Carl Djerassi

Renu Krishnan, an Indian-born, American-educated scientist, discovers how NO (nitric oxide, now recognized as the causative agent of penile erection) can be used therapeutically to help men suffering from erectile dysfunction, while her husband, the Israeli scientist Jephtah Cohn, develops a new approach to ovulation prediction. When they gain government approval to manufacture and market their discoveries they are transformed into Wall Street darlings. Drawing on his experience as a founder, former officer, director, and advisor of similar biotech ventures, Djerassi examines the competing demands of academia and the fate of women who succeed in breaking the glass ceiling of male-dominated enterprises.

"Theodor W. Adorno was the prototypical German Jewish non-Jew, Walter Benjamin vacillated between German Jew and Jewish German, Gershom Scholem was a committed Zionist, and Arnold Schonberg converted to Protestantism for professional reasons but later returned to Judaism. Carl Djerassi, himself a refugee from Hitler's Austria, dramatizes a dialogue between these four men in which they discuss fraternity, religious identity, and legacy as well as reveal aspects of their lives - notably their relations with their wives - that many have ignored, underemphasized, or misrepresented." "The desire for canonization and the process by which it is obtained are the underlying themes of this dialogue, with emphasis on Paul Klee's Angelus Novus (1920), a canonized work that resonated deeply with Benjamin, Adorno, and Scholem (and for which Djerassi and Gabrielle Seethaler present a revisionist and richly illustrated interpretation). Basing his dialogue on extensive archival research and interviews, Djerassi concludes with a daring speculation on the putative contents of Benjamin's famous briefcase, which disappeared upon his suicide."--BOOK JACKET.

"Two of the most startling developments in contemporary science have radically disrupted the historical connection between sex and reproduction: in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) - an assisted reproductive technique that directly injects a single sperm into an egg. The word play ICSI - designed for classroom readings - presents, in the format of a contentious talk-show dialogue, the science of direct-injection fertilization and the ethical issues connected with it. A DVD included in the book provides video of the ICSI injection process as viewed through a microscope, to be used in performances of the ICSI one-act dialogue. Taboos, a full-length play, turns the screws on characters that reflect a polarized America. Two couples - lesbian partners and a conservative husband and wife struggling with infertility - must make choices in a drama that examines the disjunction of sexual reproduction and the physical act of sex."--Jacket.

Explores the impact oxygen has had on earth - history of life, origin of two sexes, evolution of aging and death (why we age and what we can do about it).

Stephen Marx is a bestselling novelist who, after thirteen books, a Pulitzer Prize, and a National Book Award, should have little to prove to anyone. What plagues Marx is not knowing how posterity will rank him: is he merely an entertaining observer of the contemporary scene, or is he a writer for the ages? Marx must know and so, after faking his own death, he waits in hiding for the judgment of his critics, reviewers, and readers. But death is not gratifying in the ways Marx had envisioned. In self-imposed anonymity he watches his life become, in the hands of others, a virtual novel with an increasingly out-of-control plot and a cast of unruly characters: his wife Miriam, author of an unusual cookbook; his critical nemesis, New York Times reviewer Noah Berg; and his biographer, Sabine Diehlsdorf. All of them have agenda, good reason to dislike Marx, and unexpected access to potentially damaging personal papers that Marx remembers, too late, he should have destroyed. And through it all, Marx just can't stop writing. Under a pseudonym, he produces a bestseller.... . In these and other captivating complications and twists, Carl Djerassi offers many insights into the makings of a literary reputation; the inevitable conflict between author and critic; the links between creative and sexual energy; issues of privacy, self-esteem, inspiration, and interpretation; and above all, the need for validation that is both the nourishment and poison of a creative mind.

Carl Djerassi, world famous for the first synthesis of the active progestational ingredient of the Pill, speaks out on a wide variety of topics in this captivating book. Djerassi's personal growth from laboratory scientist to spokesman on scientific issues as well as the myriad ways that developments in the laboratory can affect people all over the world are presented in this engaging collection of essays. Djerassi's starting point is the Pill; he describes the history of its development and its future in view of the public's unattainable desire for a risk-free Pill, special testing requirements, and the unfavorable climate for contraception research. From contraceptives, Djerassi broadens his scope to include the entire area of birth control and gives his opinions on factors influencing abortion, the relationship of abortion to the availability of contraceptives, the problem of teenage pregnancy in the United States, the need for chemical abortion inducers, and the possibilities for a male contraceptive agent. He also delves into the reasons why Orwellian approaches to birth control, such as adding contraceptives to the water supply, will not work. From this point, Djerassi branches out even further to discuss the danger of extrapolating animal toxicity studies to humans. He examines the multifaceted role of the pharmaceutical industry in bringing a new drug to market and focuses on the deleterious effects of over-regulation, inappropriate testing requirements, and litigation. He proposes changes that the FDA should make in approval procedures and stresses the need for an appeal procedure. He emphasizes the necessity of doing collaborative research with Third World countries and the desirability of establishing centers for basic research. But Djerassi's interests are still wider. He informs us on topics as varied as insect control, pesticide development, why there are not more women in academia, and how improved mentoring could be a remedy for preventing ethical misconduct among scientists. He describes his use of fiction to explain the culture of scientists by way of a literary medium that he calls "science-in-fiction". Finally, he discusses the pleasures of collecting art, his collection of the works of Paul Klee, and his sponsorship of artists through the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. In this intriguing book, this very learned and cultured man shows us the breadth of his interests and knowledge. Anyone who is interested in the very important issues of our time will profit from and enjoy this book.

