The Penicillin Myth

That video above isn't the real thing I'm posting today, and this isn't really a chemistry post at all. It's a general scientific method post.

That video tells the popularly-understood and oft retold story of how Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1929.

The actual link I'm sharing today - from Asimov Press - is titled "The Penicillin Myth" looks at Fleming's story of the discovery and posits "maybe he didn't."

See, the article details some flaws in the discovery story - namely that a plate initially inoculated with staphylococci and subsequently contaminated with penicillium would not actually kill the staph bacteria since penicillin only affects growing - not mature - colonies.

In the article, Kevin Blake recounts two other theories of how Fleming might have actually discovered the effectiveness of penicillin with slight differences from Fleming's story.

The article is a great exploration of the scientific method - of the importance of record keeping, the ability of other scientists to replicate experiments, and what effect historical inaccuracies in how a discovery was made have on the importance of the discovery itself.

Exposing the Color Blind Glasses Scam

Take what this YouTuber has to say with a grain of salt. I will admit that I haven't researched and confirmed his claims, though I have watched all of the videos I'm posting today. I can say that they confirm something I've long been skeptical of: it seems unlikely that glorified sunglasses could produce colors in the eyes/brains of people who genetically can't see (or maybe can't differentiate) colors.

The enchroma glasses (and other, similar brands) seem to block a narrow band of colors leading to a greater differentiation between green and red meaning 'color blind' people can distinguish those colors more easily and can pass various 'color blind' tests like the classic numbers inside a circle. What the glasses seem incapable of, however, is actually letting those people see different colors that they inherently cannot see.

The science behind 'color blindness' is well explained here as is the science of what the glasses actually can do. The videos also explore common issues with scientific research - both conflicts of interest and confirmation biases as well as social pressure leading people to report results that may or may not actually be there.