Sarah Jensen

“Knowledge is power, she had argued. And conversely, the withholding of knowledge is an act of oppression.”
― Adele Myers, The Tobacco Wives

“Searching through a library of 16,480 different chemical compounds, two were found to protect mice from a lethal dose of ricin. More research is needed before these compounds can be made into drugs for humans, but it is possible that these drugs may also prove useful against other virulent toxins, such as Shiga toxin, that enter the cell in a similar way to ricin. While the name Shiga toxin may not be familiar, the bug that makes it and the effects of the toxin are well known. Shiga toxin is made by certain strains of E. coli, and causes severe, often bloody, diarrhea, and is the reason for so many E. coli–related food recalls.”
― Neil Bradbury, A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them

“But I came to realize that none of us leave this life unscathed. Each of us experiences loss, grief, disappointment. In fact, sometimes our most painful moments and trying times turn out to be the opportunities that bring us more fully to ourselves. That life is best lived when you open yourself up to it, all of it.”
― Adele Myers, The Tobacco Wives

“In 2016 a clinical study was performed using antibodies that were designed to be attracted to cancerous cells in the bladder. As the antibodies bound specifically to the cancer cells, they took along the ricin A chain. Like a Trojan horse, the cancer let the antibody-ricin complex inside its cells, where the ricin went on to kill the tumor. The realization of Ehrlich’s magic bullet now seems a real possibility. Thus cutting-edge therapeutic uses of ricin would seem to rehabilitate the reputation of even the deadliest of substances.”
― Neil Bradbury, A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them