Father of the birth control pill, developer of antihistamines, founder of biomedical companies, teacher of world-class chemists, best-selling novelist ... As The Scientist notes, "Few can match Carl Djerassi's juggling act for success and longevity." Here is Djerassi's remarkable autobiography. Blending vivid descriptions of the lucrative world of drug development with controversial chapters on the politics of contraception and poignant disclosures about his personal. Life, this book tells the story of one of the most productive and socially conscious chemists working today. The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas' Horse tells how Djerassi, while still in his twenties and leading a small team in an obscure laboratory in Mexico City, used a locally grown yam first to synthesize cortisone and then, within twelve months, to create the first steroid effective as a birth control pill. Dubbed for this latter work "the father of the pill," a title. he often shares with Gregory Pincus and John Rock, who performed the biological and clinical studies to confirm the pill's efficacy in humans, Djerassi has spent a lifetime thinking and rethinking, discussing and debating, the social, economic, and biological consequences of the changed attitudes toward contraception engendered by the pill. In two riveting chapters entitled "The Pill at Twenty" and "The Pill at Forty: What Now?" Djerassi recounts the fascinating history. Of the pill's journey from its first days in the laboratory to widespread public use--from being hailed as an agent of the sexual revolution to condemnation as an agent of the new promiscuity, to being accused of being an expression of the scientific community's sexism (Why was there no male birth control pill?). And then, in a powerful consideration of where the politics of contraception have taken us, he discusses why so few innovations in contraception are being. Investigated today, and why even fewer are making their way to the public. The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas' Horse chronicles Djerassi's many successful careers in science, business, the academy, and the arts (he is a published poet and novelist, as well as the founder of an artists' colony). His growing appreciation for the soft side of science--its human and humane aspects--have long been reflected in the courses he teaches at Stanford, in the plot of his novel. Cantor's Dilemma, and in his decision to found one of the first environmentally aware pesticide companies. In this intellectually challenging book, the reader is let into the fertile mind and psyche of one of the few Renaissance men of twentieth-century science.

At age twenty-eight, Carl Djerassi led the team at Syntex in Mexico that synthesized the first oral contraceptive. An internationally honored chemist, he has worked for decades as a scientist carrying out basic research and as an industrialist concerned with finding practical applications for laboratory discoveries. He is therefore uniquely qualified to discuss birth control, present and future, from the triple perspective of science, industry, and public policy. In this book, Professor Djerassi covers a range of current contraceptive methods and their use both in the United States and abroad, including the developing nations. He shows how research and development have been affected by the public's fears of side effects, notably cancer, and he assesses the role of the press and legislators, often critical and ill informed, in shaping pubic policy and attitudes- including unrealistic expectations for new technological breakthroughs. He also discusses in detail future male and female contraceptives that might be developed if realistic changes are made in public policy. In a special chapter on China, where more women than anywhere else take the Pill and where a new male Pill is being tested on humans, he explains how that nation has adopted a promising "contraceptive supermarket" approach to birth control. The book ends with his personal account of the chemical history of the Pill, which has never been told in layman's terms before. -- from Book Jacket.

In this compelling new novel Carl Djerassi moves beyond the familiar worlds of laboratory and home to investigate the "tribal culture" of the international science community. The novel's backdrop is a series of conferences, based on the Nobel Prize-winning Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, where jet-setting scientists gather to discuss the global implications of their discoveries. In this setting a man and a woman meet and become lovers. Menachem Dvir, a fiftyish Israeli nuclear engineer, is a married man rendered sterile by his exposure to radiation; Melanie Laidlaw, the American director of a foundation supporting research in reproductive biology, is the childless widow of a prominent scientist. Now in her late thirties, Laidlaw concocts a scheme to steal her lover's sperm in order to determine whether it is suitable for ICSI - a revolutionary development of the early 1990s involving injection of a single sperm into an egg for the treatment of male infertility and fully documented in this novel. What happens next is pure Djerassi - an unpredictable and thrilling page-turner.