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Oswald Avery and the Origin of Molecular Biology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Nicholas Russell
Nicholas Russell
Affiliation:
Department of Life Sciences, Bromley College of Technology, Rookery Lane, Bromley, Kent BR2 8HE, U.K.
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Extract

It is now twenty years since James Watson published his personal account of the discovery of the structure of DNA and triggered the growing scholarly study of the roots of molecular biology. Watson himself was not concerned with the study of nucleic acids before he became directly involved but at least three detailed histories of the early development of molecular biology have subsequently appeared, together with books, papers and reviews from others who took part, or their partisan representatives. Of these three histories, only one does justice to Avery's work. His surviving DNA collaborator, MacLyn McCarty, believes that only Olby in The Path to the Double Helix deals adequately with Avery's contribution.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , December 1988 , pp. 393 - 400
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1988

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