> "Remember that thing that happened in 1928" is hardly a compelling case.
And that wasn't what I said -- Penicillin is just one example. Look at the polymerase chain reaction, thought up during a late-night drive by a graduate student and now ubiquitous in biology and medicine. Look at the first polio vaccine, created at very low cost by someone who was so sure of his results, and so short of funds, that he used his own children as test subjects.
Examples abound. One need only look.