Talk:Albert Hofmann

Did Hofmann synthesize psilocybin ?

I've looked through the sources, and none of them mention that Hofmann actually synthesized psilocybin or psilocin, instead of simply extracting it.

Sources online go back to a 1963 patent apparently describing synthesis, but said patent only describes mushroom cultures and the extraction of crystalline compounds.

https://brevets-patents.ic.gc.ca/opic-cipo/cpd/eng/patent/672478/summary.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ceandros (talk • contribs) 01:41, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

Discovery of LSD Section

Likewise the "Discovery of LSD Section" also reads strangely. Also, it reference "Hoffman's Bicycle Ride" without every explaining it properly. I would rewrite this section myself, but I don't understand what the original author was trying to say. Nytewing07 (talk) 17:16, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

It would be better if his own personal views and opiniosn regarding the consumption and use of the compound were added to give an all round picture to the reader. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.16.95.33 (talk) 15:36, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

Vandalism from July 2011(!)

I've just spotted a bit of vandalism from July 2011 :-/ https://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Albert_Hofmann&diff=441086578&oldid=438656333 Now fixed Johnny "ThunderPeel2001" Walker (talk) 14:36, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for analeptic

Wanted to thank for the edit replacing moiety with functional group. I wrote the original sentence with reference to nikethamide (for example in Coramine), but did not log-in with my screen-name at the time. It was obviously the essential synthetic step. Exactly because one did not expect a CNS effect at all, and that by introducing a structure from analeptics, it resulted in a very potent medical substance. Not scientifically reasoned, wow, a deeply mental analeptic,(!) but of course, rationally,a decreased or absent effect on the uterus was the goal. This target was fully reached indeed! So thanks for the more correct term "functional group" instead of "moiety". I'll dig up some medicinal chemistry text books to refresh my knowledge. (Osterluzei (talk) 11:51, 13 February 2014 (UTC)).

Narrative discontinuity, needs a segue

The life and Career segment of the article contains a paragraph quoting Albert Hofmann from the article "LSD: Completely Personal". In that paragraph is this: "Mystical experiences in childhood, in which Nature was altered in magical ways, had provoked questions concerning the essence of the external, material world, and chemistry was the scientific field which might afford insights into this." While this does sound like it relates to the effects that LSD had on Hofmann's mind as well as the minds of the majority of people who try the chemical, it does not actually relate to the story of his career as the article goes on to tell it. Why do I say this?

Hofmann made his career choice while a very young man and was involved in research relating to very different ends than mystical experience, mind expansion, or visions. That is what the present article spells out. His initial experience after he accidentally absorbed some LSD was a complete surprise to him. It was not an expected or intended result. It made him curious, yes, but he was still wondering what the hell the chemical did to him when he tried it a second time, his first deliberate self dosing.

So the connection is never made in the narrative at all. What is the reader to suppose? If you leave it just to a guess or supposition on the reader's part, its an unencyclopedic text. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.210.166.185 (talk) 20:52, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

Pronunciation?

I have always heard this last name pronounced as HOF-mən. Then I heard Michael Pollan pronounce it hof-MAHN both in his audiobook narration of How To Change Your Mind and in this video at 0:55.

https://bigthink.com/videos/lsd

I understand one pronunciation could be American, while the other could be Swiss. But I can't find any evidence for that, and this one video with a German pronunciation also sounds nothing like hof-MAHN:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5crRzdrs7Y&t=6s

As the author of a best-selling book about psychedelics, Pollan is pretty credible. What is the deal with the two pronunciations? Paco2718 (talk) 02:49, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

The above YouTube video is completely correct. The proper pronunciation is actually pronounced like hoaf-man (with a long o, like a loaf of bread). Also, the pronunciation of the a in 'mann' is closer to a short a sound than to a short e sound, so it sounds like the word "man", and not "men", or "mon". I would cite that video as a reasonably decent source, but I have heard Jonathan Ott pronounce it the same as in that video clip, and did the english translation of Hofmann's book "LSD: My Problem Child". I guarantee you that somewhere there is an audio or video clip of Ott properly pronouncing Hofmann. Thoric (talk) 18:57, 13 December 2023 (UTC)