It does seem surprising, but after working with medicinal chemists for many years, it really don't surprise me at all. Hoffman was brilliant, had an excellent

It does seem surprising, but after working with medicinal chemists for many years, it really don't surprise me at all. Hoffman was brilliant, had an excellent memory and observational mind, extremely well trained, working in very well stocked labs, in a time when people didn't really think about chemical safety as much ("do not pipette by mouth") or worry about controlled substances. Of course, for some time after his discovery, Sandoz would send free samples to anybody who wrote in(!) Probably also there was a lot of failure and frustration that just doesn't get written about, because it's less interesting. Owsley Stanley was also quite impressive- beyond his ability to synthesize large amounts of very pure LSD in dodgy apartments, he helped revolutionize audio technology with the Grateful Dead. Much of what we appreciate in large stadium sound these days was a direct descendent of the ideas he and Meyer explored in the late sixties through the late seventies.