Prosecuting Nobel Science

In 1982 there were no more than a handful of laboratories worldwide making a novel plastic film, polyacetylene, that could act like a transistor. Two Vermont entrepreneurs were among them, developing a new biotechnology using this material. Working out of home laboratory like Jobs and Wozniak of Apple Computer or Hewlett and Packard, the Vermonters hoped to duplicate the earlier successes. The author and his partner ended their association in 1987, but their previous orders for chemicals and equipment formed the basis for a search warrant three years later resulting in the seizure of the home laboratory as evidence of drug manufacturing. Although no drugs were ever produced by the authorities, the author was sent to federal prison, and his house seized and auctioned off by the government. A year after the author’s release, the 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to two American Chemists for their work with polyacetylene.