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Emil Abderhalden - The End of Gaia

Quentin Cooper tells the story of Emil Abderhalden, the biochemist who rose to the heart of the German scientific establishment on the back of his bogus 'protective enzymes' theory.

Emil Abderhalden
Quentin Cooper tells the story of Emil Abderhalden, the biochemist who rose to the heart of the German scientific establishment on the back of a bogus theory of 'protective enzymes' he first conceived 100 years ago.

By the 1930s, his theory was being used in futile blood tests for pregnancy and schizophrenia, and the infamous Dr Josef Mengele employed them in his experiments at Auschwitz. Despite doubts about his work across the world, Abderhalden was nominated 51 times for the Nobel Prize.

The End of Gaia
Environmentalist James Lovelock argues that the living planet Earth is fatally wounded by humanity's activities, and argues in his new book The Vanishing Face of Gaia that we have to learn to face this grim fact.

Dr Lovelock explains to Quentin how he reached his conclusion, and why it is so much more stark than most forecasts for global warming and environmental degradation.

Available now

30 minutes

Broadcast

  • Thu 26 Feb 2009 16:30

Inside Science

Inside Science

Adam Rutherford explores the research that is transforming our world.