"Fleming, Florey i Chain: mites i anti-mites en la història de la penicil·lina" (Fleming, Florey and Chain: myths and anti-myths in the history of penicillin), seminar given by Daniele Cozzoli (Pompeu Fabra University. Barcelona)
The Institute of History of Medicine and Science 'López Piñero' (joint mission of the University of Valencia and
the CSIC) based on the Palacio de Cerveró, presents the seminar "Fleming, Florey i Chain: mites i anti-mites en
la història de la penicil·lina" (Fleming, Florey and Chain: myths and anti-myths in the history of penicilin), on
next Wednesday 22 May, at 17:00, in the assembly hall of the institute. The seminar, funded by the Santander
Bank, will be given by Daniele Cozzoli, researcher of the "Ramón i Cajal" Programme in the Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona).
The lecture expects to analyse the figures of Fleming, Florey and Chain, and to explain how, despite the myths
that are constructed around them, they play three fundamental roles in the relations between biomedical research
and the pharmaceutical industry in the international context of the Cold Ward. In 1945 the Nobel Prize of
Medicine or Physiology is awarded to Alexander Fleming, Howard Florey and Ersnt Boris Chain, for the discovery of
the antibacterial properties of penicillin. However, the destiny of the three scientists will be quite different.
Scottish bacteriologist Fleming becomes one of the most famous scientists of the century. In the mass media he is
represented as the great benefactor of Humanity. The Australian Florey encounters a strong position in the
British science establishment, despite being the responsible of the suspected steal of the invention of
penicillin by the United States. The wandering Jew Chain plays the rol of the "bad boy", who speaks badly of
everyone and fights in every place where he works at: Oxford, Roma, London.
Daniele Cozzoli is a researcher in the "Ramón i Cajal" Programme in the Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona). He
graduated in the Sapienza University of Roma, and got his doctoral degree in this university in Logic and
Philosophy of Science. He has published works on Optics, Astronomy and Philosophy of Science in the 16th and 17th
centuries, and about the Istituto Superiore di Sanità italiano (Italian Superior Health Institute).
He currently works in subjects related with History and Philosophy of Biomedical Sciences, in subjects of Science
during Fascism and Cold War, as well as in History of Pharmaceutical Sciences between the 18th and 19th
centuries. He also is creating a science biography of the Nobel Prize of Physiology or Medicine Daniel Bovet. He
has obtained scholarships in Spain, including the Ramón y Cajal scholarship and the Juan de la Cierva
scholarship, as well as in foreign countries, such as research residencies in the CERMES3, Paris or in
Copenhagen, as well as a visiting research fellowship in the University of Texas, Austin; in the Chemical
Heritage Foundation, in Philadelphia and in the Dibner Library of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.
Among his most recent publications are: "Making Biomedicine in Twentieth Century Italy: Domenico Marotta" (1886-
1974) and "The Italian Higher Institute of Health", with M. Capocci, The British Journal for the History of
Science, 44(4): 549 - 74, 2011; "The Development of Mersenne's Optics", Perspectives on Science, 18 (1): 9 - 25,
2010; "Mersenne and Mixed Mathematics", with A. Malet, Perspectives on Science, 18 (1): 1-8, 2010 and "Un chimico
fra scienza e politica: Domenico Marotta e l'Istituto Superiore di Sanità", with M. Capocci Nuova Civiltà delle
Macchine, 2009.
Date 22 may 2013 at 17:00 to 19:00. Wednesday.
Place
Assembly hall of the Institute (Palacio de Cerveró. Plaza Cisneros, 4. Valencia)
Institute of History of Medicine and Science 'López Piñero' (joint mission of the University of Valencia and the CSIC) based on the Palacio de Cerveró.
