Thread by @DavidCranmerUn1

Carl Djerassi - Wikipedia

His team later synthesized norethisterone (norethindrone), the first highly active progestin analogue that was effective when taken by mouth. This became part of one of the first successful combined oral contraceptive pills, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Djer…

known colloquially as the birth-control pill, or simply, the Pill. From 1952 to 1959 he was professor of chemistry at Wayne State University in Detroit.

In 1968, he started a new company, Zoecon, which focused on environmentally soft methods of pest control, using modified

insect growth hormones to stop insects from metamorphosing from the larval stage to the pupal and adult stages. Zoecon was eventually acquired by Occidental Petroleum, which later sold it to Sandoz, now Novartis. Part of Zoecon survives in Dallas, Texas, making products to

control fleas and other pests.
In 1965 at Stanford University, nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg, computer scientist Edward Feigenbaum, and Djerassi devised the computer program DENDRAL (dendritic algorithm) for the elucidation of the molecular structure of unknown organic

compounds taken from known groups of such compounds, such as the alkaloids and the steroids.

Unit 731 and its affiliated units (Unit 1644 and Unit 100 among others) were involved in research, development and experimental deployment of epidemic-creating biowarfare weapons in

assaults against the Chinese populace (both military and civilian) throughout World War II. Plague-infected fleas, bred in the laboratories of Unit 731 and Unit 1644, were spread by low-flying airplanes upon Chinese cities, including coastal Ningbo and Changde, Hunan Province, in

1940 and 1941. This military aerial spraying killed tens of thousands of people with bubonic plague epidemics. An expedition to Nanking involved spreading typhoid and paratyphoid germs into the wells, marshes, and houses of the city, as well as infusing them into snacks to be

distributed among the locals.

Among the individuals in Japan after its 1945 surrender was Lieutenant Colonel Murray Sanders, who arrived in Yokohama via the American ship Sturgess in September 1945. Sanders was a highly regarded microbiologist and a member of America's military

center for biological weapons. He secretly granted immunity to the physicians of Unit 731, including their leader, in exchange for providing America, but not the other wartime allies, with their research on biological warfare and data from human experimentation. American

occupation authorities monitored the activities of former unit members, including reading and censoring their mail. The Americans believed that the research data was valuable, and did not want other nations, particularly the Soviet Union, to acquire data on biological weapons.

Multiple personals from Fort Detrick were sent to Japan to investigate Unit 731, including Lt. Col. Murray Sanders, Lt. Col. Arvo T. Thompson, and Dr. Norbert H. Fell, under orders from General Douglas MacArthur.

Ishii even worked for Fort Detrick as an advisor on bioweapons,

said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin at a press conference on Friday.
"The United States paid 250,000 yen to obtain data from Unit 731 on germ warfare," Wang told the conference.