July 22, 2020 • 10 mins
Selman Waksman, who is credited with developing streptomycin, was born on this day in 1888. / On this day in 1849, Jewish-American writer Emma Lazarus was born.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, everyone, it's Eves checking in here to let you
know that you're going to be hearing two different events
in history in this episode, one from me and one
from Tracy V. Wilson. They're both good, if I do
say so myself. One with the show. Welcome to this
day in History class. It's July twenty two. Selman Waksman
(00:21):
was born on this day in and he's credited with
the discovery of the antibiotics strepp to mycin, but there
is some debate about whether that credit is completely deserved.
Salmon Waksman was born to a family of devout Jews
near Kiev and what's now Ukraine, and his family moved
to the United States to escape persecution. He became a
(00:42):
United States citizen in nineteen sixteen after getting a PhD
from the University of California at Berkeley. He returned to
Rutgers University, where he had gotten some of his earlier degrees,
where he became a professor of microbiology. He also became
the head of the microbiology department when it was founded
in and a lot of his work had to do
(01:03):
with soil bacteriology. He started building on the work of
a French biologist named Rene du Bois who had found
a bacterium in soil that attacked other bacteria. It's specifically
attacked the bacterium that caused pneumonia. So this thing that
he had found in the soil had the potential to
(01:23):
treat pneumonia. So Waxman and other colleagues started trying to
look for other bacteria that could maybe attack other pathogens.
A huge part of this work was done by one
of his graduate students, a man named H. Boyd Woodruff,
and there were about fifty other graduate students who were
also part of this project over the years. This is
(01:44):
pretty common way of doing scientific research, with graduate students
carrying out a lot of the labor. They were painstaking
lye isolating microbes in the soil samples and then painstakingly
testing them against a bunch of other specific pathogens with
a lot of very detailed work. Woodruff found a bacterium
(02:05):
that could kill and inhibit the growth of bacteria, and
it was called Actinomyces antibioticus. But unfortunately, this bacterium was
also harmful to pretty much everything else. It was not
something you could actually give to a person to treat
a disease. Because the bacterium itself would make them sicker.
They kept looking, though, and two years later they isolated
(02:28):
another bacterium that was less toxic, but still toxic. Still
not quite where they wanted to be. Eventually, though, they
found twenty or so different bacteria that could all fight infections,
and they coined the name antibiotics to describe all of these.
In nineteen forty four, Waxman and his team finally isolated
(02:49):
streptomycin from strepped to Mices grissius, which was also isolated
by a graduate student. This one was named albert Shots.
This was finally made into an actual drug through an
agreement with Mark Pharmaceuticals, and this drug was colossally important.
Tuberculosis is a devastating disease. At the time, it had
(03:12):
no cure, It had no effective treatment. They were doing
things like bundling people up with blankets and having them
sleep out in the cold to treat tuberculosis. It was
not actually a effective way to treat tuberculosis at all.
The need for this drug was so great that Waxman
actually renegotiated his whole deal with Mark Pharmaceuticals to allow
other manufacturers to get access to the patent and to
(03:35):
also make the drug. That was how much they needed
to have an effective treatment for tuberculosis for the first time.
But then in Albert Shots sued someone Watsman. He argued
that this had been his discovery and not Waxman, and
that Waxman had taken the credit from him on purpose.
This fight got really really ugly, with Waxman's legal team
(03:57):
making false accusations against Albish Shots, and the case was
finally settled in nineteen fifty. This settlement led to the
royalties being divided up differently. That's the royalties that people
were paying to use that patent. Eight percent of the
royalties went to Regers University, ten percent to Salmon Waksman,
three percent to Albert Shots, and then the remainder was
divided among the other people who had been part of
(04:19):
this project. Salmon Waksman was awarded a Nobel Prize for
all this in nineteen fifty two, and although Albert Shots
was named in the speech, he was not named in
the award. It is still not completely clear exactly what
happened here. It is extremely typical for graduate students to
carry out a lot of work on their professors projects.
