Experiment #1 Question: Does penicillin prevent infection? Hypothesis: If the medicine prevents infection, than the medicine will prevent the growth of bacteria that cause infection. Experiment: Leo placed two circles of paper in a Petri dish (something used for growing bacteria). One circle of paper was soaked in penicillin. The other had nothing on it. He poured a liquid filled with bacteria into the Petri dish. Both circles of paper were placed in the Petri dish about 3cm apart. At the end of the experiment, a circle with a radius of 2cm formed around the circle of paper soaked in penicillin. There were no bacteria growing in the 2cm circle. No change had occurred around the other circle of paper. The bacteria were growing well.