René Dubos, Friend of the Good Earth: Microbiologist, Medical Scientist, Environmentalist

Russell Schaedler

doi:10.3201/eid1205.060354

Abstract

René Dubos, Friend of the Good Earth: Microbiologist, Medical Scientist, Environmentalist

Highlights

René Dubos: Friend of the Good Earth is the only biography that documents Dubos’s early life and progression into one of the 20th century’s great scientist-philosophers
This book suggests that philosophy came first and science followed
The White Plague, Mirage of Health, Torch of Life, Man Adapting, and So Human an Animal were written after the seminal scientific work had been done or while it was in progress

Summary

Introduction

René Dubos: Friend of the Good Earth is the only biography that documents Dubos’s early life and progression into one of the 20th century’s great scientist-philosophers. The White Plague, Mirage of Health, Torch of Life, Man Adapting, and So Human an Animal were written after the seminal scientific work had been done or while it was in progress. Many years of work on acid-fast organisms did little to expand knowledge of tubercle bacilli, but the work opened avenues of research on the host’s responses to infection.

Results

Conclusion