Gregory Pincus is best known for his central role in developing "the pill"--the oral contraceptive or birth control pill. He also investigated the biochemistry of aging, arthritis, cancer, and the adrenal system's response to stress. Pincus was born in Woodbine, New Jersey. Both of his parents had interests in agriculture and the arts, and his father taught at an agricultural school. In 1924, Pincus graduated from Cornell University where he not only studied science but founded a literary magazine. In 1927 he received master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University and, following further study in Europe, joined Harvard's biology faculty. In 1938 he joined the faculty at Clark University, in Worcester, Massachusetts, as an experimental zoologist and, in 1944, co-founded the independent Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology where he continued his earlier research on the way the reproductive system and female hormones functioned.

Since the discovery of the sex hormones, scientists...