Veros Scott, born in 1881 in a large family, studied at the University of Westminster. At that time, it was called the Royal Polytechnic Institution...

Anyway, the first few years after his graduation were rather unsuccessful, as he worked for 4 years in a commercial office. But then, life treated him well, AND HE INHERITED HIS UNCLE'S FORTUNE!

So, he decided to pursue microbiology, studying again at Imperial College London (then St Mary's Hospital Medical School). Fleming, as you may know, was notorious for being lazy when it came to cleanliness! While this field requires A LOT OF CLEANLINESS AND STERILIZATION, he was not interested in following the protocol. In the laboratories where he worked, he was the roommate who never washed dishes, but let them pile up with 5 different varieties of mold! But eventually, this laziness would work out for him! Leaving for vacation, he left his petri dishes (those glass plates used for cultivating microorganisms by biologists) exposed on a bench. When he returned...you guessed it, they had grown mold.

Although a normal person would have thrown them in the trash, Fleming noticed the following: where there was mold, the bacteria he was studying had died. So, he got the idea that some substance used by fungi (the official name for mold) could kill bacteria. The fungus turned out to be of the genus penicillium, and one morning in 1928 (or maybe afternoon, we have no idea), penicillin, the first antibiotic, was isolated from it for the first time!

Since then, a plethora of antibiotic substances have been isolated from various fungi. Fleming's discovery gave us the ability to combat bacterial diseases that were previously severe or even fatal! So, rightfully, about twenty years later, in 1945, he won the Nobel Prize in Medicine thanks to his laziness!! A year earlier, he was officially knighted by the United Kingdom.

After all this, of course, he would never wash a dish again in his life!