(04:41):
There's a whole debate. That's a legitimate debate to be
had about that system and whether it is just Opinions
are divided though about whether this specific case is just
how it went in science programs and in graduate schools,
or whether Waksman really did do something wrong. You can
learn more about this and all of the debates in
(05:02):
the July thirteen episode of Stuffy miss and History Class,
and you can subscribe to This Day in History Class
on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, and whatever else you get
your podcasts. Next time, we will take a look at
a Cold War era revolution. Welcome back to This Day
(05:27):
in History Class, where we reveal a new piece of
history every day. The day was July eighteen forty nine.
Emma Lazarus was born in New York City to parents
(05:47):
Moses and Esther Lazarus. Emma would go on to become
a successful author an advocate for Jewish people around the world.
Emma had six siblings. Her family was wealthy from their busines,
this in sugar refinery and industry that largely relied on
the labor of enslaved people. Emma lived a comfortable life
(06:07):
and had private tutors, and she learned to speak several languages.
She began writing and translating poetry early on, and her
father privately printed her first work in eighteen sixty six.
The next year, the collection Poems and Translations, written between
the ages of fourteen and seventeen, was printed commercially. This
(06:30):
second edition got Emma a lot more attention, including that
of writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson became Emma's mentor, and
the two of them would correspond for years to come,
though they did have a falling out over the course
of their relationship. In eighteen seventy one, Lazarus published a
second volume of poetry called at Medas and Other Poems.
(06:51):
The book includes her original poems and translations of works
by other poets. Three years later, she published her only novel,
which was based on Johann Wolfgang von Gerta's personal accounts
of his life. Throughout the eighteen seventies and eighteen eighties,
Emma published poems of play in verse, translations, and essays.
(07:12):
It was in the early eighteen eighties when Lazarus took
up the cause of denouncing anti Semitism in her writing.
She published Songs of a Semite, The Dance to Death,
and other poems in which she celebrated her Jewish heritage.
She also contributed to magazines like American Hebrew and The Century.
Among other essays, she published Russian Christianity Versus Modern Judaism,
(07:36):
a response to a journalist who defended anti Semitic programs.
Anti Semitism was spreading in Eastern Europe, and her works
became controversial. In eighteen eighty three, Emma traveled to England
and France and met poets and writers like Robert Browning
and William Morris. When she returned to the US that year,
she wrote the poem The New Colossus to help phraise
(07:58):
money for a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, which
France planned to give to the U S as a gift.
In the poem, she imagined the statue as the mother
of exiles, a character who says the following, give me
your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the
(08:20):
homeless tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside
the golden door. The poem was later engraved on a
plaque and hung in the Museum and the statue's pedestal,
as Emma wrote more from her singular Jewish and American perspective.
She began advocating for the creation of a Jewish homeland
before Zionism had gained a lot of grownd. Emma was
(08:44):
also active in advocating for Jewish refugees. Outside of her writing.
She helped found the Hebrew Technical Institute of New York,
which provided Jewish immigrants with vocational training. She also taught
English at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and lamented the
condition of immigrants on Wards Island. From eighteen eighty five
to eighteen eighty seven, Emma traveled throughout Europe, during which
(09:07):
time she became sick. She traveled as a way to
regain her composure and strength after her father died, according
to Emma's sister Josephine, but by the time she got
back to New York in eighteen eighty seven, her eyesight
was poor, She lost hearing in one ear, and she
had paralysis in her face. She died in November of
(09:28):
eighteen eighty seven at age thirty eight, probably of Hodgkins slimphoma.
