Reflection Paper #7
10/15/2015

With Glidden’s soy beans a success, Julian was rewarded with a raise that allowed him to move his wife Anna out Chicago. Once Anna arrived, they settled into their new home and Anna quickly realized just how driven Julian was when it came to chemistry. Glidden was proud of Julian’s success in chemistry, but Julian wanted more. Tired of working with dog foods and paint, Julian now had his eyes set on nature again with more exact methods. Julian became especially interested in a compound called progesterone. This was called the “pregnancy hormone,” because it plays a vital role in preparing a woman’s uterus for childbirth. Julian’s interest in this compound stemmed from his wife Anna having multiple miscarriages and the fact that every 1 and 6 pregnancies in America at that time ended in miscarriages or premature births. Julian quickly realized that progesterone offered new hope, so Julian and other chemist began looking for ways to make the hormone for pregnant woman at risk more widely available. With progesterone being a steroid, scientist were just starting to realize just how many key roles this played on people’s health. The breakthrough was knowing that you could take substances from plants that could form the starting point for the synthesis of steroids that would give a head start on the process. Julian already knew that you could convert plant steroids into something else from his earlier days at DePauw. With soy beans as Julian’s main ingredient he was sure that he could convert it into progesterone if he could find out how to separate the stigmasterol from the soy bean oil. One day while at work Julian gets a phone call about one of the soy bean tanks. Julian quickly arrives to the scene and finds out just what was causing the problem with the tank. It was the stigmasterol crystals that he had been trying to separate out of this oil had automatically did it on its own thanks to the help of water. With this discovery Julian quickly went on to develop an industrial process to produce this steroid on a massive scale. I think that Julian is a very smart individual. I love that he is family oriented and works not only for himself but the people around him. For example as soon as he got his first raise he moved Anna into a new home in Chicago. I felt very bad though that they were trying to conceive and she kept having miscarriages but again Julian realized that something needed to be done and he went after it. He created something that not only women could benefit from but men as well. He basically altered the way of life just by producing a steroid on large scale that is one of the basis of reproduction and growth. I like how even though he would be at work at Glidden, he would pull some of the chemist away from their duties to make them do other tasks that he was interested in. I thought it was funny when he thought that the tank of soy bean oil had been ruined because he knew it could cost him his job but it turned out to be the exact answer he was looking for. I think that it’s crazy how things just kind of fall into your lap sometimes but Julian definitely needed some sort of break. Julian brought great success to Glidden and was the first person to produce progesterone on a large scale. His first shipment of this steroid was escorted by police and was valued at 70,000 dollars. This had to of been very shocking to Julian because that would have been considered a lot of money to a black person back in the day. But regardless of how much success Julian had he never got content and always pushed the boundaries and that’s why he as successful as he is. With this success as well I think Julian has remained humble despite being African American and in a predominately white field.