Selman Waksman coined the term antibiotics.
Antibiotics are medicines that act against bacterial infection. Antibiotics work by killing the bacteria or by inhibits their growth. However, antibiotics are not effective against viruses. The term antibiotic means the “opposing life” and is served from Greek words “anti means against” and “bios means “life”.
Antibiotic was first discovered by the Scottish physician and microbiologist Sir Alexander Fleming (1881–1955). He discovered the antibiotics penicillin in 1928. He isolated the antibiotic from the mold Penicillium rubens. For his discovery, he was awarded the Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain. The term antibiotic was first used by Russian-born Jewish-American microbiologist Selman Abraham Waksman (1888–1973) in 1942. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1952 for the discovery of streptomycin antibiotics.
