The world changed dramatically a month after I was born.  No, not because I was born- but because Dr. Carl Djerassi found a way (with his colleague Dr. George Rosenkranz and Luis E. Miramontes, a grad student) to produce norethindrone, a synthetic version of progestrin on 15 October 1951 (which also happens to be the first day of the Jewish festival of Sukot). (Interestingly, this synthetic compound was derived from my favorite vegetable- the yam or sweet potato.)  And, progestrin is fundamental to what we now know as ‘the pill’ (contraceptives).

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