|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HELP | |
|
  $11.50 List price:
HARDCOVER, USED
Ships in 1 to 3 days
More copies of this ISBN:The Demon Under the Microscope: From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, One Doctor's Heroic Search for the World's First Miracle Drugby Thomas Hager
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:The Nazis discovered it. The Allies won the war with it. It conquered diseases, changed laws, and single-handedly launched the era of antibiotics. This incredible discovery was sulfa, the first antibiotic. In The Demon Under the Microscope, Thomas Hager chronicles the dramatic history of the drug that shaped modern medicine. Sulfa saved millions of lives—among them those of Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr.—but its real effects are even more far reaching. Sulfa changed the way new drugs were developed, approved, and sold; transformed the way doctors treated patients; and ushered in the era of modern medicine. The very concept that chemicals created in a lab could cure disease revolutionized medicine, taking it from the treatment of symptoms and discomfort to the eradication of the root cause of illness. A strange and colorful story, The Demon Under the Microscope illuminates the vivid characters, corporate strategy, individual idealism, careful planning, lucky breaks, cynicism, heroism, greed, hard work, and the central (though mistaken) idea that brought sulfa to the world. This is a fascinating scientific tale with all the excitement and intrigue of a great suspense novel. Review:"Modern bacteriology was born on the battlefields of WWI, where bacteria-rich trenches added to the toll of millions of soldiers killed. Not coincidentally, the search for anything that would significantly diminish the deadly power of disease largely occurred between the world wars, mostly in Germany. Gerhard Domagk and his colleagues at Bayer (a subsidiary of I.G. Farben) worked feverishly to identify which microscopic squiggles might render humankind forever safe from malaria and tuberculosis. The answer, discovered in 1932, turned out to be sulfa drugs, the precursors to modern antibiotics. Hager, a biographer of Linus Pauling, does a remarkable job of transforming material fit for a biology graduate seminar into highly entertaining reading. He knows that lay readers need plenty of personality and local color, and his story is rich with both. This yarn prefigures the modern rush for corporate pharma patents; it is testament to Hager's skill that the inherently unsexy process of finding the chemicals that might help conquer strep is as exciting as an account of the hunt for a Russian submarine. (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Book News Annotation:Science writer Hager describes the strange journey of the sulfa drug
and the man who found it almost by accident, Dr. Gerhard Domagk,
whose major blunder, if indeed he committed one, was discovering it
the year Hitler took over his native Germany. The drug became a tool
of the Allies as well as the Nazis, and finally a generation managed
to survive the wounds of war. Domagk, however, barely survived the
Gestapo; the corporate executives for whom he worked were defendants
in the Nuremberg Trials; the US experienced the worst mass poisoning
in its history; and the ways and means of developing new medicines
were changed forever, perhaps not for the better.
Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Book News Annotation:Science writer Hager describes the strange journey of the sulfa drug
and the man who found it almost by accident, Dr. Gerhard Domagk,
whose major blunder, if indeed he committed one, was discovering it
the year Hitler took over his native Germany. The drug became a tool
of the Allies as well as the Nazis, and finally a generation managed
to survive the wounds of war. Domagk, however, barely survived the
Gestapo; the corporate executives for whom he worked were defendants
in the Nuremberg Trials; the US experienced the worst mass poisoning
in its history; and the ways and means of developing new medicines
were changed forever, perhaps not for the better.
Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Review:"Grips the reader from the first paragraph.... a story of dedication, luck, tragedy and triumph that’s still relevant today." Bookpage Review:"Surprisingly entertaining...[Hager's] enthusiasm for the search for a 'magic bullet' drug in the early 20th century is infectious." Entertainment Weekly Review:"This is a grand story, and Mr. Hager tells it well...one can easily imagine The Demon Under the Microscope, like Microbe Hunters before it, inspiring in young, idealistic readers the enthusiasm for medical research and the zeal for healing that generates great physicians." Wall Street Journal Synopsis:Fast-paced, suspenseful, and utterly satisfying, this is the sweeping historyof the discovery of the first antibiotic and its dramatic effect on the worldof medicine and beyond.
About the AuthorVeteran science and medical writer Thomas Hager is the author of three books, including Force of Nature: The Life of Linus Pauling, and his work has appeared in publications ranging from Reader’s Digest to Medical Tribune. A former director of the University of Oregon Press, contributing editor to American Health, and correspondent for the Journal of the American Medical Association, he lives in Eugene, Oregon. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
Other books you might like
Related Aisles
| ||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
Don't Miss
