In 1853, a French chemist named Charles Frédéric Gerhardt did something remarkable. He mastered an understanding of salicin, a naturally occurring chemical compound derived from the bark of willow trees – and went on to chemically synthesize salicylic acid, a synthetic form of natural salicin and civilization’s first synthetic pain reliever. In doing so, he … Continue reading Stuff of Progress, Pt. 10: Synthetic Pharmaceuticals