Hofmann Parallels in Fringe, Pt. 2
Welcome back to the history of science with a Fringe twist. Those brave few who made it through Part 1 of the blog truly deserve a salute from Mr. Papaya, and maybe even a root beer float. Truth can be at least as strange as fiction when you are talking about Dr. Albert Hofmann, the “father” LSD. He was interested in nature and spirituality from childhood. He never imagined how his discoveries would eventually be used, advanced, twisted and attacked. Eventually, it left him skeptical about the future of humanity.
He called natural science and technology “creations of the Western mind that have changed the world.”“… the sublime accomplishment of technological civilization, the comfort of Western industrial society, stands face-to-face with a catastrophic destruction of the environment,” Hofmann said. “Even to the heart of matter, to the nucleus of the atom and its splitting, this objective intellect has progressed and has unleashed energies that threaten all life on our planet.”
Up until 1959, Hofmann’s employer (Sandoz Labs) and its various biotech competitors had a hand in such innovations as artificial sweetener, anti-psychotic drugs and DDT. The 1960s is where things really take a turn for the Fringe, however. Biotechnology gains prominence with large-scale antibiotic production, and Sandoz begins to expand internationally through all sorts of creative mergers and acquisitions. William Bell would be proud. Then again, real life can be a great inspiration for TV writers and their fictional creations.
What happened next in the real world of Albert Hofmann?
- 1967 – Sandoz buys businesses that make products such as Isostar (a “power drink” similar to Gatorade) and Ovaltine. Remember the Ovaltine Café at the end of this season’s “Shattered” episode? It’s a real place in Vancouver, but still…that’s a brain-bending coincidence.
- 1965 – Sandoz withdraws LSD from the market and it became illegal to possess by 1968.
- 1970 – Geigy and Ciba merge to form Ciba-Geigy Ltd. and get into the seed business four years later.
- 1971 – Alfred Hofmann retires from Sadoz Labs.
- 1975 – Sandoz acquires Rogers Seed Co. and Northrup King in the U.S. The alternate universe is still waiting for its shipment.
- 1978 – Ciba-Geigy works on systemic fungicide.
- 1981 – Ciba-Geigy introduces the first transdermal patch for travel sickness. Does that work for time travel as well, doctor?
- 1982 – First immunosuppressant (cyclosporine) debuts at Sandoz.
- 1986 – A fire in a Sandoz production plant storage room led to a large amount of pesticide being released into the upper Rhine River, killing many fish and other aquatic life. WHAT!! Your insurance agent called. He says good luck getting that little gecko guy to cut you a deal.
- 1994 – Sandoz acquires the Gerber baby food company. Only the Massive Dynamic brand comes fortified with cortexiphan!
- 1996 - 2001 – The merger of Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy forms mega-corporation Novartis. It strikes an agreement with the U.C. Berkeley Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, sparking fears about the commercialization of genetically modified plants. Novartis acquires Merck’s crop protection business and forms its own Institute of Functional Genomics.
- 2003 – Novartis creates a generic drug division, acquires a medical nutrition business and gains interest in a company focused on antiviral and anti-infective therapies.
- 2006 – Novartis partners with the World Health Organization to provide anti-malaria treatment to developing countries. The company opens a cell culture-based influenza vaccine production plant in the U.S. With all the biohazards in the Fringe division, this is handy!
- 2007 – Fortune ranks the company #1 pharmaceutical firm on the “World’s Most Admired” list.
- 2008 – The Novartis Vaccine Institute for Global Health opens in Sienna, Italy. Dr. Albert Hofmann, age 102, dies of an apparent heart attack.
As wild and crazy as our favorite Fringe storylines have gotten, I find it quite meaningful that the background story of a massive corporation striving to make the world a better place through science has deep roots in recent history. Once you bring a new scientific creation into the world, as Dr. Hoffman did with LSD, the places that creation goes and what is done with it is out of your hands. He didn’t have the help of coded safe deposit boxes, Observers, brain surgery or Olivia “Headshot” Dunham. Or did he?
