The Billion Dollar Molecule
One Company's Quest for the Perfect Drug
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The Billion Dollar Molecule
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Narrated by:
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Stephen Bowlby
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By:
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Barry Werth
About this listen
Join journalist Barry Werth as he pulls back the curtain on Vertex, a start-up pharmaceutical company, and witness firsthand the intense drama being played out in the pioneering and hugely profitable field of drug research.
Founded by Joshua Boger, a dynamic Harvard- and Merck-trained scientific whiz kid, Vertex is dedicated to designing - atom by atom - both a new life-saving immunosuppressant drug and a drug to combat the virus that causes AIDS.
You will be hooked from start to finish, as you go from the labs, where obsessive, fiercely competitive scientists struggle for a breakthrough, to Wall Street, where the wheeling and dealing takes on a life of its own, as Boger courts investors and finally decides to take Vertex public. Here is a fascinating, no-holds-barred account of the business of science that includes an updated epilogue about the most recent developments in the quest for a drug to cure AIDS.
©1994 Barry Werth; Introduction copyright 2014 by Barry Werth (P)2021 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 594
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 424
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 423
This comprehensive and gripping narrative, which received the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for history, covers all the challenges, characters, and controversies in America's relentless struggle against polio. Funded by philanthropy and grassroots contributions, Salk's killed-virus vaccine (1954) and Sabin's live-virus vaccine (1961) began to eradicate this dreaded disease.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful
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How to Survive a Plague
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 330
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 308
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 307
A riveting, powerful telling of the story of the grassroots movement of activists, many of them in a life-or-death struggle, who seized upon scientific research to help develop the drugs that turned HIV from a mostly fatal infection to a manageable disease. Ignored by public officials, religious leaders, and the nation at large, and confronted with shame and hatred, this small group of men and women chose to fight for their right to live by educating themselves and demanding to become full partners in the race for effective treatments.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Read This Book!
- By Kay M Hawklee on 05-30-17
By: David France
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Tomorrowland
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- By: Steven Kotler
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 429
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 363
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Story4 out of 5 stars 363
New York Times, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, Discover bestselling author Steven Kotler has written extensively about those pivotal moments when science fiction became science fact...and fundamentally reshaped the world. Now he gathers the best of his best, updated and expanded upon, to guide listeners on a mind-bending tour of the far frontier, and how these advances are radically transforming our lives.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Covers a lot of different topics in many industries
- By ErnieA on 06-27-15
By: Steven Kotler
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Rigor Mortis
- How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions
- By: Richard Harris
- Narrated by: Joe Delafield
- Length: 5 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 117
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 100
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
American taxpayers spend $30 billion annually funding biomedical research, but over half of these studies can't be replicated due to poor experimental design, improper methods, and sloppy statistics. Bad science doesn't just hold back medical progress, it can sign the equivalent of a death sentence for terminal patients. In Rigor Mortis, Richard Harris explores these urgent issues with vivid anecdotes, personal stories, and interviews with the top biomedical researchers. We need to fix our dysfunctional biomedical system - before it's too late.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Eye opening introduction to biomedical R&D
- By Amazon Customer on 09-18-18
By: Richard Harris
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The Demon Under The Microscope
- By: Thomas Hager
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,488
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,543
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,541
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 medication. In The Demon Under the Microscope, Thomas Hager chronicles the dramatic history of the drug that shaped modern medicine.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Great Book!!!!!
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By: Thomas Hager
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101 Theory Drive
- A Neuroscientist's Quest for Memory
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- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 167
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 63
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Story4 out of 5 stars 65
It's not fiction: Gary Lynch is the real thing, the epitome of the rebel scientist - malnourished, contentious, inspiring, explosive, remarkably ambitious, consistently brilliant. He is one of the foremost figures of contemporary neuroscience, and his decades-long quest to understand the inner workings of the brain's memory machine has begun to pay off.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Pretty Dang Funny
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By: Terry McDermott
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A Shot to Save the World
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- By: Gregory Zuckerman
- Narrated by: Jack Armstrong
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 174
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 147
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 146
Few were ready when a mysterious respiratory illness emerged in Wuhan, China, in January 2020. Politicians, government officials, business leaders, and public-health professionals were unprepared for the most devastating pandemic in a century. Many of the world’s biggest drug and vaccine makers were slow to react or couldn’t muster an effective response. It was up to a small group of unlikely and untested scientists and executives to save civilization.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wow! Do not miss this one.
