theFRINGEreport

    2010-02-07

  1. Hofmann Parallels Found in Fringe, Pt. 1

    Albert Hofmann, called the “father” of LSD experimentation, may actually play a pivotal role in the creative development of FOX’s Fringe TV series. A Google search on Dr. Hofmann sends you down a twisting rabbit hole that bumps into everything from LSD and Massive Dynamic to life-saving vaccines and potential blight. Walter Bishop and William Bell are only TV characters, but Hofmann’s life comes very close to being stranger than fiction.

    As a young scientist with a degree in chemistry, he was hired by chemical dye company, Kern & Sandoz, in Basel, Switzerland. The artificial sweetener, saccharine, was invented there in 1899. The company opened a research department in 1917, headed by Prof. Arthur Stoll. He originally isolated the chemical ergotamine from ergot, a fungus. His discovery led to an effective treatment for migraine headaches. Sam Weiss: “Have the headaches started yet?” Read on, devoted Fringe fanatic — they will!

    As the company expanded their work into medicinal chemistry, Dr. Stoll assigned Hofmann to identify the active substances in ergot, a grain fungus that typically grows on rye.  Rye is a grass grown extensively as a cereal grain and as a forage crop. It is closely related to barley and wheat. Sounds to me like a crop that could lead to major problems if a fungus grew out of control.

    Hofmann explains the origins of this potential blight in his book LSD: My Problem Child, “Ergot first appeared on the stage of history in the early Middle Ages, as the cause of outbreaks of mass poisonings affecting thousands of persons at a time. The illness, whose connection with ergot was for a long time obscure, appeared in two characteristic forms, one gangrenous and the other convulsive.” One popular name for the gangrenous form was St. Anthony’s Fire.

    The last great ergot epidemic happened in southern Russia in the 1920s. The fungus also had medicinal uses by midwives to help bring on childbirth. In the 1800s, doctors found it stopped excessive bleeding after childbirth. No one had been able to identify the drug’s active substances until Hofmann’s work in 1938.

    Sandoz was not alone in its drive to develop helpful and financially rewarding products. Its two main competitors were Ceiba and Geigy. Each company worked on separate projects from diverse points along the way and each had its own unique group of scientists behind the scenes. Sounds very much like our fictional Massive Dynamic and their competitors like INtREPUS in Season 1’s “The Cure.”  In the midst of competition, the real-life companies agreed to pool information between then in a deal that lasted from 1918 to 1950. In that time, and since, developments expanded from pharmaceuticals to food, crop control, pesticides, vaccines and more.

    Here’s a glimpse of how modern chemical development changed our world since the days of dear Dr. Hofmann:

    • 1929 – Sandoz opens a chemicals department.

    • 1935 – Geigy begins manufacturing insecticides.

    • 1937 – Geigy forms a pharmaceuticals department.

    • 1938 – Albert Hofmann studies medicinal plants, such as the Mediterranean squill and ergot fungus. He synthesizes the natural lysergic acid in ergot into LSD, but little is discovered.

    • 1939 – Sandoz ventures into agribusiness with pesticides.

    • 1943 – Hofmann retests LSD, accidentally absorbing the sample through his fingertips. He goes home, experiencing bizarre visions for two hours. Days later, he purposely ingests LSD in water and asked a co-worker to give him a ride home on his bicycle. The first LSD “trip” is known as Bicycle Day. Walter celebrates every April 19 by wearing a little tin foil hat – and probably nothing else. Ewww.

    • 1947 – Sandoz develops LSD and markets it as psychiatric drug.

    • 1948 – Geigy researcher wins Nobel Prize for his effective use of DDT as an insecticide.

    • 1954 – Ciba begins working with insecticides.

    • 1956 – Geigy introduces the first triazine-based herbicides. Look out, alternate universe trees!

    • 1958 – Geigy works with psychotropic drugs. Sandoz makes a breakthrough with the anti-psychotic Mellaril.

    • 1959 – Geigy produces the first long-lasting diuretic for high blood pressure. Walter was worried about Peter’s susceptibility to high blood pressure.

    Control your blood pressure as you digest those chilling tidbits from Dr. Albert Hofmann’s lifetime. Part 2 will follow tomorrow, revealing even more Fringey parallels between his world and Dr. Bishop’s. For example, what happened after the disastrous lab fire of 1986?

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