Streptomycin, Schatz v. Waksman, and the Balance of Credit for Discovery

@article{Kingston2004StreptomycinSV,
  title={Streptomycin, Schatz v. Waksman, and the Balance of Credit for Discovery},
  author={William Henry Giles Kingston},
  journal={Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences},
  year={2004},
  volume={59},
  pages={441 - 462}
}
  • W. Kingston
  • Published 2004
  • Medicine
  • Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
A recent article in Nature, arguing that "the misallocation of credit is endemic in science," used Selman Waksman as an illustration, claiming that the true discoverer of streptomycin was one of his graduate students. The article received wide publicity and seriously damaged Waksman's great reputation. What actually happened was that the success of penicillin stimulated Merck to fund research by Waksman, a soil scientist, into the collection of actinomycetes that he had assembled over thirty… Expand
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