Life's Greatest Secret (63 page)

3

.  Harvey basically shrugged his shoulders and gave up (Cobb, 2006b).

4

.  Cobb (2006a).

5

.  For Mendel’s work and its implications, see Bowler (1989), Gayon (1998), Hartl and Orel (1992). For critical accounts of the way in which Mendel’s work has been interpreted and used, see Brannigan (1979) and Wolfe (2012).

6

.  There are many historical accounts of twentieth-century genetics, for example Carlson (1966, 1981, 2004), Hunter (2000), Pichot (1999), Schwartz (2008), Sturtevant (1965). For conceptual aspects see the articles in Beurton, Falk and Rheinberger (2000) as well as Falk (2009) and Müller-Wille and Rheinberger (2012). For the changing views of de Vries, see Stamhuis, Meijer and Zevenhuizen (1999).

7

.  Sutton (1902), p. 39. See Crow and Crow (2002).

8

.  Sutton (1903), p. 236.

9

.  Hegreness and Meselson (2007).

10

.  Boveri (1904), cited in Crow and Crow (2002).

11

.  Pichot (1999), p. 111.

12

.  Shine and Wrobel (1976).

13

.  Carlson (1981), Kohler (1994), Sturtevant (1965).

14

.  Morgan (1933).

15

.  All details from Carlson (2004).

16

.  Morgan (1919), p. 246.

17

.  Morgan (1933), p. 316.

18

.  von Schwerin (2010).

19

.  For a translation of the Three-Man Paper, and discussions of its significance by historians and philosophers, see Sloan and Fogel (2011).

20

.  Sloan and Fogel (2011), p. 257.

21

.  Sofyer (2001), Morange (2011). Koltsov’s name can also be transliterated as Koltzoff. For a discussion of Koltsov’s contribution to ideas of messages and codes, see Kogge (2012).

22

.  Olby (1994), Sofyer (2001).

23

.  Muller (1922), p. 37; Troland (1917).

24

.  Quoted in Pollock (1970), p. 13.

25

.  Haldane (1945), Morange (2011).

26

.  Pringle (2008).

27

.  Olby (1994), pp. 73–96.

28

.  Caspersson

(1935), p. 369.

29

.  Stanley (1935).

30

.  Muller (1922).

31

.  Cairns

(1966), Summers (1993).

32

.  Kay (1986).

33

.  All quotes from Wrinch (1936).

34

.  Schultz (1935), p. 30.

35

.  Beadle and Tatum (1941).

36

.  For example Troland (1917).

37

.  Horowitz

(2004), p. 4.

38

.  Tatum and Beadle (1942), p. 240.

39

.  Berg and Singer (2003), pp. 171–86.

40

.

5 April 1943;

6 February 1943.

41

.

13 and 16 February 1943.

42

.  Moore (1989).

43

.  5, 12 and 19 February 1943. Moore (1989), p. 35.

44

.  Using different calculations, Schrödinger at one point suggested that a gene was composed of a few million atoms, at another ’1,000 and possibly much less’. Schrödinger (2000), p. 46.

45

.  Schrödinger (2000), p. 20.

46

.  Schrödinger (2000), p. 21.

47

.  Schrödinger (2000), p. 22.

48

.  Schrödinger (2000), p. 62.

49

.  Olby and Posner (1967).

50

.  In 1999, Joshua Lederberg argued that Schrödinger did not really mean that the genetic material was ‘aperiodic’, but rather that it had ‘elements of crystallinity’ or was ‘near-crystal’ (Dromanraju, 1999, p. 1074).

51

.

6 and 16 February 1943.

52

.

22 January 1944.

53

.  In 1945 Schrödinger had a brief correspondence with the geneticist J. B. S. Haldane over the genetics of hornless cattle (Crow, 1992).

54

.  Yoxen (1979), p. 45, note 9; Olby (1971), p. 122.

55

.  Pauling (1987), p. 229.

56

.  Perutz (1987), p. 243; Waddington (1969), p. 321.

57

.  Wilkins (2003), p. 84; Crick (1988), p. 18; Inglis

(2003), p. 3.

58

.  For example, Morange (1983), Symonds (1986), Kay (2000), Sarkar (2013).

1

.  Administrative Framework of OSRD (1948).

2

.  Conway and Siegelman (2005), p. 199.

3

.  Mindell (1995), p. 91. See also Bennett (1994), Masani (1990) and Mindell (2000, 2002).

4

.  Mindell (1995), p. 92; Owens (1989). Wiener’s grant was the smallest awarded by D-2.

5

.  In 2013, the then occupant of the room, Dr Bjorn Poonen, kindly sent me photos of his office, looking pretty much as it must have done in 1940, with the exception of the floor. The room was due to be completely remodelled in a few months. Dr Poonen is the Claude Shannon Professor of Mathematics at MIT.

6

.  Wiener (1956), p. 249.

7

.  Rosenblueth

(1943).

8

.  Mindell (1995), p. 95.

9

.  Kay (2000), p. 83.

10

.  On Pitts, see Easterling (2001) and Schlatter and Aizawa (2008). Easterling (2001) begins: ‘There are no biographies of Walter Pitts, and any honest discussion of him resists conventional biography.’

11

.  Conway and Siegelman (2005), p. 134.

12

.  Galison (1994).

13

.  It has been argued that there is a direct engineering and conceptual link between this device and the computer mouse (Roch, 1998).

14

.  Kay (2000), p. 81.

15

.  Wiener (1949), p. 2.

16

.  Shannon (1940); Roch (1999), p. 265.

17

.  Rogers (1994).

18

.  Hodges (2012), p. 251.

19

.  Conway and Siegelman (2005), p. 126.

