in developing penicillin into a useable drug saved the lives of 100 million people.
In researching his life and work I had to read a lot about bio-chemistry and the history of science. At first I had some difficulty understanding the principles of how antibiotics really worked in the body. Then one day, all of a sudden, all the pieces connected. I remember the exact moment when I looked up from the book I was studying and realised that I understood every word and could envision the exact process of how the penicillin mould interacted with bacteria. In coming to understand Howard Florey’s life and work, my own understanding of the world was made so much richer.
In the process of researching and writing about Howard Florey I came to understand more than just scientific principles. I learnt how one person can change history by the strength of their vision and by the sheer force of their energy and persistence.