Anecdotal , Historical and Critical Commentaries on Genetics Edited by James F . Crow and William F . Dove Gisela Mosig

Anecdotal , Historical and Critical Commentaries on Genetics Edited by James F . Crow and William F . Dove The Engrailed

Anecdotal , Historical and Critical Commentaries on Genetics Edited by James F . Crow and William F . Dove G . H . Hardy

On closer examination, however, the hope of finding a ‘‘first’’ comes to grief because of the historically dynamic character of ideas. If we describe a result with sufficient vagueness, there seems to be an endless sequence of those who had something within the vague specifications. Even plagiarists usually introduce innovations! If we specify the idea or result precisely, it turns out that exa...

Anecdotal , Historical and Critical Commentaries on Genetics Edited by James F . Crow and William F . Dove Development : Mendel ’ s Legacy to Genetics

From the Editors: This year marks the hundredth year of genetics as a science, while the next two years mark the turning of the millennium. The year 1900 saw the rediscovery of Mendel’s laws by DeVries, Correns, and Tschermak, and the revolution that was set forth by this triple confirmation has had few equals in science. Our way of celebrating this anniversary has been to invite another look a...

Anecdotal , Historical and Critical Commentaries on Genetics Edited by James F . Crow and William F . Dove The Transformation of Genetics by DNA : An Anniversary Celebration of AVERY , MACLEOD and MCCARTY ( 1944 )

T HE publication of AVERY, MACLEOD and McCARTY (1944) just 50 years ago marked the opening of the contemporary era of genetics, its molecular phase. The reverberations continue, now dominating large sectors of biomedical science and biotechnology, and have established the centrality of genetics in biological thought (LEDERBERG 1959, 1993a). AVERY et al. (1 944) can be dissected into the follo...

Anecdotal , Historical and Critical Commentaries on Genetics Edited by James F . Crow and William F . Dove H . J . Muller and the ‘ ‘ Competition Hoax ’ ’

HERMAN Joseph Muller—Joe, as he preferred to be called in his later life—is best known for his discovery of X-ray mutagenesis (Figure 1). Important as this is, it is but a tiny fraction of his work. In his introduction to Muller’s collected papers (Muller 1962, p. v), Joshua Lederberg wrote: ‘‘It is not easy to find an original thought in biological theory that has not, in some way, been antici...