Oxygen

by Carl Djerassi

"What is discovery? Why is it important to be first? These questions trouble the characters in 'Oxygen'. The action alternates between 1777 and 2001, the Centenary of the Nobel Prize, when the Nobel Foundation decides to inaugurate a 'retro-Nobel' award for discoveries that preceded the establishment of the Prize in 1901. The Foundation thinks this will be easy. In the good old days, wasn't science done for science's sake? Wasn't discovery simple, pure, and unalloyed by controversy, priority, claims, and hype? The Nobel Committee decides to reward the discovery of Oxygen, since that launched the Chemical Revolution. Lavoisier is a natural choice. But what about Scheele? What about Priestley? Didn't they first discover oxygen? The play brings the candidates and their wives to 1777 Stockholm at the invitation of King Gustav III. Through the scientists' wives, in a sauna and elsewhere, we learn of their lives and those of their husbands. Meanwhile in 2001, the Nobel Committee argues about