Source Analysis Practice

📜 Source Analysis Practice

Applying NOP Analysis:

Nature: This is a scientific journal article — a peer-reviewed publication reporting the results of laboratory experiments, written in a formal, technical style for a specialist academic audience of bacteriologists and medical researchers.

Origin: Written by Alexander Fleming in 1929, one year after his accidental discovery of penicillin's antibacterial properties in August 1928. Fleming was a bacteriologist at St Mary's Hospital, London, and was reporting experimental findings while also acknowledging the significant practical difficulties of producing the substance in quantity.

Purpose: To communicate Fleming's experimental findings to the scientific community and invite further research. Fleming was not claiming to have produced a usable drug — he was documenting an observation and suggesting future possibilities, including the potential for drugs taken by mouth.

Grade 9 Model Paragraph:

This source is useful for an enquiry into the development of penicillin because it shows Fleming's honest assessment in 1929 that while the discovery was real, large-scale production was "very difficult" — helping explain why penicillin sat unused for a decade before Florey and Chain took up the challenge in 1939. As Fleming's own published research, it provides direct evidence of his thinking and the technical obstacles he identified. However, its utility is limited because the article was written for specialist scientists, not policymakers, meaning it had no immediate impact on medical practice. It also reveals the limits of Fleming's contribution: he identified the phenomenon but could not solve the production problem that Florey and Chain eventually resolved.