Pandora's Lab by Paul A. Offit is a delightful little book that delves into scientific ideas that initially appeared promising but ultimately led to disastrous outcomes (kudos to my friend Raushaniya for recommending it). Without giving too much away, here are some fascinating highlights:
In 1898, heroin was formulated as what was thought to be a non-addictive substitute for morphine. The thinking went that acetylated morphine would enter the system more rapidly than its precursor, requiring smaller doses and thereby minimizing the risk of addiction. When Bayer had to name this new drug, they vacillated between describing it as wunderlich (wonderful) or heroisch (heroic). You probably guessed which one they chose. While aspirin remained a prescription medication, heroin—perceived as far safer—was sold over the counter. By 1910, the medical community began recognizing heroin's addictive nature, although Bayer only discontinued its advertising in 1913.
Fritz Haber shows that you can be a hero and a villain at the same time. He discovered the Haber-Bosch process, which Carl Bosch scaled up for industrial ammonia production. This innovation enabled the manufacture of artificial fertilizers and explosives, making World War I feasible for Germany. Soon after the conflict began, Haber was promoted to captain and led the Ministry of War's Chemistry Section, becoming the architect of chemical warfare. On April 22, 1915, he released canisters of lethal chlorine gas at Ypres, killing 5,000 soldiers and incapacitating 15,000 more. His actions led to personal tragedy: a week later, his wife Clara took her own life following a heated argument over his work with chemical weapons. When he received his Nobel prize, the ceremony was boycotted by other recipients, who considered him a war criminal. Why did I call him a hero? Let me quote Norman Borlaug—the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize winner—"If high-yielding dwarf wheat and rice are the catalysts of the Green Revolution, then chemical fertilizer is its driving force."
You may think Hitler's racial theories were original, but you'd be mistaken. His views were largely borrowed from Madison Grant's The Passing of the Great Race, a book he encountered while imprisoned after the Beer Hall Putsch. Hitler admired the book so much that he plagiarized sections of it into Mein Kampf and even wrote fan mail to Grant. An American conservationist renowned for saving the bison, Grant was also an ardent eugenicist. His 1916 book sold over 1.6 million copies and had a profound impact, influencing anti-miscegenation laws and forced sterilizations in the U.S., and eventually paving the way for genocide in Germany.
Performing ad hoc brain surgery may seem inherently unwise, but there was a time when both medical professionals and the public thought otherwise. Antonio Egas Moniz won the 1949 Nobel Prize for developing the lobotomy. An American doctor, Walter Jackson Freeman II, later popularized a quicker version of the operation, performed right in his office using a modified icepick. Patients were rendered unconscious via electroshock—no anesthesia necessary—before Freeman inserted the pick under the eyelid, punctured the eye socket with a mallet, and swiveled it. While some patients experienced symptom relief, the procedure often led to devastating neurological consequences. You are probably asking yourself: why? The prevailing desperation of the time, due to the lack of effective psychiatric treatments and the grim conditions of psychiatric hospitals, likely contributed to its initial acceptance.
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