Rethinking the Discovery of Insulin: Beyond the Toronto Miracle
Was Insulin Really “Discovered” by Just Two Men in Toronto?
While Frederick Banting and Charles Best are credited with discovering insulin, modern historical analysis reveals that insulin’s development involved decades of international research, multiple competing teams, and incremental advances by dozens of scientists. The traditional “eureka moment” narrative oversimplifies a complex collaborative process that began in the 1880s and involved researchers across Europe, America, and Canada working toward the same goal.