Life's Greatest Secret (77 page)

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Authors: Matthew Cobb

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130–1
,
135–6
,
140–1
,
153
,
239
Crick’s ‘ideas on’ note
136
,
137f
cybernetic thinking and
159
and the genetic code
153
information transfer in
168–9
,
251
mechanism in eukaryotes xi negative feedback control
151–4
,
153–5
,
157
,
168
Nirenberg’s work on
174–91
nucleic acid involvement
121–2
,
128
,
132
repressor hypothesis
160–1
,
168
ribosome involvement
134
,
165–7
,
180
role of mRNA
169
,
184
Rqc2p involvement
264–5
site of
116
,
134
see also
cell-free protein synthesis
protein taxonomy
140–1
proton gradients
287
Prusiner, Stanley
253–4
pseudogenes
245–8
Ptashne, Mark
171
purines (adenine and guanine)
distinguished from pyrimidines
317
poly(A) stability problems
189–90
poly(A) tail, mRNA
297
ratio of pyrimidines to
42
,
91
,
102
,
106
,
109
ultraviolet response
42
see also
bases
pyrimidines (cytosine and thymine or uracil)
cytosine deamination
290
cytosine methylation
256–8
distinguished from purines
317
negative feedback control of biosynthesis
154
ratio of purines to
42
,
91
,
102
,
106
,
109
of RNA, spontaneous appearance
289
ultraviolet response
42
see also
bases
pyrrolysine
225
Q
quantum physics and biology
11–12
,
16
,
291
Quastler, Henry
on genetics and information
81
,
142
,
144–5
,
201–2
Information Theory symposium
84–5
R
Rad Lab project
24
,
27
radiation effects on tissues
142
radioactive tracers
in cell-free protein synthesis
173–4
,
178
,
181–2
labelled amino acids into proteins
134–5
messenger RNA (mRNA)
212
for phage DNA and protein
66
,
68
in Sanger sequencing
228
transfer RNA (tRNA)
209
see also
isotopic labelling
Randall, John
MRC report
103–4
recruitment of Franklin
95–6
relations between King’s and Cambridge
98–101
as Wilkins’s supervisor at King’s
89
reading frames
192–3
,
213
,
223
,
317
recombinant DNA
231
,
279–80
,
285
Redfield, Rosie
276
regulation of biotechnologies
284–5
regulator genes
160
,
168–9
,
242–3
regulatory framework idea
157
Reith Lectures
82
,
146
religion, Schrödinger’s views
16
replicating systems
DNA replication
163–4
,
235
origin
288
self-reproducing automata
32
,
80
,
119
,
146
repressors
156–61
,
168–9
,
171
,
243
,
257
,
317
research
multinational and multidisciplinary teams
311–12
spending in wartime
20
restriction enzymes
230–1
,
279
,
310
retroviruses
245–6
,
250–2
reverse transcriptases
251–2
reviews
Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine
76–7
What is life?
17
ribosomes
defined
317
in protein synthesis
134
,
165–7
,
180
Rqc2p involvement
264–5
Rich, Alexander
double-stranded RNA
274
on Gamow’s contribution
119
genetic code work
122
,
175
on Nirenberg’s contribution
183
,
189
risk
see
dangers
RNA (ribonucleic acid)
absent from transforming principle
40
CRISPR application to
284
defined
317
DNA advantages over
290–1
enzymatic activities
288
identification of sequences
118
imagined role in the immune response
140
involvement in gene regulation
243
involvement in protein synthesis
58
,
71–2
,
116
,
184
numbering of sugars and strands
212
presence in tobacco mosaic virus
64
as single or double helix
118
,
274
synthetic versions
174–7
,
208–10
transgenerational epigenetic factors
258–9
uracil replacing thymine in
123
variety of forms and roles
243
,
289
see also
messenger RNA
;
transfer RNA
RNA interference (RNAi)
282
RNA splicing/gene splicing
222–3
,
300
,
302
RNA Tie Club
118–21
,
124
,
217
RNA viruses
see
retroviruses
;
tobacco mosaic
‘RNA world’ hypothesis
288–91
Roberts, Richard
201
,
205–6
,
221
,
223
Romesberg, Floyd
278
Ronwin, Edward
103
Rosenblueth, Arturo
22–3
Roundup Ready soybean
270
Rous, Peyton
48
Rowen, John
103
Royal Society
50–1
,
56
,
81
Royaumont Abbey colloquium
202
,
205
Rutgers University, Symposium on Informational Macromolecules, 1962
204–5
S
sales of key manuscripts
25
,
111
,
194
Sanger, Fred
double Nobel Prize
228
human genome project and
233
insulin sequencing
120
Sanger sequencing
228–9
,
231
Sarkar, Sahotra
300–1
Schneider, Tom
273
Schrödinger, Erwin
code-script idea
13–15
concerns over quantum effects
13
,
291
Crick’s letter to
113
influence
15–16
,
75
one-dimensional aperiodic crystals
15–17
,
80
,
113
What is life?
book
16–19
,
30
,
32
,
113
,
268
What is life?
lecture
11–15
Schultz, Jack
9
,
42
,
46
,
58
Schwartz, Drew
122
science
changes in the practice of
310–11
parallels with the organisation of work
309
social dynamics
183
,
188–9
Science
(journal)
Celera version of human genome
233
on cybernetics
76
,
154
Eck’s speculations on the genetic code
201
on ENCODE’s claims
247
Miller-Urey experiments
286
report of an award to Avery
50
report of arsenic-based life
276
on sickle-cell anaemia
126
synthetic organism claim
267
transcription factor binding sites
296
on Wiener’s mathematics
74
Scientific American
16
,
82
,
119
Crick’s article in
131–2
,
135
,
139
scrapie
253–4
second law of thermodynamics
12
,
27–8
,
30
,
75
Seed, Willy
94
selective breeding of sheep
1
selenocysteine
225
self-reproducing automata
32
,
80
,
119
,
146
semi-synthetic organisms
278
sequence hypothesis
133
,
137
,
263
,
294
sex determination and temperature
300
,
304
‘shadow biosphere’
276–7
Shakespeare, William
272
Shannon, Claude E.
approach contrasted with Wiener’s
77–9
calculations not applicable to biology
202
contribution to cybernetics
77–9
,
81
definition of information
78
,
82
,
144
,
147
,
298–9
early work at Bell Laboratories
25–7
exchanges with Wiener
78–9
on human information content
84
measures of information
298
The Theory of Communication
book
77
,
79f
Sharp, Phillip
223
Sharples centrifuge
39–40
sheep, selective breeding
1
shotgun sequencing
232
sickle-cell anaemia
126–7
,
132
,
165
side-effects
see
dangers
Signer, Rudolf
92–93
,
99
Slyke, Van
46
Smadel, Joseph
183
social deprivation
255–6
social dynamics of science
183
,
188–9
,
217
Society for Experimental Biology
53

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