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Biopiracy started with a bounce

Nature volume 451, page 1055 (2008)Cite this article

The Thief at the End of the World: Rubber, Power, and the Seeds of Empire

  • Joe Jackson
Viking: 2008. 432 pp. $27.95 0670018538 9780670018536 | ISBN: 0-670-01853-8

The Thief at the End of the World chronicles the life of the audacious Wickham, who fled the London cholera epidemics to become a tropical adventurer and planter. Joe Jackson's strong investigative and story-telling skills conjure up the colour and characters of Wickham's meandering path through the British colonies and beyond. Wickham encountered natural threats — malaria, parasites, injuries and floods. And he faced human difficulties — slave traders, murderous jungle barons, cannibal tribes, financial ruin and the deaths of family members whom he convinced to join him in his quixotic quests. Somehow he bounced back every time to cultivate his public image until he was knighted soon before his death in 1928.

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  1. Michael Gollin is a patent attorney focused on intellectual property management in the life sciences at Venable LLP, 575 7th Street, NW, Washington, DC 2004, USA. He is author of Driving Innovation: Intellectual Property Strategies for a Dynamic World.,

    Michael Gollin

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  1. Michael Gollin
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Gollin, M. Biopiracy started with a bounce. Nature 451, 1055 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/4511055a

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