Fritz-Albert Popp thought he had discovered a cure for cancer. It was 1970, and Popp, a theoretical biophysicist at the University of Marburg in Germany, had been teaching radiology - the interaction of electromagnetic (EM) radiation on biological systems. He’d been examining benzo[a]pyrene, a polycyclic hydrocarbon known to be one of the most lethal carcinogens to humans, and had illuminated it with ultraviolet (UV) light.
Popp played around with light a lot. He’d long been fascinated by the effect of EM radiation on living systems, and had been trying to determine the effects of ‘exciting’ this deadly compound with UV light.
