Sauron
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Obituary Notice: Swiss Chemist Albert Hofmann
Albert Hofmann, discoverer of LSD, just passed away, age 102, according to CNN.
Requiescat in pace.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/04/29/hofmann.obit.ap/index.h...
[Edited on 30-4-2008 by Sauron]
Sic gorgeamus a los subjectatus nunc.
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PainKilla
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Rest in peace, good sir - your work has helped shine some light on an otherwise gloomy world!
You will be missed.
Attachment: How LSD Originated.pdf (778kB)
This file has been downloaded 1146 times
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chemrox
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hear! hear!
"When you let the dumbasses vote you end up with populism followed by autocracy and getting back is a bitch." Plato (sort of)
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NERV
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A solemn salute to a great chemical inventor whom will forever be remembered by the World. 
Vir sapit qui pauca loquitur.
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JohnWW
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Oh yes. If he lived to be 102, then presumably his regular use of LSD must have been good for him. So much for the so-called "war/whore on drugs"!
BTW Was that the same Hofmann who discovered the Hofmann Degradation and Hofmann Rearrangement of amides, and the Hofmann E2 Elimination from and
Hofmann Orientation of quaternary ammonium salts to produce alkenes?
[Edited on 30-4-08 by JohnWW]
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solo
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John...that was August Wilhelm von Hofmann was born on April 8, 1818...........
http://www.answers.com/topic/august-wilhelm-von-hofmann?cat=...
It's better to die on your feet, than live on your knees....Emiliano Zapata.
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7he3ngineer
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| Quote: |
his regular use of LSD must have been good for him
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I don't believe that there was 'regular' use of LSD. Despite discovering LSD and being an avid supporter of the use of LSD in psychotherapy, I'd say
its been a few years since he attemted those types of experiments and nor did he have any such license (or interest) as Dr Shulgin (that I know of) to
perform these experiments.
Ignoring his discovery of LSD in particular, today we lost a great chemist who is responsible for providing us with many important drugs from his
research into the ergot fungus.
What surprises me, its 7:30pm here (Perth, WA) and still no mention on the (tele) news, although mentioned once of the radio... slow news day!
Josh
Engineers aren\'t boring people, we\'re just interested in boring things!
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Klute
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The world has lost a great man. He will be remembered in history.
From what i've read, he was far from been a "regular LSD user". But his long life does mean you can be a professional chemist, work in a lab for
more than half your life and stay in good health if your a cautious with the chemicals that suround you!
\"You can battle with a demon, you can embrace a demon; what the hell can you do with a fucking spiritual computer?\"
-Alice Parr
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JohnWW
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He DID, in fact, take LSD himself:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7374846.stm
LSD inventor Albert Hofmann dies
Mr Hofmann thought LSD could have uses treating mental illnesses
Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered the hallucinogenic drug LSD, has died of a heart attack at his home in Basel at the age of 102. Mr
Hofmann first produced LSD in 1938 while researching the medicinal uses of a crop fungus.
He accidentally ingested some of the drug and said later: "Everything I saw was distorted as in a warped mirror". He hoped LSD could be used to treat
mental illness, but it became a popular street drug in the 1960s. 'Turn on, tune in, drop out'
While working with the drug in the Sandoz pharmaceutical laboratory a few years after first producing it, Mr Hofmann ingested some of the drug through
his fingertips. He went home and experienced what he described as visions of "fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic
play of colours".
The drug was popularised by Harvard professor Timothy Leary who suggested that people "turn on, tune in, drop out". Rock stars and the counter-culture
of the 1960s picked up LSD as a wonder drug but horror stories began to emerge of users suffering permanent psychological damage.
LSD was made illegal in many countries beginning in the late 1960s. [Which sucks, but it is fairly easy for a backyard chemist to synthesize].
[Edited on 1-5-08 by JohnWW]
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JohnWW
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Dr Alfred Hofmann was born January 11, 1906 (1906-01-11), at Baden, Switzerland; died April 29, 2008 (aged 102), at Burg, Switzerland.
See these also about him; he seems to have released his book "LSD - My Problem Child" into the public domain:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Hofmann
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_LSD
http://www.hofmann.org/
http://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/hofmann_albert/hofm...
http://www.erowid.org/references/hofmann_collection.php
http://www.serendipity.li/dmt/hofmann_collection.htm
http://www.nndb.com/people/613/000022547/
http://www.stainblue.com/ah.html
http://www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/albert_hofmann....
http://www.flashback.se/archive/my_problem_child/ (book)
http://www.psychedelic-library.org/child.htm (book)
http://www.hallucinogens.com/hofmann/ (book)
http://www.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/People/hofmann.html
http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/lsd01.htm
http://switzerland.isyours.com/e/guide/basel/lsd.html
News:
http://www.technoccult.com/archives/2008/04/29/lsd-inventor-...
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/lsd-inventor-al.h...
http://digg.com/general_sciences/Albert_Hofmann_inventor_of_...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/1912499/Alb...
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/29/albert-hoffman-rip.html
http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy_main/2008/apr/29/dr_albe...
http://www.maps.org/people/ah/
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewpro...
http://laughingsquid.com/albert-hofmann-takes-his-last-trip/
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/07/international/europe/07hof...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/dr-albert-hofmann-t...
Speaking on his 100th birhday in 2006:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4290785439217791218
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCZDwTQtbDk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpZlIOwdy8c
BTW: You are right, Solo, he was NOT the same organic chemist as the Hofmann who discovered the Hofmann Degradation and Hofmann Rearrangement of
amides, and the Hofmann E2 Elimination from and Hofmann Orientation of quaternary ammonium salts to produce alkenes. That was August Wilhelm von
Hofmann, who was born on April 8, 1818, in Giessen, Germany, and died 2-May-1892, in Berlin, Germany; see also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Wilhelm_von_Hofmann
http://www.madehow.com/inventorbios/81/August-Wilhelm-von-Ho...
http://www.nndb.com/people/808/000103499/
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9040711/August-Wilhelm-...
