All in Good Time

Science is usually seen as a progressive enterprise, with one discovery leading on to the next and then the next. However, this progress isn't always as smooth as it's sometimes assumed to be. Take for example the case of thalidomide, that infamous drug from the 1950s. For those not old enough to remember the story, thalidomide was marketed as a sedative and treatment for morning sickness. While it was never approved for sale in the United States, it was considered so safe in Germany that it was sold as an over-the-counter medication. Then obstetricians began to see an increase in babies born with phocomelia or "seal limb," where the long bones of one or both pairs of limbs fail to develop correctly. These children had limbs that looked like seal flippers: hands or feet attached to the trunk. Phocomelia can be caused by a genetic abnormality, but it is rare. If an obstetrician saw a patient with this defect, it was the type of unusual event to share with a colleague, and the coincidence of one or more colleagues also recently seeing such children led to an investigation into why the abnormality was suddenly becoming more common. It turned out that almost every woman who gave birth to a baby with phocomelia had taken thalidomide early in pregnancy. In all, about 10,000 children, mostly in Europe, were born with the defect before the drug was taken off the market. In the United States, a physician at the Food and Drug Administration had questioned the drug's safety on the grounds of its nervous-system side effects during trials. This slowed its approval long enough that its other flaws were discovered before it could be distributed. The lingering effects of thalidomide are still seen in the now older adults who have lived their …