Miracle Cure
The Creation of Antibiotics and the Birth of Modern Medicine
1 of 2 copies available
As late as the 1930s, virtually no drug intended for sickness did any good; doctors could set bones, deliver babies, and offer palliative care. That all changed in less than a generation with the discovery and development of a new category of medicine known as antibiotics. By 1955, the age-old evolutionary relationship between humans and microbes had been transformed, trivializing once-deadly infections.
William Rosen captures this revolution with all its false starts, lucky surprises, and eccentric characters. He explains why, given the complex nature of bacteria—and their ability to rapidly evolve into new forms—the only way to locate and test potential antibiotic strains is by large-scale, systematic, trial-and-error experimentation. Organizing that research needs large, well-funded organizations and businesses, and so our entire scientific-industrial complex, built around the pharmaceutical company, was born.
Timely, engrossing, and eye-opening, Miracle Cure is a must-read science narrative—a drama of enormous range, combining science, technology, politics, and economics to illuminate the reasons behind one of the most dramatic changes in humanity’s relationship with nature since the invention of agriculture ten thousand years ago.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
May 9, 2017 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781524755836
- File size: 350536 KB
- Duration: 12:10:16
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Narrator Rob Shapiro's resonant baritone carries the listener smoothly through this fascinating history of the chemicals and the personalities that helped create contemporary medical culture. While a handful of words are oddly pronounced, Shapiro effortlessly articulates the names of chemical compounds, bacterial species, French scientists, and German companies. Whether narrating the processes of discovery or the mechanisms by which the medicines work, his tone and pacing are as engaging and conversational as when he tells the stories of the people involved. This tale is filled with human foibles--rivalries, misconceptions, ambition, politics, heroism--and Shapiro perfectly conveys the author's disapproval, amusement, and admiration. An entertaining production of an extraordinarily interesting book. D.L.Y. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine -
Starred review from March 13, 2017
Former publisher and editor Rosen (The Third Horseman) tackles a dazzling chapter of modern medical history in this chronicle of the discoveries that opened the age of antibiotics and gave humankind its first effective tool to fight back in an “eons-long war” with infectious disease. It was a breathtaking leap of innovation. Rosen deftly recounts the early work of such pioneers as Louis Pasteur, who established the germ theory; Robert Koch, who linked a microorganism to a single disease; Paul Ehrlich, producer of the world’s first synthetic chemotherapeutic agent; Gerhard Domagk, whose lab found the first successful antibacterial drug; and Alexander Fleming, the man who discovered penicillin. Rosen posits that 19th- and 20th-century scientists’ most enduring contributions might have been institutional, in the forms of biological laboratory development and massive corporate funding from such giants as Merck, Pfizer, and Squibb that fueled the revolution in medicine. “Every triumphal discovery” in the dawning age of antibiotics, Rosen eloquently notes, “has been followed, sometimes in a matter of months, by a reminder that the enemy in this particular war may lose individual battles, but that the war against it is essentially eternal.” Rosen’s thoughtful, scholarly, and engaging history is a powerful testament to this fight. Agent: Eric Simonoff, WME.
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