Steroids in arms: science, government, industry, and the hormones of the adrenal cortex in the United States, 1930–1950

Abstract

Experimental life science in the twentieth century is aptly characterized as a quest for "master molecules", biochemical entities presumed to govern all basic vital processes and phenomena.Today many commentators critique the reigning "genetic essentialism"-the notion that everything about the life of human beings (and other living things) is predetermined in their DNA, today's master molecule.'However, notwithstanding efforts by early geneticists to promote the gene, present fashion must not make us forget that in the first half of the twentieth century, hormones took pride of place as life's master molecules, and the endocrinologist took precedence over the geneticist as the scientist offering the means to control life.For such are the inherent implications of master molecules: to discover and manipulate these substances is to acquire the means to control the vital processes and phenomena governed by them.The master molecule thus constitutes an intersection between intellectual, therapeutic, and commercial interests, naturally attracting the most ambitious participants in biomedical science and industry.And indeed, many ethical pharmaceutical companies in the inter-war era-driven in the United States and

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