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-HofmannA.html
http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/hofmann.html
Book by him (public domain): Introduction to Modern Chemistry: Experimental and Theoretic (1866):
http://books.google.co.nz/books?hl=en&id=KT8JAAAAIAAJ&am...
However, Dr Alfred Hofmann very probably used Dr August Wilhelm Von Hofmann's Hofmann Rearrangement in the synthesis of LSD. It is not known whether
they were related.
[Edited on 1-5-08 by JohnWW]
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7he3ngineer
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Hofman's story of how he came to discover the effects of lsd, which is equally facinating to those who have no interest in psychedelics, believe me,
is hosted at:
http://www.psychedelic-library.org/child.htm
This is his autobiography titled LSD: My Problem Child... have a look, at least check out the type of research he was doing upon discovering LSD's
effects.
Josh
Engineers aren\'t boring people, we\'re just interested in boring things!
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7he3ngineer
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| Quote: |
My point is: He is not below any of us just because he used LSD.
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Did anyone suggest he was?
Hofman was a great chemist who lived to a ripe old age. He made some great discoveries and explored these from a scientific standpoint, publisizing
his conclusions based upon his research. As it has been said, he discovered the effects of LSD by serendipity. Upon finding something that he couldn't
explain, he went back and reexplored what he had been over. Isn't this what anyone with a sence of scientific interest and curiousity would have done?
As a group of people who celebrate chemistry and science in general, lets mourn the loss of a great chemist.
Please lets not turn this thread into a drugs are good/ drugs are bad thread! (ignoring the fact that you're never going to have much of an argument
about this issue anyway, because people have their own views about drugs and aren't going to be easily persuaded)
Josh
Engineers aren\'t boring people, we\'re just interested in boring things!
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Sauron
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Hofmann was indeed a great chemist whose scope and breadth go far beyond the single compound he called his problem child. At least among his fellow
chemists he ought to be remembered for the body of his work as a whole.
I personally regard it as unfortunate that the only reason the mass media saw fit to report his passing was because of the "problem child".
But I suppose that is the way of the world.
Honoring Hofmann's life and achievements is what the thread is about. As the thread author I figure I can say that with confidence.
LSD is a powerful tool. Like all powerful tools, it is not without its hazards. It is irresponsible to say that it is harmless and benign. It is also
bloody well off topic.
John: why would anyone think that Albert Hofmann, Swiss from Basel, could be related to A.W.von Hoffmann, Prussian? They did not even spell their last
names the same way. They were from different countries.
It is about as unlikely as two Smiths being related, one from Utah and the other from Australia and maybe spelling his name Smythe.
[Edited on 2-5-2008 by Sauron]
Sic gorgeamus a los subjectatus nunc.
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Nicodem
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Sad but expected news. One of the persons whose discovery left a huge impact on human society died. He was a great optimist and a good role model on
how to advocate ethics into scientific work. That is how I see a good organic chemist and I'm sure he will be a role model to many to come. May he
rest in peace.
He was proud of his discovery and thought it as a most powerful tool to help the human society evolve beyond the current state of stagnation. Thus his
condemnation on both, the irresponsible use of LSD by the people as well as its demonization and military abuse by the authorities, is fully
understandable. LSD was his child of which he was very proud, but this child was made a problem by the society which was not yet ready for it.
…there is a human touch of the cultist “believer” in every theorist that he must struggle against as being
unworthy of the scientist. Some of the greatest men of science have publicly repudiated a theory which earlier they hotly defended. In this lies their
scientific temper, not in the scientific defense of the theory. - Weston La Barre (Ghost Dance, 1972)
Read the The ScienceMadness Guidelines!
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Sandmeyer
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I agree that Hofmann was a importnant role model for young organic chemists. I could not hold back tears reading the sad news. I wished to be a
chemist after I read LSD my problem child (he has been a hero of mine since I was little). The unique tetracyclic structure of his problem child
always looked so beautiful and so special. The trip-reports (as well as stories from his extraordinary life) in his LSD book affected me deeply to the
point I got obsessed with those mysterious "hallucinogens" and their chemistry and tried to imagine what it would be like to enter their world. It
seemed so amazing that one could create those worlds with ones own hands by means of organic synthesis. The whole story of LSD (potency, discovery,
effect...) is amazingly interesting. The importance of Hofmann's work is yet to be relized. On top of all he was extreamly skilled experimentalist (as
usual for chemists of the old school) and very wise person. To a great extent I owe it to Hofmann that I'm organic chemist.
Rest in peace Dr. Hofmann.
[Edited on 3-5-2008 by Sandmeyer]
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starman
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Perhaps less widely known was Dr Hoffmann's proof of structure synthesis another famous hallucinogen which he christened psilocybin.The CIA's MKULTRA
were busy trying to monlopolise the drug for mind control experiments.CIA chemist James Moore had virtually unlimiting funding and several months head
start.Fotunately for the countercultre,Roger Heim,who had accompanied the Wassons and Moore to Mexico manged to culture spore prints.His friend
Hoffmann quickly isolated and chemically reproduced the active agent.All on a shoestring budget,virtually as a favour to a friend.
A great chemist indeed.
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Sauron
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That program was a giant boondiggle. Read Marchetti's definitive book THE SEARCH FOR THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. And the research was far from being
limited to chemistry and neuropharmachology. They mucked about with heavy duty electroshock as well, and were not above experimenting on prison
"volunteers" and patients as Butner, the federal facility for the criminally insane in North Carolina.
Sic gorgeamus a los subjectatus nunc.
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