I almost hesitate to write about Rachel Carson, because so much has been written, and if anything she is more well known to Americans than Rosalind Franklin. However, I can to at least some extent trace the fallout from Carson's monumental "Silent Spring" to my being hired as a researcher in biological control. We all owe a great debt to Rachel Carson for warning us of the impending disaster if pesticides were to continue to be broadcast as freely as they had been after World War II, and for encouraging the research on the uses and effects of pesticides that eventually caused the banning of organochlorines like Dieldrin, Aldrin, Chlordane, Toxophene, and DDT. She, in fact, wrote one of the most significant books of the Twentieth Century, at least according to Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. Born in Springdale, Pennsylvania, in 1907, she was by far the youngest sibling in the family and thus had the full attention of her Mother, Maria, who taught her to love books, music and nature. Rachel's mother helped her get through college and to attain her goal to become a writer. At Pennsylvania College for Women (known now at Chatham College) she fell under the influence of the biology teacher, Mary Scott Skinker. After agonizing for a while about going into science she was given a scholarship to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and from there discovered the sea at Woods Hole, her main love for ever after. She got a master's in marine biology, only to discover that job prospects were poor in 1932 because of the depression. After looking for a while she was employed at the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries. As her father had died in 1935, she had her mother to support and they moved to Maryland to be close to Rachel's work. She soon had to take on the two daughters of her older sister, who had died, as well. Because her new boss rejected one of her radio scripts for the bureau, but suggested that she submit the script to the Atlantic, where it was published, she began a career as a popular writer on nature, especially the sea. Her first article in the Atlantic was so well received that Simon and Shuster took an interest and signed her up to write her first book. "Under the Sea Wind," written in her spare time, which was published just before the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, a year after her Bureau of Fisheries had become part of the new Fish and Wildlife Service. She became a writer for the new service and eventually rose to become Editor in Chief of all Fish and Wildlife Service publications. While so employed she spent her nights writing a new book, to be called "The Sea Around Us." Oxford University Press published the book in 1951, after William Beebe and Edwin Way Teal had helped her get a Eugene F. Saxton Memorial Fellowship for creative writers. It quickly made the best-seller list and she was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for nature writing and the National Book Award. She followed this triumph with "The Edge of the Sea" in 1955. She was again presented with several awards. She was famous, but her previous role as a nature writer took a sinister turn. A friend, Olga Owens Huckins, had discovered dying birds on her home bird sanctuary after a "harmless" spray of DDT. Carson at first thought that a magazine article would be sufficient, but soon learned that it must be a book. Soon she became immersed in a major research project, although she had tried to get the writer E. B. White to take it on. It soon became obvious that she was the person to write the book. She enlisted scientists from around the country to help, some anonymously, because of the sensitivity of the subject. One of them was an employee of the U. S. Department of Agriculture who became my boss for several months. I only discovered his role much later. "Silent Spring" was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1962 and immediately caused the expected storm. Chemical company spokespersons quickly dismissed it as hysterical ranting by a "bird watcher" and published their own rebuttals, but it soon became evident that Carson was right - the uncritical spreading of biocides was causing havoc. Within the next decade or so organochlorines were banned for most uses within the United States. However other, safer, pesticides were developed and organic farming became more popular. Despite what was said about her, Carson never said that pesticides should never be used, but that they should be used judicially, not prescriptively, and they should not be indiscriminately broadcast, without regard to the effects on the environment. She was, of course, quite correct, as I found out myself. For several years I worked on biological control projects in Florida and I could compare citrus orchards that had differing pesticide treatments. The one in which I usually worked was moderately sprayed and had a large fauna of ants, spiders, bees, and many others. Another organic orchard was even more populous with insects and arachnids. Birds were numerous as well, as prey insects was easy to find. Finally there was an orchard that I only visited once. My postdoctoral director wanted me to see it, but he cautioned me not to used it in our studies. There were no sounds of birds and I could find no ants or spiders. The road through the orchard seemed almost totally devoid of animal life, but examination of the citrus leaf litter under the trees produced thousands of live earwigs! They were everywhere and to such an extent that you could smell them! What was the pesticide treatment for this orchard? I was told that it had been treated with almost every known organochlorine, including Dieldrin and Aldrin. These chemicals are very persistent in the environment. I never went back, but that one experience gave me a taste of what Rachel Carson meant by "Silent Spring." Later a woman phoned me at work in New Mexico and asked about possible health effects of the organochlorine Chlordane. When she heard that the pesticide was going to be banned in 1988 she had treated her entire house with the powdered form, including her bedroom and kitchen! I am not a toxicologist and I could only tell her that she would need to see a professional, but that what she had done was a very bad idea. Chlordane is a potent carcinogen! Carson died from the side effects of breast cancer in 1964, but she left a legacy to the nation and the world that to this day is honored, and her name is perhaps more well known than any other American female scientist. The number of honors and awards, both while she was living and given posthumously, are too many to list in this short account. She went from an obscure government employee to testifying before Congress and being mentioned in comic strips. At her funeral her pallbearers included Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, and Senator Abraham Ribicoff. Prince Philip of Great Britain sent a wreath. She was obscure no longer by any measure! Literature References: Bonta, Marcia Myers. 1991. Women in the Field: America's Pioneering Women Naturalists. Texas A & M University Press. Lear, Linda. 1997. Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature. Henry Holt. Internet References: Rachel Carson Biography http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/cars-rac.htm Rachel Carson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Carson The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson http://www.rachelcarson.org/