This Man's Pill : Reflections on the 50th Birthday of the Pill

ISBN-13: 9780198606956 / Angielski / Miękka / 2004 / 320 str.

Carl Djerassi

Opis

On October 15, 1951, in a small laboratory in Mexico City, one of the key episodes in 20th century social history occurred: the first synthesis of a steroid oral contraceptive--an event that triggered the development of the Pill. Carl Djerassi has been honored worldwide for that accomplishment, which ultimately changed the life of women and the nature of human reproduction in ways that were not then foreseeable.
Now, on the 50th anniversary of this pivotal event, Djerassi weaves a compelling personal narrative full of self-reflection and humor, illuminating the impact this invention has had on the world at large and on him personally. This Man's Pill presents a forcefully revisionist account of the early history of the Pill, debunking many of the journalistic and romantic accounts of its scientific origin. Djerassi does not shrink from exploring why we have no Pill for men or why Japan only approved the Pill in 1999 (together with Viagra). Emphasizing that development of the Pill occurred during the post-War period of technological euphoria, he believes that it could not be repeated in today's climate. Would the sexual revolution of the 1960s or the impending separation of sex ("in bed") and fertilization ("under the microscope") still have happened?
Djerassi also credits the Pill with radically altering his life, allowing him to become one of the few American chemists to have a second career, that of a novelist and playwright. These talents are clearly evident in This Man's Pill, a superbly written and uniquely authoritative account of a discovery that changed the world.

Recenzje

Review from other book by this author Carl Djerassi's scientific authorship of one of the most socially significant innovations of our time is well known. In this book, he examines the implications and social reception of the Pill with a combination of humanistic concern and careful socio-scientific analysis that is as rare as it is valuable. Kenneth J Arrow, Nobel laureate in Economics, 1972

O autorze

Carl Djerassi, professor of chemistry at Stanford University, is one of the few American scientists to have been awarded both the National Medal of Science (for the first synthesis of a steroid oral contraceptive - "the Pill") and the National Medal of Technology (for promoting new approaches to insect control). A member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as many foreign academies, Djerassi has received 18 honorary doctorates together with numerous other honours, such as the first Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the first Award for the Industrial Application of Science from the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Chemical Society's highest award, the Priestley Medal.