Carl Djerassi: scientist and renaissance man dies at 91

Picture from the IMBA

While to many he was “the father of birth control”, I knew him as the author of Cantor’s Dilemma, an assigned novel in a formative science fiction class. The book is science fiction in that it is fiction set within the world of science. The main characters are Dr. Cantor who runs a competitive research laboratory, his protégé postdoctoral assistant, and their dreams of the Nobel Prize. It was my first glimpse into the human side of scientists, the day-to-day frustrations and promise of glory in a career in science. The author was also an example of what a scientist could be: not just a narrow-focused, socially awkward, perpetually stressed, ivory-towered shut-in, but a person with diverse passions and interests.

I was in my last years of college majoring in science with no direction, having just ruled out med school.  I was having a hard time committing to single career, especially what I conceived of would a boring job in science. I enjoyed my poetry and anthropology classes much more than biochemistry and physiology. Yet I was determined to get a “useful” degree. But Djerassi allowed me to believe that I could have it all – a stable and lucrative career as a scientist and the creative outlets of writing in my spare time. So maybe I didn’t realize that science funding was already on the decline from a 2003 peak, making science anything but a stable career – that’s beside the point. And I certainly have no regrets.

It is difficult to describe Djerassi without using “renaissance man.” He was a poet, playwright, novelist, and esteemed scientist. Sparked by the death of his artist-daughter in 1989, he established an artist’s colony on his ranch in California. [He made mad bucks in investing in the company that produced the pill].

It is perhaps ironic that he was called the father of birth control as numerous scientists over much time contributed to the invention of the pill. It had already been known that high progesterone and estrogen levels prevented pregnancy. He and his colleagues synthesized a progesterone that was used in the earliest contraceptive pills. It is ironic because his writing reveals the dangers of trying to chase accolades and prestige in science. He broached this idea in a 2000 interview, “But identifying scientists is really only a surrogate for identifying the inventions or discoveries…I’m certain that if we didn’t do our work, then someone else would have come along shortly afterwards and done it.”

Perhaps that is the fulfillment he got from writing – he offered unique perspectives on the politics and ethical concerns involved in doing science. Indeed, he saw his writing as a way to bridge science and the public: “I think that we as scientists should educate the public about the scientific and technological advances so that society can decide how best to use them. This is my missionary obsession."