Word: fugu
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...poisonous puffer fish, which inflates itself into a small balloon when caught, lives in most of the world's oceans. But only in Japan, where it is called fugu, has it become a national tradition. There, though its poison kills 200 victims per year, its flesh sends gourmets into philosophical ecstasies. They get a particular kick from knowing they are playing a kind of gustatory Russian roulette...
...fugu has drawn additional attention by its long-defiant challenge to the chemists' skill. Its poison, tetrodotoxin, has proved almost impossible to isolate or identify. But Japanese science has finally turned the trick. For establishing the molecular structure of tetrodotoxin, Professors Kyosuke Tsuda of Tokyo University, Yoshimasa Hirata of Nagoya University, Isamu Nitta of Kwansei Gakuin University, and Akira Yokoo of Okayama University have just won the prestigious Asahi prize...