June 18, 2020

Jewish Contributions to Humanity #8:
Original research by Walter L. Field.
Sponsored by Irwin S. Field.

ELIE METCHNIKOFF (1845-1916). b. Panasovka, Russia.  Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1908. White blood cells — our first line of defense.

After obtaining his four-year natural sciences degree in only two years at Kharkiv University, Elie Metchnikoff began work in a private lab in Messina, Italy in 1882. There, he noticed a reaction in starfishes when he stuck small thorns into them—white cells would inflame the affected area and then surround, attack, and literally devour the invader. These defensive cells were named “phagocytes,” and although Metchnikoff’s findings were initially met with skepticism, he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1908 for his discovery of this key element of organisms’ innate immune system—the body’s first line of defense. Metchnikoff’s research into lactic acid also began the widely popular probiotics movement. He theorized that ingestion of certain bacteria—often found in types of yogurt and milk—could prolong life.

OTTO LOEWI (1873-1961). b. Frankfurt, Germany. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1936. Identifying how our brain communicates with our body.

Initially an aspiring clinician, Otto Loewi switched to research after he arrived at the painful conclusion that modern medicine had no treatment for people with advanced tuberculosis and pneumonia. That shift revolutionized human medicine. Loewi, bucking the conventional scientific wisdom of his time, discovered that neurons can communicate with each other through chemical reactions—not only electrical signals. This discovery of neurochemical transmission was instrumental in pharmacology, pathology, psychiatry, and countless other medical fields. Suspecting that chemicals played an intimate role in neuro-communication, Loewi took two beating frog hearts and covered them both in saline solution. He stimulated the vagus nerve of one of the hearts, thus slowing down its heart rate. He then transferred some of the saline from that heart on to the other heart, which in turn slowed down that heart’s rate, proving that there was a chemical—not only an electric impulse—released by the vagus nerve that impacted cell and neuron behavior. That chemical, or neurotransmitter, is now known as acetylcholine.

JOSHUA LEDERBERG (1925-2008). b. Montclair, New Jersey. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1958. Explaining bacterial resistance.

Graduating high school at 15 and receiving his Nobel Prize only 18 years later, Joshua Lederberg’s genetic research made him one of molecular biology’s foundational scientists. A zoologist and doctor by training, Lederberg bucked most scientists of his time, who believed that bacteria pass down exact genetic copies to their offspring. In the late 1940s Lederberg showed that bacteria transfer and share DNA among themselves, creating offspring with different genes that are better adapted for that specific environment. The discovery had massive implications for biotechnology, genetics, and pharmacology, particularly in understanding how bacteria develop resistance to drugs. Lederberg went on to chair the genetics department at Stanford, write regular science columns for the Washington Post, and advise several U.S. presidents and NASA.

Jewish Contributions to Humanity #7:
Original research by Walter L. Field.
Sponsored by Irwin S. Field.

SIGMUND FREUD  (1856-1939). b. Vienna, Austria.  Modern psychology’s father.

A revolutionary neurologist, psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Sigmund Freud was one of the most influential thinkers in terms of how we understand human nature. He’s known as the father of modern psychoanalysis, a field that mines the mind and how it’s shaped by childhood experiences, parental relationships, repression, and the subconscious. Born in what is now the Czech Republic, Freud lived most of his life in Vienna before fleeing to London in 1938, dying one year later of cancer. He left us with a treasure of insights into the mind, including his remarkable theory that the human psyche is composed of base nature (the id), ego (the “I”) and super-ego (moral conscience), and also the discovery that unresolved or repressed mental conflicts enter our subconscious, where they still impact us but in ways that could be difficult to pinpoint or understand. It’s no understatement to say he was one of the most influential people of the 20th century.

THEODOR REIK (1888-1969). b. Vienna, Austria. Freud’s protégé.

One of Freud’s first students, Reik, upon his immigration to America, was rejected at that time by the psychoanalytic community because he didn’t possess a degree in medicine. Soon thereafter he created the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis – which exists to this day in New York City – and participated in one of the first lawsuits that helped establish that non-physicians may practice psychoanalysis. His most impactful and lasting contributions came in the fields of the therapist-patient relationship and criminology. In the former, he elucidated how a psychotherapist can plum the depths of his or her own subconscious to better understand and treat patients and how therapists can become emotionally entangled with their patients. Reik also theorized that psychologically profiling criminals can help authorities identify and locate them, in part because out of an unconscious guilt criminals will sometimes leave clues that lead to their own capture.

