'Father of LSD' takes final trip

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

GENEVA (AFP) — Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered the now-banned hallucinogenic drug LSD that was an icon of the Hippy movement, has died at the age of 102, authorities said Wednesday.

The scientist, born in Baden in northern Switzerland in 1906, worked for chemicals company Sandoz from 1929 to 1971.

He "discovered" LSD by chance while researching medicinal plants, trying to synthesise their active components in the hope of discovering a stimulant for the respiratory and circulatory systems.

In 1938 while working on ergot, a fungus that attacks grain, Hofmann isolated the German-named "Lysergsaeure-Diaethylamid," or lysergic acid diethylamide.

Five years later, while working in his lab, Hofmann spilled some synthesised LSD onto his...