Experiment Eleven - Pringle, Peter
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In 1943, Albert Schatz, a young Rutgers College Ph.D. student, worked on a wartime project in microbiology professor Selman Waksman's lab, searching for an antibiotic to fight infections on the front lines and at home. On his eleventh experiment on a common bacterium found in farmyard soil, Schatz discovered streptomycin, the first effective cure for tuberculosis, at that time the world's leading killer disease. As director of Schatz's research, Waksman took credit for the discovery, belittled Schatz's work, and secretly enriched himself with royalties from the streptomycin patent filed by…mehr

Produktbeschreibung
In 1943, Albert Schatz, a young Rutgers College Ph.D. student, worked on a wartime project in microbiology professor Selman Waksman's lab, searching for an antibiotic to fight infections on the front lines and at home. On his eleventh experiment on a common bacterium found in farmyard soil, Schatz discovered streptomycin, the first effective cure for tuberculosis, at that time the world's leading killer disease. As director of Schatz's research, Waksman took credit for the discovery, belittled Schatz's work, and secretly enriched himself with royalties from the streptomycin patent filed by Merck, the pharmaceutical company. In an unprecedented lawsuit, young Schatz sued Waksman, was awarded the title of "co-discoverer" and a share of the royalties. But two years later, Professor Waksman alone was awarded the Nobel Prize. Schatz disappeared into academic obscurity. For the first time, acclaimed author and journalist Peter Pringle reveals the scandals behind one of the most important discoveries in the history of medicine. The story unfolds on a tiny college campus in New Jersey, but its repercussions spread worldwide. The streptomycin patent was a breakthrough for the drug companies, overturning patent limits on products of nature and paving the way for today's biotech world. As dozens more antibiotics were found, many from the same family as streptomycin, the drug companies created oligopolies and reaped big profits. Pringle uses first-hand accounts and archives in the U.S. and Europe to unravel the intensely human story behind the discovery that started a revolution in the treatment of infectious diseases and shaped the future of Big Pharma
Autorenporträt
Pringle, Peter
Peter Pringle is a veteran British foreign correspondent and the author of several nonfiction books, including Food, Inc. and Those Are Real Bullets, Aren't They? He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and the Nation.

Peter Pringle is a foreign correspondent, investigative reporter and writer. He is the co-author of Those Are Real Bullets: Bloody Sunday, Derry, 1972 (2000).
Rezensionen
A fantastic book, gripping in all the best ways: a classic in the history of science Matt Ridley on Experiment Eleven