Emily Anthes covered car accidents and local crime for several daily newspapers before she discovered that there were journalists who wrote about science for a living. Now she spends her days covering genes, brains and behaviour. Her book, Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling up to biotech’s brave new beasts, was published last year. Emily has degrees in science writing and the history of science, and lives in Brooklyn with what may actually be the world’s cutest dog.
This article was commissioned by Mosaic [mosaicscience.com], a new digital publication from the Wellcome Trust dedicated to exploring all strands of the science of life. It is reproduced under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/] 1. Excitement In 1987, an American pharmaceutical executive called Mary Ann Leeper flew to Copenhagen to get a firsthand look at what she thought might be the world’s next great health innovation. She didn’t…
