From the archives: How a medical 'outsider' discovered insulin

In September 1923, when Popular Science hailed the discovery of insulin as a modern medical miracle, it’s no surprise the magazine (already a half-century old) chose to spotlight the farm-boy pedigree of insulin’s discoverer, Frederick Grant Banting, a young Canadian doctor who was considered an outsider in research circles. “‘No one had ever heard of him,’” Donald Harris wrote for Popular Science, quoting a New York City M.D. “‘This young doctor didn’t know much about diabetes. Quite by chance he discovered how to get insulin and use it as a cure.’” Not only was Banting an outsider, but his early methods were also viewed critically. He made progress extracting insulin from animal entrails in a nonconforming lab, set up at the home of college friend in Toronto.