Penicillin: a postcard for George Osborne | Richard P Grant

Life-saving basic research is under threat. Tell George Osborne what you think of that.

When Howard Florey, with his team in Oxford, developed penicillin, he had not set out to save countless lives around the world. He and the men and women who worked with him were scientists, interested in puzzling out how things work, how the universe is put together; thinking God's thoughts after Him.

Joshua and I have reasons to be grateful to the work of Florey's team: I could well have died as an infant, and Joshua could be blind. Scarlet fever and periorbital cellulitis are, for the time being, readily curable.