Thomas H. Jukes (Photo: UC BERKELEY)
Thomas H. Jukes, the man who turned antibiotics into animal feed, was a remarkable biologist. Born in 1903, he was an old school environmentalist, a life member of the Sierra Club, an enthusiastic outdoorsman, and in later years when he was a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, a pioneer in the new science of molecular biology.
He was also an ardent defender of science, or at least his view of it. He wrote hundreds of opinion pieces, often polemical, on topics of the day, and, among other achievements, fought effectively to prevent the introduction of creationism into California schools. He also campaigned against quack cancer cures, and lambasted Nobel-winning chemist Linus Pauling for advocating massive vitamin doses as a panacea.
But Jukes formed his ideas in an age of medical miracles, and firmly believed in the power of science to conquer…