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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Happy Birthday Dr. Hofmann!
#6447621 - 01/11/07 03:10 AM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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Dr. Albert Hofmann celebrates his 101st birthday on January 11, 2007
Dr. Albert Hofmann (born 11 January 1906) is a prominent Swiss scientist and best known as the "father" of LSD. He was born in Baden, Switzerland, and studied chemistry at the University of Zurich. His main interest was the chemistry of plants and animals, and he later conducted important research regarding the chemical structure of the common animal substance chitin, for which he received his doctorate. Hofmann joined the pharmaceutical-chemical department of Sandoz Laboratories, Basel (now Novartis), studying the medicinal plants squill and ergot as part of a program to purify and synthesize active constituents for use as pharmaceuticals.
His research in lysergic acid, the central shared component of ergot alkaloids, eventually led to the synthesis of LSD-25 in 1938. It was five years later, on repeating synthesis of the almost forgotten substance, that Dr. Hofmann discovered the psychedelic effects of LSD after accidentally ingesting some through his fingertips on April 16, 1943. Three days later, on April 19 (later known as Bicycle Day), Hofmann deliberately consumed 250 ?g of LSD, and experienced far more intense effects. This was followed by a series of self-experiments conducted by Hofmann and his colleagues. He first wrote about these experiments on April 22.
He became director of the natural products department at Sandoz and went on studying hallucinogenic substances found in Mexican mushrooms and other plants used by the aboriginal people. This lead to the synthesis of psilocybin, the active agent of many "magic mushrooms".
Hofmann also got interested in the seeds of the Mexican magic morning glory species Rivea corymbosa, the seeds of which are called Ololiuhqui by the natives. He was very surprised to find the active compound of Ololiuhqui chemically very similar to LSD.
In 1962, he and his wife Anita travelled to southern Mexico to search for the magic plant ska Maria Pastora (leaves of Mary the shepherdess), later known as Salvia divinorum. He was able to obtain samples of this plant but never succeeded in identifying its active chemicals.
Dr. Pharm. (hc) Dr. Sc.Nat. (hc) Hofmann is Member of the Nobel Prize Committee, Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences, Member of the International Society of Plant Research and the American Society of Pharmacognosy.
He has been author of over 100 scientific articles and has written (or co-authored) a number of books, including LSD, My Problem Child, which is partly an autobiography and describes his famous bicycle ride.
(The online version of LSD, My Problem Child is available at http://www.flashback.se/archive/my_problem_child/)
-------------------- "Instead of all of this energy and effort directed at the war to end drugs, how about a little attention to drugs which will end war?" - Albert Hofmann
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elsig
Knowledgespeaks, wisdom listens



Registered: 09/14/06
Posts: 533
Loc: the beach
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Re: Happy Birthday Dr. Hofmann! [Re: veggie]
#6447688 - 01/11/07 04:41 AM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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Yes Happy birthday Hofmann.
For some reason I think we will see this guy around for many more years. A truly great person.
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elaspeinreason
psychonaut


Registered: 07/31/05
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Re: Happy Birthday Dr. Hofmann! [Re: elsig]
#6447745 - 01/11/07 05:50 AM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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happy birthday doctor, an experiment in himself..it would be interesting to see how his motor functions are , his lucidity , and all around bearings...and compare these results with those of another centarian. At least he Disproves any myths on LSD inhibiting long life
-------------------- Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one Diploid said: What's with proclaiming freedom by abridging freedom? That makes no sense.
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Cracka_X
Spiritual Dirt Worshipper



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Re: Happy Birthday Dr. Hofmann! [Re: veggie]
#6447751 - 01/11/07 05:55 AM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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my bday is today too!! yay mine's the same as Hoffmans'! that soo cool
-------------------- The best way to live is to be like water For water benefits all things and goes against none of them It provides for all people and even cleanses those places a man is loath to go In this way it is just like Tao ~Daodejing
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Cubenisseur
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Re: Happy Birthday Dr. Hofmann! [Re: Cracka_X]
#6447776 - 01/11/07 06:19 AM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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Seems like it was only yesterday that it was his 100th birthday. My, how time flies!!
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ExplosiveMango
HallucinogenusDigitallus


Registered: 07/12/05
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Re: Happy Birthday Dr. Hofmann! [Re: Cubenisseur]
#6447784 - 01/11/07 06:29 AM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!
-------------------- Know your self. Know your substance. Know your source. The most distorted perspective possible is the perspective that yours is not distorted.
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OneMoreRobot3021