ERICH FROMM (1900-1980). b. Frankfurt, Germany. The political psychologist.Heavily influenced by the Torah and Talmud in his early years but eventually becoming an atheist, Fromm was one of the 20th century’s most influential psychologists and sociologists—someone whose political thinking was deeply impacted by Marx and who was one of the unofficial founders of the field of political psychology. One of Fromm’s greatest insights, described in his seminal book, “Escape From Freedom”, is that humans will either embrace free will or run from it. Running from freedom, he believed, was a source of many psychological pathologies. Those who eschew free will, he believed, either conform to what they believe is society’s preferred personality, give over their free will to others, or engage in destructive behaviors towards others, effectively taking away other peoples’ freedom. In “Man for Himself”, Fromm put forward his belief that one of the core paradoxes of human existence is that we look for closeness and unity with others and an independent identity at the same time. The solution to this paradox, Fromm wrote, is to be oriented productively; that is, to have a purpose-driven life and to channel one’s talents into productive ends.

Jewish Contributions to Humanity #6:
Original research by Walter L. Field.
Sponsored by Irwin S. Field.

Jerry Siegel  (1914-1996). b. Cleveland, Ohio.  Mr. Superman.

A scrawny, unpopular, bespectacled high school student in Cleveland, Jerry Siegel thought up Superman one night in 1934 as a solution to a problem common to so many high school boys—girls. As he said in an interview 40 years later, he thought he’d have better luck if he could do things like jump over buildings and throw cars. Enter Superman. A journalist by day, superhero by night, and a character on which Siegel could place both Lois Lane’s yearning and apathy. She was drawn to Superman, but ignored Clark Kent—her coworker at The Daily Planet—failing to see him for the hero he really was. Siegel and his friend, comic partner and illustrator Joe Shuster spent a few years searching for a buyer for their hero, when in 1938 they sold all rights for Superman to DC Comics…for $130—$10 for each of the 13 pages. The pair continued writing and illustrating Superman for nearly a decade, but when they sued for a share of profits in 1946, DC Comics refused and fired them, instead settling for a one-time $94,000 payment. Siegel wrote again for DC Comics for a few years in the 1960s, but the company eventually let him go, later restoring Siegel’s and Shuster’s bylines—after the former launched a public relations campaign—paying them each a lifetime annuity of $20,000, which was eventually raised to $30,000. In 2013, the original check that DC Comics wrote to Siegel and Shuster (it was $130 for the rights and $282 for their first actual comic) sold at auction for $160,000.

Joe Shuster (1914-1992). b. Toronto, Canada. Mr. Superman.

The other man behind Superman was as integral as Siegel in revolutionizing one of America’s great art forms, which was only five years old when Shuster and Siegel created Superman. Born in Toronto, Shuster said his inspiration for Superman’s hometown of Metropolis was the Toronto skyline. And his love for comics was inspired by his father, who every night after work would read him the vividly colored newspaper comics. Following his and Siegel’s ill-conceived sale of the Superman rights and his decades of working for and suing DC Comics, Shuster had to retire from the field in the 1970s due to partial blindness, and had to rely on his family’s support for most of the remainder of his life. In an interview, Siegel said Superman was a combination of two people: Harold Lloyd, an actor, and Joe Shuster, his friend.

William Marston (1893-1947). b. Saugus, Massachusetts. Mr. Wonder Woman.Inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006, Marston, a psychologist by training, introduced Wonder Woman—he initially named her “Suprema”—in the 1940’s, at a time when all the great American superheroes and villains were male. Marston, who was influenced by the early suffrage movement, made Wonder Woman strong, independent, and courageous—powerful traits in an era when many saw women as less capable than men. She became a feminist icon, and a superhero who could force villains to tell her the truth with her magic lasso. Through Wonder Woman, Marston introduced his idea of female rehabilitative justice as opposed to male retributive justice. Wonder Woman’s homeland, Paradise Island, held her captives not in a prison, but in Reform Island, a transformation-oriented penal colony.