20

.  For a comparison of the relatively minor editorial differences between the 1945 original and the two published articles (Shannon 1948a, b), see Roch (1999).

21

.  Conway and Siegelman (2005), p. 146.

22

.  Macrae (1992), p. 242; Heims (1980), pp. 192–9.

23

.  Galison (1994), p. 253; Triclot (2007, 2008).

24

.  Conway and Siegelman (2005), p. 155.

25

.  Wiener (1948a).

26

.  von Neumann (1997).

27

.  Carlson (1981), pp. 307 and 310.

28

.

http://encyclopedia.gwu.edu/index.php?title=Theoretical_Physics_Conference,_1946

. A more sober, and less interesting, summary was provided by Gamow and Abelson (1946).

1

.  Judson (1996), p. 44.

2

.  Burnet (1968), p. 81.

3

.  Heidelberger

(1971).

4

.  Griffith (1928).

5

.  Hotchkiss (1965), p. 5.

6

.  Dobzhansky (1941), pp. 48–9.

7

.  Dobzhansky (1941), pp. 49–50.

8

.  Biscoe

(1936).

9

.  McCarty (1986), p. 104. McCarty’s memoir is the main source for much of the detail of life in the Avery laboratory. Some of Avery’s lab books, along with reports, articles and letters, can be found at

http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Collection/CID/CC

.

10

.  McCarty (1986), p. 127. Transformation as studied in the Avery lab in fact involved two different types of pneumococcus, the Type II R form and the Type III S form. For the sake of simplicity, I have referred only to the R and S characteristics.

11

.  McCarty (2002), p. 25.

12

.  Report of the Director of the Hospital to the Corporation of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, 19 April 1941. Rockefeller Archive Center.

http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/ResourceMetadata/CCAANJ

.

13

.  Schultz (1941), p. 56.

14

.  Mirsky (1943), p. 19.

15

.  Report of the Director of the Hospital to the Corporation of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, 17 April 1943, pp. 151–2. Rockefeller Archive Center.

http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/ResourceMetadata/CCAADS

.

16

.  Letter from Roy Avery to Wendell Stanley, 26 January 1970. University of California, Berkeley. Bancroft Library. Wendell M. Stanley Papers, Box 4, Folder 7.

http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/ResourceMetadata/CCAAHG

.

17

.  The scientific part of the letter is reproduced in Dubos (1976), pp. 216–20. A full transcript and links to a scanned version of the letter can be found at

http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/ResourceMetadata/CCBDBF#transcript

.

18

.  McCarty (1986), p. 168.

19

.  Avery

(1944), p. 155.

20

.  McCarty (1986), p. 168.

21

.  McCarty (1986), p. 195.

22

.  McCarty and Avery (1946a, b).

23

.  McCarty and Avery (1946a), p. 94.

24

.  McCarty and Avery (1946a), p. 95.

25

.  Morgan (1944), p. 764; Haddow (1944), p. 196.

26

.  Anonymous (1944), p. 329.

27

.  Bearn (1996), p. 552.

28

.  Muller (1947), p. 22.

29

.  Mueller (1945), p. 734.

30

.  Lederberg diary entry, 20 January 1945.

http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/access/CCAAAB.pdf

.

31

.  Boivin

(1945a), p. 648.

32

.  Judson (1996), p. 44. Salvador Luria showed Boivin’s paper to Avery and then lunched with Avery’s group.

1

.  Chargaff and Vischer (1948).

2

.  These and subsequent quotes are from Hall (2011), p. 124.

3

.  Astbury (1947), p. 69. The diffraction pattern produced by a helix had yet to be described – this was Francis Crick’s PhD work, which helped give him the insight into the problem of DNA structure (Cochran

1952). See comment 3 at

http://paulingblog.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/the-x-ray-crystallography-that-propelled-the-race-for-dna-astburys-pictures-vs-franklins-photo-51/

.

4

.  This and subsequent quotes are from Gulland (1947a), pp. 3–4.

5

.  Stacey (1947), p. 96.

6

.  Stedman and Stedman (1947), p. 244.

7

.  McCarty, Taylor and Avery (1946), p. 177.

8

.  Spiegelman (1946), p. 274. This was Cohen’s contribution to the discussion of Spiegelman’s paper.

9

.  Mirsky and Pollister (1946), pp. 134–5. For Mirsky’s life and work, see Cohen (1998).

10

.  Muller (1947), pp. 22–3.

11

.  Cohen (1947) seems to have been the English-language pioneer in this respect. Soon the abbreviation was everywhere, and it has now passed into the English language.

12

.  Boivin

(1945a, b), Boivin (1947).

13

.  Boivin (1947), pp. 12–13. He also thought that changes acquired during the organism’s life might be stored in RNA molecules.

14

.  Boivin (1947), p. 16. Mirsky’s comments can be found on the same page.

15

.  Chargaff (1947), p. 32.

16

.  Gulland (1947b), p. 97.

17

.  Gulland (1947b), p. 102. It is not clear whether Gulland would have pursued this work had he lived – he had recently taken up a post in industry. On what Gulland’s role might have been, see Manchester (1995).

18

.  Stedman and Stedman (1947), p. 235.

19

.  Schultz (1947), p. 221.

20

.  Gulland (1944), Thieffry (1997), Thieffry and Burian (1996).

21

.  Lederberg (1948), p. 182.

22

.  Dubos (1976), p. 159.

23

.  Bohlin (2009) conducted interviews with Swedish scientists who were involved with nucleic acids research in the 1950s and explored why Avery was not given the prize. An English translation of Bohlin’s Swedish-language paper would be most welcome. Avery’s contribution was eventually acknowledged when a crater on the Moon was named after him. Mendel, Schrödinger, Szilárd, von Neumann and Wiener have all been similarly honoured.