Registered: 06/06/03
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Re: Happy Birthday Dr. Hofmann! [Re: veggie]
#6447804 - 01/11/07 06:52 AM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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Happy Birthday Dr. Hoffman! Whatta man whatta man!!
-------------------- Acid doesn't give you truths; it builds machines that push the envelope of perception. Whatever revelations came to me then have dissolved like skywriting. All I really know is that those few years saddled me with a faith in the redemptive potential of the imagination which, however flat, stale and unprofitable the world seems to me now, I cannot for the life of me shake. -Erik Davis
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dedjam
Electro Penguin



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Happy Birthday Doc!!! May you live a 100 more (only if ya want lol). Thank you for the gifts you have given to our world.
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Dark_Star
train driver pervading a desktop


Registered: 08/20/04
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Re: Happy Birthday Dr. Hofmann! [Re: veggie]
#6448875 - 01/11/07 01:51 PM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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Yeahhh man! Happy birthday brother, may you have many more if you so desire! Thanks again for all you've given us! 
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Edited by Dark_Star (01/11/07 01:53 PM)
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Sheepish


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Re: Happy Birthday Dr. Hofmann! [Re: Dark_Star]
#6448913 - 01/11/07 02:00 PM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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Happy Birthday you old bastard! Thanks for one of the greatest things ever discovered. Shine On You Crazy Diamond.
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Eternitys_Child
Gorilla


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Re: Happy Birthday Dr. Hofmann! [Re: Dark_Star]
#6448914 - 01/11/07 02:01 PM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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Holy shit it's been a whole year already!!.. Happy birthday
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TuneInTurnOn
Guru


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Re: Happy Birthday Dr. Hofmann! [Re: veggie]
#6449082 - 01/11/07 02:32 PM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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-------------------- My apartment in New York was on Perry Street, a five minute walk from the White Horse. I often drank there, but I was never accepted because I wore a tie. The real people wanted no part of me. - The Rum Diary
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ApJunkie
part-time Ninja


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Happy birthday man! I didn't really know much about you last year, but I'm celebrating Bicycle Day this year on your behalf. Keep on truckin'
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ThreePieceSuit
disastrophe


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Re: Happy Birthday Dr. Hofmann! [Re: ApJunkie]
#6449184 - 01/11/07 02:58 PM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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Even if he had never discovered LSD, he's still one of the greatest minds of our time.
Happy 101'st!
For he's a jolly good fellow...
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I'm so lucrative, even my birthday suit is in three pieces.
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mr_pat
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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Re: Happy Birthday Dr. Hofmann! [Re: mr_pat]
#9587425 - 01/11/09 01:58 AM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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Thanks for the bump, mr_pat. Yes, Dr. Hofmann would have been 103 today. As you know he passed away April 29, 2008. blink posted his obit here.
Happy Birthday and Rest in Peace. Your legacy lives on.
-------------------- "It was an April day and I went out into the garden and it had been raining during the night. I had the feeling that I saw the earth and the beauty of nature as it had been when it was created, at the first day of creation. It was a beautiful experience! I was reborn, seeing nature in quite a new light." - Albert Hofmann
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tyler_0_durden
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Re: Happy Birthday Dr. Hofmann! [Re: veggie]
#9590939 - 01/11/09 06:27 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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I find it rather incredible that he lived over 100 years. For some reason I always thought LSD could have a longevity effect, simply because it breaks down your self-awareness so strongly and for quite an extended period of time. It's almost as if you're dead when you're tripping, because you become part of something greater for that period of time. And your outlook on life is drastically changed, and it makes nearly all of life's challenges a lot easier, once you have that experience. The day after my first intense LSD trip, I HAD to walk around my neighborhood and just strut my stuff. I felt so accomplished, of having made it through a wild twelve hour ride, that it would seem I could undertake anything (not in the sense of putting myself in harm's way, but it seemed to give me waaayyy more willpower and determination), which was a very lasting after-effect for me...nearly six months afterward I was still experiencing the improvements in my brain.
Good stuff Dr. Hofmann. Thanks for making such an important substance, it really changed the world, and countless lives have been improved for the better. Fantastic compound, it really is. I kind of wish I discovered it first, but I'm still studying chemistry aha, and I was born much too late to beat ya to it.
-------------------- "As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter." --Max Planck
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