Fight! Fight! Fight! Carl Djerassi, inventor of the pill (and author, check out his page at Stanford, where his list of representative publications are all to do with his writing exploits, not his science) has hit out at one of organic chemistry’s biggest names, Barry Trost, also at Stanford University.

Djerassi, in a letter (subscription required) to the magazine Chemical and Engineering News, has a dig at Trost for playing down the role of Robert Pettit in Trosts’s recent Nature paper about the total synthesis of a bryostatin.

Djerassi’s complaint is that Pettit, who first discovered the bryostatins and worked on their anticancer properties, is only referenced in passing in Trost’s paper, hidden away in a review article. And not only that, Djerassi doesn’t hold back in accusing Trost of self-promotion: “Trost had no problem in starting his bibliography through references to his own work in 1991 and 1983 rather than to some anonymous review article”.

Oooh, now now Carl.

The fight is highlighted at the mighty Chem Blog, and at Everyday Scientist, the former of which has some great comments as well as pointing out the uncanny resemblance of Djerassi to a famous ‘Colonel’. Everyone seems to have a strong feeling about this, and none of the three lead characters in this soap opera have too many fans. Ego is the word being used to describe Djerassi, Trost and Pettit, so perhaps we should leave them to it.

But does Djerassi have a point, or is it up to the peer-review process to pick up on sloppy referencing? It would have been interesting if Djerassi had been one of the referees for the paper in question.

It also occurs to me that, if they’re both at Stanford, why doesn’t Djerassi just wander down the corridor and challenge Trost to a fight? A duel for Pettit’s honour, perhaps? Maybe that’s just stupid. Everyone loves a fight, though.

Image: Punchstock (appropriately)