- By Jacob on 11-18-21
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Headstrong
- 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World
- By: Rachel Swaby
- Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 64
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 54
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
In 2013, the New York Times published an obituary for Yvonne Brill. It began: “She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job, and took eight years off from work to raise three children.” It wasn’t until the second paragraph that readers discovered why the Times had devoted several hundred words to her life: Brill was a brilliant rocket scientist who invented a propulsion system to keep communications satellites in orbit, and had recently been awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Role models for young women
- By mtsuda90 on 06-25-16
By: Rachel Swaby
-
The Idea Factory
- Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
- By: Jon Gertner
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,011
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 844
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 845
In The Idea Factory, New York Times Magazine writer Jon Gertner reveals how Bell Labs served as an incubator for scientific innovation from the 1920s through the1980s. In its heyday, Bell Labs boasted nearly 15,000 employees, 1200 of whom held PhDs and 13 of whom won Nobel Prizes. Thriving in a work environment that embraced new ideas, Bell Labs scientists introduced concepts that still propel many of today’s most exciting technologies.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Great story -- horrible pauses
- By Rodney on 01-29-13
By: Jon Gertner
-
Sellout
- How Washington Gave Away America's Technological Soul, and One Man's Fight to Bring It Home
- By: Victoria Bruce
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
American technological prowess used to be unrivaled. But because of globalization, and with the blessing of the US government, once proprietary materials, components, and technologies are increasingly commercialized outside the United States. Nowhere is this more dangerous than in China's monopoly of rare earth elements - materials that are essential for nearly all modern consumer goods, gadgets, and weapons systems.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Uncovering unsung heroes of modern America
- By Ben DeNardo on 08-24-17
By: Victoria Bruce
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No Better Time
- The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius Who Transformed the Internet
- By: Molly Knight Raskin
- Narrated by: Christine Marshall
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 60
No Better Time tells of a young, driven mathematical genius who wrote a set of algorithms that would create a faster, better Internet. It's the story of a beautiful friendship between a loud, irreverent student and his soft-spoken MIT professor, of a husband and father who spent years struggling to make ends meet only to become a billionaire almost overnight with the success of Akamai Technologies, the Internet content delivery network he cofounded with his mentor.
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4 out of 5 stars
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An Overlooked Hero of 9-11
- By Jean on 05-27-16
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Big Science
- Ernest Lawrence and the Invention That Launched the Military-Industrial Complex
- By: Michael Hiltzik
- Narrated by: Bob Saouer
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 117
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 102
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 101
Since the 1930s, the scale of scientific endeavors has grown exponentially. The birth of Big Science can be traced to Berkeley, California, nearly nine decades ago, when a resourceful young scientist pondered his new invention and declared, "I'm going to be famous!" Ernest Orlando Lawrence's cyclotron would revolutionize nuclear physics, but that was only the beginning of its impact.This is the incredible story of how one invention changed the world and of the man principally responsible for it all. Michael Hiltzik tells the riveting full story here for the first time.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
An informative and thought-provoking book
- By Jean on 08-23-15
By: Michael Hiltzik
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The Chaos Imperative
- How Chance and Disruption Increase Innovation, Effectiveness, and Success
- By: Ori Brafman, Judah Pollack
- Narrated by: Drew Birdseye
- Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 64
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 56
Ori Brafman and management consultant Judah Pollack dramatically demonstrate how even the best and most efficient organizations - from Fortune 500 companies to today's US Army - can become more innovative by allowing a little unstructured space and "contained chaos" into their planning and decision-making. Through their consulting work, they realized that while structure and hierarchy are essential both in large corporations and small groups, too much of either can stifle creativity.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
a must read!!
- By Kelly Pavich on 05-26-19
By: Ori Brafman, and others
-
The Birth of the Pill
- How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution
- By: Jonathan Eig
- Narrated by: Gayle Hendrix
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 254
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 228
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 227
We know it simply as "the pill", yet its genesis was anything but simple. Jonathan Eig's masterful narrative revolves around four principal characters: the fiery feminist Margaret Sanger, who was a champion of birth control in her campaign for the rights of women but neglected her own children in pursuit of free love; the beautiful Katharine McCormick, who owed her fortune to her wealthy husband, the son of the founder of International Harvester and a schizophrenic.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Overall Excellent Read
- By Rachel on 04-02-22
By: Jonathan Eig
-
Seeing What Others Don't
- The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights
- By: Gary Klein
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 386
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 341
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 339
Insights—like Darwin's understanding of the way evolution actually works, and Watson and Crick's breakthrough discoveries about the structure of DNA-can change the world. We also need insights into the everyday things that frustrate and confuse us so that we can more effectively solve problems and get things done. Yet we know very little about when, why, or how insights are formed—or what blocks them. In Seeing What Others Don't, renowned cognitive psychologist Gary Klein unravels the mystery.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Not enough actionable ideas
- By Blair on 02-24-15
By: Gary Klein
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In Regenesis, George Church and science writer Ed Regis explore the possibilities of the emerging field of synthetic biology. Synthetic biology, in which living organisms are selectively altered by modifying substantial portions of their genomes, allows for the creation of entirely new species of organisms. These technologies - far from the out-of-control nightmare depicted in science fiction - have the power to improve human and animal health, increase our intelligence, enhance our memory, and even extend our life span.
