Yet compared with Djerassi and others who contributed to the pill, Miramontes attained little recognition, says Gabriela Soto Laveaga, a historian of science at Harvard University and author of Jungle Laboratories: Mexican Peasants, National Projects, and the Making of the Pill. After Luis Miramontes developed norethindrone (left), chemists at a rival company reported norethynodrel (right), a similar compound chosen for use in the first birth control pill. Djerassi credited Miramontes in his works, but called Miramontes “a young Mexican chemist” when he himself was less than two years older.