Environmentalist Barry Commoner
Barry Commoner was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1917. From biologist to environmental activist, Commoner was a rare combination of someone with the ability to convey his ideas to the people as well as a scientist and one with “political savvy” (Daniel Lewis, Barry Commoner Dies at 95). Although he was never formally educated in the field of ecology, he was first brought out of his laboratory and into the atomically-laced world in 1953 to test for strontium-90, a radioactive isotope released by nuclear generators of any kind. His “people skills” caused him to co-found the Greater St. Louis Citizen’s Committee for Nuclear Information, and his expertise on living organisms helped him start the Baby Tooth Survey.