Poison or Medicine? How Plants, Powders and Pills Have Influenced the History of Medicine

From bundles of dried herbs and alcohol tonics to high-tech drugs and a multibillion-dollar business—this is the path that medicines we take every day have taken. Science journalist Thomas Hager decided to find out which brilliant discoveries and chance finds gave us painkillers, contraceptives, and antibiotics. This book is a biography of ten of the most important medicines that changed medicine. Among them, you won’t find the “greatest hits,” such as penicillin or aspirin—there’s already been plenty written about them. Instead, the author introduces you to surprising stories of lesser-known, but no less significant, medicines and shows their dual nature. You will visit the study of a medieval alchemist and a chemical laboratory, learn what they tried to treat with heroin, and also look into the future of medicines to understand how chance coincidences can change the lives of entire generations.