the u.s. government. they went to the best place in the world to try to pull off this big scientific leap. they went to the u.s. department of agriculture, to the northern regional research lab of the agricultural research service at the usda. they unpacked their freeze-dried mold and got to work figuring out how to devise a method for production of this medical treatment they just invented based on penicillin. and the scientists at usda got to work on it immediately. they tried a gazillion different things and in short order they did it. they were using 10,000-gallon vats and obscure corn sugars and different types of temperature and humidity controls. by the time u.s. soldiers were joining the allied land invasion of europe on d-day in june of 1944, part of what the u.s. and the allies had on their side in the war effort were tens of