Hmmmmmmmm.....

Is the clue "shot in the arm"? I'm with Annette so far on this, but will think as I clean!

Need a hint? DW and I are going to the library and a movie soon, so I'd better give you the hint now.

You or I would have probably skipped over that particular cantaloupe.

TM

Well, at first I thought it was penicillin? But wasn't that discovered many years earlier? Was it a vaccine of some other type - polio? The polio outbreak was in the 1950s tho wasn't it?

Hmmmmmmm, shot in the arm, skip over that cantaloupe....

An over the hill cantaloupe? maybe mouldy? I've seen that on a dried up piece of cantaloupe, not confessing to where tho LOL. Thinking mould brings penicillin to mind but I can't fit Mary Hunt into my reasoning. When I think penicillin I think Alexander Fleming. Am I missing something? I'm still Hmmmmmmmm-ing.

Annette

Fleming and penicillin were earlier, I think-teens, 20s maybe? After WWI for sure. I think we are all on the right track, but I'll be darned if I can figure it out. Hmmmmmmming here, too. We could start a chorus. :)

Hi All - nice day here, sunny and mild for this time of year.
Hmmmmm - I'll join the chorus!! I wonder, aloud, if they used the rotting peel to grow the vaccine??!! If it was 'over the hill', maybe she/they already had an idea incubating??
Hey, I thought Penicillin was Mme. Curie?? I thought Polio was the early 50's, so maybe it works.

Nancy.

Don't forget that scientific discovery is not necessarily a wham-bam, I'm the king of Siam type of speedy process.

TM

Yay a science question!!!

Penicillin.

Sierra

Original question: What was so special about the cantaloupe?

Answer: It was moldy (mouldy).

I think this is a really interesting story.

The highlights

- Yes, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in mold in 1928.
- But he wasn't able to get the penicillin out of the mold.
- Howard Florey and Ernst Chain were able to extract the penicillin from Fleming's mold and actually save some lives in 1938.
- Fleming's mold could only produce small amounts of penicillin.
- A search began for a better strain of the penicillium mold.
- The public was encouraged to bring mold samples in to the USDA lab in Peoria Illinois.
- Mary Hunt brought in her moldy cantaloupe and that mold proved to be an oustanding producer of penicillin.
- By D-Day in WWII, there was enough penicillin to treat all the Allied wounded in that action.

None of you exactly said the answer, but we don't care, right?

for you, if you even mentioned penicillin, Schoolhouse, Annette, Cynthia, Nancy, and Sierra.

TM

You are becoming too generous, TM. Anyway, thanks for the stars. Fascinating information! Who would have thought... :)

LOL I thought the mold was obvious. But then I just reread your question and had to laugh. That WAS your question.

I think I flunked this one for not reading the question properly.

Sierra :)))