After she died, her family, who had not shared the
same openness about their Jewish heritage, nor been super comfortable
with her activism since herd Emma's pro Jewish and Zionist
views and posthumous publications, I'm Eves Jeff Coote and hopefully
(09:49):
you know a little more about history today than you
did yesterday. If you'd like to learn more about Emma,
you can check out the episode of Stuff You Missed
in History Class called Emma Lazar. The link is in
the description. You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and
Facebook at t d i h C podcast. Thanks again
(10:13):
for listening and we'll see you tomorrow. For more podcasts
from I Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hello, everyone, it's Eves checking in here to let you
know that you're going to be hearing two different events
in history in this episode, one from me and one
from Tracy V. Wilson. They're both good, if I do
say so myself. One with the show. Welcome to this
day in History class. It's July twenty two. Selman Waksman
(00:21):
was born on this day in and he's credited with
the discovery of the antibiotics strepp to mycin, but there
is some debate about whether that credit is completely deserved.
Salmon Waksman was born to a family of devout Jews
near Kiev and what's now Ukraine, and his family moved
to the United States to escape persecution. He became a
(00:42):
United States citizen in nineteen sixteen after getting a PhD
from the University of California at Berkeley. He returned to
Rutgers University, where he had gotten some of his earlier degrees,
where he became a professor of microbiology. He also became
the head of the microbiology department when it was founded
in and a lot of his work had to do
(01:03):
with soil bacteriology. He started building on the work of
a French biologist named Rene du Bois who had found
a bacterium in soil that attacked other bacteria. It's specifically
attacked the bacterium that caused pneumonia. So this thing that
he had found in the soil had the potential to
(01:23):
treat pneumonia. So Waxman and other colleagues started trying to
look for other bacteria that could maybe attack other pathogens.
A huge part of this work was done by one
of his graduate students, a man named H. Boyd Woodruff,
and there were about fifty other graduate students who were
also part of this project over the years. This is
(01:44):
pretty common way of doing scientific research, with graduate students
carrying out a lot of the labor. They were painstaking
lye isolating microbes in the soil samples and then painstakingly
testing them against a bunch of other specific pathogens with
a lot of very detailed work. Woodruff found a bacterium
(02:05):
that could kill and inhibit the growth of bacteria, and
it was called Actinomyces antibioticus. But unfortunately, this bacterium was
also harmful to pretty much everything else. It was not
something you could actually give to a person to treat
a disease. Because the bacterium itself would make them sicker.
They kept looking, though, and two years later they isolated
(02:28):
another bacterium that was less toxic, but still toxic. Still
not quite where they wanted to be. Eventually, though, they
found twenty or so different bacteria that could all fight infections,
and they coined the name antibiotics to describe all of these.
In nineteen forty four, Waxman and his team finally isolated
(02:49):
streptomycin from strepped to Mices grissius, which was also isolated
by a graduate student. This one was named albert Shots.
This was finally made into an actual drug through an
agreement with Mark Pharmaceuticals, and this drug was colossally important.
Tuberculosis is a devastating disease. At the time, it had
(03:12):
no cure, It had no effective treatment. They were doing
things like bundling people up with blankets and having them
sleep out in the cold to treat tuberculosis. It was
not actually a effective way to treat tuberculosis at all.
The need for this drug was so great that Waxman
actually renegotiated his whole deal with Mark Pharmaceuticals to allow
other manufacturers to get access to the patent and to
(03:35):
also make the drug. That was how much they needed
to have an effective treatment for tuberculosis for the first time.
But then in Albert Shots sued someone Watsman. He argued
that this had been his discovery and not Waxman, and
that Waxman had taken the credit from him on purpose.
This fight got really really ugly, with Waxman's legal team
(03:57):
making false accusations against Albish Shots, and the case was
finally settled in nineteen fifty. This settlement led to the
royalties being divided up differently. That's the royalties that people
were paying to use that patent. Eight percent of the
royalties went to Regers University, ten percent to Salmon Waksman,
three percent to Albert Shots, and then the remainder was
divided among the other people who had been part of
(04:19):
this project. Salmon Waksman was awarded a Nobel Prize for
all this in nineteen fifty two, and although Albert Shots
was named in the speech, he was not named in
the award. It is still not completely clear exactly what
happened here. It is extremely typical for graduate students to
carry out a lot of work on their professors projects.
