Adrenaline

Hoffman (medicine, Harvard Medical Sch.) has written a study of adrenaline for nonscientists. In doing so he addresses the evolution of medical experimentation and biomedical ethics as well as the history of medicine and science as a whole. The chemical commonly known for its "fight or flight" effects was the first hormone to be identified. The story of its discovery, identification, and purification is intriguing, involving scientific rivalry and questions of the roles of academia and private enterprise in medical breakthroughs. Owing to these political machinations, the Nobel Prize for the discovery of adrenaline was awarded to the wrong person. Hoffman includes a chapter on the adrenaline-mimicking autonomic nervous system and neurotransmitters, and a final chapter on adrenaline in popular culture, where it is often used as "a metaphor of a force that can bring anything back to life."