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In 31 Days, Barry Werth takes listeners inside the White House during the tumultuous days following Nixon's resignation and the swearing-in of America's "accidental president", Gerald Ford. The congressional hearings, Nixon's increasing paranoia, and, finally, the devastating revelations of the White House tapes had torn the country apart. Within the White House and the Republican Party, Nixon's resignation produced new fissures and battle lines and new opportunities for political advancement.
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Everyone has heard of DNA. But by itself, DNA is just an inert blueprint for life. It is the ribosome - an enormous molecular machine made up of a million atoms - that makes DNA come to life, turning our genetic code into proteins and therefore into us. Gene Machine is an insider account of the race for the structure of the ribosome, a fundamental discovery that both advances our knowledge of all life and could lead to the development of better antibiotics against life-threatening diseases.
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John (Jack) Downey, Jr., was a new Yale graduate in the post-World War II years who, like other Yale grads, was recruited by the young CIA. He joined the Agency and was sent to Japan in 1952, during the Korean War. In a violation of protocol, he took part in an air drop that failed and was captured over China. His sources on the ground had been compromised, and his identity was known. Although he first tried to deny who he was, he eventually admitted the truth. But government policy forbade ever acknowledging the identity of spies, no matter the consequences.
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A Cold War Saga
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The discovery of DNA’s structure is the story of five towering minds in pursuit of the advancement of science, and for almost all of them, the prospect of fame and immortality: Watson, Crick, Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, and Linus Pauling. Howard Markel skillfully recreates the intense intellectual journey, and fraught personal relationships, that ultimately led to a spectacular breakthrough. But it is Rosalind Franklin - fiercely determined, relentless, and an outsider at Cambridge and the University of London in the 1950s - who becomes a focal point for Markel.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Odd choice of narrator
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By: Howard Markel
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An Introduction to Information Theory
- Symbols, Signals and Noise
- By: John R. Pierce
- Narrated by: Kyle Tait
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 56
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 48
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Story4 out of 5 stars 48
Behind the familiar surfaces of the telephone, radio, and television lies a sophisticated and intriguing body of knowledge known as information theory. This is the theory that has permitted the rapid development of all sorts of communication, from color television to the clear transmission of photographs from the vicinity of Jupiter. Even more revolutionary progress is expected in the future.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not bad, but...
- By Jane Doe on 06-26-20
By: John R. Pierce
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Bottle of Lies
- The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom
- By: Katherine Eban
- Narrated by: Katherine Eban
- Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,071
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 938
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Story5 out of 5 stars 936
From an award-winning Fortune reporter, an explosive narrative investigation of the generic drug boom that reveals the life-threatening dangers posed by globalization - The Jungle for pharmaceuticals.
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1 out of 5 stars
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overbearing self-righteous indignation
- By VB on 01-13-20
By: Katherine Eban
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Breakthrough
- Elizabeth Hughes, the Discovery of Insulin, and the Making of a Medical Miracle
- By: Thea Cooper, Arthur Ainsberg
- Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 25
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 24
It is 1919 and Elizabeth Hughes, the 11-year-old daughter of America's most-distinguished jurist and politician, Charles Evans Hughes, has been diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. It is essentially a death sentence. The only accepted form of treatment - starvation - whittles her down to 45 pounds, skin and bones. Miles away, Canadian researchers Frederick Banting and Charles Best manage to identify and purify insulin from animal pancreases - a miracle soon marred by scientific jealousy, intense business competition, and fistfights.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Absolutely Wonderful !
- By MUHAMMAD SHOAIB on 11-20-24
By: Thea Cooper, and others
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Periodic Tales
- A Cultural History of the Elements, From Arsenic to Zinc
- By: Hugh Aldersey-Williams
- Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 535
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 474
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Story4 out of 5 stars 475
Like the alphabet, the calendar, or the zodiac, the periodic table of the chemical elements has a permanent place in our imagination. But aside from the handful of common ones (iron, carbon, copper, gold), the elements themselves remain wrapped in mystery. We do not know what most of them look like, how they exist in nature, how they got their names, or of what use they are to us.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Interesting but Rambling
- By Carolyn on 08-24-15
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Tuxedo Park
- A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II
- By: Jennet Conant
- Narrated by: John Kroft
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 105
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 99
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
In the late 1930s, legendary financier, philanthropist, and society figure Alfred Lee Loomis gathered the most visionary scientific minds of the 20th century at his state-of-the-art laboratory in Tuxedo Park, New York. He established a top-secret defense laboratory at MIT and personally bankrolled pioneering research into new, high-powered radar detection systems that helped defeat the German Air Force and U-boats. With Ernest Lawrence, he pushed Franklin Delano Roosevelt to fund research in nuclear fission, which led to the development of the atomic bomb.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic book, weak technical execution
- By Paul on 10-13-18
By: Jennet Conant
What listeners say about The Billion Dollar Molecule
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Alexa
- 05-05-23
Book is interesting but narrator is not
Nothing against the author but it was really hard for me to stay engaged with the narrator. I would find myself spacing out consistently which would detract from the story because of the performance. Because of this I returned the book
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