The discovery of antibiotics began accidently. On the morning of September 3rd, 1928, Professor Alexander Fleming was having a clear up of his cluttered laboratory. Fleming was sorting through a number of glass plates which had previously been coated with Staphylococcus bacteria. One of the plates had mould on it. The mould was in the shape of a ring and the area around the ring seemed to be free of the bacteria Staphylococcus. The mould was Penicillium notatum. Fleming had a lifelong interest in ways of killing off bacteria and he concluded that the bacteria on the plate around the ring had been killed off by some substance that had come from the mould. Further research on the mould found that it could kill other bacteria and that it could be given to small animals without any side-effects. However, within a year, Fleming had moved onto other medical issues and it was ten years later that Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, working at Oxford University, isolated the bacteria-killing substance found in the mould – penicillin.