(04:41):
There's a whole debate. That's a legitimate debate to be
had about that system and whether it is just Opinions
are divided though about whether this specific case is just
how it went in science programs and in graduate schools,
or whether Waksman really did do something wrong. You can
learn more about this and all of the debates in
(05:02):
the July thirteen episode of Stuffy miss and History Class,
and you can subscribe to This Day in History Class
on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, and whatever else you get
your podcasts. Next time, we will take a look at
a Cold War era revolution. Welcome back to This Day
(05:27):
in History Class, where we reveal a new piece of
history every day. The day was July eighteen forty nine.
Emma Lazarus was born in New York City to parents
(05:47):
Moses and Esther Lazarus. Emma would go on to become
a successful author an advocate for Jewish people around the world.
Emma had six siblings. Her family was wealthy from their busines,
this in sugar refinery and industry that largely relied on
the labor of enslaved people. Emma lived a comfortable life
(06:07):
and had private tutors, and she learned to speak several languages.
She began writing and translating poetry early on, and her
father privately printed her first work in eighteen sixty six.
The next year, the collection Poems and Translations, written between
the ages of fourteen and seventeen, was printed commercially. This
(06:30):
second edition got Emma a lot more attention, including that
of writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson became Emma's mentor, and
the two of them would correspond for years to come,
though they did have a falling out over the course
of their relationship. In eighteen seventy one, Lazarus published a
second volume of poetry called at Medas and Other Poems.
(06:51):
The book includes her original poems and translations of works
by other poets. Three years later, she published her only novel,
which was based on Johann Wolfgang von Gerta's personal accounts
of his life. Throughout the eighteen seventies and eighteen eighties,
Emma published poems of play in verse, translations, and essays.
(07:12):
It was in the early eighteen eighties when Lazarus took
up the cause of denouncing anti Semitism in her writing.
She published Songs of a Semite, The Dance to Death,
and other poems in which she celebrated her Jewish heritage.
She also contributed to magazines like American Hebrew and The Century.
Among other essays, she published Russian Christianity Versus Modern Judaism,
(07:36):
a response to a journalist who defended anti Semitic programs.
Anti Semitism was spreading in Eastern Europe, and her works
became controversial. In eighteen eighty three, Emma traveled to England
and France and met poets and writers like Robert Browning
and William Morris. When she returned to the US that year,
she wrote the poem The New Colossus to help phraise
(07:58):
money for a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, which
France planned to give to the U S as a gift.
In the poem, she imagined the statue as the mother
of exiles, a character who says the following, give me
your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the
(08:20):
homeless tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside
the golden door. The poem was later engraved on a
plaque and hung in the Museum and the statue's pedestal,
as Emma wrote more from her singular Jewish and American perspective.
She began advocating for the creation of a Jewish homeland
before Zionism had gained a lot of grownd. Emma was
(08:44):
also active in advocating for Jewish refugees. Outside of her writing.
She helped found the Hebrew Technical Institute of New York,
which provided Jewish immigrants with vocational training. She also taught
English at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and lamented the
condition of immigrants on Wards Island. From eighteen eighty five
to eighteen eighty seven, Emma traveled throughout Europe, during which
(09:07):
time she became sick. She traveled as a way to
regain her composure and strength after her father died, according
to Emma's sister Josephine, but by the time she got
back to New York in eighteen eighty seven, her eyesight
was poor, She lost hearing in one ear, and she
had paralysis in her face. She died in November of
(09:28):
eighteen eighty seven at age thirty eight, probably of Hodgkins slimphoma.
After she died, her family, who had not shared the
same openness about their Jewish heritage, nor been super comfortable
with her activism since herd Emma's pro Jewish and Zionist
views and posthumous publications, I'm Eves Jeff Coote and hopefully
(09:49):
you know a little more about history today than you
did yesterday. If you'd like to learn more about Emma,
you can check out the episode of Stuff You Missed
in History Class called Emma Lazar. The link is in
the description. You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and
Facebook at t d i h C podcast. Thanks again
(10:13):
for listening and we'll see you tomorrow. For more podcasts
from I Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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