Dr. Percy L. Julian Would Have Turned 115 Yesterday -- A Founding Father -- Of Modern BioScience/Medicine

There will always be some people, a precious few -- who succeed -- against long odds.

And then there are people like Dr. Julian. Amazing. Truly amazing. People like Dr. Julian -- who were clearly the smartest in any room they entered -- but spent a goodly portion of their life being marginalized by those too insecure to accept the undeniable existence of their "betters". And Dr. Julian was (almost) everyones' better. In every way. But he never gave anyone any outward hint of that. Certainly, inside, at least toward the end of his remarkable run -- he must have known it though. Do go read more -- at DePauw's website:

. . . .In 1920 Julian graduated first in his class and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Even with his outstanding academic record, however, Julian was denied an assistantship, fellowship or admission to graduate school, in the United States. [As times changed only slowly, he would complete his doctorate in Vienna -- over a decade later.] Instead, he found a position as instructor in chemistry at Fisk University. After two years at Fisk, he won an Austin Fellowship to Harvard University and earned a master's degree in 1923. . . .

[In his industry careeer at Gliden,] Dr. Julian [was the first to] synthesize the female and male hormones, progesterone and testosterone, by extracting sterols from soybean oil. His biomedical research made it possible to synthetically produce large quantities of cortisone for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory conditions. His synthesis of cortisone reduced the price from hundreds of dollars per drop for natural cortisone to a few cents per gram. . . .

Here's to Dr. Percy L. Julian -- "Lord knows, there's few like us. . . and few. . . like us!" Credit goes to the kind artists of Google's doodles, last evening -- for reminding me of his 115^th. Enjoy a great Spring weekend, one and all.

[Sorry to close out here -- in a smallish burst of negative energy, but. . . I may now not write anything (more) on Secretary Sebelius. We shall see -- I must note that Tennessee Republican Shrill-Mistress Martha Blackburn ought to be ashamed of her singularly petty and childishly gloating tweets, of this week. What a purile little cyst -- on America's collective hind-quarters -- she has turned out to be. Ewww. Would somebody go get a pin, and pop that thing, already?!]