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Donald Glaser Dies

Donald Glaser, who won the Nobel Prize in physics before focusing on biological questions, has died, the New York Times reports. He was 86. Glaser built a bubble chamber that could be used to study subatomic particles, despite Enrico Fermi saying that such a chamber was impossible.

Glaser later turned to studying biology as he was "frustrated that particle physics was adopting huge atom smashers requiring large teams of scientists," the Times notes. He went on to found a biotechnology company called the Cetus Corporation that made the cancer therapies interleukin-2 and interferon. Cetus was then sold to Chiron Corporation, which was, in turn, acquired by Novartis.