The Shot Heard 'Round the World

For most of human history, the diagnosis of diabetus mellitus, known simply as diabetes, has been a miserable death sentence. But in 1923, insulin became the world’s first “blockbuster” drug, changing the lives of millions overnight. The Shot Heard ‘Round the World follows Frederick Banting and Charles Best, two researchers with negligible experience who made the first great breakthrough of twentieth-century medicine. From the first patient to receive insulin to the mass distribution of the drug in the United States, renowned historian Howard Markel re-creates the determined research, successes, setbacks and good fortune that led Banting and Best to their miracle cure in a matter of months. Markel also covers the whirlwind of attention, credit and scientific glory that culminated in the 1923 Nobel Prize. Impressively researched and briskly told, The Shot Heard ‘Round the World is the story of the drug that shepherded in a new age of medicine.

Howard Markel’s Origin Story was praised as:

• "[Origin Story] offers something welcome and new." — The Economist
• "Insightful... Origin Story brings something new to the literary selection." — The Economist
• "[A] fresh take on a seminal event in the history of science” — The New York Times Book Review