Perhaps it pays to leave dishes in the sink

Countless people across this world would have died much earlier than they did if it were not for a careless laboratory assistant who left a window cracked an inch or two open over a long British holiday weekend.

Now that alone would not have been enough had that same assistant done as his boss had ordered.

Nobody, except for me perhaps and now you, remembers Douglas Gilchrist. Commonly known as” Dougie” he was anxious to get away for a few days off. But were it not for he, a mold spore may not have floated through that crack in that window and found that unwashed Petri dish on which to land.

Now we can’t claim it all for Dougie because if Alexander Fleming hadn’t come in early the day after the holiday and, having “tut-tutted” about his uncleaned work space, all the contaminated culture dishes would have been swept into the Lysol pail. Just before he did though, Alexander noticed that one colony on one dish was surrounded by a ring of nothing. That ring of “nothing” was because of a mold and that mold became famous as Penicillium Notatum and that became the eventual source of penicillin.

The point is that invention and innovation do not happen by government fiat. Not penicillin, not manned flight, not superconductors, not even water bras or Slinkies.

So, Obama and his teleprompter can announce all the non-existent technology they and their disciples desire but, ……….

Guess What?

That’s not how it happens.

Just because Obama says it, does not make it so.

So many scientific breakthroughs have come about because people were looking for something else or, in Dougie’s case, nothing at all.

Hydrogen cars, flying cars, cars that run on water, cars that run on nothing are all going to have to wait despite presidential (and teleprompter) proclamations.

But, if you cut your finger as you get your ribs ready for the family barbecue, rest easy because there is always “Dougiecillin”.