Science: Synthetic Hormone

From Harvard ten weeks ago came a report that Chemist Robert B. Woodward was well on the way toward producing the wonder drug cortisone from simple chemicals (TIME, May 7). Last week in London, Sir Robert Robinson of Oxford confirmed that after 19 years his team of researchers had completed the "total synthesis" of the male sex hormone testosterone, similar in structure to cortisone. The Robinson method is still far short of factory production, and Robinson was properly reticent about its prospects. Said he: "We have effected something which, I think, must be regarded as a tour de force in chemical synthesis."