false 107532 184327 1400082137 9781400082131 29 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172522527m/184327.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172522527s/184327.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/184327.The_Demon_Under_the_Microscope_From_Battlefield_Hospitals_to_Nazi_Labs_One_Doctor_s_Heroic_Search_for_the_World_s_First_Miracle_Drug 4.07 95 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.


For thousands of years, humans had sought medicines with which they could defeat contagion, and they had slowly, painstakingly, won a few battles: some vaccines to ward off disease, a handful of antitoxins. A drug or two was available that could stop parasitic diseases once they hit, tropical maladies like malaria and sleeping sickness. But the great killers of Europe, North America, and most of Asia—pneumonia, plague, tuberculosis, diphtheria, cholera, meningitis—were caused not by parasites but by bacteria, much smaller, far different microorganisms. By 1931, nothing on earth could stop a bacterial infection once it started. . . .

But all that was about to change. . . . —from The Demon Under the Microscope]]> 107532 4.06 188 59 2006 3269091 0307351785 9780307351784 17 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3269091.The_Alchemy_of_Air_A_Jewish_Genius_a_Doomed_Tycoon_and_the_Discovery_That_Changed_the_Course_of_History 4.30 43
At the dawn of the twentieth century, humanity was facing global disaster. Mass starvation, long predicted for the fast-growing population, was about to become a reality. A call went out to the world’s scientists to find a solution.

This is the story of the two enormously gifted, fatally flawed men who found it: the brilliant, self-important Fritz Haber and the reclusive, alcoholic Carl Bosch. Together they discovered a way to make bread out of air, built city-sized factories, controlled world markets, and saved millions of lives. Their invention continues to feed us today; without it, more than two billion people would starve.

But their epochal triumph came at a price we are still paying. The Haber-Bosch process was also used to make the gunpowder and high explosives that killed millions during the two world wars. Both men were vilified during their lives; both, disillusioned and disgraced, died tragically. Today we face the other un­intended consequences of their discovery—massive nitrogen pollution and a growing pandemic of obesity.

The Alchemy of Air is the extraordinary, previously untold story of two master scientists who saved the world only to lose everything and of the unforseen results of a discovery that continues to shape our lives in the most fundamental and dramatic of ways.]]> 107532 4.06 188 59 2008 1121851 0684809095 9780684809090 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1121851.Force_of_Nature_The_Life_of_Linus_Pauling 3.60 5 107532 4.06 188 59 1995 2014933 0816013039 9780816013036 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2014933.Staying_Young_The_Whole_Truth_About_Aging_and_What_You_Can_Do_to_Slow_Its_Progress 2.50 2 107532 4.06 188 59 152956 3.79 373 152 1988 3043535 0870712942 9780870712944 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3043535.Linus_Pauling_Scientist_and_Peacemaker 3.00 1 107532 4.06 188 59 2001 1229887 0671724762 9780671724764 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1229887.Aging_Well 0.0 0 107532 4.06 188 59 1990