On Oct. 12, a dedication ceremony was held on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus to celebrate a revolutionary discovery that both prolonged human lives and killed rats.
The American Chemical Society, or ACS, bestowed the National Historic Chemical Landmark designation on warfarin, the generic name for a prescription blood thinner that, in a slightly different form, proved to be an enormously effective rodenticide. The ACS established the awards in 1992 to recognize seminal events in the history of chemistry. An ACS board member, Dr. Lisa Balbes, was among several speakers at the dedication ceremony for warfarin, which was first marketed in the late 1940s and early ’50s.