A Whirlwind in Occupied Holland
Penicillin was transformed from a laboratory curiosity to the first massproduced antibacterial chemotherapeutic agent during the Second World War. Popular accounts of this process, particularly those that appeared immediately after the war, have tended to cast events as a continuous series of related breakthroughs. However, there were several independent attempts in Europe to produce penicillin during World War II, but none except the Anglo-American effort proved successful. Despite attention focusing on that successful venture, those other wartime efforts reveal something of the human capacity for resourcefulness in straightened circumstances and during a period of censorship.
Allied intelligence reports on wartime German penicillin research and production
La production industrielle de la penicilline pendant la seconde guerre mondiale fut l'une des grandes reussites de la science et de la technologie anglo-americaine. Dans le meme temps, la tentative de production en masse de la penicilline par les allemands echoua. L'article reunit des documents provenant des deux agences de renseignements americaine et anglaise concernant cet echec et s'attache a presenter un historique de l'evolution de la production a grande echelle de la penicilline tout en discutant de la recherche scientifique allemande pendant la guerre.
Some Contributions of the U. S. Department of Agriculture to the Fermentation Industry
Publisher Summary This chapter describes the contributions of Agriculture Department scientists between 1916 and 1945, and discusses the numerous additional contributions made during the past quarter century. During the first two decades of this century the fermentation industry was limited mainly to the production of yeast, alcoholic beverages, vinegar, industrial alcohol, lactic acid, and a few enzymes. The chapter explores that now the industry has a much wider scope, producing a variety of antibiotics, vitamins, organic acids, enzymes, sugars, sugar alcohols, polysaccharides, amino acids, microbial insecticides, sterols, and modified steroids. Research conducted by the staff of the United States Department of Agriculture has played an important role in the early development of the fermentation industry during the past half century.